The Squad

I left the lightest of touches on her cheek before planting one last kiss as soft as butterfly wings across her lips before turning away and getting out of bed. While I was watching her and fighting the urge to climb into the tub with her and maybe have her again, I’d also been thinking.

It’s not lost on me that I’ve never been this way with anyone else, that my mind didn’t take the same path it usually does after sharing a bed with the opposite sex. In the past, after each and every encounter, I couldn’t wait to get away. I never wanted to give anyone the wrong impression that it was more than a release. Plus, I usually felt like something was missing, like I’d lost part of myself after the act; still don’t know what that’s about.

But not with her. If I wasn’t sure before, what I was about to do and the way I felt would’ve cinched it. I made sure the door was locked behind me and that no one was about. I’m learning to trust these guys, sure, but she’s still vulnerable, and I have no doubt that she’s going to be dealing with some feelings of her own once she wakes up.

I took the stairs two at a time and went in search of my brother. Excitement hummed in my veins, and I wished that I could move things along at the same fast pace that they were happening in my head. “Brother!” He was in one of the rooms upstairs with a couple of the guys working on computers.

The others grunted a greeting before going back to what they were doing when Gideon left his place and walked over to me. He took one look at me and inclined his head towards the door, and I followed him out. “What’s going on?” He stopped halfway down the hallway and gave me the searching look he used to when I first came to live with him and Ash and was still giving him shit to see how far I could go.

“I need to talk to Simon.” The look changed, and though there was some surprise there, it wasn’t at the level I’d expected.

“You sure?” It was a testament to how well he knew me that he didn’t even ask what I needed to see the jeweler about. That’s perfect because it cuts through the bullshit that I would otherwise have had to explain.

“Very!” He slapped my shoulder and squeezed before dropping his hand.

“Okay then, let’s get your girl her ring. Do you know what you want? Things might take a while with this bug…”

“No, I want it in a week at the latest.” I don’t want her going any longer than that without my ring on her finger.

One, because I don’t want her second-guessing herself as to what she means to me, and two, because outside of planting my seed inside her, which is a show of ownership between her and I, I want that symbolization in place as soon as possible so that everyone knows she’s mine and off-limits. Plus, she’s the only unmarried woman here; even Lyon’s kid was sporting a big ass rock on her finger from her fiancé.

I started to panic when I thought about weddings and all that other shit that I knew nothing about and said as much to my brother. “Don’t sweat it; your sister lives for that shit, remember. Come with me.” I followed him back downstairs to his room this time, and he waited while I called Simon and gave him a quick rundown of what I wanted.

The good thing is that I can wait to have something made or look through the pieces he was about to send pictures of and find something I liked, and it would still be a one of a kind. When I hung up the phone bustling with excitement, Gideon was still there looking pensive and playing on his highly secure phone.

My phone dinged in my pocket, and I removed it to see an alert from my bank, which was confusing as hell because it wasn’t time for the monthly statement, and there hadn’t been any transactions for a while since we’d been here. I logged in and almost fell on my ass.

“What did you do?”

“Well, you’re getting married now; you’ll be going out on your own. Your sister and I talked about this a while ago, when you were going to college, in fact. That was the bank notifying you that your trust has been released, wasn’t it?”

“What trust, what’re you talking about?”

My brother has always been generous, not to mention the lengths my Ash would go to, to make sure I never felt want or need. I don’t think she ever got over the fact that I once lived on the streets. “All of my kids have trust funds. You got one for college, and this one is for when you get married and leave the nest.”