I rounded the couch to move closer to him. “I won’t be in the field, but I also won’t deny you if you need me. Which is another reason I want them here, not me somewhere else, where you might not be able to get to me. Our family belongs together.”
Levi resumed his pacing, and I waited. In reality it didn’t matter if we agreed or not. This house, like the company, had been divided equally between the three of us. But I wouldn’t bring Leah and Brooke here if they were unwanted; they didn’t deserve that.
“You’re planning to marry her?” Levi asked. With his back to me, his opinion of that wasn’t clear, but my answer was.
“As soon as she’ll have me.”
He reached the end of his path, turned, and stopped. His expression was grim, but the harder I looked, the clearer it became that it was worry riding him, not resentment. I wish I could help him see that the worry for this family wasn’t all on his shoulders. We shared that responsibility, but Levi wouldn’t accept that. He never had.
“Bring them here, then.”
I snorted. “I’d fucking love to make that happen. Just got to get Leah to agree.”
Levi glanced at the ceiling, toward his own feminine half. “Good luck with that.”
I thought about asking if everything was all right between the two of them, but my brother would just clam up if I did. Making a mental note to catch Abby alone tomorrow for a little interrogation, I moved into Levi’s space and gave him a hard hug before slapping him on the back. “I might need it, bro. Thanks.”
∞
“That’s ten!” Brooke squealed as she gathered the green and red cards from the center of the table and added them to the stack in front of her.
“How can that be ten?” I protested. “How can ‘kitten’ win if the category is ‘scary’?”
Brooke shrugged. “Ask Mommy.”
“It’s the crab apple version,” Leah explained. On the side that Brooke couldn’t see, she winked my way. “Go with it.” To Brooke, “Time for bed!”
Well, if game over meant time for bed…
After much grumbling, Brooke was hustled into the shower. She came to find me in the kitchen when she was finished, her pink pj’s with the rainbow-horned unicorns snug around her. “Remi, will you brush my hair?”
I set the last plate from dinner in the dishwasher before drying my hands on the towel tucked into my hip pocket. “You want me to brush your hair?” That didn’t sound as panicked as I thought, did it? “What about Mommy?”
Leah’s smirk told me the panic was loud and clear. “She wants you, big guy.”
“Yeah, you, Remi. Please?”
I groaned. Who could resist that face? I was a killer, for fuck’s sake. Why was it so hard to tell this child no? What if I pulled her hair? Would she cry? The thought of those blue eyes filled with tears clenched my gut in a way I’d never have admitted to six months ago.
I passed the towel to Leah. “Okay, little one, your choice.”
Leah took the towel. I was a few steps away when she used it to snap my ass. “Start from the bottom.”
She was laughing at me. Prowling back to her, I corralled her against the sink and gave her a quick, hard kiss. “You’ll regret that later,” I warned her quietly.
“I doubt it,” she said, laughing out loud this time.
In the living room I sat on the floor with Brooke between my legs. “Okay, here we go.” Very, very gently I brought the brush to the bottom of her long, wet blonde hair and began to work out the tangles. To my surprise, it wasn’t as hard as I’d expected. Leah had explained the wonders of conditioner to me—something my brothers and I’d had no need of—but I hadn’t quite believed her until now. Soon I was taking long, smooth strokes through Brooke’s semidry hair as she propped her head on her arms on the table in front of her. A few minutes later, when Leah came in from the kitchen, I gathered Brooke’s drooping body in my arms and carried her to her bedroom so Leah could tuck her in.
By the time Leah rejoined me in the living room, my heart had begun a hard thud that echoed in my ears.
“Come back here with me?” she asked, holding out her hand. I followed her to the “master suite,” a bedroom not much bigger than Brooke’s but with a full bath attached. My shoes had been kicked off earlier, and now I piled up at the head of Leah’s queen-size bed, pillows at my back, to watch her change.
After stripping her T-shirt off, she unclipped her bra and slid it down her arms. “I really need to look into getting a bigger bed,” she said, eyeing me.
“Why?” I asked absently, my focus on her naked skin. I knew why—because my feet hung off the end if I laid down next to her in the bed—but I didn’t want her buying a new bed. I wanted her in mine.
“Because that one is too small.” Tossing aside her pants, she glanced around. “Not that a king would leave much room to walk in here.”
She reached for a T-shirt I was pretty sure I’d left here a couple of weeks ago. I held out my hand. “Com’ere.”
Leah looked at me from under her lashes, a sly smile tugging at her lips. My gut tightened immediately. Planting her hands on the end of the bed, she began a slow crawl toward me that had my mouth going dry and needy. Round breasts dangled from her body, perfect for my hands, and that ass—
“Get up here, lev sheli,” I demanded hoarsely.
She paused. “Why?”
I put a bit more growl into my words. “Get up here or that punishment I promised you will become reality.”
She sat back on her heels.
I pounced.
The shift of Leah’s laughter to soft moans as I flipped her onto her back and sucked a pink nipple into my mouth made the animal in me long to break free, but I forced him back. Just for a few minutes. I was already desperate to lose myself in her body, just as I had been time and again the past few weeks, but there was something else I needed so much more. And I wasn’t about to let myself get distracted.
I pulled away, gliding my teeth along her nipple as I went. Leah gasped my name.
“I need to tell you something,” I said, that loud thud returning to my ears. I shifted to my side next to her, intertwined our legs, and stared down, unable to believe this moment was finally here.
“Yeah?” Leah stroked her thumb along my wet lips. “Me too.”
What? “What did you need to talk to me about?”
But she shook her head, eyes full of mysteries. “You first.”
“All right.” I guessed. Where had all the moisture in my mouth run off to? “I’m taking a job at Hacr as head of security.”
“Yeah?” She shifted up onto her elbow. “Why?”
Yeah, why? “Because…” I swallowed back the drumming of my heart in my throat. How the hell did men do this? “Because I want you to move in with me, Leah. You and Brooke. I want to be everything you need me to be.” I took her hand, staring at our entwined fingers, needing something, anything to focus on. “Please say yes.”
She was quiet so long that I swore the silence would crush my soul. Just as I gathered a scrap of strength to get up, walk away, Leah laid back on the bed and reached up to trace the line of my jaw. Gripped the back of my neck and pulled me to her. Kissed me sweetly but thoroughly on the lips.
I started to breathe again.
“You don’t have to be anyone else to be who I need,” she said.
I met her deep brown eyes, so like her daughter’s. A warm glow waited for me there. “I could never be good enough to deserve you.”
“Wrong.” She tugged her bottom lip between her teeth, worrying it for a moment. “I’m not going to lie and say this hasn’t taken some getting used to, but Remi, I want you for you, not anything else. Is this job what you want?”
“Yes.” Because it might give me her.
“Then congratulations.” She kissed me again, lingering this time, seeming to savor the contact as much as I did. Only when we pulled back did my brain kick in and remember something important.
“Will you move in
with me?”
A blush trailed across her cheeks, sweetly pink and glowing. “About that…”
I traced a finger across the soft color. “Yeah?”
“It would probably be a good idea.”
I frowned at her. “Why is it a good idea? I mean, I know why I think it’s a good idea, but...”
I stopped as the color in her face got brighter. “Because it’s usually good for two parents to live in one place.”
My frown got deeper. “What?” I was coming to love Brooke as my own, but I didn’t think Leah was referring to her daughter. “I don’t—”
A snort of laughter escaped her. Placing a hand on my chest, she pushed me back until she could roll on top of me. My hands went automatically to her breasts, my dick swelling as she settled above me.
“Jeremiah.”
“Yeah,” I said, admittedly distracted.
Leah pressed her breasts harder into my hands, humming her pleasure. “I’m pregnant.”
I dropped my hands like her breasts were hot coals. A rush of air filled my ears, blocking out everything but the echo of those two words in my mind. I’m pregnant. I’m pregnant. I’m pregnant. “What?” I croaked.
Sitting up, Leah straddled my hips and pulled my hands up to cover her naked breasts again. Hard nipples jutted against my palms. “I’m pregnant, Remi.”
“Holy shit.” What the hell had happened to my lungs? Why couldn’t I get air?
I swear I blacked out, something I doubted Leah would ever let me forget. And if my brothers found out? But fucking A, a baby? A— Jesus.
I wasn’t sure how I got there, but the next thing I knew, I was on all fours over Leah’s body, my gaze riveted on her belly. “Are you sure?”
Her hands stroked softly over my shoulders, and I had the feeling she was trying to calm me before I had a heart attack. Too fucking late for that.
“I’m sure.”
I’m sure. I closed my eyes, letting the word sink deep into my heart, into that place where only Leah had ever entered.
A baby.
I opened my eyes. My clothes went flying.
“Remi!” Leah was giggling, scooting back from the frenzy. I yanked the last sock off my foot, scrambled after her, and was tucking my hard cock into her body before she had time to get away.
“Oh!”
She arched back, her legs opening to let me in, her breasts bouncing as I entered her. The most beautiful sight I’d ever seen. The sexiest woman I’d ever known—and she was carrying my baby.
“This is going to be fast, lev sheli,” I growled.
“Yes. Fast.” Leah’s smile could light up the world. “Take me, Jeremiah.”
I did.
∞
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∞
Before you go…
You met King and Charlotte in ASSASSIN'S HEART. Now read their story.
DENY ME
Southern Nights: Enigma 4
King Moncrief walked away from a life of privilege and wealth—and the woman he loved—to answer the call to serve, first as a cop, then as a security specialist for JCL Securities. Helping is in his blood, but it can’t keep him warm at night. Not when dreams of what could have been, what will never be, leave him cold to the core.
Charlotte Alexander lost the two most important things in her life just out of high school: her childhood sweetheart and her only chance at having a child. Now her energy is poured into the charity she founded, Creating Families, helping low-income couples achieve their dream of adopting. But something isn’t right at CF, and when Charlotte is targeted by a killer, there’s only one place to turn.
Back to the past. To the man who walked away. The man she denied but never forgot.
∞
* * * One-click your copy of Deny Me on September 30th! * * *
∞
Chapter One
The trailer park was definitely on the wrong side of the tracks, but Charlotte Alexander had never cared. She’d been here numerous times—to pick Becky up for appointments, drop her off afterward, to bring groceries or paperwork or supplies she’d stocked for the baby’s arrival. Three weeks. That’s how close they were to delivery. The couple planning to adopt Becky’s baby were ecstatic.
Tomorrow they’d be heartbroken.
This afternoon the dilapidated state of the white and rust trailer served to remind Charlotte of everything that was at stake, not just for the baby but for Becky. She parked her car in the patchy grass in front of the girl’s home, her gaze falling on shiny chrome and slick paint. A motorcycle gleamed in the weak sunlight filtering through the pines overhead. A very expensive motorcycle. She didn’t know enough about brands to identify it, but the sheer power in its body screamed money. Something Becky and her family didn’t have.
Or shouldn’t.
Her belly twisted as she stared at the machine, beautiful in comparison to the old pickup next to it, the neglected home beside it. Only one person in that trailer could drive a bike that size—Becky’s father, Richard Jones. Big and mean, he’d intimidated Charlotte from the get-go, but because she was helping get Becky’s baby “out of my goddamn house,” as he put it, Richard had kept his distance. Today might not go as well, but intimidated or not, Charlotte needed answers. Needed to make sure Becky and the baby were all right.
Taking a deep breath for courage, she pushed open her car door on the exhale and stepped out. Her heel sank into the red clay soil as she put her weight on it. There’d been no time to change after the late lunch she’d hosted with potential contributors earlier, and she was highly conscious of the luxury inherent in her dress clothes as she crossed the stubby grass toward rickety wooden stairs leading to the front door. Her usual daily uniform—dress slacks and button-downs—worked for the office and interacting with both less fortunate girls and couples from all walks of life, but schmoozing those in her social circle for funding was a fact of life she’d accepted long ago. And moneyed contributors preferred moneyed directors; hence, the fancy clothes.
Right now, though, the same clothes that helped draw large donations underscored the vast ravine between her life and sixteen-year-old Becky’s, something she never wanted to rub in the girl’s face. Today she had no choice.
The rail wobbled as she grabbed it on the first step up the stairs. When her foot landed on the second step, the sound of the chain lock sliding reached her ears. She paused in her climb.
The door cracked open a few inches. Becky’s features were pinched as she peered out of the narrow opening. “What are you doing here?”
The whispered words carried the rasp of fear. Anxiety was etched into the dark circles under her tired eyes, and a faint purple bruise marred her cheekbone.
“Becky, hon...” Instinctively her hand rose, needing to touch the girl, to reassure her. To yank her from the trailer and carry her far away where she’d never have to worry about being hit again. “Are you okay?”
“You shouldn’t be here, Charlotte.” Tears welled, but Becky sniffed them away. “You need to go. Now.”
“Come with me.”
The door opened a few more inches, allowing the swell of Becky’s belly to push through. Charlotte had walked beside the girl every step of the way after she’d come to Creating Families to talk about giving her child up for adoption. She’d watched that mound go from a tiny swell to a basketball. Taking a personal interest in the women who came to her organization was a point of pride with Charlotte. They didn’t only care for the babies they helped adopt—caring for the mothers, during and long after their pregnancies, helping them build new lives for themselves, was a hallmark of Creating Families’ work. But she’d always had a special place in her heart for Becky, maybe because the girl reminded her of herself
at that age. Of what might have been had the love of her life not walked away without a backward glance.
Had her body not betrayed her.
Shoving the memories away, she gripped the railing hard enough that a splinter sank beneath her skin. “Becky, please. Come with me. He can’t force you—”
“Yes, he can.” A wary glance over her shoulder told Charlotte exactly why Becky was whispering. “I know why you’re here. I know you don’t understand why I’d back out of the adoption. Trust me, if I had any choice, I wouldn’t. But I—”
“Who you talking to?”
The barked question sent a jolt through Becky’s body. Her eyes went wide, her grip tightening on the door just before it was torn from her hand. Richard towered behind her, his unshaven face and stained white tank so cliché Charlotte would’ve laughed if she wasn’t so busy trying not to reveal a hint of fear. The man’s mean eyes narrowed on her, turning her knees to water.
“Why you here, rich bitch?”
Speak, Charlotte. Becky needs you.
“I came to check on Becky.”
A heavy palm landed on Becky’s thin shoulder. The girl jumped. “Nothing for you to check on here, lady.” The man sneered. “We don’t need your charity no more.”
How had such a sweet girl come from this asshole?
“Becky doesn’t—”
“That’s right, she don’t. Her bastard don’t either. She don’t have to go through with no adoption. Now get out of here before I make sure you regret bothering us.”
She glanced toward Becky, whose face had gone sheet-white. Worry for the girl kept Charlotte in place. “Sir, I just want—”
A growl tore from the man’s mouth as he shoved Becky aside. “Get off my property, bitch!”
His bulk pushing onto the stairs caused Charlotte to teeter backward. One heel slipped from the step. For a second she thought she could pull herself back upright, and then she was falling through the air, her stomach lurching at the loss of equilibrium. Pain slammed into her as her butt landed on the concrete pad below the stairs.
Assassin's Heart (Assassins Book 4) Page 19
