by Sienna Snow
Adrian closed his eyes and shook his head. “Ana, you aren’t helping.”
Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have phrased my words so bluntly with my over-the-top, powder-keg-tempered brother.
“I’m fucking going to kill you.” Hagen reached across the table and grabbed Adrian’s collar.
Before I realized I was moving, I grabbed Hagen’s arm and flipped him on his back, pressing my boot heel to his throat.
Security rushed in, hearing the commotion, as did Pierce and Zack.
“What the hell, Anaya?” Hagen roared.
Adrian jumped over the table, grabbing me in his arms and moving me across the room.
“Umm. The question is what did you do to piss her off?” Zack walked over to smirk down at Hagen, who only glared at him and then took the hand Zack offered him.
“She was his target. His job. Isn’t that how you put it, Anaya?” Hagen’s voice was still filled with anger.
“Do you honestly believe she was just a target to me?” Adrian set me on the floor, keeping a hand around my wrist. “Ana, do me a favor. Don’t try to save me from them. Hagen is likely to pull out that gun he keeps in the bottom drawer of his desk and shoot me.”
“It’s not loaded,” was my response. “I removed the bullets the last time I was home.”
“Why would you do that?” The scowl on Hagen’s face was almost comical.
“Because Galen and Markos play in this office and I don’t want them to get hurt. Everyone knows they’re the nosiest of all the boys.”
Pierce noticed the way Adrian angled me behind him. “So, you two are back together?”
“Yes,” Adrian and I said together.
“I won’t have it,” Hagen said.
I moved around Adrian, but he grabbed me, pulling me back. “Let me make this clear so it gets through to your thick skull, and that includes Pierce and Zack too. I am an adult. I don’t need your permission. You can’t pull the big-brother act on someone who isn’t a child.”
“And if he’s killed on one of his adventures?”
“I know for a fact that won’t happen,” I said.
This time Pierce spoke while folding his giant arms across his chest. “Explain to us how.”
“Because he’s out.”
Zack stepped in front of Adrian and me, staring me straight in the eyes. “And what about you? Are you out? Am I going to be able to sleep at night without worrying that you’re dead somewhere?”
Of course, he would know, if Henna knew. But from the shock on my other two brothers’ faces, Penny and Amelia had kept that tidbit of information from them.
“Same. No more international assignments or staying away from home.”
A slow smile broke out on my handsome brother’s face and Zack stepped around Adrian to kiss my forehead.
My eyes clouded. When was the last time any of my brothers showed me affection other than lecturing me?
I pushed past Adrian and wrapped my arms around Zack. “I love you too.”
After a few moments, I pulled back.
“Can someone please explain what the hell is going on? I am lost. And why isn’t anyone pissed off that they are still married after we told the asshole to end it.” Hagen’s blue eyes were filled with a mix of confusion and irritation.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
Then I realized what he’d said. Still married? Told the asshole to end it?
I lifted my hand. “Pause and rewind. You made Ian ask for an annulment?”
Everyone remained quiet. My temper flared and I counted backward from ten so I wouldn’t punch one of the many moronic men in the room.
Finally, Pierce spoke. “You were twenty-one with a life ahead of you. You deserved to pursue your dreams and not get stuck here waiting for someone who could end up dead if any of his assignments went south. Plus, he wasn’t much older than you.”
I closed my eyes and pressed my fingers to my temples. “So, what I’m hearing you say is that you took the decisions for my life out of my hands just like everyone else has done since I was born.”
“We were protecting you. We didn’t want you to regret things in the future.” Hagen came around his desk.
“Like when my biological mother gave me to another woman to raise as her child? Or when Collin, Mom, and Henna kept the truth of my birth a secret from me? I’ve spent so much of my life wondering who I was because of these decisions. And now I learn you kept the only man I’ve ever loved from me for my own good. It’s just too much.” My voice cracked. “Do you know why I left home? I couldn’t handle the memories, the pain of knowing I wasn’t wanted, the pain of what my father did to all of us. And you know what brought me back? Him.” I pointed to Adrian.
“Because I was so focused on succeeding at my work and forgetting my past, I made mistakes and got caught. He risked his life to get me back. He gave up his career to be with me. I won’t let anyone or anything take him from me again.”
I moved, ready to storm out of Hagen’s office, but Adrian slipped an arm around my waist and turned me toward his chest. “Ana, I’m to blame too. I let my insecurities win out. Your brothers love you. They wanted to give you what they felt like they never had. A future outside of Vegas.”
I lifted my face and scanned my brothers’ expressions. Each looked devastated.
“Anaya, I’m sorry,” Hagen whispered, dropping his head. “You are the last piece of Mama that we have and we went overboard trying to keep you with us. In the end, it pushed you away.”
That was another thing that was so hard to deal with—they always saw the mother they’d lost to cancer, a mother who loved them so much, the mother who had an affair and had a baby with another man, a mother who didn’t love me enough to keep me.
“God, can you forgive us?” Zack asked.
“Do the girls know the details?”
Pierce winced and shook his head.
“If you want my forgiveness, each of you need to face your wives and tell them what you did.”
“I’d rather walk over hot coals,” Hagen grumbled with Pierce and Zack agreeing.
Hagen then said, “You have a deal.”
I gave them a weary smile. “Now can I be alone with my husband?” I made sure to emphasize the “husband” part.
“You’re kicking me out of my own office?” Hagen gave me an incredulous look.
“Yep.”
“If you’re a brat as a twenty-six-year-old, I shudder to think what you were like as a kid to poor Henna,” Zack added, moving to the door.
Pierce followed Zack, with Hagen being the last.
The door was left open as if Hagen was worried Adrian and I would jump each other. It wouldn’t surprise me if Hagen was just outside, listening to everything we said.
I waited a few seconds before I spoke. “So we’re married. How did that one slip through the cracks?”
Adrian’s lips curved up at the corners. “One of us didn’t file their signature with the court.”
“I’m going to assume you’re referring to me.”
I thought back to that time and remembered getting the annulment papers and the heartache seeing them caused. But I couldn’t recall if I ever signed them. Everything during those days was a haze. At the time, my focus was getting out of Vegas.
“So, we’re married.”
“We’re married,” he agreed.
“Thank goodness for small favors.”
“How’s that?”
“We brought back something from the island.” I moved Adrian’s hand from my waist to over my stomach. “In our family, marriage is a requirement for this phase of life.”
His gaze burned into mine before the seriousness on his face was replaced by a huge grin.
“You’re pregnant?”
I nodded as my heart contracted seeing the joy on his face. “We’re pregnant.”
“You’re what?” Hagen roared.
Both Adrian and I couldn’t help but laugh. Instead of answering my nosy brother,
Adrian threaded his fingers into my hair and kissed me.
“I love you, Anaya Serina Anthony.”
“I love you, Adrian Phillip Kipos.”
I smiled up, seeing Adrian’s heart in his green eyes. “So now what?”
“Not sure. What do two ex-spies do when they get back home?”
“Live like normal people?” I asked, just as some costumed show performers dressed as lavish human-sized birds walked by the open doors of Hagen’s office.
We both laughed.
“In Vegas, that’s all relative.”
“Then I guess we’ll have to figure it out as we go.”
“As long as you’re with me, I couldn’t agree more.”
* * *
THE END
Coming Soon
Turn the page for more detail
Master of Control (Gods of Vegas – Book 5)
Only Available in the Leave Me Breathless: Black Rose Collection (Available January 21, 2020)
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Preorder - www.books2read.com/blackrosecollection
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I'm a prize, a treasure, something to cherish. Or so I've been told.
But I know the truth. I'm a commodity recently sold to the highest bidder.
Sebastian Weber is ruthless, heartless, calculating, and my new husband. Power is the weapon he wields and control is his game.
I should fear him, resent him, but instead I'm drawn to him, craving his slightest touch, wanting every part of him.
Leaving him isn't an option, and staying means shattering his world.
Gods of Vegas, Book 1
Read the first book in the Gods of Vegas Series:
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www.books2read.com/masterofsin
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He is the right man, for all the wrong things.
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It was always him...
The one I shouldn't want, shouldn't crave, the one who could destroy my carefully built life.
Hagen Lykaios was the essence of sin, indulgence, and danger - everything I knew to avoid.
All it took was one unexpected touch, and he consumed me, left me begging, needy, and hungry for more.
He said if I entered his world he would corrupt me, own me, and change all that I had ever known...and you know what? I went anyway.
www.books2read.com/masterofsin
About the Author
Inspired by her years working in corporate America, Sienna loves to serve up stories woven around confident and successful women who know what they want and how to get it, both in – and out – of the bedroom.
Her heroines are fresh, well-educated, and often find love and romance through atypical circumstances. Sienna treats her readers to enticing slices of hot romance infused with empowerment and indulgent satisfaction.
Sienna loves the life of travel and adventure. She plans to visit even the farthest corners of the world and delight in experiencing the variety of cultures along the way. When she isn’t writing or traveling, Sienna is working on her “happily ever after” with her husband and children.
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Books by Sienna Snow
Rules of Engagement
Rule Breaker
Rule Master
Rule Changer
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Politics of Love
Celebrity
Senator
Commander
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Gods of Vegas
Master of Sin
Master of Games
Master of Revenge
Master of Secrets (October 2019)
Master of Control - (Only available as part of the Leave Me Breathless: Black Rose Collection)