when she threw the toy again.
Shaking my head, I walked by her to the couch where Avery was sitting, sipping a beer from the bottle, of all things, and listening to my brother, who was perched on the coffee table—something I’d never seen him do before—telling some kind of story that involved him waving his arms around like a crazy person.
“…and Graeme is scandalized because not only are our grandparents having sex, but they’re doing it in his bed!”
Avery swallowed hard and nearly choked, then burst out laughing, barely able to breathe. Stone was wheezing, laughing so hard he was crying from the memory.
“It wasn’t that funny,” I commented dryly, which must have been hysterical because they both stopped, looked at me, and lost it again.
Taking a seat beside my mate, I took the bottle from him, set it on a coaster on the coffee table, careful not to get it anywhere near Stone, and put my hand on Avery’s denim-clad thigh.
“You know, you were meant to get dressed for dinner,” I told him.
He was wearing a white T-shirt under a heavy beige cardigan, soft, faded jeans, and a pair of beaten-up jump boots that should have been thrown out years ago. The man was not at all ready to have a meal with our families.
“I’m so dressed,” he assured me, and then gestured with his hand, wanting me closer.
He needed to understand the rules of propriety, that as the head of the household I would not candidly display my feelings for––
“C’mere,” he husked, and leaned sideways.
I inhaled sharply, tipping my head so he could reach me, his lips brushing under my jaw, and the sound that crawled out of his throat, a soft, decadent, carnal whine, made me close my eyes and press closer.
“Mr. Davenport,” Tomlinson, our family butler, said as he stepped into the room, “may I bring your scotch and water, sir?”
“Yes, please. Thank you, Tomlinson,” I told him, and then he turned to my mate.
“Mr. Rhi—er…Avery, would you like another?”
“I shouldn’t,” he answered with a smile. “I haven’t eaten anything. Can I have a giant glass of water instead?”
“Certainly, sir.”
“Dude,” he replied, shooting my butler a pointed look.
“Certainly,” Tomlinson corrected himself and left the room.
I turned to look at my mate.
“What?”
“It should be Mr. Rhine until you officially become a Davenport as well.”
Avery scoffed. “Yeah, no, not in this lifetime,” he told me, bumping me with his shoulder before he got up to walk to the fireplace, yawning as he stood there.
“He’s already made a few changes,” Stone apprised me, standing up when I did. “No one is allowed to call him Mister Rhine or address him as sir. He told Francisca she should continue to cook whatever she wants, he won’t be taking those decisions from her, though he would like a pizza night, and taco night, and I swear to God I had no idea she could squeal like that.”
“Well, of course,” I replied, glancing over at Avery, who looked a bit gray all of a sudden. “I mated with an omega, so she was certain her place in the hierarchy would change. She assumed that with the coming of an omega, he would run the household and oversee the staff, and now she knows nothing at all will change.”
“Trust me, it’s even more than that. She’s excited to wake up with him in the mornings and have his coffee ready and make him breakfast, and when he mentioned that once a week he has to take in the morning pastries for all the other detectives and asked her what was good around here, she told him she would, of course, make all manner of delicacies for him to share with everyone he works with.”
I grunted.
“Seriously, you would have thought he gave her a million dollars.”
I smiled, thinking about our cook, Francisca Sandoval, and all the things the rest of us didn’t like, didn’t eat and wouldn’t try, and how Avery had just given her free rein to create all manner of cuisine for him. I would have to remember to tell her I would become a foodie with him. Whatever he was doing, I wanted to share in.
“Did he speak to Mrs. Roe as well?”
He nodded. “Yes. Your head housekeeper was thrilled when he asked her if it would be all right to change out all your bedding from silk sheets and the goose down comforter to cotton sheets and quilts. He also wants heavy rugs, lots of them, in your bedroom, because