Page 61 of Cruel King

He doesn’t say a word before dipping his head to kiss me softly on the lips. I don’t think twice before kissing him back, even though I have to admit I’ve never even thought about what it would be like to feel his lips on mine. He was always just Theo, my best friend.

After a few seconds, he lifts his head and smiles. “That was nice.”

“Just nice?” I tease him, loving how I can be playful right now instead of feeling awkward.

“More than nice,” he says, grinning. “I think we should do it again just to make sure.”

I watch as his face dips and his lips press against mine in a kiss that’s unbelievably sweet. It’s almost as if he doesn’t want to scare me off, but he doesn’t have to worry. I’ve cared about Theo for so long, I can’t remember a time when he wasn’t one of the most important people in my life.

Slipping my tongue past his lips, I tease him for a few seconds before pulling back to look into his eyes. For the first time, I know he’s seeing me not as little Ava Sutton, that girl he’s been best friends with since we were small, but as a woman.

He doesn’t say a word but slides his hand around my head and pulls me to him in a kiss that’s nothing as sweet as the last two. This one is full of passion and the promise of so much more than friendship.

And I’m so ready for that.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR

Matthias

Two daysafter my father called Ava up to his room for their little secret meeting, he fell asleep at six that night and it was over. Ronan sat in the corner where the nurse had been watching over my father, and when the doctor pronounced him dead, I heard my youngest brother begin to cry.

I can understand why he felt sad. He had the least amount of time with both our parents, even if he was the favorite. Never pressured to be anything but who he is by his nature, Ronan looked at our father in a way I never got to experience. So naturally, his death hit my brother hard.

It seemed to hit all of them hard but Theo. While Ronan cried and Kellen and Marius fell silent, Theo wasn’t even in the room when it happened. I don’t even know if he was in the house. When he finally showed up in the kitchen downstairs and I told him, he merely nodded but said nothing.

Not that he and my father were terribly close, but I guess I expected something more from him than a nod and silence. Perhaps he didn’t know how to act since his usual happy-go-lucky style didn’t seem appropriate for the moment.

Whatever he felt, he didn’t tell me, and a few minutes later, he left the kitchen, and I haven’t seen much of him since that day nearly a week ago. He was at the funeral with his best friend right by his side, of course, sobbing like it was her father who died. I’ll see Theo and everyone else today since it’s the reading of my father’s will. I expect my father’s office to be full to the brim with people to hear what his attorney has to say about who gets what.

It's not really a secret. My father always told us we’d be taken care of, and as the eldest son, I’ll be expected to act as the executor of his will. He as much said that the last time I spoke to him the day he died. He was in and out of it that day, sometimes making no sense like when he made me promise I’d remember to be kind when dealing with carrying out his final wishes.

I didn’t understand what he meant, but I suspect he simply wanted reassurance the money he planned to bequeath to his favorite charities would, in fact, find its way to them. He didn’t need to worry. I can be a son of a bitch in business and even to some people in my life, but I’m not heartless.

As I walk toward my father’s office on the first floor, I see all my brothers, along with all the people who work here at the house, including Ava’s father. Of course, she’s tagged along too, probably hoping to get something for her time playing nursemaid to my father for the past few months.

We all jam into the room that always seemed so big until nearly fifteen people needed to be here. I position myself near the window right next to my father’s desk where his attorney Lucas Manion sits unloading his briefcase of all the papers involved in the end of my father’s life. A heavy man with gray hair for as long as I’ve known him, I don’t think he’s more than a few years old than my father. He used to remind me of Santa Claus when I was a little boy and he’d stop over at the house.

I give him a little smile when he looks over at me with nothing less than dread in his eyes. I can understand that. He’s known my father and our family for decades. I imagine even though this is his job that it’s hard to deal with the death of someone who wasn’t only a client for all those years but a friend too.

“If I can have your attention,” he says to begin, his normal booming voice sounding a little softer today. “There aren’t a lot of surprises in Max’s final will, but I want to make sure we do exactly as he wanted. It’s the last thing I get to carry out for my friend, so this is important.”

As I suspected, Lucas is struggling to deal with the loss of my father just like the rest of us. I look around the office and wonder what surprises my father has in store. He always did like to keep people on their toes.

“Okay, first I think we should start off with how Max wanted everything handled. I will continue as his attorney in this matter, and I’ll be assisting the executors to carry out his final wishes.”

His words hit my ears wrong, and I stare at him waiting for a correction. Executors? Why did he say that like there would be more than one, which is me?

I open my mouth to ask that very question when Lucas turns his head to look at me. “Your father established that you and Miss Sutton would be the executors, Matthias.”

Every word comes out shaky, like Lucas fully expects some pushback on this ridiculous idea. Me and Miss Sutton? Why the hell would my father do that? I’m his eldest son. Why would he invite some person who isn’t even family into handling his affairs?

I’m speechless, even as that old familiar rage I feel for her surges inside me so my head feels like it’s going to explode. From the back of the room, I hear someone mumble, “Did he just say Matthias and Ava are the executors?”

“This has to be a joke. Why the hell would my father make her an executor of his will? I won’t allow it,” I say to Lucas, who looks like being here is the last place in the world he wants to be at this moment.

“I’m sorry, Matthias, but this is what your father wanted.”

Furious, I march over to my father’s desk to glare down at his lawyer. “Then I’ll challenge it. He probably changed his will to include this ridiculous thing in the past few months, didn’t he?”