Chapter 117: When were you going to tell me?

Ivy’s pov

There was a flash of light, followed by another, and… was that giggling?

It was the giggling that pulled me from the depths of a surprisingly peaceful sleep. My eyes fluttered open, blinking against the morning light streaming through the library’s large windows.

For a moment, I was so disoriented. I was curled up on a leather couch with a heavy arm wrapped securely around me.

A very sexy chest was my pillow, his arms a steel band around my waist, his breaths a soft rumble against my ear.

Oh, I could wake up to this all day.

Gideon Knight looked like a fallen angel when he was asleep.

Another flash hit my face and I squinted, my gaze sharpening just in time to see Roman lower his phone, with an excited grin on his face. Kai was leaning against the desk, howling with laughter, his phone held up as well.

“Are you two serious?” I mumbled, my voice thick with sleep.

“Oh, we’re very serious,” Kai wheezed, showing me the screen.

It was a picture of me and Gideon, fast asleep. I looked

tiny, curled into him, while Gideon, the ever-unflappable Gideon Knight, had his head resting on mine.

“This is going in the family album. Thanks little Ivy, you just gave me blackmail material for life. G has never, and I mean, never,

fallen asleep in the library. Let alone while cuddling a woman.”

“He looks so peaceful,” I whispered, a smile tugging at my lips despite the mortification.

“Don’t you dare wake him up.”

“Too late for that,” Ro sing-sang, but before he could make another noise, I shot him a glare.

“Don’t you dare. Let him sleep, come on you guys,”

As if on cue, the man in question stirred. Gideon’s arms tightened around me for a second before he slowly stretched, his long body uncoiling so gracefully.

He blinked his stunning sapphire eyes open, taking in the scene with a slow, sleepy confusion. From me in his lap to his two brothers acting like hormonal teenagers,

“What time is it?”

Oh lordddd.

My thighs pressed together at the thick, deep, gravelly rumble of his voice.

Jesus, that did things to my insides.

“Time for you to get your lazy ass up,” Kai chirped, stretching to mimic Gideon, his shirtless torso gleaming in the light.

“We thought you had died and gone to broody heaven.”

Gideon ignored him, his gaze finding mine. “Are you okay?” His thumb stroked my side softly.

“Did something happen?” Roman chimed in, his playful mood vanishing as he stepped closer.

“Nothing happened,” Gideon and I said in unison.

“She had a nightmare,” Gideon added when Kai and Ro reared back in disbelief.

“Yeah that’s some bullshit,” Kai scoffed.

“But it’s alright.

I’ll get it all out when I take this pretty lady for a BATH!”

I squealed when in one fluid motion, he snatched me off Gideon’s lap with a grunt and threw me over his shoulder.

“Oh my gosh, this is too much manhandling!” I shrieked, pounding my fists against his back, but it was useless. “Kai, you need to stop doing this.

I’m not some sack of potatoes!”

“Hell yes,

you are not,” He cackled as he strode out of the library.

“I wasn’t balls deep in a sack of potatoes last night.”

I gasped scandalised, slapping his back, unable to bite back a giggle.

“That’s not funny,”

“Your laugh tells me all I need to know, little trouble,”

He carried me all the way to his bedroom, not putting me down until we were inside the bathroom, my feet against the cold tile.

I sucked in air through my lungs and the goofball mimicked me until I swatted at his chest.

“Stop it!”

“It’s so fucking easy to make you blush,” He grinned, brushing a kiss over my cheek.

I shrugged off my robe, biting the inside of my cheek as Kai ran the bath.

“Hot or cold?”

“Why don’t you take a guess?” I teased, folding my arms over my tits when he wouldn’t stop staring at them.

He reached out to pull my hands down.

“Stop hiding my babies from me,”

“Your babies?” I chuckled, slapping his wrist. “These are mine, Go get yours!”

He snorted, pouring a woodsy-smelling oil into the water as the tub filled, then scooped me up and deposited me into the warm, frothy water. I sank into it with a blissful sigh. He climbed in behind me, pulling me back against his chest.

“Relax, little Ivy,” he murmured, his chin resting on my shoulder. He grabbed a bar of soap and began lathering his hands, then proceeded to draw a ridiculous curly moustache on my upper lip with the foam. I giggled, trying to wipe it away, but he just caught my wrists.

“Oh no, you don’t,” he teased. “Now a little hat for the gentle lady,”

He then began to construct a silly foam hat on my head, his fingers gentle and ticklish. I reached up, trying to make him a massive curly foam moustache as well.

I haven’t done that in like ever. Not even when I was a kid. After the incident, I had lived in terror growing up, that if I failed my father, I would never be able to make up for killing mom.

But the nightmare last night was different.

For the first time in a while I felt—

“What do you think? Should I be a stylist and quit the family business?” Kai teased, rearing back to look at the giant pile of foam he made on my head calling it a hat.

“You would be a terrible stylist,” I laughed, leaning my head back against him. “Now, if you were selling your paintings that would be a completely different ball game.”

He gave me a tiny secretive grin, before running a wet finger down the sides of my face, cupping my jaw.

“When were you going to tell me,” He hummed, leaning in close, his nose skimming over mine.

“That it was you at that new year’s eve party?”

Creation is hard, cheer me up! VOTE for me!