Desert Angel (Family Justice Book 2) (8 page)

“When the hell were you going to tell me that putting those two together in the same room was going to be a problem?

He didn’t say anything right away, which only made his feisty Irish lady go mental on him.

“Oh, my god,” she squealed. “You’re at it again, aren’t you? Alex,” she threatened with a warning bite in her delivery, “enough with the matchmaking. Didn’t what happened with Calder and Stephanie teach you anything?”

Grabbing her by the waist, he spun his outraged fiancée toward him until she collided with his body then quickly took control of the situation by helping himself to a handful of her magnificent ass while grinding his pelvis into hers.

“I’m right about Calder, and you should have a bit more faith in me, woman.”

“How do you figure that?” she quibbled.

“For your information, my lady—Calder going to Aspen is just a pit stop. He’s already got one foot in Atlanta and it’s only a matter of time before he gives in and goes to claim what belongs to him.”

Meghan frowned and made that half-smirk he loved. “Victoria knows nothing about any so-called
foot,
” she drawled, “being in Atlanta. She says Stephanie is putting on a happy face but so far, there is no sign that your uncle has come to his damn senses. I’d say that makes your success rate pretty low.”

He snickered, enjoying how she managed to keep him on his toes with her balls out attitude. Submit to him—she most certainly would—but first, she was going to shoot off a whole litany of comments and innuendos.

“You know,” he drawled while kneading handfuls of her ass, “we may be in the only room in this whole Villa where you haven’t been tied to some furniture and fucked.”

“Alex,” she gasped. “
Shhh!
”

“Hey. It was your idea after all. Too late to feign shyness,” he taunted.

Her eyes flared and she sank into him with a deep sigh. Lowering hers for the briefest moment, she blushed sweetly then met his gaze head-on.

“Yes, well . . . where I envisioned a single scene, you made it an all-day affair.”

Alex chuckled at the erotic memory and leaned in for a nuzzle. She’d wanted to take advantage of their limited privacy before the wedding, and he’d pretty much taken that ball and ran with it. For a hundred-yard touchdown.

The light bondage games they indulged in that he knew she enjoyed offered endless scenarios. When it came time to pick one or two, he’d opted for seven full innings of sexy playtime. Per her stated desires, she’d alternately been bound, blindfolded, and completely sensory deprived with earplugs. A little at a time and all at once. He’d bathed her. Fed her. Teased, fingered, licked, and fucked throughout an entire day.

Recalling the curvaceous beauty tied to a chair in his office, completely naked while he pretended to work, made his cock throb. During that scene, he’d left the blindfold, and instead of the earplugs, he’d filled the room with a Pink Floyd song he’d told her was like an instant hard-on for him.

She sat there, listening and anticipating what was coming next. Watching her nipples pucker, seeing her squirm knowing that she was making the leather seat wet as her excitement built had been deeply satisfying. So too had keeping her hands bound when he pushed her down onto the thick carpet and taken her on her knees.

Coming out of the sexy reverie he grunted, “Maybe, if I’m lucky, Angie will knock Parker the fuck out and they’ll both storm out of here.” He bit her gently under her ear then quickly licked the same spot. “Then I can lay you out with your hands and feet tied to the table and have a private feast. Something sweet, sticky, and delicious.”

Alex delighted in the shudder that rolled through Meghan’s body. He knew that if he continued on, whispering wickedly about her luscious body, he could make her come with just his words. She was that responsive to him.

“Baby,” she whimpered while clutching at his shirt. “Please tell me you know what you’re doing. I like your sister and I know how close you are to Parker.”

Alex sighed. “I’m working off instinct, honey.”

She looked at him skeptically.

“Tell you what,” he urged her with a conspiratorial wink, “when they come back, you watch. Look past the surface stuff and you’ll see. There’s something going on with those two. I don’t know what, but it’s there. You know that part of Angie’s story where she goes to college in D.C.? Well, Parker was the designated family protector while she was spreading her wings. But since then? It’s like they never met. It’s weird.”

“So what? You’re forcing the issue by throwing them together? I don’t know how smart that sounds.”

“It was Angie who suggested she come here now. To help you with the wedding. She knows Parker is part of our life—part of Family Justice. I just figured . . .” He shrugged. “Well, you know.”

Meghan melted against him and offered her mouth in a sexy, wet invasion of tongue and lips that stole his senses.

“Yes, I do know,” she murmured into his chest when the kiss ended. “You want everyone to have what we have.”

“Is that such a bad thing?” he asked. “Look at us . . . it staggers me sometimes. I used to see Cameron and Lacey and think,
why can’t that happen to me?
And then with Draegyn and Tori. Those two are a fucking handful and will supply plenty of fireworks in the years to come but seeing the energy they create? That shit doesn’t come along every day.”

“Energy,” she murmured thoughtfully. “Yes. I know exactly what you mean.”

Something flitted through her expression so fast that he almost missed it, but they didn’t call him the big daddy of the family for no good reason. Alex might not know exactly what that was all about, but he was smart enough to capture the look in his mind so he could go back later to figure it out. He wasn’t considered a master tactician without cause.

If Alex had learned just one thing in his time with Meghan, it was that what was said about women being unpredictable, able to stop on a dime—was absolutely true. His woman excelled at the quick about-face.

“I like when you grab my ass,” she said while wrapping her arms around his neck.

She was fucking perfect.

“I know,” he growled playfully.

She nuzzled her nose against his cheek and breathed hot kisses onto his skin. Putting her lips close to his ear, Meghan sighed, and then murmured, “And Major, I have total faith in you.”

With her fingers speared into his hair, she pressed against him and did a naughty shimmy. “Please tell me you know that.”

He squeezed her ass but good, until she yelped with surprise.

“Mine,” he growled deeply.

She pouted like a pro and gave him a dirty look. “And just because I didn’t actually make the damn dinner doesn’t mean you have to go telling people that!”

Put in his place, Alex roared his approval. Well, she certainly told him!

“Oh, for god’s sake,” a cross sounding voice cut in. “Get a damn room, okay?”

Angie couldn’t believe what was happening. Parker was here, with his head so far up his egotistical ass that it was ridiculous.

And her brother and his woman?
Fuck my damn life,
she thought. Why’d they have to be so . . .
ugh.
There weren’t words to describe Alex and Meghan. Every phrase she entertained became an understatement.

Coming upon the couple wound together in a serious embrace took all the wind out of her sails. Sensing that Parker was a mere step behind her, she couldn’t believe her shitty luck when she quite literally crashed headlong into someone else’s intimate interlude. “Oh, for god’s sake! Get a damn room, okay?” she grumbled quite loudly.

Sulkily pushing past Alex and Meghan, Angie reached for her tumbler and knocked back a healthy mouthful of Jameson as Parker rounded the arched doorway. Dismissing his presence with a grunted “
Hmph,
” she plopped inelegantly down in a chair.

“So . . . are we having dinner or is it pistols at dawn?” Alex asked in a voice dripping with sarcasm.

Meghan, looking bemused, scurried away saying she would pull dinner from the oven. Before disappearing into the kitchen, she called out, “Darling, get Parker a drink, would you.”

Oh, great.
The idea of playing nice made Angie want to scream. Maybe a temporary escape was possible.

“Uh, need help, Red?” she blurted out.

Her chair scraped along the tile floor when she stood and before she moved another inch, Parker was right there, doing that gentlemanly thing. Taking control of the chair, he placed a hand below her elbow for support as she stood. It was a simple, helpful gesture—he would have done the same for any female needing assistance but when his hand cupped her arm, she felt like a balloon with all the air being let out.

“Actually, I’m good,” Meghan quipped with a wave of her hands. “I’ve got this, Ang. You hang out with the guys. Ask Alex to tell you about the new Justice dog program. We’re trying to saddle Parker with a Lab puppy, but so far, he’s resisted!”

Meghan’s laughter continued to ring out after she’d left the room.

“Oh god, would you two give the puppy thing a rest?” Parker groaned. Pushing her chair under the table, he was the epitome of a chivalrous man—considerate and attentive.

His treatment felt familiar, reassuring, and normal. It struck her that it had been a very long time since she had been alone with the older brother she worshipped and his dashing best friend. Being included in their brotherly dynamic was the greatest compliment they could give her.
These two shitheads were her family,
she thought.

Watching silently while Parker and Alex tossed off one-liners and insults with an ease that spoke to the depth of their bond, she took a minute to internally marvel at how fucked up the last ten minutes of her life had been.

Here she was standing alongside a man she honestly thought she’d never speak to again as if nothing unusual was happening when five minutes prior she’d almost torn his face off and the five minutes before that, she’d been so overwhelmed at seeing him in the flesh that she had to run away.

Brought out of her contemplation by a grinning Meghan carrying an enormous stoneware baking dish, she refocused as everyone took a spot at the table and Red drawled, “Delete all previous mention of a brisket.” With everyone’s attention on her, Meghan boomed in a funny Irish brogue, “Ah, a shepherd’s pie, it is then,” she
tsked
with a laugh. And then rather pithily in her usual no-nonsense way added, “And a note from Ria saying she remembered the dish was a particular favorite of Miss Angelina’s.”

“How terribly sweet of her,” she remarked when all eyes turned her way. “It’s the little things that count, sometimes,” she added with some hostile side shade Parker’s way that was unavoidable. “I miss our family cookouts,” she told Alex with a wistful smile. “Remember? When we camped, Mom always made shepherd’s pie with our leftovers. And over a campfire! Amazing.” She chuckled.

“Hey,” Parker exclaimed. Stretching an arm out, he grabbed the back of Meghan’s chair. “Alex, remember the summer we went camping in Colorado and the night our moms got shitfaced and we ate that amazing pot of beans?”

Alex barked a laugh and nodded.

“You were too young to remember this, Angel,” he chuckled, “but dumbass over there,” he said with a dip of his head in Alex’s direction, “and I were fourteen and fifteen so for us, seeing our parents tie one on out in the woods and watching them get silly was quite entertaining.”

Meghan exploded with a hilarious giggle-snort. “Been there! Done that,” she yelped with glee.

“I can’t wait to party with your parents,” Angie told her with relish. “No, seriously. Your mother is fucking hilarious.”

“Anyway,” Parker continued, “there was Aunt Ashleigh and my mom making a simple pot of beans-n-weenies over the campfire. First, there was a metric ton of bacon followed by another half-ton of local handmade hot dogs thrown in the pot. I remember ‘cause Dad insisted the scent of the meat was going to attract animals. He and Uncle Cristián tormented our moms with the threat of bears looming behind every tree.”

“Oh, my god,” Alex chuckled. “I remember that. It was fucking hilarious.”

“Soph, of course, was all of about twelve and already so serious that we started calling her
hospital corners.
She was writing down the recipe as they went along, saying it was for a school project. The beans were added along with a hunk of brown sugar the size of a softball and the pot was set over the fire to cook. Alex’s mom suddenly dumped a container of pineapple chunks into the pot and from there a legend was created! Was the best damn beans-n-weenies ever!”

“I’ve seen that recipe card,” Angie said excitedly. “Sophie is so organized. She has this huge box of loose papers and stuff ripped from magazines of all our family recipes. She called it Hawaiian Cowboy Goo.”

“Well, I thought it was amazeballs,” Alex chimed in. “Of course, we
were
operating with a serious case of the munchies.”

Parker drawled, “It was the Colorado Mountains, after all, and we were set-up on the edge of some old stoner campground so my wingman and I were pretty buzzed.”

Angie giggled when Meghan jerked upright and snarled at Alex. “Excuse me?”