Identity

by Brandy Slaven

  I don’t get the chance to finish stripping. Alejandro takes care of it for me as soon as his hands are free. Afterward, he stares down to where I lay stark naked on his bed, and with a quick shake of his head, says, “How did I get so lucky to have a woman as amazing as you? Don’t you ever let me or any of the others forget that or start to take you for granted again.”

  He waits until I nod an agreement before he awards me with a bright smile. “Good. Now relax, because it’s my turn to take care of you.”

  There’s no warning before his head dips between my legs, and he takes a long, lingering swipe of his tongue between my lower lips. For the second time tonight, my eyes roll behind my eyelids as my head tilts back against the mattress. I open my legs wider, making room for his broad shoulders.

  Reaching for the hair at the top of his head, I give it a soft tug as I unashamedly grind myself against his face. My toes curl against his back where my feet lay. Almost better than the feel of his breath and tongue at my center is the feel of that neatly trimmed beard that rubs in sensitive places that are sure to be marked later.

  All of the sensations bring me to my breaking point faster than I hope. When Alejandro clamps down on that tiny bud and sucks gently, my body tenses, and I cry out his name.

  He lets out a soft chuckle as he raises up to glance down at me appreciatively. “It’s been so long since I’ve heard my name on your lips like that.”

  “If you keep pulling stunts like that one, I’ll say it so much that you’ll get tired of it,” I reply truthfully.

  It makes him laugh again before he drops his weight down on his elbows on top of me. I can still taste myself on his lips when he presses ours together. Alejandro was the first to ever love me that way, and it seems like he’s lost no mojo over the years. Anyone can call me a freak if they want, but there’s something about having my scent all over him like this that turns me on faster than anything ever could. It’s like his acceptance of my claiming of him.

  “You’ll never have to worry about that, mi cariña,” he promises.

  A few more minutes of our naked skin against each other while our tongues tangle has him hard again. When he pushes himself inside of me, it’s slow and sweet. He takes his time making love to me, and I give him silent vows in my head to never leave him again.

  I’m dead to the world in a dreamless landscape when a warm hand closes over my mouth, waking me instantly. A figure’s silhouette is all I can see as my eyes fly open. Shadows hide the assailant’s face from where dawn breaks through the bay window behind them. A quiet muffled scream tries to come out, but the hand successfully smothers it.

  I jerk against Alejandro at my back, and his arm wraps protectively around my torso at the small sound. Heavy sleeping like always. There could be a damn train barreling through his bedroom, and he’d never know. I’m ready to pull my fist back and deck whoever had the balls to come in here like this.

  “Stop, Su. It’s just me,” Anderson says, his voice registering through the panic hazed fog in my mind.

  When he finally lets go of my mouth, I slap his hand away before he can snatch it back quick enough as I whisper berate him, “What are you thinking, coming in here like that? I was going to punch you in the face, and I still might. The jury is debating.”

  He snorts softly. “I apologize. Want to come take a shower with me?”

  I narrow my eyes at him, knowing full well he can see my expression even if I can’t see his.

  “Are you serious?” I ask in a furious whisper. “That’s what you woke me up for?”

  Nonetheless, when he holds out a hand, I place mine in his and let him pull me to my feet. Alejandro mumbles before pulling the sheet up to his neck, continuing to snooze. I roll my eyes toward the ceiling, complaining, “Some protective guard he is, huh?”

  Now that we’re turned sideways and his back is away from the window, I watch the smile break across his lips before he retorts, “If you wanted that, you should’ve slept in my bed last night.”

  There probably won’t ever be a day when I’m not surprised at how casually they’re all taking this whole sharing me thing without batting an eyelid. Granted, they’ve never had a problem sharing things before, but this is different. I’m not a new toy or something they got for Christmas. I’m a human being with tangled emotions for six different men, standing here naked after crawling out of bed with one of them, and Anderson acts like it’s no big deal.

  It’s official. They just aren’t normal. As if I needed any more proof of that, anyway.

  “If we’re going to your room to shower, I need to throw something on first,” I tell him while glancing around for a shirt.

  Using the hand still within his grasp, he tows me to the other side of the room to Alejandro’s bathroom. He waits until the door is shut behind him to say, “He won’t mind if we just shower in here.”

  I shrug and go over to flip the showerheads on. The one thing I’d been jealous of those last couple years I was here was Alejandro’s shower. With beautiful stone walls, a sliding glass door, and three massive shower heads suspended from the ceiling, the whole thing is an extravagant over-the-top monstrosity. One that I took advantage of every chance I got.

  The water is warm enough to step in, and I can’t help but glance over my shoulder at Anderson. I think we all know that one man that could make a potato sack look good. Anderson is that man. In nothing other than a white tank top and a pair of sweatpants, it’s enough to make my mouth water. Even after having my raging hormones being sated all night by Alejandro.

  Anderson strips his shirt off, broadcasting an eight-pack of abs any gym rat would be jealous of. His waist is trim without an ounce of fat. Making it past that sexiness, the view of bare skin is interrupted by a series of interconnecting tattoos, starting just below his pecs. They used to just be on his shoulders and down his arms right above his biceps. Now they’ve multiplied all the way down to his wrists on both sides. Oh, the sexy long sleeve shirts can hide. It makes me supremely curious as to how far down his back they go now.

  I figure I’ll have to wait to find out because his eyes find mine when his hands drop to the waistband of those sweats. I’ve seen him naked plenty, but everything seems different. New. So, when they expose more of his Adonis belt, I turn back around and step into the water that’s now steaming up the glass.

  “I never thought I’d see the day you were shy around any of us, but especially me,” he says, stepping in and crowding me. “Have things really changed that much? You didn’t seem to have any reservations with Aric or Alejandro.”

  Spinning around, I get ready to lay into him, but his playful smile stops me. Then he adds, “Or maybe they’re more like the boys you left behind, and I’m not anymore.”

  I want to tease him and tell him he’s just as much the boy as they are, or that the dark circles under his eyes are starting to make him look old. What comes out instead makes me want to slap a hand to my mouth before burying my head ten feet under.

  “Were you with anyone else?” I ask.

  His smile doesn’t drop like I expect. On the contrary, it gets wider as he admits, “Only once. When I realized that any other woman would a poor substitute to you, I stopped trying. Does that bother you, princess?”

  “Don’t call me that,” I spit out.

  “I’ve always called you that,” he replies, stepping closer.

  My back is flush against the wall when his lips drop to my ear. “Did you fuck another man, Su baby?”

  I have to suck my lip through my teeth to keep from whimpering. A drop of water lands on the top of his shoulder, and I watch it get ready to roll down. As it does, my tongue reaches out to retrace its path back up before I kiss the side of his neck. When his body shudders, my nipples bud to hard peaks from the brush of his chest against them.

  A flood of warmth hits my core and drives me to nip his earlobe before I breathlessly confess, “No, and I never will.”

  The answer is more than enough for him. I
let out a short squeak of surprise when he groans and one-handedly lifts me off my feet with an arm around my back. His other hand drops to his cock as my legs go around him, and he pushes his way inside in one quick thrust. A guttural moan from him matches my cry of surprise.

  Multiple personality disorder flashes through my head again as I realize there are several sides of me that will always love how different these men love me. Where Alejandro was slow and tender, Anderson is his exact opposite, relishing the fast and rough.

  And, my inner witch fucking loves them both.

  Anderson has almost no hair, which makes trying to get any kind of purchase impossible. I end up just smoothing my fingers across the dark facial hair lining his jaw that leads into sideburns before I give up entirely.

  Dropping one leg to the floor while he holds onto the other one makes him hit new spots, igniting an even bigger fire inside of me. He’s plunging so deep with each jerk of his hips that it’s lifting the one foot a few inches off the ground. When I cry out with my release, my fingernails dig into the skin of his shoulders. Helping me ride it out while seeking his own release, it only takes a few more thrusts before I feel his cock start to jerk inside of me. His forehead drops to my neck as he lets my other leg go and pulls out.

  The small kisses he presses to my neck first and then my lips have me smiling. When he pulls away to gaze down at me, his grin is one to rival my own before he says, “Believe it or not, I didn’t come here for that.”

  My head tilts back with my laugh. “Then you really shouldn’t have taken your clothes off.”

  He chuckles with that deep voice. “It’s good for my ego to know you still find me irresistible.”

  “Of course, I do. That’ll never be a question,” I admit honestly, but my curiosity is piqued.

  “So, what did you come in here for?” I ask as I let the water run through my hair.

  Watching it run down my breasts with rapt fascination, he distractedly answers, “I needed to talk to you about some important stuff.”

  I laugh with a huff of air. “You needed to talk to me and thought that naked in the shower was the best place?”

  It looks like he mentally shakes himself out of the lust stupor around his brain as his eyes lift to mine, and that stone mask slips back over his features when he says, “This is one of the very few places in the house that aren’t bugged.”

  The shampoo I’d been getting ready to catch with my hand plops to the floor with a wet smack as I ask, “Who’s listening, Ands?”

  Knowing the family and the many enemies Trenton has accrued over the years, it could truly be anyone. If the guys know about it, it can’t be good.

  Then he goes and puts the proverbial nail in the coffin when he quickly replies, “It’s best you don’t know the answer to that question right now. But I need to know you believe me when I say it’s all going to be okay. We’re going to take care of everything and make sure nothing happens to you.”

  My heart feels like it’s going to pound out of my chest because my first thought goes to the Barbanio family. What if they’ve put me on the hit list for killing their boss? What if they put the guys on that list? Then a second thought occurs to me. What if it’s not his family at all? What if the cops somehow caught wind of the murder? What if they’re listening, wanting me to admit my guilt? If that’s the case, then they got what they came for. Which leaves the question of why they’re not beating down the doors and taking me to jail.

  I can feel the same panic as earlier starting to spike in my chest. Anderson traps my face between his palms and makes me meet his eyes before he demands, “Stop it, Su baby. Just breathe. Whatever you’re concocting in that beautiful brain of yours is probably way off track. No one knows this. And, when I say no one, I mean, it’s been the biggest kept secret for months. What I’m about to say to you must not be repeated until we’re in the clear. Do you understand?”

  He nods with me as he whispers, “Trenton is dead.”

  A sense of relief is quickly swallowed by a dread so intense that I feel it in my soul.

  “Are you sure?” I whisper back.

  One small dip of his chin.

  “We’re one hundred percent sure. We’ve been trying to keep the information on lockdown because you know how it’s going to go.”

  Yeah, that’s an understatement. Once the Barbanio family finds out, Trenton’s business will be figuratively left flapping in the breeze for anyone to swoop up and claim. Which will also mean anyone in Trenton’s employ will likely be buried. Never trust the enemy and all that. Then after they’re done with that job, they’ll come for us next. Can’t leave any heirs alive to try to reclaim the throne.

  “Oh, gods, Ands,” I fret.

  He pulls my head to his chest “I know, baby. We’re trying to fix the mess he left us with, but I’ve made you a promise. I’ve never broken a promise to you. We’ll do whatever we can to fix it and protect you, no matter what it takes.”

  There, tucked against his chest, with no sound but the water flowing around us, I allow myself to cry the few tears of grief for the man who I used to call Father. I let them fall for the way our lives are about to change, if we’re lucky enough to make it out of this alive.

  “Well , that’s a sight I never thought I’d see in this lifetime,” I announce to Abraham’s back.

  He swishes his hips from side to side while he stirs the pot in front of him at the stove. It actually makes me giggle. Then even harder when he turns around, wearing an apron that says Kiss the Cook.

  Standing over by the coffee pot, Aric laughs with me at Abe’s expense. The latter obviously doesn’t care. He crooks a finger at me and makes me plant a kiss on his cheek before he turns back around to whatever’s in the pot.

  “Good morning,” Aric greets, handing me a cup of coffee. I don’t get a chance to respond before he adds, “I think we’re going to make you sleep in Alejandro’s room every night if you wake up this chipper.”

  I laugh, but it’s cut short by Anderson’s gruff voice, “It wasn’t Alejandro that woke her up this morning.”

  Aric sputters over his coffee, and Abraham’s shoulders shake with his snicker. I roll my eyes, but inside I’m doing a crazy happy dance seeing them not at each other’s throats for my attention. Taking a seat at the breakfast table, I sip my coffee as I watch them maneuver around the kitchen. Even as the others file into the room over the next half hour, no one gets in another’s way. They’ve had years to perfect this dance, and it shows.

  After the table is covered with a variety of breakfast foods and everyone is eating, I ask, “So, what’s on the agenda for today? Do you guys still have to go to the construction sites, or are there managers now so you don’t have to go?”

  My fingers are crossed inside my head, and I’m praying to whatever god exists that they don’t have to work on site anymore. Might as well hand their lives over on a silver platter if they do, because it wouldn’t be any kind of difficulty to make a murder look like an accident there.

  Alek relieves some of the tension in my shoulders when he answers, “We haven’t been to a site in a couple of months. There’s a foreman overseeing each one now, and someone over him. If they can’t make a decision or have a problem the two of them can’t solve, then they eventually bring it to us.”

  I try not to let my relief bleed through to my words when I say, “Moving on up then, aren’t ya?”

  It doesn’t fool anyone at this table, but that’s because they know me. What Alek also doesn’t have to say is the reason they haven’t been going on site anymore has nothing to do with them being lazy or feeling like they’re too good for it. Trenton forced them to go into the business. Since they were old enough to sling hammers, he had them on sites working with him. Preparing them for half of the life of being a Trenton. None of them wanted to be there, but it’s not exactly like they could tell him no. Especially since he saved most of them from horrid lives. However, they all got used to it and liked all the fancy things the
money brought in. So, knowing what I do after the shower this morning, it’s clear they’ve been avoiding the sites for the same reason I’d hoped they weren’t going anymore. Even with Trenton dead and them being free men, they aren’t allowed to make decisions for themselves. It’s a vicious cycle, and I don’t think any of us are ever going to escape it.

  “What do you say, Sukie baby?” Abraham asks.

  I shake my head, trying to drop the morbid thoughts running through it. Obviously, I’d missed part of the conversation just now, but Abraham takes my head shake as an answer to whatever question he’d asked. He’s still smiling, but it’s tight, and his eyes are sad.

  Trying to fix the misunderstanding, I tell him, “Sorry, what was the question again?”

  A couple of the guys chuckle, but that light flares back to life in Abraham’s eyes as he repeats himself, “I said, how would you feel about just lounging around the pool for the day? We can order take out. Pizza or that little Chinese place across town. We can even get a to go order from that coffee shop you used to like so much.”

  “Holy shit!” I exclaim. “They’re still open? I figured they’d be out of business by now for sure.”

  “Nope,” he says gladly. “It almost tanked about a year after you left, but a wealthy anonymous donor kept it afloat.”

  His eyes flick to Atlas beside him. Turning my attention to him, I find his blue eyes already on me.

  Atlas smiles. “I didn’t want you to not have your favorite places around when you came home. I bought it as soon as I caught wind of them closing the doors. It’s in both of our names now.”

  He’d had so much faith in me coming back to him that he’d bought a coffee shop just so I wouldn’t be distraught over it. Gods help me, because no matter how I’d felt over the past couple years, I’m in this for life now. Even if we don’t have that long left.

  Ignoring the others, I get up from my seat and make my way around the table to where Atlas sits. He’s barely had time to turn in his chair to face me before I grab his face between my palms and slam my lips down on his. At this moment, I don’t care that there are five other people in this room. I don’t care that they’re all watching and could likely be uncomfortable. Nor do I care that I’ve been with three of them already since returning home. None of that matters. The only thing that does is the sweetest man I know that I’ve now claimed the lap of while we devour each other.