Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 112069 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112069 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
"What—" was all Luca got out as his mind came to the same realization that the rest of us had already reached.
That Lex, the youngest of the brothers, was blind.
* * *
"Holy shit," I bit out upon walking into the bedroom I shared with Luca. Considering the events of the day, I hadn't been expecting to see my soon-to-be husband at all that night. After Lex's arrival, there’d been a wave of awkwardness that had lasted several tense minutes until the man with Lex had introduced himself to Luca and me.
In all honesty, at the moment I couldn't even remember the man's name because I was still in shock over the fact that Luca's youngest brother had lost his sight. Since there’d been no mention of that in all of the time I'd known any of the brothers, I’d figured that had been the reason none of them had heard from Lex for so long.
I'd only caught bits and pieces of the conversation that’d followed because I'd been helping Aleks get refreshments and move everyone to the living room where there was more seating. Whatever condition Lex was suffering from, he’d indicated it was permanent after all of the brothers except for King had insisted that Lex see all manner of specialists for more opinions. I’d felt sorry for Lex because I'd seen a hint of the treatment he’d probably received as a child from his older, more protective brothers. I had no idea what Lex was like regularly, but he’d definitely been quiet. When his brothers had finally finished talking at him, Lex had asked them all to sit down so that he could go through his condition once and only once. I'd admired the way he’d put his foot down with his brothers, but I hadn’t missed the fact that while doing so, he'd seemed to lean heavily on the man with him.
Both literally and figuratively.
While Luca and the other brothers had tried to process the discovery about Lex, Lex had started talking to Gio and they’d begun to share memories of one another. Lex had told funny stories about all the trouble his brothers had gotten into when they'd been kids, and that had helped lighten the mood considerably. Dinner had been a much lighter affair and most of it had been spent reminiscing. Topics like Gio’s abduction and Lex's condition had been carefully avoided. I'd excused myself around midnight, along with Aleks and Gio, so that we could leave the brothers to talk amongst themselves, but I’d figured they would spend most of the night together.
"Why aren't you with your brothers?" I asked. Luca was standing at the window that overlooked the ocean. It was night out, but he’d opened the window so we could hear the roll of the waves coming in. I went to stand behind him and held him like he’d held me on the beach earlier in the day.
"Lex was tired," he said softly.
"I'm sorry, Luca. I can't even imagine what you guys are going through right now."
Luca covered my hand where it was resting on his chest. "He seems okay with it," Luca said. "I guess he's had time to accept it. He asked us to do the same."
I knew how difficult such a request would be for Luca. He would want to fix things for Lex. It explained why Lex had gone silent for so long. If his brothers had known about his condition, he likely would've been inundated with the same responses he'd gotten today about getting second opinions and surgical options and such.
"Let's go to bed, Luca," I offered.
Luca nodded, but then said, "I've got a surprise for you first."
I shook my head because the man had given me more than enough surprises. But when I went to argue with him, I saw what he hadn't said… that he needed this moment to distract himself from his brother. No one was more familiar with the need for distraction than me, so I quickly said, "What is it?"
Luca smiled and took my hand to lead me to the bed. In the three months since we'd had sex for the first time, we'd been on each other on a near constant basis. For someone who'd been so abhorrent of sex before, I’d done a complete one-eighty.
Because sex with Luca wasn't sex at all. It was an experience, a new beginning each time.
"I believe I promised you a taste of Harry and Draco," Luca said as he kicked off his shoes.
I opened my mouth in shock and said, "You're kidding, right?"
Luca pulled out a few sheets of paper from the inside of his jacket pocket.
"Where do you want to do this?" he asked. I practically jumped on the bed and sat cross-legged at the foot of it. I pointed at the headboard. Luca grinned and slipped off his jacket, then sat down on the bed with his back against the headboard. He extended his legs and then made a big production of reaching into his discarded jacket and pulling out a huge pair of glasses. I nearly laughed because there was actually no glass in them. But they sure did look a lot like the type of glasses a certain Quidditch-loving wizard wore.