I frown when Pippy’s voice rings through my living room, announcing that all my brothers are enroute to my house. “They are all on the last stretch of the road, and Xavier Kingston isn’t far behind them,” she tells me. My home is the furthest house into the Windsor Estate, so once they pass a certain point, this is the only place they could be headed to. I should’ve known, should’ve expected them to come check up on me following the engagement announcement.
The doorbell rings, and I groan in defeat. “Shall I let them in, Lex?” Pippy asks.
“Can I pretend I’m not home?”
“Unfortunately not,” she replies in her slightly robotic voice. “It appears Luca brought wheel locks, and he’s holding one up to the camera at the front door at present, gesturing between your brand-new car and the door. If my interpretation of his body language is correct, Luca is threatening to put locks on your cars if we don’t let him in. How would you like me to handle this situation?”
I walk up to the window and glance out, finding Luca handing out tools with far too much delight for my liking. “For fuck’s sake,” I mutter. “I bet this was Val’s idea. Luca wasn’t this fucking feisty before he married her.”
“Oh, it appears Zane has successfully locked both cars in the driveway. I apologize, Lex. Ares was obstructing my cameras at the rear of the house while Luca obscured the camera at the front door. Well, I’ll be… they blinded me. Such impertinence. Those boys are quite simply… rascals. Such rascals. I shall turn on the watering system this instant.”
“Fucking great,” I murmur. Not only did I program too much sass into my AI, but my brothers also show no signs of being deterred. “Hold on, Pippy. They’ll just become that much more annoying if you do that. Just let them in.”
“Very well, Lex,” Pippy says, sounding just a little peeved, and the front door swings open.
“Hi, little brother!” Luca chirps, followed by chuckles and mingling shouts that sound an awful lot like variations of the word congratulations. I watch in absolute horror as Dion rolls in an invention I once made to cheer him up — the monstrosity I’d jokingly named the Lex-board.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” I whisper.
“Surprise,” Dion says, his eyes twinkling in delight.
My eyes widen even further when Xavier fucking Kingston saunters in, holding up a bottle of whiskey. “Look,” he says, entirely fucking unapologetic. “I’m honestly just here for the banter.”
“Of course you are.”
I sigh as I sit down in the chair Ares dragged to the middle of the room, knowing full well this is my reckoning. My past has come back to bite me in the fucking ass, and no matter how hard I run, I can’t escape the absolute torture my brothers are about to put me through.
Zane is fucking giddy as he turns on the Lex-board, which truly is just a glorified touch-screen whiteboard. My heart sinks when I read the words on it. “How not to fuck shit up with your wife. Subtle.”
My brothers exchange glances. “Trust us,” they say, almost in unison. “We’ve all made mistakes we wish we hadn’t made. We’ve paid the price, so you don’t have to.”
I cross my arms and raise a brow. “You’re joking, right?”
Their expressions turn serious. “Not at all,” Ares says. “Zane told us you approached Raya and never told her that you knew who she was. You’ve already started your relationship off on the wrong foot, and you’d be surprised how hard it may be to regain the trust you’ve lost. I can guarantee she’ll be pissed the second she finds out you essentially led her on, and you won’t know how to fix it.”
I sit up a little, uneasy, even as I throw a glare Zane’s way. I confided in him when I asked him to help me supply the things I bribed Adrian Astor with, and I should’ve known he wouldn’t keep his mouth shut. “She knows, and she is pissed. Told me she wants a divorce in three years.”
Dion just sighs and starts his slideshow. “I guess it’s too late for you to learn this lesson, but we don’t, under any circumstances, lie to our wives. There are very few occasions during which lying is acceptable, and I’ve listed those for you below.”
I frown when there’s only one word on his list: never. “Funny,” I murmur. “Real funny how fucking whipped you all are.”
They exchange smiles, like they’re all in on a secret I don’t know, and I just sigh as I lean back in my chair, already tired of their shit.
Xavier, Dion’s best friend, just hands me a glass of whiskey, and I knock it back gratefully. This is what I get for teasing each of my brothers when they got married, for being a real pain in the ass in an attempt to lighten their load. They have no idea that the way I messed around with them was designed to distract them, to help them.
“Lex,” Ares says, his voice soft. “Raya seems like a really nice girl, and from what I’ve heard, she seems to be a perfect fit for you. Don’t push her away before ever giving your marriage a real shot, and don’t even bother lying to us and pretending you don’t like her. You don’t have time for a teaching position at Astor College — you took it because she intrigues you.”
No. I took it to study her, to ensure she isn’t a threat. My heart wrenches as I glance at my grandfather’s watch. I can’t allow the past to repeat itself, no matter what. Keeping an eye on Raya is a safety measure, a necessity.
“Fine,” I murmur, knowing full well my brothers won’t leave me alone until they feel like I’ve at least heard them out. “So, tell me how to keep my wife happy.”
My brothers all snicker in satisfaction. The pleased looks they share just irritate me further. I don’t even understand what their deal is until Xavier rolls his eyes as he repeats the words my wife mockingly. Fuck. For years, I’ve given them shit for how often they slip the words my wife into sentences unnecessarily, only for me to subconsciously do it myself. Fucking shit.
“Oh, we’ve got you,” Zane says, grinning, clearly pleased I’m at least willing to listen when they aren’t exactly giving me a choice.
Yet somehow, I find myself enraptured when they point out what I should pay attention to, right down to favorite foods, lamb biryani, favorite colors, yellow, and little things that make her happy, like doing that move from Dirty Dancing.
Unease settles deep in my stomach when I realize I have most of the answers already. I bite down on my lip, my foot tapping a soothing rhythm.
Nah, Ares is wrong.
I didn’t take that teaching position because she intrigues me. It wasn’t so I could see her again, because I couldn’t stay away.
Surveillance.
That’s all it is. It can’t be more than that.
