Page 37 of Forever: The Companion

John put a hand over his chest, a smile splitting his lips as he faked a happy sigh. The bastard even dared to lean back in his chair and stare upward like he was thanking God or something. “And I was just lucky enough to be one of those people. I love you, too, Lucia.”

She laughed.

The ass.

Truth be told, though, her brother was still her very best friend. She had lots of girlfriends, a ton of family, and Renzo, too. Yet, at the end of the day, it was still John she called when she wanted to gossip or just needed to talk. It’d taken them a while to get back to that place with one another, but she hadn’t minded at all when it came to putting in the work between them. She loved her brother to the very ends of the earth and back.

She knew he loved her the same.

Even when he drove her crazy.

After all, what was family for?

“Anyway,” John said, “we’re all looking forward to seeing you both when you get back. Siena, especially, wants to take you out to breakfast, so make sure you put aside a bit of time for her, yeah?”

Lucia almost rolled her eyes—her brother, forever his wife’s biggest protector, even if Siena didn’t know it and didn’t need it.

“I will make time for her, I promise.”

“Good. Enjoy the rest of your vacation. Bring me home something.”

“Like you did for me when you went to the—”

“Love you, bye, kiddo.”

John hung up the call with a grin and a wink that said he knew exactly what he was doing. That was all Lucia saw as the call cut off, too. Just her brother’s frozen face in that smug expression before the screen went back to the home page of the video chat app altogether.

Fucker.

She still loved him, though.

Lucky him.

As she didn’t have anyone else to check in with—she’d already called her parents, and her other siblings, as well as her assistant, although only to tell the woman she was going to need a couple of extra days after her vacation before she returned to the gallery—Lucia powered down the laptop and put it away.

Then, she went in search of Ren.

Soon enough, she found him in the outdoor shower, surrounded by walls made of smooth rocks on the upper terrace that they could use privately by walking through the sliding doors from the master bedroom. The showerheads dropping water on him looked like small waterfalls, and for a moment, Lucia stood back and enjoyed the sight of her husband’s naked, wet body. All those hard lines of his dripping with rivulets of water, and his muscular legs shifting from foot to foot as he wiped the wetness from his face.

Renzo turned, shaking the droplets from his face at the same time. His gaze came to land on her just beyond the shower. She didn’t move to join him, although she would soon. There was little to no doubt about that. If only because she had no self-control around this man, and now he was grinning at her like he knew it, too.

Goddamn him.

She loved him.

“How’s everyone?” he asked, reaching for the bottle of shower gel sitting on the floor.

And yeah … that gave her a nice side view of his ass.

A very sexy ass.

“They’re good—missing us as much as we miss them.”

Ren nodded, standing straight again with the bottle in his hand. “And then you know like a week after we’re gone, we’ll miss Bali, right?”

She didn’t doubt it.

“We’ll come back,” she replied.

“Yeah, we’ll come back.”

His gaze drifted over her form, his stare lingering in all the right spots and making her wish she were under the shower with him. He tipped his head back, that silent invitation she’d been waiting for. She didn’t even hesitate to join him.