Chapter 77: Sleeping With The Enemy’s Brother

"Just relax for me," he said against her ear.

She wanted to. She did. But this was new territory.

He pressed one finger into her under the water.

A moan tore from her throat as she arched into his touch, taking him deeper.

"So fucking tight." His palm hit against her clit as he fucked her harder with one finger, forcing her hips to ride his hand in desperate, stuttering movements.

"That’s it. Fuck yourself on my finger," he coaxed.

Her head fell back against the crook of his neck, the full weight of her surrender pressing into him. Something was about to happen deep in her core that she had experienced only once with a masked bomber. She could feel it building.

"Cum for me. Be a good girl, Nova. I need it," he said against her ear.

The pressure turned into an all-consuming blaze, and then it hit. Pleasure ripped through her. She convulsed in his arms, pulse slamming between her thighs, his hold the only thing keeping her upright.

Water sloshed over the rim. Derek’s hips moved with hers like he could feel every wave of it.

The bathing chamber door opened.

Alpha Thunderfang’s gaze hit hers mid-orgasm. She met his wolf-gold eyes and couldn’t look away. Couldn’t stop cumming either.

"Derek," she breathed, trying to tell him but her brain was not working because his hand was moving so fast and her hips were chasing more.

"Fuck. I want inside you." Derek’s rhythm stuttered and he came behind her, groaning into her neck, still rubbing her through it.

Her hand flew to her mouth. A delayed reaction. Her instinct was to cover herself. Alpha Thunderfang was just standing there.

Derek followed her line of sight.

Then he was out of the tub in a blur.

"Landon, what the hell?"

Derek grabbed the nearest towel and held it out to her without looking back.

She took it. He was already moving, stepping directly into Alpha Thunderfang’s line of sight. His hand found Landon’s chest and pushed. The push of a brother who had grown up shoving this man out of rooms and had the muscle memory to prove it.

"Out."

Alpha Thunderfang’s boots slid back on the marble. Derek kept pushing until both of them were through the doorframe, the door swinging shut behind them.

Nova sat in the tub, towel in hand, water still warm, staring at the closed door with an expression that could best be described as what the hell just happened.

She could hear Derek’s voice through the door. Muffled but loud.

"What the fuck, Landon. You just scared the daylights out of my mate."

Alpha Thunderfang’s response was lower. She couldn’t make out the words but the tone was urgent.

"Landon. I am butt-ass naked. Can it wait five minutes?"

"Five. Minutes."

The back and forth continued. Nova stood from the tub and wrapped the towel around herself, drying off while two Thunderfang brothers argued on the other side of a door, one of them clothed and one of them very much the opposite. She dried her hair in sections, squeezing the water out with the towel, listening to the conversation die down in stages.

A drawer opened. Closed. She assumed Derek was getting dressed, because the alternative was that he was continuing the argument naked, and while she wouldn’t put it past him, even Derek Thunderfang had a threshold.

She waited. The voices stopped. A door closed somewhere down the hall.

Nova stepped out of the bathing chamber. The room was empty. Steam followed her out like a ghost that didn’t want to be left behind.

On the bed was the silk chemise Derek had bought her. Ivory. Thin straps. The kind of thing that belonged on a woman whose evening included champagne and candlelight, and Nova’s evening had included a tub interrupted by an Alpha and a shoving match between brothers, but the chemise didn’t know that.

She slipped into it. The silk was cool against her skin, settling over her body with a weight so light it barely registered. She had never worn anything like it. The Starborne uniform had been her second skin for as long as she could remember. This was a different language. One she was learning by wearing it.

She closed her eyes and pulled the blanket up, her damp hair fanning across the pillow, the silk shifting against her ribs every time she breathed.

Nova’s body woke up before her brain did. Again.

Warmth was the first thing. Not the blanket kind. The kind that breathes and has a heartbeat and tightens its arms when you shift.

She was on top of him. Cheek on his chest. Legs tangled with his. The silk chemise had ridden up somewhere during the night and his hand was resting on her lower back, palm flat, fingers spread, holding her against him like she was something the dark might try to take and he wasn’t allowing it.

He was back.

"Hey beautiful," he whispered, squeezing her extra tight.

The relief that moved through her was so immediate and so complete that her throat tightened around it. She hadn’t realized how much his absence had unsettled her until his presence fixed it. The room had been too quiet without him.

His hand moved in slow circles on her back, tracing patterns through the silk that had no shape and no destination. Just touch for the sake of touch. His other arm was locked across her waist, keeping her on his chest like gravity might change its mind.

"Is there anything you want to tell me?"

Yes. The word sat in her throat like a stone. Yes, I had a dream that wasn’t a dream. Yes, I think I know who the masked bomber is and I am lying on top of his brother.

She wanted to protect him. That was the part her brain kept returning to. Whatever Alpha Thunderfang had done, telling Derek meant putting him between his brother and his mate, and she had seen what that space looked like from the outside. It looked like a man choosing. And she was not going to do that.

"No," she said.

The word came out steady. Quiet. Convincing enough for anyone who hadn’t spent the last two days learning the difference between her calm and her composure. She didn’t know which side of that line Derek was on yet.

"Why did Alpha Thunderfang come into the bathing chamber?" she asked, redirecting before the silence answered for her.

Derek’s chest vibrated with something between a laugh and a sigh.

"Because he’s my little brother and has never once in his life encountered the concept of knocking." His hand slid up her back into her hair, fingers threading through the strands. "But I have a mate now. So he does now."

Nova exhaled a small laugh against his chest.

"He’ll knock from now on," Derek added. "Or I’ll start walking into his room unannounced. And I won’t be alone." He kissed the top of her head. "Mutually assured destruction. The foundation of all healthy sibling relationships."