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My brother must sense I’m drifting off, because he asks, “What’s on your mind?”
I force myself back to reality. “It’s nothing.”
“Nothing? You looked like you were in space. Where’d you go?” Roark is inquisitive, curious, and reasonably so; we share everything together. We’re the only family we have left, truly. There are no secrets between us.
“I was thinking of a house in the plains out west. No house in particular, just… somewhere far away from this city and everything it entails.” I sigh as I refill my glass and take a small sip. “Thea told me she’d want a house somewhere out there.”
“Ah, did she? What else did she tell you?” There’s an edge to my brother’s question, and it makes me glare at him.
My jaw grinds. “What are you getting at?”
“Nothing at all.” Roark’s mouth thins. “It’s just… it seems like you two are close. Very close.” When I only give him an annoyed look, he explains himself further: “First you won’t entertain the idea of sharing her with me, and now you’re thinking of some little house in the middle of nowhere because she wants a house like it?”
“Actually,” I correct him, “she wants to go to the moon. The house is a secondary desire.”
“Oh, well, in that case—” Roark leans closer to me, inspecting me like I’m some new discovery and not his brother that he’s known his entire life. “What’s with you? You’ve been acting different for a while. At first I thought it was because of what happened—almost being sold to fucking Cormac—but now I’m wondering if that’s not all of it.”
My brother knows nothing, and yet somehow he finds himself under my skin. I huff, “Get to the point.”
“My point is you’re different.”
“Different how?”
“Different all around. Just different. Thinking of a house in the middle of nowhere, far away from the city? I’ve never heard you talk about leaving the city, not until that girl showed up in your life.”
I glare at him. “I didn’t say I was thinking about leaving the city.”
Roark shakes his head and glances at the table where Thea and her brother sit. “It’s her, isn’t it? Something about her has you in a fucking chokehold.” He scoffs. “I knew something was fishy when you wanted her for yourself in the beginning, I just didn’t think it’d be because—”
“Because what?” I cut in with a deep frown.
The way my brother looks at me after that tells me enough, but Roark still says it aloud: “You’re in love with her.” At least he has the wherewithal to say it quietly and not shout it for everyone in the building to hear.
The denial comes from me easily: “I am not.” But no sooner do the words leave me that they really hit me as a possibility. Do I love her? Have I fallen for her somehow in these past few weeks? I’ve enjoyed having her close, yes, but not simply for the sex.
I mean, yes, the sex is indescribable, but there’s more to it. I’ve enjoyed getting to know her. Eating meals with her. Watching her fall asleep after a wild bout of fucking. Being on the receiving end of her glares, her laughter, and her eye-rolling.
All I can do is whisper, “Fucking hell.”
Roark laughs. “See? I told you. I fucking knew it. I’ve never seen you like this before. You have an extra twinkle in your eye—”
I barely resist my urge to shove him. “I do not.”
“You do, at least when you’re talking about her.” He shrugs his shoulders. “Besides, when you kept refusing to share her? It’s obvious. I can’t believe I realized it before you did. The question is, does she know? And if she knows, what’ll she do about it? She’s still your prisoner, same with her brother. You can’t let ‘em go just because you fell for her.”
“I never said I was.”
“Then what’s your endgame?” Roark questions me, his wide frame leaning on the bar. “I thought I knew what it was, but obviously things have changed.”
It’s a while before I mutter, “I don’t know.” There haven’t been many times in my life when I haven’t known how to proceed, but this… this is one of them. I can’t believe it took my brother pushing me for me to realize just how much things have changed.
This thing with Thea isn’t just retribution. In the beginning, I was simply making her pay for her involvement with her brother’s stupid plan to kidnap and sell me, but now…
“You could marry her.”
My gaze snaps to my brother’s face, and for a quick moment I don’t know whether he’s joking or not. But as I study his expression, I realize he’s not kidding. He really is suggesting I marry Thea.
The only thing I can say to that is, “What makes you think I want to marry her?”
