Not Mike,” Ransom protests, and I wonder where he’s going with this and why he’s suddenly defending me. “He’s way too straight-laced for that. He lives, eats, and breathes hacking.” He goes off half-cocked, putting his hands on his hips and strutting around the room, imitating my deep voice even though his is already plenty deep enough. “Not dragging anyone into our life. That would be a straight-up liability, and it’s not fair to them, either. Love is for sissies. What’s a crush? I’m immune to any and all such nonsense.”“Oooooh! Has someone finally broken through those thick arse walls? Broached the barrier? The old seal sprung a leak? Burrowed into thy formerly impenetrable brain?” Lancer goads.Marcus stands back, puzzled. “Wait, is the wedding real? I thought it was fake.”“The wedding is real. The marriage is fake,” Atlas informs him.Then why’d he shave?”I let loose a warning noise as I swing my legs over the edge of the bed. “It’s official. I thoroughly and truly hate you all
I told you the crying wolf thing was going to get you in trouble one day,” I say, trying to be playful, though my voice is still full of very real concern that is in no way an act.Mike grunts, but he does manage a small smile that I feel is just for me. And dang, if that smile doesn’t light up every corner of a world I didn’t know was so very, very dark before.“Are we ready to continue?” The frazzled JP, who I had forgotten about completely, finally steps back toward us. He snaps open his binder and winces like it’s going to trigger a second big fall.Mike grasps my hands again. Both of them. What do you know? It’s official. The storm of butterflies in my gut has turned into a full-on murder of crows. That’s what a group of crows is called, in case you didn’t know. A murder. Very, very interesting.I’m ready.” Mike squeezes my hand. The squeeze goes up through my arm and explodes to the rest of my body.I have to squeeze back. It’s just another instinct, and it’s polite, the right t
SharonHiding. Behind a computer.”“No. Not hiding. Sacrificing. You’re not a coward. I know that you know you’re facing this head-on. You don’t want justice for them; you want it for all the victims in the world and the many people out there who have been wronged and forced into a life they didn’t choose. You’re not just doing it for granny or yourself. You’re doing it for them. For the people that you don’t even know. That’s heroic. I think the brain, they say, is most impressionable before age twenty-two, so if you were going to go bad, then you’d have gone bad already. You chose the other path. It’s a harder path. The hardest. To be kind and good.”“You don’t think I’m kind and good. I kidnapped you.”Her eyes soften, and her plush lips part. Her tongue sweeps along her lower lip as she sighs. “You did. But I’ve forgiven you for that. It was a moment of insanity. I think we all have those. It might have been a bad decision, but it’s worked out now.”MikeBecause of Granny. And my b
I want everything, all the touching, all over, but that’s only because Mike's hands, parting my legs and opening me up to him, feel absolutely divine, and it’s short-circuiting my brain all over again. My heart is beating so hard that it could be a jackhammer or some other cement-demolishing tool in there. He bends his head and proves to me, with a single hot kiss over my lace-clad core, that magic is possible, and it does indeed exist. I’m so wet that I know that scrap of lace is totally soaked. When Mike hums low in his throat and licks his lips, it confirms the fact. And it just about gives me a heart attack because what could possibly be sexier than him licking me off his lips? I dare you to come up with something. I just dare you.When he glances up at me, his eyes are dark. Not haunted. Just dark. He lets me see that, lets me see the most intimate parts of him before he goes back to admiring the most intimate parts of me.He kisses me over the lace again, and my hips arch up int
In response to my husky statement, Alden fits himself between my legs. He’s still wearing his pants, but apparently, that isn’t going to stop him.I’m totally naked, which makes it easy for him to slip two fingers inside me. I’m soaked, so that also makes it easy, and I rock against them, grinding into him and meeting up with the heavens all over again. I’m so close to orgasm again from those thick fingers filling up my slick, aching channel.“Dear god, Mike, can you please take off your pants?” He pauses very briefly. “I’m on the pill. If you don’t have condoms, I’m okay with that.”“Are you okay with that? And how do you always know what I’m thinking? It’s starting to get borderline creepy, like aliens coming down from the sky and unexplained events kind of creepy.“Or maybe we’re just on the same wavelength. It’s the logical next step.”The other times….” He trails off and shakes his head. “Never mind. Just trust me. It’s uncanny.”“Am I reading your mind right now when I say I’d r
Don’t make them do the same for you.”“I thought John and James could take a turn.”“Watch out. They probably heard that.”They’re currently outside, all four of them, eating by the pool for the fortieth time this month. I swear, I’ve never met anyone who eats so much pizza. It’s like they chose that option from those silly questions where you’re asked if you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? Tacos, pizza, doughnuts, or smoothies. Obviously, they all went for the second option big time.I shake my head slowly. “Did you just come by to kick my ass into gear, or did you have something to actually tell me that you couldn’t say online or over the phone?”“No, I just came to see how you were doing.”“So Granny is worried that I’m not going to be on the plane tomorrow morning.”“No, as I said. I was worried.”“So she sent you to make sure that I get my shit packed up, get up at four-thirty tomorrow morning, and don’t leave a big mess for anyone to clean u
Good stalking, bad stalking, or Christmas stocking?”“What the hell is good stalking? And what does Christmas have to do with anything?”“Well, presents are fun to unwrap. Like Sharon probably thinks you are. Now that we know for sure you have nipples, you’re no longer hairy enough or scary enough to ward her away.”I shake my head in disgust. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. And for your information, she said she’s okay with body hair.”Then she’s the perfect woman for you! A match made in heaven. Or, more literally, the cradle. Either way, Granny is hoping you’ll go after Sharon. She’d like to be a great-grandma one day.”“Bring kids into this?”“The world is a scary, shitty place no matter how you look at it. If by this you mean the best family that we ever chose with four great brothers to support you, some questionable goons, and one hellfire of a spitfire of a Granny, all of whom would always protect and love you,sharon, and any and all kids like we ourselves were prot
I’m not sure if we really were destined for each other from birth, but as she said about the plans of our fathers working out for good, it’s beyond nice to know that no matter what forces are out there, we ended up here now.“I bet Ransom has already eaten twelve burgers,” Sharon says softly. She laughs, the sound of it dispelling the last of my lingering worries. I have to let it go and trust that my brothers and Granny have this. I can’t worry constantly, or I’m not going to make it through the next six months.“Twelve? Just twelve? Try fourteen.”“Sixteen.”“Twenty.”“How many did we cook again?”“I believe there were twelve in a box, and I’ve cycled through the barbeque twice, so four boxes mean forty-eight. Goodness, I’m glad your parents put out a large spread inside. If we just had the burgers, there would be a lot of rumbly tummies going around.”“You were kidding. Ransom will only eat eight.”“Are you sure?”“Okay, maybe four. Maybe he’ll be polite and eat two pounds of pasta