Humphrey left the house through a side door in the family room. On the way out, he commended himself for keeping his temper reigned twice that morning. Roman’s bad boy brooding was par for the course. Secretly, Humphrey admired the kid for not taking anyone’s shit. He guessed that was what Liam Tesano admired most as well about his fifth, correction, sixth son.
Reigning in his temper, following Vale’s mention of Pitch, took a bit more doing. It would be just like his father to announce his retirement and put that black bastard of his in a position of power or worse, the position of power.
Humphrey cast the notion aside. He would never be denied his rightful place at the helm of Tesano. His birthright secured that, and so did his mother. Athena would make a holy fuss if his father tried to pull some kind of guilt switch on the business hierarchy. No, his place was secure as was Ari’s and Stone’s.
Gabe was the wild card. As usual, Humphrey thought. He set his jaw tighter while tugging at the cuff of his suit coat with agitation gaining a greater foothold on his mood. He quickened his pace down the hillside leading from the house. The wild card. Gabriel had proven he was more than capable of assuming a vital role at Tesano, but jeez that dick of his Humphrey mused.
It was the eyes that did it, girls were suckers for those sapphires. Humphrey believed if Gabe spent as much time tending his future at Tesano as he did seeing to the insatiable needs of his sex drive, he could rival anyone for the top seat. Perhaps even Humphrey himself.
As it stood, the kid was on the fast track to fucking his way right out of a cherry position. Exactly what that position was, Humphrey had no idea. Their father had offered no hints about his plans for them inside the immense company he had created from nothing. Whatever it was, Gabriel was doing a damn good job of cementing the fact that he would be answering to Pitch.
Humphrey’s trek outside the house, took him to a remote, intricate brick path that weaved through a series of small shacks. He was bound to find Gabe in one of them. He had discovered his little brother’s preference for rendezvous spots purely by chance one day when his mother had sent him on an errand to her garden shed.
Pace quickening, Humphrey took the path in a focused manner that led him to the largest construction. Athena’s garden shed lay at the end of the trail. Humphrey didn’t need to open the short wooden door to confirm his suspicions. Trembling cries wavered behind the door. The purely feminine sounds were followed by grunts that kept time to the rhythmic clatter of clay pots and spades that littered most of the work tables inside.
Humphrey eased the door open, shaking his head in response to the goings on inside. He found Gabriel with one of the upstairs maids. He knew the girl’s station by her black uniform and white apron. The downstairs workers wore white uniforms with black aprons-waistcoats for the male workers. Chances were strong that Gabe had the maid meet him here when she’d come to clean his room that morning.
She was dressed more or less. Her skirt was hiked above her hips while Gabe claimed her from behind. Humphrey noticed Gabe’s suitcoat keeping time to the lovers’ rhythm as it swayed on the coat rack near the table. Humphrey appreciated that the Tesano’s resident casanova had the foresight to remove the coat he would wear to the meeting with their father.
The lovers climaxed with Gabe pounding a fist to the cabinet above the little maid’s head while he emptied himself inside her. Spent, he put a sweet kiss to the top of her dark curls. He withdrew and cleaned himself using the pair of white panties that had been tossed over the sink faucet in the middle of the counter.
Humphrey cleared his throat and succeeded in startling the couple.
“Hell, Hump!” Gabriel Tesano let his head fall back, his vivid gaze ablaze with fury. “You scared the shit out of me.”
Humphrey raised a hand. “And I definitely don’t need to witness that after what I’ve just seen. Hurry the fuck up, Ma’s got breakfast ready.”
Gabriel hustled into movement. Quickly, he pushed himself into his briefs, shimmied into his trousers and jogged from the shed with the rest of his clothes. He didn’t spare the maid a second look.
The young woman got past her disappointment and was next to attempt a speedy departure. Eyes down, with her apron and soiled panties clutched to her misbuttoned bodice, she hurried to the doorway.
“Good day, Signore Humphrey,” she said.
He blocked her way. From a 6’2 height advantage, he studied the woman in stony silence.
The maid’s nerves seemed to get the better of her after a few wordless seconds and she shifted her weight from one foot to the other and back again. “I’ll j-just be going, Signore-”
“What’s your name?” Humphrey asked.
“Ana-Analise. Analise Leone.”
“Do you like working here, Analise?”
She nodded fiercely. “Y-yes, yes Signore Humphrey. Very much.”
“And your family? They like working here and at my father’s factories and other businesses?”
More fierce nodding. “Y-yes, Signore Humphrey, molto, molto,” very much, she said. “We are very grateful for-”
“Spectacular,” he steamrolled the gratitude. “I suppose I can take that to mean you won’t be trying to trap my brother with whatever may be brewing in your gut right now.”
Analise gasped. Eyes bulging, she looked incapable of speech.
“I can count on that, can’t I, Analise?” Humphrey quietly insisted on a response.
“Y-yes Signore.”
“And that you’ll get rid of it by any means necessary, yes?”
“I, ye-yes, yes,” Analise stammered and nodded at once.
“Good girl,” Humphrey raised his hand, smiling when the maid nodded. He smoothed the back of his hand down her cheek and then surveyed the shed with a shrewd, dark look.
“Tidy up my mother’s garden shed, will you Analise? She likes it pristine.”
~2~
The Tesano sons were, without question, a devastating brood. Looks ran bone deep and fierce among the lot. Vale, had inherited none of the height and muscle mass his father and brothers possessed in droves. Still, he was an eyecatcher. The group of young men exuded a lethal, dauntless quality whether they moved individually or together as a pack. Some said it was the vast wealth that supported the aura, but many others acknowledged the more probably truth. They had simply been born with it.
The young men arrived at the factory with 20 minutes to spare. Humphrey wouldn’t let Gabriel out of his sight, knowing the guy could put 20 minutes to scandalous use. The heavenly bodies roaming the factory floor would be easy pickings for one such as his slutty little brother.
Besides, Humphrey had a feeling Vale might be onto something. Their father had yet to arrive. Liam Tesano had left the house at dawn as was his custom on a work day. Humphrey had hoped to ride in with Liam, but the man had advised his son to rest up and see to his younger brothers in light of the day ahead. The longer they waited, the more Humphrey began to suspect that his father wouldn’t be arriving alone.
I hate it when I’m right, he noted silently when the man arrived 10 minutes later. Rousing greetings filled the main room and overshadowed the fact that Humphrey and Vale didn’t offer so much as a hello to their half brother Pitch who had arrived with Liam.
~~~
Vicarus Tesano, Pitch as he was called by those who knew him best, could accurately be described as a sinful looking, yet gentle giant. At 6’7, he possessed the same intense good looks as his father and brothers. Given his heritage, he also possessed the kind of richly shaded skin his brothers had to tan to acquire. That complexion, complimented an enthralling stare, deep-set under long, sleek brows. Laughter filled the room as almost everyone stood to greet him.
