My mom gave her a huge smile. “Thank you. That was very considerate of you.”

Maia turned to me. “I’m gonna head out, boss. I hope y’all have a lovely dinner. Enjoy your hippie rabbit food.” The last part was directed at Zane, who I would’ve expected to at least look embarrassed, but he grinned at her and popped a carrot into his mouth.

We served ourselves and all conversation died down as everyone enjoyed the food. There was a little chatter while we ate, but I eventually accepted that I was just going to have to bite the bullet and tell my mom or I would miss my chance.

“We need to tell you something, Mom,” I said calmly. I could see the worry instantly appear on her face. I’d made it A Thing, but there wasn’t exactly an easy way to slide it into the conversation.

“You are not engaged after being together for five minutes, are you?”

“No.” I took too long to start explaining, so she interrupted again.

“Are you pregnant?” she blurted to my utter horror. “I couldn’t help seeing a headline and I was sure it wasn’t true, but…”

Elena’s eyes twinkled with amusement. The same delighted horror was written plainly on my brothers’ faces and Rami was covering his mouth with a napkin.

“Mom, no! Ah! I thought you had news about me blocked. And that’s so insensitive. What if we couldn’t get pregnant?”

“Wait, who can’t get pregnant?”

“No one. Or I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. Just stop. This isn’t about that. Let me talk, Mom. Jesus.”

She looked grave and a little irritated I’d snapped at her. I was crashing and burning and hadn’t even started yet. My brothers looked thrilled.

I took a deep breath. “Elena is in an unusual line of work. It’s probably being sensationalized, so we wanted to tell you the real story.”

She looked over at Elena, curiosity alight on her face, but she didn’t interrupt me again.

“Elena works as a dominatrix.”

“Like what they do in Crown of Swords?”

Ryan snorted. “Gross, Mom. Why are you reading that trash?”

“Books for women are not automatically trash, young man. And I’ll read whatever I want. I’m as into Lucas Steel as the next woman,” she said, clearly trying to tease him. He screwed his face up and put his fork down with a disgusted noise.

Zane coughed. “I see there’s some more news you need to share with Mom…”

She looked at me expectantly.

I sighed. “It’s not announced yet, but I’ll be playing Lucas Steel in the movie.”

“Oh,” she said, shifting uncomfortably. “Well, there goes that fantasy. Are you sure that’s a good fit for you, honey?” She was looking at me over her sunglasses, which was a sure sign she was skeptical.

Rami, trying to be helpful, said, “Elena’s been giving him spanking lessons.”

Elena was struggling to keep a straight face.

My mom’s cheeks flushed. “I didn’t mean like that. I’m sure you’ll make a…very nice Lucas Steel. I just meant is it a good career choice for you? It’s so different from everything else you’ve done.”