by Sybil Bartel
“Come on, love birds, wrap it up!” Ariel chuckled. “Or cover it up enough to say goodbye to Mav. Viking’s waiting downstairs with Conner, and you know how he feels about wasting time.” For the last two words, she dropped her voice and perfectly imitated Christensen’s accent.
I pulled my shorts up and eyed Brooke. “I thought you, me and Mav were going to the beach.” Fuck, my dick was hard, and I wasn’t liking this change in plans. I had the weekend off and I wanted to be with my kid and my woman. Alone.
“We’ll meet up with them later.” Brooke adjusted her bikini and slipped a cover up over her head before turning to face me. Going on tiptoe, she kissed me once. “I have something to show you first.” She reached for the door.
I grasped her nape. “You already were showing me something.”
Ariel pounded on the door again. “Don’t make me come in there.”
“Jesus fuck.” I opened the door and glared at the woman holding my kid. “You spend too much time with Christensen. You’re starting to act like him now.”
“Daddy!” Mav held his arms out to me.
Laughing, Ariel handed him over. “You’re just pissed your alone time got interrupted.”
I growled as she laughed, and the two women hugged hello.
“I have Mav’s bag all packed.” Brooke walked to the living room. “He already has sunscreen on, and I told him to mind you and Neil.” She picked up Mav’s diaper bag and handed it to Ariel.
Mav rested his head on my shoulder. “Daddy come too.”
I rubbed his back and kissed his forehead, wondering what the fuck Brooke was up too. She looked nervous, and she hadn’t looked nervous since the day she walked into my hospital room. “I’ll see you in a little bit, Mav. Be good for Aunt Ariel and play nice with Conner. No throwing sand this time, you hear me?” I gave him a fake stern look.
“Daddy.” Mav shook his head. “I no throw.” He held his arms up and his eyes went wide. “Big sand castle.” He nodded. “I made it.”
It was everything I could do not to laugh. He’d made it all right, right on top of Ariel’s son, Conner. The last time we’d watched Conner, we’d taken him and Mav to the beach, and Mav had used a shovel to throw sand on Conner while Conner held a bucket over his head. Both boys and me and Brooke had gotten covered in sand faster than you could blink. The whole thing was a train wreck.
Ariel reached for Mav. “What’s a little sand? Boy are boys, right, Mav?”
Mav nodded seriously. “I’m a boy.”
We all laughed as Ariel carried Mav toward the front door. “Okay, love birds, see you two soon. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Grinning, she walked out with Mav.
Not happy to see my kid go, but more than ready for some alone time, I cupped the back of Brooke’s neck. “Okay, fess up. Tell me what’s going on?”
A shy smile touched her full lips. “I’d rather show you.”
“Now you’re talking.” I reached for the hem of her cover up.
She swatted my hand away and grabbed the truck’s car keys. “Not that kind of show you. Come on, I’m driving.”
I rubbed a hand over my still hard cock. “This is cruel and unusual.”
Picking up her purse and stepping into her flip-flops, she smirked. “You can wait.”
“Like I said,” I bitched. “Cruel and unusual.” But my ass followed her out to the elevators because I had to admit, I was curious. This wasn’t typical Brooke behavior. “Do I get a hint?”
“Nope.” She stepped into the elevator. “And I’m not answering any questions either.”
“Interesting.” I crossed my arms and leaned on the opposite wall to study her. Brooke had been full of surprises these past couple months as we navigated our insta-relationship and family. I’d discovered she was quiet unless prompted, she loved to read, she could cook a mean meal, she liked shit neat, and she was patient as fuck. When Mav went to bed, she was insatiable. I fucking loved every minute of it. But cagey and secretive, she wasn’t. So I didn’t have a fucking clue what was she was up to. I eyed her bikini under her see-through cover up. “Are we going swimming?” Both she and Mav lived to be in the water.
Staring at the descending numbers, she half shrugged. “If you want.”
I wanted to bury myself in her sweet body. “I want a lot of things.”
Heat hit her cheeks as the elevator doors opened to the underground parking of my condo. “You have a lot of things.”
So she’d mentioned, multiple times. The condo was full of frivolous shit I didn’t need. One week with her and Mav had quickly opened my eyes to priorities, and it wasn’t a TV in every bedroom or a collection of rifles I hadn’t taken to the range since I’d been out of the Marines. She and Mav were all I needed.
I didn’t comment as we walked to the Raptor and she got behind the wheel, and I kept my mouth shut as she pulled out of the garage and headed north along the beach. But ten minutes later, I brought up the truck. “How come we’re not in the SUV?” I’d bought her a safe vehicle to drive Mav around in, not to mention legal. The Raptor had a scrubbed VIN and a questionable, at best, registration to a shell company the fucking prick Lewis had owned. We couldn’t report the vehicle as found without risking her getting in trouble and we couldn’t register it at the end of the year when the registration ran out. We needed to dump it.
She drove into the Golden Beach neighborhood near where Christensen had the house we’d stayed at. “I just felt like driving the truck today.”
“You know we can’t keep it,” I warned. She loved the truck. I got it. I had too, but now I didn’t want her driving Mav in it.
“I know.” She glanced at me. “But today, I wanted to drive it.” She bit her bottom lip.
Seeing her nervous gesture, I dropped it for now. A mile later she turned down a street that ran east toward the ocean. At the end of the street she pulled into a driveway with a yard six months past overgrown and parked the truck in front of an even sorrier-looking garage.
Cutting the engine, she pulled the keys out and hastily opened her door. “Come on.”
Looking at the old, run-down house, I’d barely gotten my ass out of the truck before she had the front door open and was walking in. “Brooke.” Christ. “You ever hear of breaking and entering?”
“Come on!” she called as she disappeared inside. “We’re not breaking in.”
Jesus. I followed her inside and found her standing in the middle of an empty, musty as fuck, sorry living room.
Her hands clasped in front of her chest, she looked at me with barely contained excitement. “What do you think?”
Jesus fuck. “It’s… nice.” It was a dump.
“Right?” she agreed, spinning in a circle like a kid in a candy store. “I mean, I know it needs a little work.”
I glanced around. It was a nineteen-sixties bungalow a century past its prime. The walls were paneling, the old terrazzo floors were chipped, and the kitchen was an olive green time warp. It needed more than a little work. “It has a decent layout.” If you liked being on top of each other.
Her eyes went wide with excitement. “And it has four bedrooms.”
It was the size of a fucking postage stamp. How the hell did it have four bedrooms? “Great. We already have four bedrooms.” At the condo, which didn’t smell like cat piss.
“But wait.” She took my hand. “I saved the best for last.” She dragged me to the slider out to a lanai, but when she went to open it, she couldn’t get the door to open more than a foot on the rusted out old frame.
Christ. “Need help?”
She laughed. “It just needs a little elbow grease.” She shoved with her whole damn body and the door flew open and slammed on its opposite frame. “Oops.” She smiled at me sheepishly. “I’m sure that’ll be one of the things you and Neil can fix.”
My eyebrows shot to my head. “Christensen?” What the fuck? “You talk to him?”
“Well, yeah. He does live with Ariel and Conner, you know,” she teased. “I d
o see him when I go over there.”
My gaze narrowed. That wasn’t what I fucking meant, and she knew it.
Surprise widened her eyes. “Oh my God, you can’t be jealous.”
“Can and will.” How fucking often while I was at work was she hanging with Christensen?
She went on tiptoe and kissed me. “It’s okay, only you see me fully naked.”
“What the actual fuck?” What the hell did that mean? “Explain,” I growled.
She waved her hand dismissively. It was another of her new gestures. They popped up every week. A hand wave here, a shoulder shrug there. Since she wasn’t holding herself ramrod straight with fucking stress anymore, she wasn’t as still.
“Oh, come on, Ivy,” she teased, knowing I hated that nickname. “Me and Mav have play dates all the time with Ariel and Conner. The boys swim, we swim, sometimes Neil joins us.” She shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”
“Jesus fucking Christ.” I rubbed my hand over my face. “I’m buying you all one-pieces. No more fucking bikinis.” Goddamn it.
She smiled. “Are you done?”
“No.” Fuck me. “Does Christensen know about this place?” Had she fucking come here with him alone?
She was nodding before I got the last word out. “Of course. He helped me find it, and I wouldn’t consider a place without him seeing it first.”
My expression must’ve given me away.
She laughed again, completely ignoring the fact we had a perfectly good condo that didn’t need a bulldozer to fix it. “Neil knows a thing or two about construction. I wanted to make sure this was a good investment. Now, are you ready to stop being jealous and see the best part?”
“There’s a best part to this fucking dump? Shit, woman. You forgetting we have an oceanfront condo?”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” She took my hand again and we stepped out on to the lanai.
To the left was a huge pool. And I do mean fucking huge. It stretched the length of the house and widened at the opposite end where it met the backyard. I’d never thought about a yard, but the immaculate lawn leading down to the beach in front of me suddenly had me thinking about it. Green grass, palm trees, an outdoor kitchen and a covered lanai. I had to admit it was a fucking spectacular yard.
Brooke nudged me. “You’re not saying anything.”
“Wow.” I could throw a football with Mav out here.
She giggled. “Nice, right?”
It was more than nice. It made up for the whole damn dump of a house. I looked down at her and cut to the chase. “How much?” I wasn’t fucking blind, I knew why she’d brought me here.
Heat hit her face, big time, then her voice went quiet. “I might’ve already bought it.”
I blinked. Then I blinked again. “You bought a house?” Without me?
She bit her lip. “I’m sorry?”
Jesus Christ. “The sale of the estate went through?” I knew Neil had bought the place from her, but I’d carefully stayed out of it. That money was hers. She’d earned every cent living under that asshole’s bullshit for so long. I could afford to give us a good life. She and Mav wouldn’t want for anything. I figured if she decided to do anything with the money, she’d tell me. I just wasn’t expecting… this.
I didn’t know what the fuck to think, until I looked down and saw her expression for what it was.
Nerves.
She’d brought me here because she wanted me to like the place.
I glanced back at the house.
I hated it. But the yard, the view? Fuck, it was perfect.
She gestured toward the back wall of the house, then words started flying out of her mouth. “We can open this all up. Put sliders the whole length of the living room and in the bedrooms and it’ll open it up, and every room can have views of the pool and ocean. You and Neil can work on it on the weekends, but it’s totally livable right now as it is, we can make do. And Mav will love this pool and this yard, and maybe we can get a dog. And Neil said he could have some of his workers help, and maybe your friends can pitch in too. And oh, Garrett, I think it’ll be so perfect. It’s a home.” She stopped for a breath. “It’s a real home.” She got even quieter. “We’ll have a home.”
I stepped toward her and pulled her into my arms. “You’re my home.” She always had been, since I first laid eyes on her.
Her eyebrows drew together. “You don’t like it?”
“It’s fucking perfect.” I kissed her once. “Just like you.”
THANK YOU!
Thank you so much for reading MERCILESS! If you were interested in leaving a review on any retail site, I would be so appreciative. Reviews mean the world to authors, and they are helpful beyond compare!
And make sure to check out the other books in the Alpha Bodyguard Series!
SCANDALOUS
RECKLESS
RUTHLESS
Have you read the sexy Alpha Escort Series?
THRUST—Alex’s story
ROUGH—Jared’s story
GRIND—Dane’s story
Have you read the Uncompromising Series?
TALON
NEIL
ANDRÉ
BENNETT
CALLAN
Turn the page for a preview of SCANDALOUS, RECKLESS and RUTHLESS, the other exciting books in the Alpha Bodyguard Series!
SCANDALOUS
Bodyguard.
Babysitter.
Chauffeur.
Not what the hell I thought I’d be doing with my life.
Especially not for a spoiled Hollywood actress on location in Miami Beach. But triple pay and carrying a gun had its advantages. I’d shove away paparazzi and screaming fans for a lot less. The Marines trained me to be Force Recon—intimidation and crowd control was child’s play compared to four tours. This assignment should’ve been easy money.
But the doe-eyed starlet with the perfect ass dragged me down her rabbit hole. Living for the spotlight, she leaked the perfect scandal. I warned her making headlines wasn’t in my job description, but she kept smiling for the cameras.
Now she was going to find out just how scandalous a bodyguard could be.
*SCANDALOUS is a sexy new standalone book in the Alpha Bodyguard Series.
The Alpha Bodyguard Series:
SCANDALOUS
RECKLESS
MERCILESS
RUTHLESS
RECKLESS
Bodyguard.
Escort.
Bad boy.
I didn’t come from the wrong side of the tracks. I was the wrong side. Every cliché you could think of, my family embraced. The only advantage I had was being the best-looking out of all my brothers. Except when I joined the Marines, looks didn’t count for shit downrange.
I wasn’t active duty anymore, and working for the best personal security firm in the business, my looks were getting me in more trouble than they were worth. I just didn’t realize how much trouble until a princess from a country I’d never heard of asked for me by name. Her request was simple—me, my gun, and an art opening. But she recklessly failed to mention one crucial part of the assignment… pretend to be her new fiancé.
Now she was about to find out how reckless a bodyguard could be.
The Alpha Bodyguard Series
SCANDALOUS—Tank’s story
MERCILESS—Collins’s story
RECKLESS—Tyler’s story
RUTHLESS—Sawyer’s story
RUTHLESS
Bodyguard.
Protector.
Security Detail.
I wasn’t supposed to join the Marines and serve three tours. I’d been groomed to be another kind of warrior. Since I could walk, I’d been primed to take over the family business. Build the real estate empire bigger, ruthlessly fight my way to the top—make everyone richer.
Instead, I’d enlisted. Wanting to protect my country, not a bank account, I’d turned my back on the family business and given the Marines eight years. Now I was a bodyguard for the best persona
l security firm in the business, and life was perfectly uncomplicated… until an innocent redhead smiled at me and destroyed everything.
Now she was about to find out how ruthless a bodyguard could be.
The Alpha Bodyguard Series
SCANDALOUS—Tank’s story
MERCILESS—Collins’s story
RECKLESS—Tyler’s story
RUTHLESS—Sawyer’s story
Coming Soon—Look for HARD LIMIT,
the first book in the exciting new Alpha Antihero Series!
HARD LIMIT
One fucking breath.
That’s all I needed.
Air in my lungs so I could exhale through the pain.
My ribs broken, my face in the mud, one leg useless, I tried and failed to lift my head. Mosquitoes swarmed, and the sun dropped. I wasn’t gonna die out here. No fucking way. I was Tarquin Scott, and that was a hard limit.
But then I heard her voice, angel soft and breathless, and I wondered if I’d been kidding myself. I didn’t have time to figure it out. A small hand landed on my back, and I fisted my bloody knife.
I wasn’t gonna die tonight. But someone else was.
*HARD LIMIT is the first book in the Alpha Antihero Series.
The Alpha Antihero Series
HARD LIMIT
HARD JUSTICE
HARD SIN
Sometimes, writing the acknowledgements is the hardest part of writing a book for me. How do you thank all the people who helped you become who are? Who helped mold and shape you into the person you were meant to be? Two words never seem like enough.