Always (Family Justice Book 1)

by Halliday, Suzanne

  “That I did,” she giggled. “But don’t you worry, big guy. I still prefer tall, dark, and outrageously handsome to blond muscle men.”

  Tori finally grabbed on to a couple of coherent words. “Okay, so what you’re all saying is that my boss is trying to fix my mother up with his bachelor uncle. Do I have this right?”

  Cam, who looked like he’d just given up the nuclear codes, shrugged and cleared his throat before muttering, “Sorry, Tori. Should have kept my big mouth shut. It’s just that last night they got in each other’s face so quick that it was hard to miss. And Alex’s reaction kind of suggested he might be rethinking bringing those two together. Y’know what I mean—that oil and water look he gets. The one that says, Maybe this wasn’t a great idea.”

  Tori snorted, unamused. “Well, he gets what he deserves then. I can’t believe that Meghan would have anything to do with such a hair-brained idea.”

  Ever the cool one of the bunch, Draegyn cut in drily. “I understand we’re about to get a yoga studio. Overheard the sassy redhead laying down the law to the Major. Funny as shit, too. Couched it in some bullshit about being good for the agency but,” he added with a crooked half-smirk, “from where I’m sitting, it seemed more like some plot the three of you hatched.”

  As far as changes of subject went, it was a damn good one.

  “Don’t know what you mean,” Tori answered smoothly while keeping a straight face.

  “Huh? What? Plot? Us?” Lacey chirped. “No way.”

  “Uhhh huh,” both men voiced in unison.

  “Tell it to someone who’ll believe you,” Cam snickered.

  The conversation stuttered to a halt seconds later when the big stretch limo turned onto the road that was the final leg to the executive airfield where the agency plane was kept. Suddenly, Tori felt tears stinging her nose and eyes.

  No, she commanded silently. I will not cry. This was what her husband did for a living and it wasn’t as if his leaving coincided with her due date. After all, with her mother in the house, she wouldn’t be alone. Deciding to look on the bright side, she tried a fake smile on for size and pushed the riot of negative thoughts dancing in her head to a corner of her mind.

  Cam and Lacey were murmuring softly to one another, and she heard the word, “Dylan,” followed by, “big boy.” Tori wanted so badly to emulate Lacey’s wide smile and supportive manner. When her Justice sister-in-law raised her fingers to a gold chain around her neck and pulled a heart pendant from inside her blouse, Tori’s curiosity was piqued. Lacey didn’t wear a lot of jewelry and anything that she had was a gift from her adoring husband.

  Jewelry. Humph. The reminder set off a four-alarm fire inside her and made her tighten up in a nanosecond. Wrenching her hand from Draegyn’s grasp, she ignored his questioning gaze and commented on Lacey’s pretty necklace.

  “Wow, sweetie. Is that new?”

  “Indeed it is,” she purred. Tori couldn’t miss the satisfied grin on Cam’s face when Lacey added, “A gift from my husband. Look,” she pointed, saying, “Dylan’s birthstone. It’s perfect.”

  “Must be nice,” Tori muttered while turning away from the happy couple across from her and pretty much shutting her own husband out. Fucker, she thought. Let him stare at my back. Rubbing her belly, she concentrated on the leaving about to happen and tried not to let her emotions careen too far out of control.

  DRAE WASN’T STUPID. HE KNEW what a wifely Fuck You sounded, looked, and felt like. Goddammit. Keeping up with Victoria’s mood swings was a full-time job. One moment she was happy and carefree, the next she was shooting murderous glances his way. What in the hell had he done now to earn him the sight of her back as she turned away from him?

  All his no-nonsense, analytical skills scattered like raindrops in a hurricane when it came to understanding how a woman’s mind—in particular, his feisty wife’s—worked. She’d been happy and more than compliant ever since their passionate encounter last night, which was a huge relief and went a long way to soothing his inner turmoil. Plus, he’d calmed her reaction to the suggestion that Alex was matchmaking her mother and his uncle. He’d been daydreaming about the delayed honeymoon he intended to spring on her after the baby came and had temporarily dropped the thread on whatever conversation had been going on inside the car. What in the hell had he missed?

  Glancing at Cam and Lacey, he read the annoyed expression on his brother’s face as his wife stared at Victoria with an odd, crestfallen look. Shit. What the fuck? He was trained to notice small details and it took less than a couple of seconds to note the way Lacey’s fingers trembled as she clutched at a gold pendant around her neck. When his eyes moved back to his brother, he was startled to find Cam glaring at him with fierce disapproval.

  Clearly, by the reactions and heavy emotion swirling in the car, he’d done something. Or maybe he hadn’t done something. Which was it?

  Watching as Lacey quickly tucked the necklace she was fingering inside her blouse and the way she reached for Cam’s hand while a look of embarrassment spread across her face. Drae started to feel the slow drip of icy discomfort cascade through his senses.

  Well fuck. Suddenly what was happening hit him like a ton of bricks. Stupid, insensitive, fuck my life bricks. This was about jewelry. Something Cam was very good at, so was Alex, for Christ’s sake while he, Draegyn St. John, legendary ladies’ man, had dropped this particular ball in spectacular fashion. Holy God. How fucking dumb could he be? Pretty goddamn dumb, apparently.

  Searching his memory bank, he tried in vain to come up with even one instance when he’d given his beautiful wife some bling. Theirs had hardly been a traditional courtship or marriage. In fact, everything about he and Victoria coming together had been more like the Wild West show than a sappy romance.

  The way they’d tied the knot was unconventional and downright surreal. So was finding out that their explosive desire for each other had led to a pregnancy that overrode everything else. Without any effort on his part, except the naked, balls-to-the-wall fucking they indulged in, he’d wound up a married man and an expectant father. And not once in any of those scenarios had he taken into account what all that meant for Victoria.

  Shit. What was it she’d said to Alex when he’d been desperate to win Meghan back? Bitches liked romance? Yeah, that was it. Oh, my fucking God. How could he be so dense? His spunky wife, the one he was on his knees thankful for, the woman he adored with every fiber of his being, hadn’t gotten to be a blushing bride like Lacey had. Hadn’t the experience of enjoying a long engagement like Meghan was. She’d gone from battleground to battleground with him without any of the romantic bells and whistles that every woman deserved. Fuuuuuuuck. He deserved her scorn but knowing his bone-headed stupidity was hurting her feelings made him squirm. He had to make this right and quickly. Not just for her, but for him as well. The woman deserved a medal for putting up with his bullshit. How was it that he’d never thought of showering Victoria with all sorts of gifts—especially the kind that came in expensive jewelry boxes?

  He knew how. She was always so focused on him. Her happiness was all about him—something she’d made clear these past few months. All she wanted was his love. The feeling was mutual. Knowing she adored him meant more to Drae than anything else in this world. Except maybe that baby she was struggling to give him. God. He was a…dick.

  Were there jewelry stores in Chicago? Of course there were. He was suddenly so rattled by what a complete asshat he’d been that Drae could barely think straight. Screw finding Majid. The minute they landed in the Windy City, he’d put Cam on tracking that little fucker down while he got his ass into a high-end jewelers and start buying everything he could lay his hands on. Hell, he’d cover Victoria in so much bling, she’d need an armored truck and bodyguards to keep it all straight. Yeah, that was what he’d do. Bitches liked romance. Duly noted.

  “Oh look, we’re here already,” Lacey murmured in the silence.

  Victoria sniffled at the comment and Drae almo
st smacked his thick, stupid skull against the window in frustration. He had about ten minutes to make this right. Glancing at Cam, he sent his brother an unspoken plea to give he and Victoria a moment of privacy and felt a surge of relief when the other man nodded briefly and gave him a look that offered some encouragement.

  “C’mon, Ponytail,” Cam teased. “Let’s go find Sawyer and give him a raft of shit before we take off. You can remind him again what an ass he was at the christening.”

  Lacey laughed heartily and squealed, “Oh, my God! That’s right. Who in their right mind gives a newborn a model airplane kit?”

  Cam quickly shuffled his wife from the car, turning back at the last to tell them, “You guys stay here until it’s time to board, okay? No use in having Tori standing around getting uncomfortable.”

  “Good idea, Cam,” Drae mumbled as he fidgeted nervously when Victoria didn’t react or respond. Looking helplessly at his brother, he tensed and grimaced.

  All Cam could do was look at him with something that resembled pity and shake his head. Yeah. This situation was of his own making.

  After the door finally shut, Drae reached for his silent wife and hauled her without hesitation onto his lap, easing her carefully over the armrest between their seats. She was stiff as a board, obviously unhappy with displeasure radiating off her body in waves.

  Direct approach. No shitting around. Full frontal assault.

  “I love you, Mrs. St. John,” he murmured. She softened instantly, melting against him with a husky sigh.

  With an arm holding her securely in place, he used his free hand to lift her chin so he could look into her beautiful eyes and drown just a little. Mine, he thought. She was furious at him, but she was all his. Body and soul.

  Putting his palm against her neck, he felt the rapid beating of her pulse with his thumb, moving it back and forth gently across her skin as he pulled her mouth toward his. Drae loved kissing Victoria. Nothing quite compared to that first moment when their lips met and he felt her surrender. Without any hesitance whatsoever, she opened to him and let him go deep with a kiss that came from his heart. Mine, he thought again.

  When he let her come up for air some minutes later, she was quivering in his arms, tears sparkling in her pretty eyes.

  “I hate you sometimes,” she whispered.

  He smiled. “I know.”

  She put a delicate hand on his chest and fiddled with the buttons on his dress shirt. The move was so Victoria. Shy. Unsure. Conflicted and completely without any artifice whatsoever.

  She sighed and he felt her breath on his skin. Tilting her head back, she looked into his eyes. “Find the boy quickly, Draegyn.”

  “I will, my love. Please don’t worry. We’ll be back before you know it, okay?”

  The sexy, pregnant waif nestled on his lap nodded, reached for him, and brought his mouth back to hers. She wanted a kiss for reassurance? Done. Pouring a shit ton of emotion into the lip lock, Drae tried to tell her with his response how precious she was and how very much he worshipped and adored her.

  Smirking when he finally pulled back, he told her in a low, deep growl, “You have a naughty mouth, wife. What you did last night…”

  Relief pulsed through him when she giggled. The storm had passed.

  “Yes, well—be that as it may…if we had just a little more time and less of an audience I’d be on my knees in this wicked mobile sex playground with you nudging the back of my throat until I got what I wanted.”

  He had to laugh. Little shit. She knew damn well how provocative her words were. Time to get in a suggestive comment or two of his own.

  “I love the way you look at me when my dick is in your mouth, Victoria. Your eyes say a lot when you can’t talk.”

  He should have known she wouldn’t let something like that go by without a response. Drae had to close his eyes and groan when her hand moved between them and stroked his cock through the fabric of his pants.

  Shuddering, he growled through clenched teeth, “Keep that up, wife, and I’ll be face fucking you before I get out of this car.”

  “Mmmmm. I’d like that, baby.”

  “Okay, that does it,” he groaned. “You’re getting on that plane with me so we can finish this the way it needs to end. Sawyer can fly you back before dinner and no one will even know.”

  She gurgled with naughty delight and squeezed his sex for good measure. “No can do, big guy. Flying isn’t on this pregnant lady’s agenda and Cam would know exactly what we were doing since he’d be sitting right there.”

  Shit. She was right. “Goddammit woman. You’re going to let me get on that plane with a throbbing hard-on aren’t you?”

  “Yep,” she sneered. “And serves you right, too.”

  Drae threw back his head and laughed. The wife always got the last word.

  “OKAY. PUSH THE FIVE ROLLING casters into the base until you hear them click in place.” Reading the easy-to-follow instructions aloud, Stephanie snapped each caster with ease then sat back on her knees, glancing at the diagram for the next step.

  “Well, that part at least was simple,” she muttered to herself. “Insert the three part cap and gas cylinder into the hole on the base.”

  Rising up, she leaned over the base and pushed the two pieces into place, widening her knees at the last second for leverage since the mechanism needed quite a shove.

  “What in the hell are you doing?” a voice boomed behind her, startling Stephanie and making her topple over onto her butt on the hardwood floor.

  Calder Dane. Shit. What in the hell was he doing here? And not only that, why in God’s name did everyone just come and go from each other’s homes without knocking? Okay—maybe the fact that she’d left the porch door wide open accounted for why he was standing less than five feet behind where her bottom had just been wagging in the air.

  Rising swiftly to her feet, she smoothed down the slim skirt with the pleated side vent and pirouetted around on her favorite gray Prada suede heels until she faced the man invading her privacy. Shame that the minute she had him in her sights she forget her name, what he’d just barked at her, and whether they were speaking in English. Why the hell did he have to be so good-looking and so damn infuriating at the same time?

  “Hello to you, too,” she finally jeered with a good dollop of eat shit implied in her delivery.

  Well, she thought when he grimaced; at least he had the sense to appear peeved that she’d called him out on his lack of manners, but that didn’t stop the look he gave her which was full of menace and bordered on downright nasty. Unless she was reading him all wrong, he didn’t like her one little bit.

  “Hello,” he snarled, then paused for good measure. “I’ll ask again,” he enunciated with a bite as if she was a dolt while nodding at the chair she was assembling, “What in the hell are you doing?”

  She pursed her lips and glared at him. “I think it’s fairly obvious what I’m doing. What isn’t clear, however, is what you’re doing here. Draegyn left for the airport earlier—as I’m sure you no doubt know.”

  The big man ignored her attempt to put him in his well-deserved place and shuffled past her, checking out the pieces left of the chair she was putting together on the floor.

  “You’ll need a screwdriver. A Phillip’s head,” he said absently while surveying her chair-building progress. “And I’m here because Alex wanted me to check on Victoria—make sure she was okay with Drae being gone.”

  He looked back at Stephanie, and she stiffened slightly when his steel blue eyes went on a head-to-toe visual inspection that left her wanting to slap his handsome face.

  “Aren’t you a bit overdressed for what you’re doing?” he taunted. “You do know that we’re in the middle of the goddamn desert, right? The heels seem a bit much.”

  Okay. She’d had enough. “Why, shugah,” she drawled with her Southern twang set to high, “don’t you know that a proper lady sleeps in her heels? Never know when some beefy hunk of testosterone may come calling.�
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  To her surprise, Calder Dane flinched at her pithy put-down, then reared back and barked a laugh, shaking his head and swinging his hands to his waist.

  “Okay lady,” he chuckled. “I deserved that but really, heels? Please tell me you own at least one pair of jeans and some footwear that isn’t meant to drive a man insane.”

  She couldn’t help but smile in return. Pushing some hair behind an ear, she sucked in her stomach and made an effort to look somewhat dignified even though Stephanie suspected she was failing miserably. This man had the strangest effect on her composure.

  “Of course I have jeans,” she answered swiftly. “It’s the uniform of my generation after all!” she said while eyeing what he was wearing to make her point. “But I’m having lunch with Carmen once my daughter and Lacey get back from dropping the men at the airport—we’re going into town, and knowing Alex’s housekeeper as I do, she’ll be dressed to impress so I’m just following along.”

  Calder nodded then went back to considering the pieces of the chair still on the floor. “So, explain the chair thing.”

  Stooping to retrieve the instructions, she smacked a hand on her skirt, specifically on her bottom in case she’d gotten dust or dirt on her clothes when she’d sat on the floor and caught an odd gleam in the eyes of her surprise guest.

  Hmmm. She’d let it go for now but a prickling sensation dancing along her nerve endings was sending some confusing signals. While she got the distinct impression that Alex’s uncle didn’t exactly care for her, he was also giving off a deepening sexual vibe that was rattling her cage.

  “The chair thing,” she repeated softly. Straightening she said, “Yeah. About that—it’s quite simple really. When Tori was younger, we used her father’s old desk chair as a sort of rolling wagon. We’d stack it with grocery bags and shove it from the front door to the kitchen. Since she’s having a bit of a tough time getting around, I thought it would be fun to get a couple of these pneumatic chairs. That way she can sit and scoot all around.” She shrugged like it was no big deal and quirked a grin.