“June second, Master.”
“Hmm, that’s what I thought. Grant, Dex, you’re a little late for April Fool’s.”
“It’s not a prank,” Grant replied, pulling Arabella tight against his side. “We’re really together.”
“Since when?” Will asked suspiciously.
Arabella met Grant’s gaze and they grimaced at each other.
“The actual date is a little fuzzy.” Grant shrugged. “Officially since we went away.”
Will frowned, then pointed from one of them to the other. “Is this why things between you two have been so weird?”
Arabella nodded. “Things just sort of . . . happened. We weren’t sure how to handle it, so we kept fighting. Sorry you got caught in the middle of that.”
“Ha!” Tarka slapped Grant on the shoulder and pointed at Arabella as though she’d pulled off a successful stunt.
“What do you mean, ‘ha’?” Will grumbled. “Don’t tell me you knew about them before I did or I’m going to be a little pissy.”
“Well, I saw them together in the parking lot at your wedding, so you can’t really blame them. It’s not like they told me or anything.” Tarka grinned, flashing a dimple.
“What were they doing in the parking lot?” Will asked, brows high.
“Putting a lot of dents in the hood of Dex’s car, I imagine.”
Juliet’s mouth dropped open. “You hooked up at our wedding?”
Arabella’s cheeks were flushed a pretty shade of red. “Well, that wasn’t the first time.”
“Shit. Varushka told me she thought you two were sleeping together, but I thought she was imagining things!” Will shook his head in wonder. “Konstantin didn’t buy it either. They even bet on it a few months ago. He’s going to have to pay up—another goat, I think it was.”
Arabella laughed and clapped her hands. She loved Konstantin’s wife, but then, who didn’t?
Will narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. “I wondered about it once in a while when you were at each other’s throats, but the thought of you two together just doesn’t click in my head.” He shook his head as though trying to get the idea to settle in his brain. “How does this even work? You two are too much alike.” He scrubbed a hand over his eyes as though the idea was a nightmare.
“You disapprove?” Arabella asked, her mouth turning downward.
Ugh. Grant wanted to punch his brother out for that. Things were so tenuous as it was, he didn’t have to make things more complicated with his patent disapproval.
Juliet grinned and pulled them into a hug then stepped back. “I’m so excited for the two of you! I had a feeling that was what was going on, but I didn’t want to say anything if you weren’t ready to talk about it.”
“You knew?” Will asked, frowning at her in a way that suggested the answer had better be no.
“I sort of suspected, but I didn’t want to stick my nose into their business by gossiping about it to you.”
“Telling your Dominant what you’re thinking isn’t gossiping, woman.” His brows drew down, and Grant had a feeling she’d be paying for that later.
Tarka congratulated them, too, then Echo, then pretty much the rest of the club, one member after another.
“So you’re really doing this?” Will asked later, when he caught Grant alone in his office. “Not only are you and Dex together, but you’re leaving me all summer, every summer?”
Surprisingly, his brother looked hurt.
“I don’t want to leave you high and dry, but I need my own life. You have Juliet and the baby now. You don’t need me underfoot all the time.”
Will glared at him. “You’re not fucking underfoot, Grant. You never were.” He ran a hand through his hair, scratching at the back of his head. “If you feel like you need to go I understand, but don’t think you’re doing me a favor by abandoning me.”
“If you need extra help around here—”