ADAM VAUGH
Today it’s my turn to make breakfast and thank Hunt for his kindness.
He gets at the kitchen wearing nothing more than red boxer shorts and this sight it’s not a funny one for me.
That can be really exciting to the immense amount of bad girls that sigh for him, but for me, man? Sincerely, to see this adult man shaking his ass when getting a glass of water is not one of the best scenes to watch right in the morning.
I give him a cup of coffee and a plate full of blueberry pancakes, waiting for the moment he’s going to stab me with questions about Samantha.
I don’t like it, but I understand the reason for his curiosity, after all, the last woman he saw me together with was Rachel and that happened some time ago…
Fuck… I don’t even know how long has it been, but it’s really annoying to be treated by the younger brothers as the “bachelor”, the “celibate” and the worst of all, Kayden’s favorite, my younger brother.
“Mr. Wanker.”
What do you mean, what the fuck with your bad behavior?
Definitely I’m losing respect for these guys, I’m the oldest one between these delinquent sons of bitches and I can’t believe Hunter, Connor and Kayden treat me this way.
That’s no way of talking about the older brother, calling me “Mr. Wanker” is absurd, can you believe it!
Hunter thanks for the breakfast and I count exactly five seconds till he asks the first question, my brother is so predictable…
“Damy, who’s the babe that was with you yesterday at the bar?”
I pretend I’m blowing on the hot coffee and take forever to answer, just to see him annoyed, fucking curious guy.
“She’s a friend.”
He laughed out loud and it was so loud and scornful that I stare at him, making that stupid laugh disappear at once.
“Don’t get me wrong, Damy, but you don’t have this thing called friends, for that, you would have to trust someone, and you don’t trust anyone, old man.”
“Of course I have friends!”
I hear a familiar voice from the hall, he joins Hunter on asking me.
“Who?”
I think and think again, then I realize I can only deny Hunter’s affirmation with an evasive answer.
“I trust Peter and I trust you guys.”
Connor shows up in the living room partially dressed in his fire fighter uniform, with boots and beige pants and, as always, he butts in our conversation stuttering more than ever, with his irrelevant questions.
“We a… are your bro… bothers, we do… don’t c…count. And Peter is yo… your partner. Hunt, is it tr… true that Damy Boy is da… dating?”
Hunter doesn’t answer, but he shrugs and gives a faint smile.
I speak louder so they can understand me:
“Fuck, you guys are shit.”
“Did I hear fuck? That’s exactly what you need, man, a good fuck, Damy Boy.”
And to cover my morning bullying quota, Kayden got our of the bathroom with another one of his “pearls of wisdom”, joining Hunter and Connor.
I stare at him and look at his bare body that’s already making a puddle of water right in the living room, the living room that I fucking cleaned by myself yesterday.
Then I shoot my machine gun of threats to end with this shitty conversation.
“Kay, you’re getting the floor wet, if you don’t get the fuck out, I’m going to dry this living room with your face, you brat. All of you, stick to your lives, I told you that Sam it’s not my girl, fuck you all.”
They listen in silence, without answering or questioning.
Good, very good, I’m still the alpha male in this fucking pack.
To tease me, Kayden removed the towel around his waist and dried the fucking wet floor, with his ass turned towards me, I run after him making fists and he yells from the hall locking himself in his room.
“C’mon, I was justing drying the living room floor, old man.”
I return to the kitchen and find my brothers giggling, with their mouth full of pancakes, and I complain mumbling, while I get the wet towel from the floor:
“Brat.”
It’s the end of intermission, bunch of brats, I get my gun and yell at the door:
“There are still more pancakes in the oven, later there’s a Lakers game, I’ll make us barbecue. Connie, no overtime, and Hunt, bring beer, alright?”
Hunter comes to me, reaching me before I close the police car door.
“You forgot your badge, Damy.”
Every fucking day I forget something, I get my badge and greet him punching his wrist, he leans over the car and pulls me in a crushing hug that’s so him.
“Sorry about the joke, Damy, but I was serious. I saw you two dancing together and it didn’t seem like friendship to me. Geez, man, you have been alone for such a long time, that I’m thinking, let the fucking think go and see what happens. She’s very beautiful, brother, and not every woman is like Rachel.”
I nod and get away from Hunter’s bear grip.
“See you later, Hunt, close the bar early tonight and don’t forget the game and the beer, man.”
He gives me a crocked smile that melts my heart and I get in the police car, straight to the police station.
On my way to work I’m taken by a melancholy. The memories of our family together are still very alive in my memory.
My father smoking a cigar on the porch of our ranch in Alaska.
My mother brushing her hair on the bedroom, so beautiful and long hair.
Part of our human blood comes from her Native American linage, she was beautiful, with very black hair, her skin in a reddish tan, her narrow eyes, tall and strong, she looked like a Cherokee warrior.
We lost our parents suddenly and Onika was still so little to die that way, my sister’s body was never found, we believe she was eaten by some wild animal, or she may have fallen in some waterfall.
When they died, we barely had time to cry. The fear of being found out was bigger then any fragility and, in the my father’s absence, I became the alpha male of our little pack, my brothers.
It was a lot to deal with and I felt our house being watched many times, my instincts are never wrong.
I didn’t think much, I was older than my brothers and I had to act.
I agreed with the Bishops proposal about selling the ranch with the closed gates, I put on a fair price on the horses and the cattle, got my brothers and moved to Portland with them.
I was eighteen when our parents died and Kayden, my younger brother, became an orphan when he was just five years old.
The day at the police station was busy, two arrest for domestic fights, a dog was stolen, a mutt, and to top it all my bad luck day, we had the visit of Mrs. Thumberlind.
Mrs. Thumberlind is a 70 year old lady that almost always occupies us with her eternal complains of excess noise against Mrs. Omman, her Jamaican neighbor and also has advance years and lives upstairs to her.
Peter and I heard her complains patiently, pretending to write down the details.
“Where has it been seen to hear Bob Marley as loud as that? You can search her apartment and I’m sure you’ll find marijuana hidden there. Did you write that down and understand everything, detective Cumming?”
Peter nods, making strange circles and flower drawings on his note pad.
“Perfectly, Mrs. Thumberlind, we are going to verify your complain.”
At lunch time I went to Mathews with the excuse of eating a rare steak, but actually I really wanted to see Samantha again, I don’t need to close my eyes to feel still alive the taste of her mouth on my lips.
She is even more beautiful, with her really blond hair on an improvised ponytail giving her the impression of being younger and without make up, making her freckles stand out even more around her cheeks and nose.
Her blue eyes like two pieces of sky stared at me, she takes out a little notepad and asks me, pensively:
“Good afternoon, Adam, have you chosen from our menu?”
I analyze her expression without success, she seems cheerful to see me, but she repress herself for some reason, I stare her back.
“Good morning, Sam, I want a rare steak with fries, cherry coke and one of your smiles, did you write it down?”
I was able to break the ice, she smiled shyly and nibbled her lower lip, taking me straight to last night when I was able to bite her delicious little mouth while she purred on my lips.
Oh, my God! I need to stop myself, I’m at a fucking diner with my cock harder than rock and that’s at least ridiculous to a grown man of thirty five.
Samantha went behind the counter to get my order and after some time, she came back with my rare steak with fries, the soda and a charming smile on her lips. I thanked her and I saw her going back, in angst.
“What time do you leave?”
“Around seven pm.”
“I’ll come to get you.”
She looks away and gives me an excuse.
“I’ll have to do some stuff before going home, maybe another day?”
Is she avoiding me? Shit! I cover my disappointment with an “alright” and leave, frustrated by just being blown off.
Does she has a boyfriend? Or maybe I was to forward kissing her? But it seemed to me that she wanted it too, should I have gone slower?
I return to the police station with a huge number of questions in my head and really frustrated not to be able to see her later.
I go home taking the path that leads to lake Oswego, I feel my neck hair go up when I see two parked cars on the road.
It’s after 8 pm and this trail is not very used, lighting is terrible.
Everything happens too fast or it took me a long time to realize what was going on.
I get a little closer and I see a woman struggling on the side of the car with three men assaulting her.
One of then pulls the woman’s hair and slaps her face twice, while the other two are covering him.
I draw my gun and tell them to step back from the woman, one of the guys throws the woman on the ground, the other two get in the car and run in high speed while I try to hit their tires.
The thug that was left by the gang, runs away, hitting a shot on one of the headlights of my car, running away from the trail.
I go back to help the fallen woman and an entanglement of blond hair drags itself on the ground.
Samantha?
She looks at me wide eyed, sobbing and I crouch down to get her, and asking:
“Are you alright?”
She nods in desperate affirmation and I start to see everything out of focus in front of me.
I look to the end of the trail and go running absurdly fast, hearing my clothes being tore apart as I approach my prey.
The terrifying and painful feeling of my muscles stretching it’s at the same time scary and freeing.
My long fur stands on end with the winds that kisses me and I want to hunt this human now and make him suffer in so much pain that he could never have imagined.
I see the animal that hurt Samantha at the end of the road, he can run anymore, he has lost his breath.
I don’t have the time now to play hunt games, I could throw his body from one side to the other like a huge rag doll, but I’m not going to do that, I can’t.
My ability to make distinctions went away the exact moment that the wolf took over, I smell the fear on him when he stares at me.
The last word that this son of a bitch screams stills echoes in the dead of the night.
“Help!”
I’m almost feet away when I jump right on him, furiously tearing his throat with my fangs.
I can’t think, I only see the red blood take over my eyes and then dead silence, death silence.
I run towards Samantha and she’s locked inside her car, desperately trying to close the windows.
And I imagine her panic seeing a huge brown wolf over 7 feet long staring at her in the middle of the road.
I quickly hide behind a tree and then after a few minutes, I recognize my skin again, but I feel my face and hands covered with blood.
Samantha got out of the car and sat on the hood with her feet on the bumper.
I get near her and she looks at me up and down.
I’m completely naked and solidly erect, I approach her and I get myself between her thighs, she looks at me still panting.
I examine her face and her body in silence, my hands are shaking, I was never so afraid of losing someone as I was tonight.
I stretch out my hand, I rub and squeeze her arms and legs looking for some fracture and I stare at her bruised face.
There’s the punch mark on her cheek and a scratch on her chin.
I close my eyes and I lick her wounds, kissing and licking, kissing and licking her beautiful hurt face.
“I’m fine, it’s all fine now.”
I raise a finger to her mouth to cover her lips.
“Shh, don’t say a word, I need to hug you.”
She doesn’t back away, I pull her open legs to my hips and our bodies fit together perfectly, as if they were made to each other.
I hug Samantha so tightly I’m afraid to hurt her, but the fear of losing her is even bigger than common sense, I’m completely frighten, she provokes the primitive instincts in me, I can hardly think staring, the necessity to protect her takes over me in a way that I give up trying to find the reason of why I’m feeling this way.
She caresses my face while I find with the tip of my fingers the buttons that close her dress.
The wolf that lives in me is still on the surface and the smell of excitement and fear exhale form her body, they take over my nostrils in a way that drives me crazy.
I open the buttons of her dress in a single pull, and her round and feminine breast come to sight, torturing me to touch them.
I tear what’s left of the dress and hunt her mouth with an insatiable hunger for her taste.
Our mouths get lost in saliva and desire, I smell her neck and stick my tongue on her delicate and feminine ear, drunk by the smooth smell of apples and roses that come out of her skin.
My tongue goes over her collarbone and down her breast, while she cleans with the tip of her dress the drops of blood that are drying on my face.
My hands slide over her small body and I lower her white lace bra, catching a nipple with my humid lips.
“Ah, Adam.”
She moans while I free the other breast biting the other nipple, then sucking it and taking it in the taste of her skin that is making me harder and uncontrolled.
Samantha caresses with her small hands my heavy balls and sore cock by the necessity of coming.
She moves her hips rubbing her vagina, covered by tiny panties, towards my member and even through the cloth I fell her wet gash.
I slide the panties down her legs without being able to hold myself more, I lower my head to her pretty pink pussy.
My mouth fills with saliva and I swipe my tongue the opening of her sex, opening her smooth and delicate labia to penetrate her with my tongue as deep as I’m able to.
She screams and grabs my hair, pulling my head towards her clitoris to find the relief the needs.
I feel her pulsing clitoris on my lips and that drives me crazy, I increase the rhythm of my licks, and suck her little pink button, she’s moaning louder and louder till she crumbles on my mouth and I desperately suck her orgasm juices that come down my throat, making all of my body bristle up my desire.
I take my penis to her wet pussy feeling her legs wrap around my hips and I penetrate her in one thrust. I retreat myself almost entirely to give her time to get used with all of my extension, filling her slowly.
“Please, Adam, don’t stop, I need you.”
Our bodies slide over the hood of the car while I trust my cock in her pussy deeper and deeper, faster and faster.
The moans that escape her mouth fill in the silence of the night and I suck her nipples, thrusting her hips in the rhythm of our breathing.
“Ah, I’m so close, don’t stop, Adam, more, more.”
The sound of that word take to an uncontrolled frenzy, the feeling of being inside Samantha is heaven, is hell, tastes like home, cozy.
“More, more.”
More, more, more… She nestles my head on her breast and I lift her hips, finding the best angle to take her, that ends by taking us to the precipice.
“Cum for me, Sam. Ah, mine, all mine.”
And we leap together!
I feel her body shaking and convulsing under mine and I spill all my pleasure in her, almost transforming again. All buried in her pulsing pussy, milking my cock to the last drop of sperm that may still be in my body.
We remain hugging for long minutes, completely in silence, only listening and feeling the our breathing slow down, our hearts beating and the sound of the night.
I raise my head and I caress her body and face with the tip of my fingers that are still trembling, as if I wanted to memorize her shape in my memory.
“Samantha, tell me what happened here?”
Samantha’s body immediately became stiffer and she squirmed free from my big adjusting her dress.
“I think they wanted to rob me, I don’t know, I don’t know, Adam.”
Her answer set off a thousand alarms in my instincts, here is not a living area, there are so many places these thugs could have looked for a victim to rob and they came exactly here, in a place where there’s not a living soul coming by?
Samantha is lying and I’m desperate and furious wanting to know the reason?
She pushes me, with her big blue rabbit scared eyes and she finishes fixing up her dress, escaping our confrontation.
“Thanks, Adam, for saving me, but that shouldn’t have happened between us.”
“Samantha, it would have happened in a way or another, can’t you see, can’t you feel what exists between us?”
She doesn’t deny she wants me, but she keeps denying we made love in such a lose and intense way.
“I’m leaving, it’s late, we’ll talk another day.”
I follow her to her car and I’m feeling a bit ridiculous, naked on the side of the road, begging a woman to listen to me.
“Samantha, listen to me, I’ll take you home, you’re still scared with everything that happened, you’re hurt.”
She got in the car and closed the door.
“Better now, I’ll be alright, don’t worry! Good bye, Adam.”
I kick the the air swearing, while Samantha maneuvers the car and leaves screeching tires.
“What a shit.”
I stop by the side of the body of the man who hurt Samantha, I take his wallet from his pants pocket and find my gun and my badge. I’ll take this wallet with me a and I’m sure I’ll be able to find something out.
My clothes are in pieces, it’s a good thing that I have five uniforms.
I go home and open the door still dirty with soil, leaves and blood.
I hear the sound of my brothers dying away and the three of them stop shaking their arms, staring at me stunned.
“Go, Lakers!”
I look to each one of them and before someone say something, I stare at them and growl.
“Not a word, do you understand? I don’t want to hear a damn word here.”
I go completely naked towards the bathroom and I hear a deafening sound echoing from the hall.
The growl came from my throat and even I am surprised with the hellish noise and the mess I find myself in.
SAMANTHA THOMPSON I haven’t been able to get out of the house for two days, I called the diner and told them I had the flu, I need to know what I’ll do from now on. There’s no way of pretending that Igor’s thug will leave me alone. I don’t know if I should pack my bags and try to run away from this hell or if I look for help. There are so many doubts without answers, I wash my face and look at the mirror, still without believing in everything that happened to me the day before yesterday. The memories make my
ADAM VAUGH Another typically calm morning, I wake up hearing Connor arguing with Kayden and I think: “fuck, I’m getting old for this.” I’m already angry because they woke me so early and I come across Hunt trying to hit Kayden with a rolling pin. “What the fuck is going on? Where are your manners? Aren’t you embarrassed of behaving like two brawler brats.” Kayden is still a brat, but c’mon! Connie is 28, he’s passed the time of competing testosterone. Connie gets his underwear from Kay and starts to complain.&
ADAM VAUGH She looks at me disturbed, with no understanding of how we end up in that humid and desert alley. She lowers her legs from my waist and cleared her blond hair out of her face. How can she be this pretty? Delicately I get a handkerchief from my pants pocket and clean between her legs, I still want to keep myself warm in this piece of heaven. I’ve received pictures and some information from the New York Bank robbery and I can’t really say a women as sweet as she was the coauthor of a robbery. Something is wrong or doesn’t fit. I’m still going to find out who is it. However, my instincts tell me I can believe in her, even though she’s hiding somethings.
ADAM VAUGH If there’s anything better in this world than waking up with the woman you desires by your side, I sincerely don’t know. Sam is laying down on my humble bed, with half her face covered by a cascade of golden hair like the sun and her lips half open, like they have been prepared to be kissed by me forever. I look and look again, still excited by conflicting feelings that invade me. I want this girl to me, with a huge intensity that scares me, but Sam is a huge mystery. She claims she’s not involved in the bank robbery, but she doesn’t give me proof, she doesn’t give me the possible suspects. And there’s still photos with that guy that’s is considered suspect in the crime,
SAMANTHA THOMPSON Adam brought me home, like the true gentleman he is. I open the door in an automatic way, still in ecstasy from the wonderful night I had and I kept thinking: I don’t know if I did the right thing in telling him about Igor and the New York robbery, but I’m a bit tired of all this. I’m tired of hiding, of running, of being afraid… If all my fears were only about my relationship with Adam going wrong, it would be way more simple, I’m truly scared about the cold blooded murderer I was sleeping with. I fear for Adam and for his brother’s lives. My god! How can a woman not fall in love with them?&nbs
ADAM VAUGH The sharp pain I’m feeling on my shoulder make me howl in pain. My body is still confused, as if something in me was still kind of out of place, I open my eyes very slowly and the sun light is on my face. My entire body shivers with the breeze that blows on my skin and I realize that I’m naked, naked and in an open space. I breath agitated and lost, with an anger that is hard to contain, the wolf in me is quiet and I’m still adapting to my skin, the man Adam. I get up tasty and scared, I look ahead and Sam is laying down in the middle of the woods, my shoulder is throbbing and I see a deep wound, but nothing that scavenger Kayden can’t fix.&nbs
SAMANTHA THOMPSON It has been two days since I’ve talked or spoke with Adam, it’s hard to concentrate at work, I’ve been having agitated sleepless night and I wake up in the middle of the night scared, still hearing the shots echo, the growl of the wolf that protected me in the middle of the woods, a swirl of thoughts and feelings that has been giving me more anxiety every day. Even though I know I acted correctly, that I’m protecting Adam and the boys, I miss my Damy, I miss hearing his low raspy voice, his male and delicious scent, his soft mouth stuck on mine, so yummy my sheriff, ah! Damy and his cuffs, the mean things he does with my hands tied and his mouth… I was released earlier from M
ADAM VAUGH I can’t remember when I slept so good… In my entire life, my sleep has always been agitated, so many worries, so many responsibilities on me. Sometimes I close my eyes and it’s so livid in my memory the image of my father’s pale and cold body. Uncle Quinn, from Garret pack, because he’s such an old family friend, helped me to dress dad, but I made sure to dress him to the funeral. My father was a handsome man, dark long hair, with livid brown eyes like Connie’s. I remember I combed his silky hair, so like Kayden’s, and without anyone seeing, I cried hidden. An
BONUS CHAPTERTHE STRAGGLERS - BOOK 2 OWN HUNTER VAUGHI have a feeling there’s a heavy metal band playing only in my head, I open my eyes very slowly and light hits my iris like a thousand needles.With difficulty I sit on the bed and look around, two naked women sleep entangled together and I make and effort to remind me how did I end up here. This is not my bedroom, I drag myself to the edge of the bed and I get up, stretching myself. The sheet falls off and I hear one of them whistling, provoking me. “What a tasty little ass, right, Sickle?”I smile ratter yellow and get the sheet from the floor, covering myself again.
Peace? Tranquility? That is for common men, mere mortals, not to me, the leader of a pack of straggler wolves, damn messy guys that because of a Mother Nature’s joke, are my brothers. Even though I live is a short distance from these guys, still, there’s no day that they don’t knock on my door to bother me and my female. I open my eyes annoyed for having to wake up so early and then I stare at the alarm clock, I confirm it’s eight o’clock in the morning, hell, eight o’clock, I’m going to get to the police station late again. I was a punctual sheriff, until my little bunny got pregnant and her huge belly bothered her when it was time to sleep.&nbs
SAMANTHA THOMPSON Adam open his eyes and before he closed them again, he smiles at me, I kiss him on his warm lips and he falls asleep again. He’s fever has gone down, but my heart is recoiled, sad, for seeing my love like this, so frail. Uncle Quinn knocks on the door and enters with Hunt, Connor and Kayden, asking me: “How’s Adam?” I touch his forehead and watch his appearance that’s visibly better. “It seems that his fever broke but he’s still very weak, uncle Quinn.”
ADAM VAUGH We were out two nights in a row, I look through the car window and is cloudy, a storm is coming. Afternoon falls, soon it will be almost three days that Samantha was kidnapped and we don’t have get a clue. I called my brothers and set up with Hunter and Kayden at our meeting point, we got in a diner near the road that goes to Mount Hood Meadows, one of the main ski resorts in the state of Oregon. I ordered three double coffees and Hunter and Kayden ordered a large rare porterhouse steak portion. Our wolves are on the surface, I can almost feel the pleasure of a deadly hunt, of feeling in my throat my prey getting destroyed in my mouth. We were making an effort to control the beasts that live inside us, but because of the stress we were under, I don
ADAM VAUGH A country band plays a beautiful song on the stage of the kermess and I hold Sam by the waist even tighter, I’m in ecstasy with the smooth scent of flower and freshness that’s coming from her sun colored hair. My hands go up her blouse and tremble to touch her the naked skin of her back, my mind swirls in one question: what if she doesn’t accept? And what if Sam realizes that staying with me is just a stupid thing? I keep imaging how dad felt when he asked mom to marry him, the fear of being rejected and the decision to honor the name Vaugh and throw myself in the unexpected. The right thing to do is to take the risk and hope she wants me and loves me the same way I love her, from the first time I put my eyes on heres, through the half open door of her house.&
SAMANTHA THOMPSON It’s hard to admit that the feeling of being protected, scares me as much as it comforts me. I left home really young, I always had to get by on my own from a very early age, so all this interaction with a man that opens his arms to me and protects me from danger is a new experience in my life. Since the investigators Taylor and Lopez are after me, following my steps, Adam accompanies me everyday to Mathews. Sitting in a corner table at the bar, investigator Lopez laughs at the irony of me arriving with Adam another day. “Well, well, if it isn’t waitress Samantha and her new nanny arriving to work. From what I can see, things at the police station must real
ADAM VAUGH If there’s anything better in this fucking life than to wake up being kissed by the woman you love, I honestly don’t know. Sam moves around in bed, taking over the space she can and she slides one leg over my thigh, by her eyes I can see she’s still sleeping, but I don’t care, I let myself be wrapped by her sleepy lips, enjoying my little present accompanied by the first beams of light of the morning. Ah, life’s good!!! I have by my side freeloaders and messy Connie, Hunt and Kay. I live in my land, small, precarious, but I have my home and finally, Mother Nature graced me with this tasty little bunny, with lively blue eyes, frisky, her little girl ways and this mouth that drives me
SAMANTHA THOMPSON Adam parks the car by the ranch door and I get out of the car pulling down a huge shirt that’s working as a dress right now. I’m not wearing underwear and that’s because “caveman” Adam, I would complain, if it wasn’t for the huge pleasure I felt when he tore my panties away from my sex. Adam gets my purse and rests his hand on the small of my back conducting me home. He’s wearing my purse over his shoulder and without letting me know he picks me up in his arms, kicking open the door. When we enter the living room we face Hunter, Connor and Kayden sitting on the couch and a strong burnt smell invade my nostrils. The boys yelled and whistled with joy when they saw us
ADAM VAUGH It’s been two days that I’ve been watching Samantha from a distance, but when I try to approach her, she runs away without giving me a chance to come closer. I tried following her to the diner kitchen, but John, who owns Mathews, seeing my misery, held my arm and said to me: “Leave her alone for some time, Adam, give her the time she needs, otherwise it will be worse.” My mind is turning over with only one thought: “WHAT THE FUCK DID I DO…”, Samantha left the ranch after catching me revealing my feelings to Hunter, and now I’m here, again, standing by Mathews door, with this idiot face of mine, desperately wanting her to come home, our home.&nbs