Unbreakable Stories: Snow (Unbreakable Bonds 2.5)

The cleaning company had set Snow’s condo to rights and he and Snow had stayed there a few times, but the memory of the man killed there made Snow too uneasy. Jude had suffered through a couple of nightmares as well, but he hadn’t mentioned those to Snow, not wanting to put more on his man’s shoulders.

It was a shame, too, because the place was nice. He hoped to see something similar they both liked today. Just on a smaller scale. They’d gone back and forth between his place and Lucas’s, but Jude wasn’t comfortable at the penthouse, so most of Snow’s clothes were here. They really did need a bigger place and since the downstairs shop had recently been sold, they’d had to move up the timeline.

He took Snow his clothes, then grabbed some for himself. The small cove that held the washer and dryer had a private corner, so he dressed there. The scent of strong coffee filled the apartment. His mana made it stout enough to take a layer off the esophagus. Pleasure warmed his heart as he listened to her greet Snow with her usual exuberance, listened to his murmured response, his tone friendly. He was slowly growing more comfortable around Jude’s family, but he was warming to Anna the fastest. It was impossible not to.

Of course, Snow was about to be pissed when he saw that all the places his mother printed were in a reasonable price range if they split the mortgage. Jude hadn’t figured out how he was going to handle the situation. And he knew the man would hold back saying anything for a while, then as soon as Anna went home, he’d lay into Jude.

He looked forward to it.

Snow was suddenly in front of him. He didn’t reach for Jude—he never did around Anna—but his back was to her and his intense gaze still carried the heat from the shower. It had been too long.

“Stop. I don’t want a hard-on in front of my mana,” Jude said in a harsh whisper.

“Like you can help it.” Snow grinned, then the smile abruptly left his face. “I don’t understand your mother’s shirt,” he said, lowering his voice even more.

He looked around Snow, caught the new unicorn T-shirt and had to bite his lip. It didn’t help because a choked laugh escaped. “Don’t ask. I don’t think we want to know.” He leaned in, unable to keep from kissing Snow and inhaling the scent of freshly showered man. He growled against his lips. “I’d looked forward to a day in bed with you.”

“Hey!” Anna yelled. “Kissy time later! The quicker we find you two a forever home, the quicker you can do all that in it!”

“A forever home?” Snow asked, lifting one dark brow.

“It’s either that or ask her why there’s a pink unicorn driving a pink tank on her shirt.”

Snow gave him one more hard, quick kiss. “I’ll grab my coat.”###

“This first house is 2,100 square feet and it has four bedrooms and another room that could be an office or a fifth bedroom.” Anna fairly vibrated with excitement from the back seat of Snow’s Lexus. She’d spent most of the drive to their first location leaning over the seat to show her printouts to Jude.

Snow frowned. That many bedrooms in that size of a house meant small rooms. He preferred fewer, bigger rooms. He glanced at Jude, who sent him an amused look. Snow frowned harder when he noticed the dark circles that probably matched his own. They should have waited to do this—should have spent the day catching up on sleep. His gaze ran down Jude’s body, liking the black leather jacket, the form-fitting jeans. Or…they should have spent half a day catching up on sleep. It had been a long week.

Jude caught his look and narrowed his eyes.

The heat that flared between them still had the power to stun Snow silent.

“It has a pool in the backyard, did I tell you?” Anna leaned over the seat again. The woman obviously didn’t believe in seat belts. “You could have family pool parties.”

Jude groaned. “Mana, the last thing I want is to see is Uncle Rick in a bathing suit.”

Snow glanced in the rearview mirror to find her wrinkling her nose.

“You’re right. Maybe a pool isn’t a good idea.”

Snow tightened his hands on the steering wheel as he decided there would be no pool. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Jude’s family, it was just that there were so many of them. Aunts and uncles and cousins and second cousins and long-time friends of the family who were regarded as family. And all of them made up the nosiest bunch of people he’d ever met. Add in that he tried, really tried, to be polite with them and he left the gatherings exhausted. He hadn’t been with Jude that long and there had already been two.