Penn, Jenny - Tanner's Angel [The Jenny Penn Collection 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)
Page 17
Mary Anne didn’t ask any questions before she raised the gun and started making demands. “Get away from them!”
“Uh—” The man’s gaze darted to Mike as he fumbled for a response.
That didn’t cut it in Mary Anne’s book, and she started forward. “I said get or I’ll shoot you.” She lowered the gun to take aim at a portion of his anatomy she knew he wouldn’t want to lose. “I mean it. Get!”
“Mike,” the man pleaded. “A little help here.”
Mike? That gave her pause and she blinked, casting her husband a quick look. She could see it clearly. He was amused. Malcolm looked ready to bust open as she caught his gaze over Mike’s shoulder. A glance back at the stranger made her realize just how much he looked like her husbands. Even as Mike started to speak, she had a sick feeling in her gut that she knew what he had to say.
“Mary Anne, I’d like you to meet the second youngest in our family.” Mike nodded at the man. “Charlie, this is our wife, Mary Anne.”
“Brother?” Mary Anne bit her lip as her arms wavered and dipped. “Then the other man—”
“That’s the second oldest, William.” Charlie’s worried look faded into a smile. “We call him Digger.”
“Oh, dear.” Mary Anne whispered. Her sudden onset of guilt tripled as a man barked outside the back door louder than the dogs.
“Get back! Go on, get!”
She didn’t have to look to know who threw the back door open with a bang, but a morbid need to face her own doom had her turning to take in Digger Tanner. He might have been younger than Mike, but he stood a head taller and filled out the doorway like a mountain did the horizon. The heavy skillet she beat him with looked rather small in his beefy hand, but the blood trickling out of the ragged cut across his forehead proved how mighty a weapon it was.
Nobody said a word as Digger stormed in, kicking the door shut. With each thundering step forward, Mary Anne felt the heated tension pressing in on her from the front even as Malcolm’s growing mirth made it feel almost cooler behind her.
Finally, he came to a stop, all narrowed navy eyes and bearded wilderness glaring down on her head. Mary Anne held his gaze even as she felt herself shrinking beneath the towering man. Expecting something altogether different from Digger, it threw her a little when he lifted up the pan.
“You forgot this.” He handed it to her as he nodded toward the gun hanging limply in her hand. “I’ll take that back.”
He didn’t yell or curse at her, and that emboldened her to offer the dangerous looking man a big smile as they exchanged items. “I’m really sorry about bashing you in the head, Mr. Tanner. I didn’t know you were my husbands’ brother, and my brother said something about Nate Willis lurking around, so when I saw you I thought—”
A large, callused hand blocked her words like a dam as Digger’s hand settled over her mouth. She held real still under his touch as he leaned down to growl. “I have a headache, woman. I don’t need to listen to all that squeaky yammering. I get the point. You’re sorry. Now get my point. Apology not accepted.”
He released her, and she had a feeling that would have been the end of it if he hadn’t finally focused on her, but he did. His eyes lightened, swirling with something that mimicked Malcolm’s gaze right before he devoured her.
“Yet,” he tacked on, and Mary Anne knew exactly what he expected if she wanted her apology to be accepted.
The very public threat given in front of all his brothers made her smile because she knew it was just wrong of her for that to turn her on. Her response obviously hadn’t been what he anticipated, and he glanced over her head at his brothers in obvious confusion.
“This is your wife?”
He must have asked it to Mike, because Malcolm felt the need to correct his older brother. “My wife.”
“Our wife,” Mike shot back.
“As in not your wife,” Mary Anne piped in with enough haughtiness to make Digger’s head snap back down at her. With a lift of her chin, she sashayed right around him. If that man wanted her in his bed, he’d have to work for it.
THE END
www.JennyPenn.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I live near Charleston, SC with my two biggies, my dogs. I have had a slightly unconventional life. Moving almost every three years, I’ve had a range of day jobs that included everything from working for one of the world’s largest banks as an auditor to turning wrenches as an outboard repair mechanic. I’ve always regretted that we only get one life and have tried to cram as much as I can into this one.
Throughout it all, I’ve always read books, feeding my need to dream and fantasize about what could be. An avid reader since childhood, and as a latchkey kid, I’d spend hours at the library earning those shiny stars the librarian would paste up on the board after my name.
I credit my grandmother’s yearly visits as the beginning of my obsession with romances. When she’d come, she’d bring stacks of romance books, the old fashion kind that didn’t have sex in them. Imagine my shock when I went to the used bookstore and found out what really could be in a romance novel.
I’ve worked on my own stories for years and have found a particular love of erotic romances. In this genre, women are no longer confined to a stereotype and plots are no longer constrained to the rational. I love the ‘anything goes’ mentality and letting my imagination run wild.
I hope you enjoyed running with me and will consider picking up another book and coming along for another adventure.
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