"Gross!" Axel groaned, making me giggle against Ryker's lips. That giggle only seemed to spur him on, but after a brief press of his lips on mine more firmly, he drew back to stare down at me with his forehead pressed to mine. His eyes were light, as if they glowed from within, and after staring at me for a moment he jumped off me and tackled Axel to the ground as my boy screamed playfully.
He tugged Axel into his side, rubbing his fist on his head and messing up his hair. "You think it's gross that I like to kiss your Mom?" he asked him.
"Yes!" Axel laughed, shoving Ryker away.
"You better get used to it, Little Man. I'll never stop," Ryker announced, making me blush. My eyes went to Enzo, but he was busy staring at the side where Scar stared at Ryker in confusion. Something on the man's face made my heart ache, like he so desperately wanted what Ryker had.
But there was genuine fear in his eyes, as if the thought of a man like Ryker having a family was impossible to him.
A few days ago I would have agreed with him.
Now?
Now I had no clue what I thought anymore.
“Mommy! Help me!” Axel called. I lunged up from where Ryker had left me lying on the ground. When your son called you, you helped him.
So I struck Ryker in the side with all my weight, shoving him off balance as he released a deep chuckle and went tumbling to the side.
It didn’t matter that it wasn’t real or that I’d never have any chance of tackling the man. Not when he pretended to struggle and let Axel and I pin him to the ground. With my legs stretched over his stomach and Axel sitting on his chest in front of me, Ryker grinned up at me.
The grin only grew when Ines fell on top of the pile we formed.
I let myself feel the joy that reflected in his gaze when he wrapped his arms around all of us and pulled us tight.
Most of the time, he really did make me happy.
When I let him.
Thirty
Ryker
Even in Matteo's massive sitting room, space was limited on the occasions where we all got together. There'd been just enough room for the group of us to relax on the furniture after dinner while Ines and Axel played
with the toys the others had bought for them as gifts to welcome them to the family. Calla had mostly gone silent after our wrestling match, and I could practically see the way the gears turned in her head. I didn’t know what Ivory and Samara had said to her, but there was a noticeable shift in the way she watched me.
There was a reason I'd decided the time had come to introduce the kids to my family, despite Calla's hesitation. I knew that the bond I shared with them was one of the best things I offered Calla. The support network we had was priceless. She'd never have to wonder what she would do if there came a day when her dad couldn't watch Ines. She'd never have to suffer through being sick and forcing a smile on her face because she had kids who needed her.
They'd need her, but they'd have other people they could spend the day with while she rested. That was if I wasn't available because of work. If I was home, she wouldn't even need my family, because she'd have me. But there would come a day when Luna was a little older and could play with Ines. There would come a day when Axel could watch out for his sister and his cousins like the protector I knew him to be.
Finding familial love inside the Bellandi estate had seemed like an impossibility just two years prior, but now the house burst with it. I wanted that for my woman and my kids.
I wanted them to have everything my birth family had deprived me of. A safe space to learn and grow, a place where they would know no fear.
When Yavin strolled in after dinner, the light atmosphere in the room dimmed. Yavin and Lino hadn't returned to what their relationship had been like before Samara married Lino, but they got along fine for business sake. There wasn't even any animosity between them, so much as neither was willing to be the person who stepped over the threshold to bridge that gap. I knew it drove Samara batty, especially when she rolled her eyes as Yavin walked in. He'd been invited earlier, just the same as the rest of us, but he only came when he knew we would get down to business. Like he was outside of our family, even when he had always been part of it.
I suspected it was hard for him, being the only one of us who wasn't Italian. The women weren't, but he was the only male in the inner circle who didn't have the Old World blood ties that the previous generations of Bellandis valued so highly. It didn't matter in the slightest to Matteo, who had opened the ranks of initiates looking to join people of all races and ethnicities.
He saw greater value in a man's character than his lineage, and given my history, that was something I admired.
Blood meant nothing.
Yavin glanced around the room, taking in the distinct lack of space for him to sit. I knew from the tension in his eyes it was one more nail in the coffin of his mind that he didn't belong. I scooped Calla off the seat next to me, depositing her into my lap. She squirmed for a moment, but I quickly realized it wasn't because she wanted to get off me.
She was just trying to get comfortable. I didn't imagine I made a very good cushion.
Yavin smiled at me cautiously, moving into the room and kissing Samara on the cheek. He greeted the others before he took the seat next to us. "I'm Calla," my woman said politely, stretching out a hand to greet the newcomer.