“Hey, guys, stop. Stop! You’re making me sick. Seriously, I’m about to splash shoes here and since Shay splurged to buy hers, I don’t want to get hurt.0 She recognized Caillen’s voice, castigating them. Judging from the loudness of the tone, she assumed he was the one holding the camera. “Syn, that’s my sister you’re tonguing and I’m going to beat your ass again if you don’t get away from her. I mean it. I don’t care that you’re married now. She’s still my sister and you’re a dead man.”
Syn scoffed, his dark eyes sending a challenge. “You didn’t beat it the last time, giakon. As I recall, I sent you packing.”
The camera bounced to show the rapidly shifting ground as Caillen headed for him.
The woman came between them and pushed Caillen back. The camera went swinging around her body until she righted it and forced Caillen to move another step away from Syn. “You touch my husband again, Cai, and I’ll paint your rear stabilizer red. Now behave and show Syn that I raised you right.” Laughing, she took the camera from Caillen and turned it on him.
Desideria’s breath caught as she saw not a rigid aristocrat, but a man so unbelievably handsome that it was hard to even look at him. Dressed in a black formal suit and freshly shaved, Caillen was absolutely stunning even though he was fuming angry. Only he could pull off that amount of hotness and rage at the same time.
“Annoying, isn’t it, little brother?” Shahara asked as she moved so close to him that Desideria could almost see up his nostrils.
Recovering his usual good nature, he flashed that charming grin and stepped away from her. “You’ll be glad you have these pictures one day.”
“Doubt it. I see you act a fool enough. Why would I want to capture it for all eternity?”
Two more women came up and wrapped their arms around Caillen before he could respond.
“Here, Shahara, let me have it.” She heard Syn off camera. “Get over there with your brother and sisters and let’s get all the Dagans together. It’ll be the only still you have of Kasen in a dress.”
“Hey!” the heavier of the two sisters snarled. “I’ll remember that, Syn. What are you saying about me?”
“He’s saying you don’t dress like a woman.” Caillen scoffed at her. “And you don’t. Worst day of my life was when I caught up to you size wise. You’ve been stealing my clothes ever since and stretching out all my shirts.”
She punched him hard on the biceps. “You better remember I don’t hit like a woman either and I know where you sleep. Shay and Tess will weep in agony when they find your bloody remains after I exact my revenge.”
“Oh yeah right. Like you’d kill me before I pay off my ship. I know better. You live in fear of that kind of debt and without me you’d get arrested anyway.”
“Enough bitching.” Shahara held her hand up in an imperious gesture that miraculously kept them from arguing further. Then she moved to the other side and slid in between Caillen and Kasen.
Desideria paused the clip to stuCaillen and his three sisters. They looked nothing alike. But there was no missing the love between them. Caillen had his arms wrapped around Shahara and Kasen, and the third, Tessa, held on to Shahara like a lifeline.
All of them smiling. It was such a sweet, tender moment that she felt like she was intruding just to see it. And it made her ache that she’d never once had a moment like that in her own life. Never once had her sisters held her like Caillen held his. They didn’t share laughter or gentle teasing. Only caustic, vicious retorts.
She and her sisters would have fought to the death over the words Kasen had said to Caillen or vice versa.
Her heart aching with the cold truth of how little her family cared about each other, she traced the lines of Caillen’s smiling face on the screen and wondered if he’d be like her father… when she’d been a child and on nights when her mother hadn’t required his presence, he would sneak out of his chambers to visit her in the wee hours after everyone was asleep. They’d gone on midnight rides, and walks, and had held many a campout under the stars.
Out of sheer jealousy Narcissa would report it anytime she discovered them and her father would be punished severely for it. But it never stopped him from coming. No matter how savage the beating.
“You’re worth it, my little rose. No one will ever take you from me and nothing will stop me from seeing you. Not even your mother.” She could still feel the warmth of his hug. There were times even now when she was sure he was with her. Times when she liked to pretend that she could feel his gentle presence.
But that wasn’t Qillaq.
She glanced over to Caillen and her heart lurched as she saw how badly damaged he was from trying to protect her. Deep inside, she was sure he’d be like that with his own daughter.
That thought brought a foreign tenderness to her. And a part of her, to this day, was still angry at the gods who’d taken her father’s life. It was so unfair for him to die and leave her alone, to abandon her to a world where no one would ever again think she was good enough for anything. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t blot out the memory of her mother and aunt’s constant criticisms. If only she could have had a few more years of her father telling her that she wasn’t stupid, fat, ugly and worthless…
But there was nothing she could do.