Whoops.
Thankfully, Anna came back into the dining room at that moment, carrying a steaming dish of aromatic Thai curry. She placed it down in the middle of the table beside the bowl of fluffy coconut rice she'd already brought out, then planted her hands on her hips.
"Now, this has plenty of good vegetables in it and tastes a thousand times better than the crap you've been ordering from Sawadeka." She gave a nod, like she was agreeing with herself. "You'll see. None of that takeout mess is needed in this house." She bustled back out of the dining room without waiting for any of the boys’ smart remarks, and I grinned.
Since telling us that we were risking our lives by ordering in, Anna had made it her mission to recreate all our favorite takeout meals with her own gourmet spin. I had to agree, her versions really were delicious.
"How was the wedding planning today?" Steele asked as he dished himself up a bowl of food, then filled mine too. "Did you have fun?" His grin was teasing, like he knew how painful it had been for me. Well... until it wasn't.
"All part of the plan," Archer replied. He was sitting beside Kody, opposite me, so there was no avoiding the heated look he gave me. "I particularly enjoyed sampling the cakes."
Yep. I was blushing. Fucker. One of these days, I'd be comfortable enough to discuss my sexploits openly between all three of them. That day was not today, apparently.
Clearing my throat, I took a sip of my wine and searched for a change of subject.
"Do we need to worry about Officer Shane?" I latched onto the first thing—okay, the first non-sexual thing—to pop into my head. "He seemed pretty torn up about Scott's disappearance; I don't think he'll let the matter drop easily."
"Officer Shane won't be a problem, babe," Kody told me with a small smirk, licking his fork.
My brows rose. "Oh? What does that mean?"
"Kate, did you tell the boys that your father and my mother are coming home?" Archer not-so-subtly changed the subject. I let him, only because I trusted them. That, and I had a fair idea that Officer Shane was probably going to learn a harsh lesson about who not to threaten in Shadow Grove.
"They are?" Steele sat back in his chair beside me and dropped a hand to my knee. "For the wedding, I presume?"
"Yep." I cringed. "God forbid Samuel Danvers ever give society something to gossip about. Like they haven't already noticed he's just dropped his company to go on a world cruise with his girlfriend."
"But we're going to kill him, right?" Kody pointed out, like we were discussing what to have for dessert.
All the horrible things my father had done floated through my mind. All the hurtful comments when I was a child, the total lack of affection, the way he’d tried to have me committed on several occasions, the fact that he'd sold me to escape his bad debts. He hadn't cared if I'd wound up in a whorehouse or dead. Why the fuck did he deserve anything better from me?
"Yeah," I replied, my resolve hardening. "Yeah, we are."
Steele squeezed my thigh and gave me a lopsided smile. "Want to do more target practice with me tomorrow? It's always good to work on marksmanship in our world, beautiful."
I looked around at the three of them, a rush of fizzy affection filling me up inside. They had my back one hundred percent, but they weren't going to stick me in a glass box. Killing my father was personal, and none of them would rob me of that moment just because I wasn't as skilled as they were. Instead, they'd just do their best to train me.
That, right there. That was true companionship and respect.
"You guys are kind of amazing, you know that?" I murmured, taking a mouthful of my food to cover the emotion that was threatening to spill out of me at any second.
Steele squeezed my knee again, silently telling me he thought the same. Archer just shrugged, like that was a known fact.
Kody snorted a laugh. "Well, I mean, I know I am," he said with a grin. "But my shoulders are getting a bit sore carrying these two deadweights."
Archer cuffed him around the head, and Kody just laughed harder.
It was nice, though. Having dinner with the three of them every night was making the whole relationship bond sink in deeper. We were a team, a family. I loved it.
"Anyone up for the new Keanu Reeves movie?" Steele asked as we packed away the empty dishes at the end of the meal. "It's supposed to be on par with John Wick."
Archer scoffed. "Bullshit."
Steele just shrugged. "Don't know until we watch it, do we?"
"Sounds good to me," I offered. "But only if there's ice cream involved."
"To eat? Or to rub all over your body?" Archer whispered in my ear as we headed into the den.
I smacked him in the abs with the back of my hand, which probably hurt me more than him, and declined to respond. Prick.
In retaliation, I curled up in Kody's lap on the armchair so Archer couldn't get handsy on the couch. He knew it too, giving me a narrow-eyed glare as he sat down. I smirked back and flipped him off.
Who said romance was dead?
Steele returned from the kitchen with four bowls of ice cream and handed them out before flicking on the movie he'd mentioned. I snuggled into Kody's warmth, eating my ice cream slowly as the movie began.
He finished his quickly, then spent more time watching me lick my spoon than watching the movie. It was distracting and amusing all at the same time. It didn't help that we had the lights off, so it was all too easy for his hands to shift from my waist to my breast.
"Stop it," I whispered at him, fighting a smile.
"Stop what?" He kissed the exposed skin of my neck.
"Stop staring at me while I eat." I gave him a pointed look. "It's weird."
Kody's grin just spread wide. "Stop licking that spoon like how I want you to lick my dick, and I'll stop watching."
"Both of you stop it," Archer snapped. "I feel fucking creepy watching Keanu Reeves while my dick is hard."
"Agreed," Steele added.
Kody just grinned and playfully kissed my neck, right over one of the dark marks Archer had left littered across my skin, which made me shudder.
"Quit it," Archer growled when I squirmed in Kody's lap.
I exchanged an amused look with Kody, but we were both smart enough to know when Archer was no longer kidding around. My lady-bits were already hurting enough; I definitely didn't need to be spanked on top of that.
Or did I...
Archer caught my eye in the glow from the TV, and I shifted in Kody's lap. Nope, no, I really didn't. Maybe tomorrow, but definitely not tonight.
We watched the movie in silence for a while, but Kody couldn't seem to sit still if his life depended on it. He didn't even seem to notice what he was doing as his fingers traced patterns over my skin or his lips brushed gentle kisses over my neck. It was almost like he was just letting his subconscious take the reins for a bit.
The fact that his subconscious just wanted to touch me constantly? Total bonus in my book.
"Babe," he whispered in my ear somewhere around the climax of the movie, where the hero was shooting people left, right, and center while acting totally impervious to bullets himself.
"Hmm?" I turned slightly to give him my attention and found myself just an inch from his face.