“Come on, Ju, let’s go do something about that before Mommy comes back to do something about that.”
A strange sense of foreboding hits me when my previously loving wife throws me a scathing glare and stomps out with the baby, her body stiff and unyielding. She comes back a few minutes later, after I’d listened to her whisper and mutter over the baby monitor while she changed and settled Jewel.
“Okay,” she breathes, closing the door and prowling my way, her eyes shooting sparks at me.
“Can I have a kiss?”
“Huh! Not in this lifetime, asshole,” she mutters furiously, folding her arms and backing away when I reach out to touch her.
“You have some explaining to do before I let you put your paws on me, buddy. I’m gonna give you one chance to tell me where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing, and if you even think of lying to me I will take my shit and my kids and be gone so fast you won’t be able to blink. You got me?”
“Uh, yes?”
“Good. So tell me where you were.”
“Germany, you know—”
“I know you said you went there to fix something. What I don’t know is if that’s the truth!”
“I have never lied to you!” I yell, feeling my anger rise now with the look of distrust and the scorn directed at me.
“Yeah?” she asks sweetly, making me cringe—she’s deadly when she gets sweet, and that’s not something I need right now.
What I need is for her to shut up and kiss me hello before I lose control and have her under me for a long due claiming.
“Ash—”
“You’ve never lied, huh? So when you went and got your dick snipped and didn’t tell me, that was what? Loss of memory?”
Uh, shite.
“That, I was going to tell you. I just—”
“Lied! No, tell me the truth, Luc. What were you doing?”
My gut clenches when I look at her and see something in her eyes I haven’t ever seen. Defeat. My love is a fighter, a come up swinging kind of lass with a mouth that shoots nails and barbs that always hit their target.
She has always been quick to temper and even quicker to retaliate, never down and ready to quit, something that scares me straight and warns me that lying to her now will accomplish nothing but a loss for me.
“I did go to Germany. For a day. And then I went to the UK to get my ex-wife to stay the fuck out of our lives, and threatened my meddling mother with a lawsuit if the two of them attempted to extort money from me again.”
My answer knocks the breath out of her, a sound I feel more than hear, and she crumples to her knees, her mouth wobbling into a teary smile.
“I’m so glad I’m not a hopeful moron,” she says in a strangled tone, burying her head in her hands. “But I was so sure you were cheating on me to try and get back at me for… And then I was gonna leave, but I couldn’t because I love you, and I wanted to believe you wouldn’t do that to me. And then I—I started thinking about that time you left me and how I was so mad that you walked away without letting me explain what really happened. And I got mad and decided to stay and wait and give you the chance you never gave me and—”
“Shh, love, hush. Don’t cry so,” I croon, dragging her up and into my arms.
It’s only when her arms come out and around me, her hands fisting my hair and clinging, that I let go of the tight knot in my chest and breathe again, closing my eyes in relief.
“I would never cheat, love. You’re way too much woman as it is,” I tease, pushing my anger to the back of my mind and concentrating on my woman instead.
I’m pissed that she’d be so easily swayed to think me unworthy, but so relieved that she stayed long enough for an explanation that I feel weak and grateful all at once.
“You still love me?”
“Always,” I swear, pushing away to cradle her face and lick away her tears. “You’re mine, the only one I want. Forever.”
“O-okay. I’m… Can we maybe talk about what happened…then?” she asks, and I sigh, wanting to refuse but knowing I have to face this if I’m ever to get her past that event.
It still eats at me that she’d betrayed me and stolen seven years from me, and I can honestly say that as much as I love her, I still have not forgiven her for it.
“Fine.”
She pushes away and goes over to the bed, sinking down with a huff and clenching her fists even as she raises her reddened eyes and meets mine.
“You saw something that… It wasn’t what it looked like, Luc.”
“It looked pretty damned simple to me. You were kissing another boy just hours after you’d sworn to be mine,” I grate, wrestling with my emotions as the old anger invades my gut. “You were all over each other. You let him touch what was mine.”
“Huh! I didn’t let him do anything! I was talking to him about his parents’ divorce when he freaking attacked me. He must have seen you before I did and got it in his fool head that if he could get you out of the picture I’d give him another chance. What you saw was me fighting to get him off me!” she yells, shocking me to the core.
Can it be? Did I see something, something that had been no fault of hers and attributed my usual distrust to it, a distrust I’d learned living between my cold father and snide stepmother?
The thought is so harsh, so true, that my knees quake and I’m forced to lower myself to the bed lest I dump my stupid arse on the floor.
“I saw you. Not your face, but a shadow out of the corner of my eye, and I tried to get your attention, your help. He was so strong, and I was terrified, and… But you never came. You ran and left me there to defend myself,” she accuses, stripping my already flayed flesh raw.
“I… Oh, God I’m so sorry,” I whisper, grasping at my nape to stop myself from touching her. “I was…so in love with you. The whole time, and I kept… I couldn’t believe that someone as good and kind as you could love me. I’m cold and quiet and…”
There’s nothing else to say as I let the truth settle around me and take the punch to the gut that was my cowardly actions. I’d run, like a mewling girl, and cried in my soup while my love had been forced to defend herself and deal with an attempted sexual assault.
“What did the police say? Jesus, I wasn’t even here to help you through all that.”
“Uh, I never called them. I sorta just ignored him and tried to get through the rest of senior year,” she admits, inching closer by degrees.
I know what she’s doing and welcome it, though my self-hatred tells me I in no way deserve her love or the comfort she’s about to offer me as she reaches out a hand and strokes my jaw.
“I’ll make you a deal, Luc. We let this all go and start new, just the way we would have if you’d stayed and we’d gotten through it all together.”
I’m a bastard, a complete fool, undeserving of any sort of understanding or forgiveness for the mistakes I’ve made, and the deplorable way I intended to treat her, but I’m no dummy, as Ash always says.
No, I’m ruthless and determined and just arrogant enough to take what I want even if I haven’t earned it. I’m a self-made man, and I certainly didn’t get here by allowing my emotions to cheat me out of a good bloody deal.
“Deal,” I say, grabbing her up and sealing the deal before she can change her mind.
I’ll never lie to her again, haven’t really since the day we’d reconnected, but I’ll take the plans I’d made for revenge to my grave and bloody smile with my last breath.
I’ve just landed the only deal I’ve ever wanted, and it feels fucking great.
Epilogue
“Get your hands out of there! Oh, gross. Noooo!”
I almost run in fear when my “innocent” little Ju shoves her hand back into the potty and scoops up what every member of our family has dubbed “toxic waste”.
“Lucian! I need you!” I yell, grabbing the little terror and cleaning her hands before she tastes what will kill her, if the smell is anything to go by.
My h
usband, of course, is nowhere to be seen when we make our way down to the kitchen, and I allow Maria to swoop down and take the monster off my hands.
“The potty training is not going great,” she says, her eyes twinkling as she kisses Ju and takes her over to her chair, seating her between the other two thirds of the Terribles.
“Uh, no.”
“Have you told your friends about her refusal to leave her leavings in the thing?”
“That would be a negative,” I say, watching Lucky and Cam eat their strained peas while dodging Ju’s missiles as she flings green goop all over the place, clapping delightedly when a blob hits Lucky in the face and plops down onto the clean floor. “Those bitches are babysitting tonight, and I’m not about to jeopardize a kid-free night because I can’t keep my mouth shut. They’ll learn, and hopefully deal with little miss and her obsession with all things smelly.”
I leave the woman chuckling and head out in search of my hiding husband, finding him in his study, his usual hiding spot.
“You’re such a girl.”
He turns in his chair and grins at me, his blue eyes twinkling when I scowl and narrow my eyes.
“How the heck have you gotten through three years without once touching that shit?”
“Ah, determination, love. Determination. We still on for tonight?”
“Hell yeah! If those idiots aren’t smart enough to say no to babysitting those monsters, I’m not giving them the chance to back out. Cammy is taking Ben and Mad.”
It’s been a hell of a ride these last three years raising two kids and three devil’s spawn, while keeping my family and friends together and trying to orchestrate a peace treaty between the Jasper men.
Eddie has not only given up the company to Luc, stating that he’s too old to care and too in love with his grandchildren to waste time on business, and has moved here to be closer.
He’s the reason Ben finally opened up about Wesley, and he’s so good with the two bigger ones that I hardly get a minute with them anymore. Everything in their lives is Gramps-related, and while I miss that connection, I’m just grateful that they have one old-timer to depend on.
The Terribles, as you know, are the most horrid little angels ever born, and they keep me on my toes—sometimes I dream about selling them to the circus just to get a break, but then I know they’d just give them back, possibly pay me to take them.
The Goldens are incorrigible and still going strong, hence my current luck in free, unsuspecting babysitting so that I can have one full night to bang my husband without puke, poop, or drool coating my body.
Cammy and Brody aren’t together anymore because, according to her, if a guy can’t handle her brand of nutso, he can kiss her arse, or something like that. I’m not too worried, since I’ve seen the way he looks at her, all super possessive and fierce.
He’ll chase her down and tie her to his bed one of these days, something I’ve sworn to help him with—it’s a secret on pain of death, since the Goldens will scalp me if they think I’ve gone Vader on them and joined the dark side.
Wesley, after almost two years of hiding, came back to the States—he’d spent all the money he made from my stolen ring and looked worse than shit.
Lucian refuses to tell me what happened to him, and I accept it because, as much as I love him, I still have to sleep next to the guy, and I don’t need to know everything he’s capable of.
And now, now I’m just happy after years of not really living and being a step away from total apathy.
There’s not much more to say, other than I’m blissfully happy with my crazy husband and crazier kids.
Turns out that when I made a deal with the devil, it was the smartest thing I ever did.
# End #
ONE WEEK
Chapter One
Becky
“Stupid freaking idiots. I hope they all get the clap and crab crotch,” I mutter under my breath as the hags that work in my office continue to titter and cast sly glances my way, as if by some chance I don’t know that they’re talking about me or taking the mickey.
Goddamned simpletons haven’t stopped giving me hell since my boss, Abigail Cox, chewed my ass out in front of the entire office and their mothers, for something I didn’t even do!
“Hey Becky? Is it true Abi’s got you on probation?”
I snarl silently and force my lips to smile, even though I’d like nothing better than to walk up to Trish and her coven and start swinging haymakers their way.
But my parents and four brothers had been adamant that I use my self-defense skills only in matters of self-defense. A lady does not beat the crud out of other people just because they’re spiteful.
Or so they all have been telling me since the fourth grade, when I’d given Duffy Simon a shiner and broken one of his teeth. They’d made me pay for the cap on his tooth for six months with my pocket money and made me promise not to use the skills my brothers had taught me unless I have to.
So instead of answering I keep the smile pasted on my face and shrug, something I’ve been doing so much it’s a wonder my shoulders aren’t lopsided by now.
It’s an attitude I’ve had to adopt for the last three months, after Peter Gunther, one of the top lawyers in the firm, had started sexually harassing me and spread the rumor that I’d slept with his disgusting carcass.
It’s the reason my boss is being such a crone—Peter is her secret crush, though from the looks of her, the secret is so out—and the reason I’m trying to ignore the ‘friendship’ offers from half the secretarial pool.
They want the dirt, and I refuse to give it to them, seeing as the only dirty thing concerned is Peter and his forceful advances.
“Oh, come now, Becky. Lighten up. We’re all friends,” she says, and they titter some more, driving me precariously close to the very edges of my temper.
I’m saved from assault charges and losing my job when my phone rings, forcing me to ignore their continued giggles and sidelong glances.
“Miz Cox’s office.”
“Hey, Beck.”
I smile for the first time and clutch the phone tighter when I hear Lila’s voice. My brother Grey’s fiancée is not only my best bud but one of the only people I enjoy talking to outside of my family. We’d grown up together in our small town of Granger Falls, Georgia, and have been best friends our whole lives.
I’d always counted on us coming to the big city together and spending our college years partying it up and enjoying our freedom. Thanks to Grey and his possessive ideas, I’d spent four years alone in a moldy dorm room, studying to keep myself sane while they played house and took things slow.
They’ve been engaged so long I’d started wondering if they’d ever get married. Now I regret it, thanks to the fiasco that is the grand wedding, a weeklong event that means I’ll be fitted, prodded, and poked at by every old lady in attendance.
Oh, and then I’ll have to answer a million questions about my still-single status and fend off advances from the boys Mama is sure to have lined up like a herd of cattle.
“Hiya, what’s up?”
“Grey called. His business trip is gonna be extended by a day, and he…uh, he asked if you could get Devon from the airport and bring him on down to the house for Wedding Week,” she says hesitantly, her voice more of a whispered grimace.
What? No. Hell no. Definitely negative.
“Uh, um, the thing is…”
Oh, why didn’t any of my brothers teach me to lie better than this? I suck when cornered and everyone knows it, which is no doubt why they’d gotten Lila to call instead of doing the dirty work themselves.
Grey or any of my other family would get a quick no and dial tone. Lila, well, I can never say no to her, especially not now, when she’s stressing herself to death about the little details.
“Oh, please? I have another fitting tomorrow morning and Mama’s going ape-shit about the roses I ordered and Grey’s—”
“Can’t he just rent a car or something? Plea
se?”
“He’s getting in at Gate Three; I’ll text you the details. Please do this for me, Beck. You know I wouldn’t ask, but I’m so swamped,and—”
“Fine,” I mutter, rolling my eyes heavenward. “Just don’t have a freaking stroke the week before your wedding, or my brother will murder me.”
Shit. It’s not that I mind taking the time or making the effort where the wedding is concerned. It’s that I’d rather collect Hannibal Lecter from the airport than be forced to spend a two hour car ride with the oh so delectable Devon Baxter.
The guy is like, super-hot, and I’ve been crushing on him since I was thirteen years old and he was nineteen. I’d spent two summers following him and Grey around like a lovesick puppy until he’d very gently told me to get lost and lose the stars in my eyes.
Easier said than done.
I’ve kept the crush, though from a very far distance, and would happily have done so for the rest of my life if not for Grey and his stupidity.
“Thanks, babe, I owe you one.”
“No, you owe me like six for this alone, not to mention three months ago when you made me go on that date with your cousin Kurt. The guy has seven arms, the way he was fondling me!”
That gets a laugh, exactly what I was going for, and we spend the next few minutes reliving my night of horrors.
“You remember what he said to me?”
“Oh, Jesus, don’t say it, Beck!” she laughs, making me smile and giggle down the phone.
Kurt’s okay—for a pig, I guess. Handsome, blonde,and charming to everyone but me. He’d told me in a matter of fact tone that while he’s not a ‘chubby chaser’, my face more than made up for a lot of things, and that he could see a future for us after I made a ‘few changes’. And then the schmuck had ordered me a salad, and I’d had to force it down while he ate a rib eye and baked potato.
Asshole.
“Slade! In my office.”
“Oh crap, I gotta go. The Darkness calleth my name.”
“Good luck. And thanks again.”
Miah (Lane Brothers #2) Page 69