LUKE

We’ve been meeting Tyler for breakfast in the hotel’s dining room every day. Newly showered without even twelve minutes of sleep, we trudge in. I couldn’t wipe this smirk off my face if you held a shotgun to it.

I’d die smiling.

We slow down at the sight of Inez, Tyler’s wife. She’s got a sour look that purses more as she eyes Sofia. But Ty’s amused as hell, coffee and tasteless pancakes in front of him. Inez sets her spoon in the oatmeal she was eating as he calls out, “Morning!”

Sofia glances to me and I shrug without actually moving my shoulder—a look is enough. It’s a help-yourself type of breakfast here, buffet style but with fewer choices. We grab mediocre bacon, barely-warm eggs, and black coffees, moving in tandem, filling the plates together, reaching over each other’s arms and mumbling things like, “Oh, yeah, get me some of those biscuits.”

It’s not weird for us to act like this.

It’d be weird if we didn’t.

Only lately have we kept our distance, but this easy-going behavior is normal ‘us’. The whole family is used to having everybody in their space, everyone helping out. Team effort all the way. So Inez and Tyler don’t have a clue Sofia’s smiling lips were wrapped around my cock just twenty minutes ago.

Not.

A.

Clue.

We plop onto two wooden armchairs opposite our friend and his wife, who we don’t know all that well, and dig in while I ask, “When did you get here, Inez?”

“Last night.”

“Well, since we had dinner with Tyler, that’s pretty fuckin’ obvious.”

Sofia snickers, “Jerk.”

“What? Did we not have dinner with Ty?” I direct the rest of my sentences to Inez. “And he made no mention of you coming, so I’m guessin’ you surprised him. And that’s not an easy thing to do to a Cipher.”

Ty jerks his chin. “I surprised you.” He does the same to Soph. “And Sofia Sol when I brought her here, told her there was a job when there wasn’t.”

“I stand corrected.” Shoveling eggs onto wheat toast, I open my mouth wide to fit it in. Sofia watches me from the corner of her eyes. I know she’s thinking about the sex we had all night. Grinning with my mouth full I ask, “What?”

She laughs and takes a sip of coffee, covers her mouth and yelps, “Ouch!”

“Nice goin’ genius.”

“It’s the only thing that’s hot!”

Tyler’s watching us. His wife is watching one of us and it ain’t me. She’s always this way around Sofia though I never paid much attention ’til today. They’re both half-Latina, but Inez isn’t built like Soph. She doesn’t ride a motorcycle, and I personally think if she did she’d have more self-confidence instead of using looks as her only barometer for worth.

Sofia Sol piled five pieces of bacon onto her plate and is tearing into them, sneaking glances to my lap. She’s not paying attention to the woman glaring at her. Maybe she’s used to it. But I’m not. Not today.

I lean back, throw my arm over the back of my chair, legs spread. “You got a problem, Inez?”

Tyler’s eyebrows twitch. “Luke, watch your tone.”

“Just askin’ a question.”

Sofia swallows, off-handedly calling it out. “She hates my looks.”

Inez reacts. “I was just surprised you didn’t come knockin’ last night!”

“Oh, but I did,” Sofia smirks.

Tyler’s eyes flick to mine.

I grin at him.

His lips twitch but he covers it.

Inez throws her balled-up napkin on the table. “I would have heard you!”

Soph feigns innocence. “On Tyler’s door? Why would I do that? He’s married.”

“Of course he’s married, to me! You disappointed in that?”

“For different reasons than you think, yes,” Soph mutters, taking a fresh bite of bacon.

I cover my laugh.

Inez motions to Sofia’s breasts. “You might be beautiful and have all of this, but he and I have something you can’t touch!”

I’m pretty much dumbfounded.

Tyler clearly feels the same.

Sofia has been waiting for this moment, probably for years from that sigh she just gave as she tossed a scrap onto her plate, appetite gone. “Inez, what exactly is your problem with me? Is it my eyes, my hair, my tits, or all three? Or is it the way my ass rounded out when I turned thirteen?” She leans over the table. “Because I didn’t choose any of it. I was born this way. To hate me for how I look is the same as when people judge you and me on the color of our skin. Hit home, huh? Good! It’s the fucking same and don’t believe for one second that it isn’t. My face, my tits, my metabolism, were not a choice! This is how I was born. You’re being unfair and fucked up. I don’t want your husband. He knows I don’t want him, and he doesn’t want me. Just because I have these,” she lifts her breasts and drops them, “doesn’t mean shit. I’m just trying to live my life out here, doing what good I can and that’s it.” Kicking her chair back she stands up, wipes her fingers off on her jeans. “Sure, there are women who’re so fucking scared and insecure, they’ll go after another woman’s man. But if you simply asked your husband or any of the Ciphers, you’d know the last person to go after a married guy, is me. Not all women are snakes. Not all men are cheaters, either. Tyler is as true as they come, so give him a fuckin’ break and enjoy your marriage. You found someone. Show some gratitude.”

She walks away from the table.

Proud as hell I jump up to join her.

But Inez is beside herself. “Sofia!”

Soph turns around, and I can tell that wasn’t easy for her. After the night we had, she just wanted to keep up the fun, have some breakfast, and go on another hike with me so we could fuck in the woods this time and tell Mother Nature thank you.

She wasn’t prepared to do battle.

Inez blinks and stands up, “I’m sorry. I was wrong.”

Sofia nods, voice quiet. “Apology accepted, thank you. And Tyler, you should know that we’re…” She blinks a few times, glances to me on a deep frown. “Forget it, never mind.” She walks out of the dining room.

Ty asks. “What was she gonna say?”

My shoulders rise. “We’re not going to hide from anyone that we’re in love anymore.”

A light switches on behind his eyes. “Well alright!”

As I walk out I hear him whisper in the loud way men do, “I told you I was here on a mission, just couldn’t tell you what it was!”

Spinning around I storm over to him, pissed as hell.

His eyes widen and he leans back.

The dumbass really didn’t know I could hear that.

“What the fuck, Tyler?”

“Huh, what?” he shrugs, acting innocent.

Sofia comes back into the room. “What’s going on?”

I stay on him. “Explain what you just said to your wife!”

Licking his lips he picks up a fork and drops it. “Look, Ma called, told me the plan. Call you, send you here. Get Soph, pretend like I could only take her with me, small job. Your parents were away and Mom wanted to see if there was something real between you guys. So this week I’ve been waiting. Took for fucking ever, too. But then I saw you last night, about to blow, and I skedaddled. Like my timing? I wasn’t exactly subtle, but hey, I was getting bored. Missed Inez.”

I mutter on my way out, “Conniving sonofabitch,” looping my arm around Sofia’s waist. She turns and mirrors me, pace matching like we were made for this.

Ty shouts, “Nobody ever called my mom a sweetheart, but she knocked some sense into your asses, didn’t she?”

Quieter, Inez says, “Ah, you missed me baby?”

“Of course I did, you crazy woman,” he purrs.

We walk into the sunshine and leave it all behind us.