JACE (Lane Brothers Book 3)

by Kristina Weaver

  I can’t risk my heart that way, not until she’s baring my name and my ring and is so tied to me she won’t be able to move. I’ve fast come to realize that a baby does not a guarantee make and that I have no hold on her past the deal we made two months ago.

  What if I swear myself to her and she up and leaves because she wants more than a family filled with sweaty men with even dirtier mouths and a love of sports?

  That’s a risk I cannot take. Cowardly but true, I need her to commit before I can let go of the uncertainty I feel and give her what she deserves.

  “Bleeding hell! Oh bleeding fucking hell!” I hear from the kitchen table, looking up from the stew I’m making for dinner to see Davy spring back from the table, his face white with shock.

  The laptop he’d been eyeballing is slammed shut with a resounding thump and he backs away from it with a look of terror that would be frightening if not for the comical horror I see lining his face.

  “You watched that shite?”

  “Yeah.”

  I stir the stew and keep my grin in place though truth be told I feel a bit green myself just remembering. That’s why I’d downloaded it to all three laptops and ordered Davy, Ry and Garret to watch the thing ‘in case’ anything happened and we needed to be knowledgeable in an emergency.

  It’s terrible but I refuse to be the only male in this house walking around with those images plaguing my mind. As they say, misery loves company.

  The added bonus might be that maybe now Davy and the lads will learn to keep their dicks in their trousers and think twice about forgoing protection.

  I know I feel that way just looking at my poor imp and I’ve already let that bloody ship sail and am currently navigating it out to the deep oceans.

  “But, but how do they survive that shite? Did you see how big…” he retches once and swallows, going even paler. “And no human being should survive that much blood loss.”

  I nod, stirring the stew rhythmically and steadfastly ignoring the memory of that bleeding video imp had forced on me. Bloody cruel female that one.

  She hardly speaks to me but this she has no trouble with?

  “Oh Christ. Oh bleeding fecking no! I am never-”

  “Tupping a lass without a condom. Not ever. Never. Not-”

  “We get the picture lad, believe you me, we get it.” I say, choking on a laugh when Ry and Garett both fall into a chair and eye me through pale faces and thin lips.

  “You did that to our hun and now.”

  “She’s going to have her lady parts ravaged because.”

  “You’re a bleeding animal with no self-control!”

  All three. Traitors.

  Though to be fair they are right. In a little under four months my little imp is going to be subjected to child birth, the very same gory ordeal we’ve all seen in that birthing video she shoved my way with a snarled ‘get a good look at what your dick’s doing to me’.

  I haven’t so much as touched her since she stomped out of the car until very recently when she’d started snuggling into me in front of the TV and falling asleep on my lap. No sex though, but I’ve come to realize that I’ll take a good snuggle with her any day over a quick tumble and-I have to stop thinking about rolling around with imp or I’ll embarrass myself and be walking around hard for the rest of the night.

  “Where is imp anyway?” Davy asks, pushing his laptop away with a shudder.

  “She wants to lunch with Lila and then they’re supposed to be shopping for…” I don’t repeat the vile things she’d said about maternity wear but shudder a little when I finish. “Jeans with elastic waist bands.”

  It doesn’t bug me that her jeans have elastic waists but what does make my balls shrivel are the scathing threats she’d thrown my way before stomping out of the door and huffing her way to Lila’s Mercedes.

  She’s gone mental since her bump started expanding and no amount of compliments from me or the lads, not to mention my growing obsession with touching her and or, but mostly and, seeing her naked, will convince the chit that she’s one sexy waddling mama.

  “Bleeding Christ, I’m not sticking around for that tirade, thanks much. Remember when her AC/DC t-shirt wouldn’t fit? You lads want to go check out that new film in town?”

  “Wait! No, don’t you bloody cowards leave me alone with her!” I yell, rolling my eyes when they scramble up and out, slamming the door a second later.

  Imp’s been…aggressive lately and to tell the truth as much as I adore the woman even I’m getting small balls from shrinking away when she goes on a hormonal rampage.

  Yesterday she’d gone mental about Davy eating the last pickles and tuna. Long story short, never let the grocery cupboard go unstocked when a crazy, cravings driven pregnant female is in the house.

  It’s like coating yourself in honey and prostrating yourself before a raging grizzly bear. The chances of getting out alive are slim and I have the blistered ears to prove it.

  Finishing off the stew, I set the temperature low just as the front door slams shut and a stomping whirlwind comes storming in, her arms loaded down with enough gear to cover the table.

  “What’s that smell? Did you cook? Good Lord please tell me it’s ready. Remind me never to go shopping with Lila again; the woman is diabolical when it comes to spending money. Do you want some? Here, I’ll fix you a plate. Mama called today and said my dad wants to see us but I told her I have to talk to you about it and then Grey called and said him and Logan want to see us and then-”

  “Slow down woman! One thing at a time, the most important being where you stashed imp and is she okay?” I mutter, manoeuvring her to a seat and getting down plates and glasses.

  By the time I’m seated and ready to dig in she’s gone quiet and dreamy and is looking at me with an expression my nuts want to jump at but don’t quite trust.

  “Hey Dev?”

  “Yes imp?” I ask around a mouthful of savoury stew and fresh bread.

  “Are you still angry at me for what I said to dad?”

  The question throws me for a loop and I choke on my food, wheezing through a cough that is definitely the result of a carrot lodging in my lung.

  “What…are you talking about imp?” I wheeze again, gulping down a mouthful of water as she stairs up at me, her eyes shining and so vulnerable I have to struggle not to grab her to my chest and squeeze the life out of her.

  “Well, I kinda figured you must be real pissed about me saying all those things to dad since you almost crushed my fingers and haven’t said very much to me in like two months. And I totally get how me saying that we’re like in love would make you uncomfortable, but there’s no way any of them would have let this go unless I lied a little and then-”

  She pauses to take a much needed breath and I hold up a hand feeling every ounce of joy that her words had brought drain away.

  “First off I am not, and have never been, upset with you about the things you said imp. I liked hearing that you chose me and the lads over your own family. I liked the way you took up for me even though you don’t want me. I guess I’ve just been trying to give you time and I feel guilty about your losing your parents because of me.”

  And now I feel like shit because you feel nothing for me and for a second there I’d been so elated. While I haven’t allowed myself to think much about what she’d said to her father I’ve secretly been carrying a hope torch that her words had held some truth.

  Bloody fool.

  “Really? That’s great! Er, and you’re wrong you know.” She says, ducking her head with a blush. “I do want you, especially now with the nympho hormones raging through my poor body, but the point is, I think we need to start communicating about what we’re doing here because it’s getting really hard for me to keep things friendly when you walk around the house in shorts and nothing else and all that man skin on display.”

  I choke on my spit and stifle a laugh when she rolls her eyes to the ceiling and shakes her head in some silent divine communicatio
n before looking me dead in the eye and pursing her lips.

  “I think if we can’t go for a loving, committed relationship, we should be friends with benefits.”

  Oh how my patience has paid off.

  “Let me get this straight, you want to use me for sex because your pregnancy is causing a…lust that you’re finding hard to contain?” I ask, keeping my face straight though what I really want to do is laugh before ripping her clothes off and showing her what I’ve been saving for months.

  Her cheeks colour becomingly and she ducks her head again, toying with her food.

  “Well yeah. I spoke to Dill-”

  At the mention of the wankers name I drop the casual attitude and do what I’ve waited months to do. I sweep her up and into my arms and take her mouth, cutting off whatever she’s about to say.

  I don’t need to know one bloody damned thing right now but for the knowledge that my woman is in need and it’s something that she’s finally going to let me take care of.

  She would run to that tosser when she’s in need? By the time I’m done she’ll taste feel and breathe only me. Only ever me.

  Chapter Twenty

  Becky

  The feel of his lips on mine erases every thought, every question that had been on the tip of my tongue. Instead of asking what he intended, what he felt, if there is a chance that we’ll ever be more than just ‘friends’ I’d blurted out my need and pathetic longing for any, just a small, connection with him.

  These last two months have been the worst of my life as I tried and ultimately failed to keep myself separate from him and maintain the distance my head keeps screaming at me to keep.

  My body and heart though are not playing nice with my brain and I’d decided today, after hearing Lila talk to Grey, cooing into the phone in a sickeningly mushy display that made my teeth rot instantly, that I want some of that.

  I want intimacy and sharing and all the shit normal people, couples have. But seeing as me and Dev aren’t exactly hitting the jackpot in that department I at least want some of that fine muscled ass he’s been showing off lately thanks to the Georgia heat wave.

  So what if he doesn’t love me? I can love him and not care too much if he feels the same. I snort at that and let the thoughts go, enjoying the feel of his mouth on mine and his arms around me as he pulls me up and lays me out on the table, his arms sending dishes crashing to the floor in his urgency.

  “Wanted to see you for so long.’ He mutters, dragging at my pants with one hand while shoving my shirt up with the other.

  The position doesn’t allow for much movement since I can’t really see much over my stomach but what I do see when he rises over me is an expression of intense lust and the gleam of something indefinable as he practically rips my clothes off and stands back to look at me, his lower lips caught between his teeth.

  “So beautiful.” He whispers reverently, laying a shaking hand to my swollen belly. “Do you have any idea how much I’ve wanted to see you like this? Swollen and filled with my seed. Such a turn on.”

  I doubt it but in this moment, the way he’s looking at me as if I’m some sort of centre fold, I feel so sexy I feel myself stretch languidly beneath his eyes.

  “I want you Devon.” I whisper, lying back on the cold wood and opening myself to him.

  I want him to ravish me the way he did all those months ago. I want the lust filled, crazy passion he’d been unable to keep back. Only this time I want to walk out of the bathroom with him still in bed, waiting for me to come back and cuddle.

  A dream, but heck, I’m pregnant and hormonal so shut up and leave me alone.

  “You have me imp.”

  And then he’s kissing me again as he palms my sensitive breasts, his large hands taking care to squeeze lightly as his fingers pluck and strum, building my arousal to a fevers pitch before releasing my lips and making his way down my throat with nibbling licks that have me panting and writhing in need.

  By the time he reaches my breasts and takes my straining nipples into his hot mouth for warm, gentle sucks I’m wet and moaning, begging him to touch me where I need him most.

  “I’ve got you baby. Ssh, yes, feel this?” he croons, biting gently into my nipple even as one long thick finger pierces me below and tests my readiness. “So needy baby, open wider for me, yes, just so. Christ I can almost taste your need.” He mutters, making his way from my aching nipples to the nub that’s pulsing so hard it hurts deep inside.

  I wail when his mouth touches me, my hands pulling at his hair to bring him closer when he opens fully and engulfs me in searing heat that has my toes curling and my back bowing off the wood.

  He’s moaning too, mumbling incoherently against my flesh and I don’t care, can’t care when the feelings of remembered bliss start coalescing deep inside and fanning out in a wave of such pleasure I feel like I’m breaking apart as my orgasm hits.

  It goes on for long minutes, the aftershocks fed and intensified by Devon’s still suckling mouth and licking tongue as he gentles me, bringing me down slowly.

  He coos to me when I finally fall limp beneath him and strokes the fleshy skin of my thighs, petting me to calmness before looming over me and cradling my face between his palms.

  The kiss he gives me is erotic and sensual, a promise, no, a claiming as he lines himself up at my opening and thrusts home in one swoop, the muscles of his abdomen tensing against my lower stomach and telling me of his shaky control.

  “You’re so…tight…perfect fit for me.” He grunts, his full thrusts winding me back up, hitting me in that perfect spot deep inside, making my sex spasm in a rhythmic clench that leaves me moaning in one long gentle orgasm.

  The contractions make him shudder, the tightening deep inside pulling at him and I feel his tension, his desperation to keep control even as his thrusts get harder, faster, his body slamming into mine so forcefully I’m forced to wrap my fingers around the edge of the table and hold on for dear life.

  “IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou.”

  When he comes, he thrusts hard one last time and still above me, his sex twitching, filling me with heat and a part of him that only I have felt. The sensation sends another round of fading contractions through my womb and I come to minutes later to the feel of his warm skin smoothing over mine, our bodies stuck together with sweat and the remnants of our spent passion.

  I realize what I’ve said a split second after my breath returns and I tense, feeling mortification obliterate the lazy bliss that invaded my bones a breath before, but Devon just leans up and kisses my nose, eyes and lips and grins down at me.

  “Oh gross! I just saw your arse old chap! Put some bleeding clothes on already. We eat at that table. Hun can stay since she’s a belter.”

  We both groan and then we’re laughing so hard he slips out of me and ends up with his head on my chest, his shoulders shaking heavily.

  “Well, that’ll get them to stop flirting with you.”

  “Dream on old man, they didn’t have a problem with my naked ass.”

  “Quite right imp, but this naked arse is mine.” He growls into my breasts, giving my ass a squeeze before pulling me up and throwing his shirt over me. “And I don’t bloody share. Now up to bed for us hellion, I don’t think I paid your breasts adequate homage in my haste.”

  I can’t argue with that, quite frankly I don’t want to, so I waddle up the stairs instead, fully aware of my ass hanging out the back of the shirt and his lustful gaze as he prowls up behind me.

  We’re not nearly where we should be in this ‘relationship’ considering in four months I’ll pop out a kid with both our DNA mixed into one perfect cocktail, but for now I am so totally okay with hot, mind-blowing sex.

  I just hope my little slip up went unnoticed or the power I managed to get so recently won’t mean shit with a ruthless shark like Devon swimming in my waters.

  Chapter Twenty One

  Dev

  Of course I heard her avowals of love. Asking if I did, or rather imp as
suming that her screams didn’t register, is laughably ridiculous since I’ve been straining my ears for one kind word besides ‘that toast looks yummy’-before she steals it and skips out-since we walked out of her father’s study.

  And that brings me to the subject at hand. Finding out what the hell has Brand Slade acting like a complete arse with his beloved off spring. Logan I can understand since no father delights in sending his son off to a war that can get him killed, but imp has simply given up a career she never wanted.

  Surely that shouldn’t set him off this badly.

  Even mum-my distant aunt Fanny, but a woman who’s loved as fiercely as my own had been-is poleaxed at the man’s turnabout in the last years. She should know she spends at least one day a week talking his ear off while he advises her about her stocks and bonds.

  “I don’t know what the heck has gotten into the old man Dev. I called him yesterday to ask about the family dinner mama’s been planning and he told me it was cancelled. And then he dropped the call without so much as a greeting. I dunno man, I’ve wracked my brain and plain asked him what his heat is and I got nothing.”

  I sigh and listen to Grey mumble about parents and work and Lila while I try to come up with a way to discover the problem. Nothing though.

  “Imp is at six months Grey. She’s depending on me to get your father ‘round before the baby comes. I need something.”

  “Well I dunno what to tell you man. He cussed Matt out last week about dating the McClusky girl and hasn’t answered any of Jet’s calls for three weeks. And he’s the kid that followed the plan he had mapped out. To the freaking letter.”

  Which means that Brand is using this division to cover up something he doesn’t want the rest knowing about. That would also explain the mother’s silence the day imp had seen them. No mother, well no good one at least, stands by in silence while her princess cries.

  Not after a grandchild is mentioned.

  Fuck.

  “I have some calls to make Grey.”

  “Alright man. Tell scamp I love her will ya and I want that footage of Davy’s first football game. Lila says the kid’s making waves and some college scouts are paying attention.”