Page 55 of Dangers of Love

A deep, festive green, her sweater was just clingy enough to show off her figure but not so tight that it was inappropriate for a family engagement. It made her eyes appear even greener, and as I stepped closer, I reached out to see if it was as soft as it looked. Sliding my arms around her waist, I found that it was even softer than I’d thought.

“You look amazing.” I kissed her forehead. “We do these sorts of calls all the time, and the only thing we care about is that everyone’s wearing pants.”

She laughed, the sound edged with some nerves. “I shouldn’t think that would be a difficult rule to follow.”

“You’d be surprised,” I said with a laugh of my own. “My little brother, Sean, was visiting his twin, Xander, in England a couple years ago for their birthday, and Xander was on a video call with me and Leo. Sean walked behind Xander, stark naked and scratching his b–”

I cut off the last word as heat flooded my face. Talking to my fiancée about my brother being naked was bad enough. I really didn’t need to mention the whole ball scratching part of the story, especially if that meant she’d be thinking about his balls when she met him.

It took me a moment to realize that what I was feeling wasn’t only jealousy, though that was bad enough. It was insecurity. A little voice in the back of my head wondering if Aline might find one of my brothers more attractive. Hell, it could be all of them. More than one person had commented over the years how unfair it was for one family to have so many good-looking people in it, and it wasn’t an exaggeration.

“Why was your brother in England?” she asked. “Xander, I mean. I understand why Sean was there.”

“Oh, he plays football there.” When she gave me a confused look, I laughed. “Sorry. I forgot you’re American. Xander plays soccer for the Tottenham Hotspurs.”

“Aren’t you American too?” Before I could respond, it looked like something clicked in her mind. “Wait, when you first spoke to me, I remember thinking that you had an accent. Very faint.”

“I was born in Scotland. All of my full-biological siblings were. I was about five or so when we moved to the States, so I lost most of whatever accent I had. Alec’s the only one that really kept it. When we get stressed or something like that, you can still hear it with certain words since we grew up hearing Da’s accent.”

I didn’t need to add any more explanation about why she would’ve heard it in Iran. The situation wouldn’t have been easy at any point in time, but the fact that it’d been the first time I’d been in a firefight since the ambush had amped it up even more.

“So, it’s just the McCraes who are from Scotland?” she asked as we sat down in front of my laptop. “The rest are from America?”

“Yeah. Austin, Rome, Paris, and Aspen, they’re the Carideos. They were all born in San Jose. Blaze, Fury, and Rose are Gracens, and they were born there too. All of us lived there for a few months right after Da and Theresa got married, then we all moved to San Ramon. That’s where Sean, Xander, and London were born. After Mom’s brother- and sister-in-law passed, the Gracens came to San Ramon to live with us too.” I grinned at the expression on her face. “Don’t worry, there’s no test.”

“I’m glad.” She waved a hand in front of her smiling face. “I’d need to study for a week to get all that.”

I glanced at the time. “Ready?”

She let out a long breath of air. “As I’ll ever be.”

I made the call and reached for her hand. She was a strong woman, but it’d been a rough couple of months, and the last thing she needed was my family overwhelming her.

Another reason why this introduction was better with video.

“Eoin!” Paris’s voice came through a moment before the screen focused on her. “Right on time too. We were betting whether…oh, hi.” Paris’s dark eyes went from me to Aline and then back to me. “Mom’s going to kick your ass for not telling her you have someone with you.”

Aline tensed, and I squeezed her hand. “It’s not how it sounds.” I glared at Paris even while trying to reassure Aline. “Paris doesn’t always think before she speaks.”

“Is that Eoin?” Mom appeared behind Paris, and her eyebrows shot up, emphasizing their common features. Mom’s hair was a dark reddish-brown to Paris’s pitch-black, but there was no mistaking the genetics there.

“Hey.” I waved with my free hand. “Can you get everyone together, so I don’t have to repeat introductions?”

“Mm-hm.” Mom stepped out of sight.

“Told you,” Paris said with a grin. Out of all of my siblings, she and I were the closest. Seven months older than me, the way our birthdays had fallen had put us in the same classes growing up. She’d never rebelled like I had, but she definitely hadn’t been quiet and compliant either.

I flipped her off, barely getting my hand out of sight before the screen filled with a dozen members of my family.

“Theresa said you have a surprise for us. I see she wasn’t exaggerating.” Da smiled at Aline. “Good evenin’. I’m Patrick, and I hope you won’t be holdin’ my son’s lack of manners against me.”

Aline laughed. While there was a nervous touch to the sound, she wasn’t clinging as tightly to my hand as she had been, which was good, and probably what Da had intended.

“Good to meet you,” she said.

“Let me get your names out of the way first,” I said. “You already met Paris, Mom, and Da.” I pointed to the tall one with the deep red hair pulled back in a ponytail. “That’s Rose. She lives in Colorado.” Sandy brown hair and blue-green eyes, my most easy-going brother had his arm on Rose’s shoulder and a strange, serious expression on his face. “Brody’s from San Ramon.” Short raven-black hair and a serious expression was next. “Aspen lives there too.” Only shorter than me by an inch, my L.A.-based stepbrother was next. “Rome. He lives in L.A.”

Rome shot Aline a little salute. “Nice to meet you.”

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