Page 23 of Hero: Claimed

“You know, when I first came here and started cooking, all the guys asked me, ‘Where did youlearn to cook?’ I was honest,” she says. “Told them from my little sister. That you could take pencil shavings, a paper clip, and orange peels and create a five-star dish.”

She’s so crazy. I throw my head back and laugh so hard that I neglect to pay attention to the task at hand and end up spilling beaten eggs over the side of the bowl. Hannah looks at me and then the bowl, then she bursts out laughing, too, which makes me laugh even harder. I’ve got tears in my eyes.

When we both start to come down, and she’s dumping bulk sausage into the pan on the stove to begin cooking, she smiles a knowing smile at me. “Heard you and Hero spent the day together,” she says.

“We did. He’s nice. It was nice—no, it wasmore thannice.”

“I bet. Heard you and Hero spent the night together, too.”

Okay, I need to put an end to that rumor right now. “Not the way you’re suggesting, sis. We slept. He’s been staying on that gross old sofa and begged me to let him sleep in an actual bed again. It’s his bed. How could I refuse him?”

“Mm-hmm… You sure that’s all that happened?” she asks.

“We talked for a bit until we fell asleep, but yeah. I’m sure that’s all we did. Han, he’s a nice guy. He felt sorry for me. That’s it. I see that glint in your eyes and you need to shut it down now. The man’s not going to profess his undying love for me or whatever you’ve got going in that head of yours.”

“Forget undying love—I was hoping that he’d give you a little hoochie-coochie between the sheets. Something good. Something memorable. I can’t imagine many of those limp-dicked assholes at the club giving you anything worth remembering.”

“Han, I never slept with any of the guys at the club. They tried, I avoided.”

She studies me for a second. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. It wasn’t easy, but it was a necessary skill I learned years ago—how to avoid the grabby hands of stoned, drunk dudes.”

“Brin… did you date?”

“What’s all this interest in my love life all of a sudden? If you wanted to know, you should’ve stuck around.”

“Ouch.”

I hate being such a bitch to my sister. But one postcard in seven years doesn’t give her the right to know about the men I have, or truthfully, haven’t slept with.

“Sorry, sissy. That was a bitchy thing to say. Dad always needed me for one thing or another and I worked. You know he’d never have let me date. The control freak liked controlling my life far too much to risk losing it to some other guy.”

“So you’ve never—”

“Stop. You don’t always need a man to get yourself off. I had a bankcard and the internet. Magic Mike was a single girl’s best friend.”

“Magic… Mike?” she sputtered out. “You named your vibrator ‘Magic Mike’?”

“What? I pictured Channing Tatum whenever I used it. And let me tell you, he was amazing.”

Levity back in the room, we continue cooking together until the kitchen fills with the smells of sausage, eggs, and hash browns baking. In a word: heaven.

Slowly, the brothers begin filing out of their rooms, making their way into the kitchen to grab a mug of coffee. Blood walks in wearing nothing but a pair of brown boxers with little Thanksgiving turkeys printed on them. He kisses Hannah’s cheek.

“What the fuck smells so good in here?” he asks.

“Food of the gods,” she replies.

Blowing on his coffee first, he takes a sip and says, “Thank god Hero took you on as his old lady.” Then he takes another sip and I wait for him to finish because that can’t be it. He doesn’t disappoint. “Between you and Hannah cooking, I’ll never eat out again.”

The timer goes off and I pull the casserole from the oven. Blue, Blaze, Dutchy, Crass, and Brighton all line up with plates in hand while Hannah and I serve them. Everything’s good, everything’s easy until Levi strolls in still in his sleep pants and no shirt from last night. His hair is mussed and God help me—I don’t think he’s ever looked sexier.

“Hey, Hero,” Hannah says. “Grab a plate.”

But he doesn’t grab a plate… he walks up to grab me from behind, wrapping his arms around me for a hug and bends in to press his lips gently to my shoulder. A kiss. I know I didn’t imagine it. Shoot, I don’t even think I breathe. What’s he thinking? People are around. His brothers.

“See, that wasn’t so bad was it, bird?” he says in his still-husky-from-sleep voice as he drops his arms to pick upmymug of coffee.

---