by Mari Carr
Silas harrumphed. “The wrinkles, you mean. Those are what happen when you have kids. Must’ve told Lucy and Colby a thousand times when Hope and Austin were growing up, we should have just gotten a couple of house cats and called it good enough.”
Seth took a big swig of beer. “Seems kind of strange to be on the other side of all that, doesn’t it? My kids worried the hell out of me when they were younger. Now…I’ve been thinking about JD and Vicky a lot lately. Thinking about how they must have felt after all of us were hitched up. Especially as I’ve watched James and Sienna and Doug fall in love and settle down, watched Sienna become a mother and seen how she raises her own kids. You spend so much time worrying about them when they’re young, then holding your breath as they become adults and get their hearts stomped on a few dozen times, always hoping they’ll bounce back and find their footing again. Lately, I just look at who they’ve become and think, how the hell did I manage to raise these three amazing people?”
Sawyer, ever the joker, reached for the big bag of chips at his feet and popped one in his mouth. “You didn’t do that. Jody did. Jody and good genes.”
Seth chucked one of Hope’s homemade chocolate chip cookies at Sawyer, who caught it just before it smacked him in the face and took a big bite.
Silas tossed another log on the fire. “We gave our folks a run for their money too when we were younger. Four arrogant pups who thought they knew everything.”
Sam snorted. “We didn’t know a damn thing back then.”
“You can say that again.” Seth tugged off his hat, toying with the brim. “I hope JD would have been as proud of our kids as I am.”
“He would have been.” There wasn’t a hint of doubt in Sam’s voice.
Silas agreed. “Hell, he’d have been over the moon with that lot, riding in that big rig with Austin on his runs.”
“So he could brag about his grandson Bryant’s amazing irrigation system,” Sam added. “He’d be preaching that to ranches all over the country like the gospel.”
Sawyer chuckled. “And twenty buck says he would have wanted to jump out of a plane into one of James’s fires or chase one of Doug’s tornadoes.”
Silas rubbed his chin. “I miss him.”
None of the others replied, though they all nodded.
“And Jake,” Sam added after a minute or so. “Been a rough year without him. Didn’t realize how much I relied on that guy. Still catch myself walking out to the barn or to his cabin at least two or three times a week to talk to him.”
“I do the same thing,” Seth admitted.
Silas cleared the lump forming in his throat. “That’s how life works. Old ones die, young ones fall in love, babies come along. One big compass directing us down a million different paths at once, yet somehow…”
“They all lead us back home,” Seth added.
Silas nodded slowly. His brothers got it. They always got it. And it seemed they’d all been able to impart the same lessons JD and Vicky and Jake had passed on to them to their own kids.
Compass Ranch was home.
Their home.
And it always would be.
We hope you enjoyed the last Compass book! While it’s very sad to leave the Comptons forever, don’t despair! Meet your next family! The Collins clan. Now is a great time to check out Mari’s latest series, Wilder Irish, featuring a big family from Baltimore, an Irish pub, sexy heroes, and smart, sassy heroines. January Girl is available now!
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Read on for an excerpt from Mari’s book, January Girl.
She’s sleeping with the enemy…
“I think perhaps you should move on. The lady told you it’s over.”
Caitlyn was startled when Lucas decided to enter the conversation. She assumed he would move on at the first sign of Sammy’s drama. For some strange reason, knowing he was there allowed her to calm down. While she was fairly certain her punch wouldn’t leave a mark, Lucas Whiting looked the type to do some serious damage to Sammy. Which was exactly what she wanted.
“Who are you?” Sammy kept his tone fairly non-confrontational. Probably because he was smart enough to take one look at Lucas and know he wouldn’t win in a physical fight against the man.
“I’ll tell you who I am. I’m your worst nightmare if you don’t get out of this pub and leave this woman alone.”
Sammy blinked a couple times, no doubt trying to figure out if he’d heard what he thought he’d heard. Dumbass actually looked at her for help, and it took all the strength she had not to roll her eyes.
“Go home, Sammy. Don’t come back.”
The air seemed to seep out of him as Sammy held her gaze a second longer. And then, he turned to leave.
She twisted back toward Lucas, grinning despite her annoyance with basically everything at the moment. “What the hell was that? It was like you were channeling Liam Neeson or something for a second. I will find you. I’m your worst nightmare,” she mimicked in a deep, deadly voice.
Lucas didn’t look her way, didn’t even acknowledge her joke. Instead, he continued to watch Sammy’s retreating form.
Caitlyn saw her ex walk out of the pub. Then she glanced toward the bar. Very little happened that Uncle Tris didn’t see or hear. He stared at her for a second. She gave him a covert wink to let him know she was fine. Regardless, his face remained stoic before he gave her a subtle nod.
He was going to leave her alone. For now. But she didn’t fool herself into believing he wasn’t going to be watching her like a hawk as long as she was talking to Lucas Whiting.
“Thank you for stepping in to help,” she said, her gaze slipping to the door to her apartment. She was so close. To pajamas and a glass of wine and repeats of Lucifer on TV.
“Is my chivalry enough to convince you to join me for a drink?”
She glanced back at his table, surprised to find it unoccupied. “What happened to your friends?”
“They’re business associates. And our meeting is over. They’ve gone home to their wives.”
He gestured toward a chair and she gave in. Tiredness gave way to curiosity.
“No wife for you?”
He shook his head. “Would I invite you for a drink if there was?”
“The idiot you just kicked out of here was coming home to me after work. When he beat me there, he decided it would be a good idea to invite another woman to our bed. You’ll forgive me if I’m not super trusting.”
“I’m not married. Not engaged. Not living with or seriously dating anyone.”
Caitlyn found herself trying to figure out Lucas’s age. He had one of those faces that made it virtually impossible to guess. Not that she’d have to wonder for long. No doubt there was plenty of information about him on the Internet. She could discover that answer in one quick Google search on her phone.
“Divorced?” she asked.
“No.”
She realized they’d sort of started this conversation in the middle, so she thought she’d try to drag them back a few steps to the beginning. “I’m Caitlyn Wallace, by the way.”
His expression gave her no clue as to whether or not he recognized her name. If he’d done any research at all on the pub, he would have certainly come across her mother’s name.
Pop Pop and her grandma Sunday had raised their seven children in the upstairs apartment Caitlyn was sharing with her cousins, in addition to running the pub and restaurant below. As they became adults, Tris took over the pub half of the business with Pop Pop while her mom, Keira Wallace, and Uncle Ewan ran Sunday’s Side.
“Lucas Whiting.”
“I know.”
For the first time, she saw just the trace of a smile on his face. It made him appear almost human.
“The man who just left—”
“Sammy,” she added.
“Former boyfriend or husband?”
“Ex-boyfriend. It’s been a small consolation knowing that at least I was smart enough not to marry him.”
“He asked?”
She shook her head. “Actually, no. He didn’t.”
Sammy was the last thing Caitlyn wanted to talk about tonight. Especially with Lucas Whiting. “Do you do a lot of business in pubs?”
Lucas lifted one shoulder casually. “Depends on the business.”
Hello, Mr. Vague. She probed for more. “Okay. So what was tonight’s pub-worthy business?”
“Real estate acquisition.”
Fucker was good. He gave nothing away.
“Can I get you all something to drink?” Ailis was looking at Caitlyn curiously.
“I’ll have another Guinness. Caitlyn?”
“I’ll have the same. Thanks.” She hoped her cousin wouldn’t say anything to reveal her identity. The lawyer in her was determined to get to the truth in Lucas’s short answers.
Ailis paused for just a second, but when Caitlyn didn’t look at her or say more, she turned for the bar.
“I can’t imagine there’s much real estate left in Baltimore your family doesn’t already own.”
Lucas’s gaze held hers intently. “There’s always more to buy.”
His response tweaked her for some reason.
“What if someone doesn’t want to sell to you?”
His eyes narrowed the tiniest bit. Someone who was paying less attention wouldn’t have even noticed, but Caitlyn had locked onto him. Her words had triggered something. Shit. She’d shown her hand. Revealed herself.
“Everyone has a price.”
Her family didn’t. Not when it came to this business. It wasn’t just the Collins’s livelihood. It was their home, their legacy to future generations. In some ways, the pub felt like the heartbeat of the family, the one thing that kept them all tied together.
“So no one has ever said no to you?”
For the first time, Lucas grinned. Caitlyn’s response shook her. She was torn between running away from the hungry wolf and baring her neck to the beast.
Oh shit.
He leaned closer to her, his dark eyes penetrating, missing nothing. His expression seemed to say he knew she wouldn’t say no to him.
Her pussy clenched, and she felt a trickle of wetness between her legs. What the hell was going on? Lucas shot one sexy freaking look at her and she was ready to tear off her clothes? It was definitely time to start dating again. Her hormones had decided to make a comeback…with a vengeance.
She tried to imagine what Lucas would look like without his shirt on. Did he have any tattoos? His thick, muscular arms seemed made for ink.
“What do you think?” he murmured.
About the tattoos? It took her a moment to stop undressing him with her eyes and recall her original question.
She’d asked if anyone ever said no to him.
“I don’t know.” She hated the almost breathless quality in her voice.
Her cheeks heated under his intense gaze, and she feared she was blushing. Lucas wasn’t even bothering to hide his attraction to her. His eyes darted down to her breasts, and the shadow of his grin reappeared.
She averted her eyes when it became impossible to hide her own unwanted desires. Unfortunately, looking down only made it apparent that her nipples were poking through her blouse. They’d tightened the moment she sat down at the table and gotten a whiff of his musk cologne. Which meant Lucas knew exactly what effect he was having on her.
“People say no to me all the time, Caitlyn.”
Her gaze lifted as she wondered if she would have the strength to deny him. In her mind, she could imagine him bidding her to strip, to kneel, to bend over the table. And she didn’t doubt for a second she would comply. “People,” she murmured. “Women?” The question slipped out unbidden.
Lucas parted his lips to speak, but she shook her head to cut him off.
“I didn’t mean…never mind.” She was babbling like an idiot. Time to get her shit together. “When people say no, when they turn down your offer, do you walk away?”
Lucas looked like he wanted to respond to her foolish slip of the tongue. She was grateful when she let her attempt to return them to safer ground stick. He tilted his head. “I never walk away. As I said, there’s always a bottom line.”
Caitlyn tried to recall the last time she’d felt this far out of her league. Years spent in her legal practice had honed her skills, her ability to stand up to even the most vicious of bullies. The problem was Lucas didn’t strike her as a bully.
He felt more like—she swallowed heavily—a Dom.
And she was terrified he’d find a way to look deep inside her and see the one thing she really did not want Lucas Whiting to see.
Her mother had told her once that the worst thing a person could do was hide their true personality, to deny who they were, to try to conceal the one thing that made them beautiful, made them special.
Her mother knew who Caitlyn was. She knew it because they were the same underneath the skin. Mom had always seen, always tried to encourage Caitlyn in very subtle ways to accept her submissiveness. To embrace it and not view it as a weakness.
Caitlyn continually struggled with that acceptance, and she’d never had any difficulty keeping the trait hidden from pretty much everyone.
Until now.
The problem was Lucas was looking at her too closely. His body language, his carriage, the way he held himself, God, everything about him was luring her closer to the fire.
She pressed her legs together tightly, desperate to stop the sudden pulsing of her inner muscles that were screaming for sex. She needed to get a grip, needed to break free of…whatever this was. Lucas Whiting was the enemy, a threat to her family’s livelihood. The thought of her family helped her find her bearings.
“I disagree about the bottom line. Some things simply can’t be bought. For any price.”
Lucas didn’t bother to argue with her. His cool expression made it perfectly clear he thought he was right and she was wrong. His haughty attitude tweaked her.
“What do you do for a living, Caitlyn?”
“I’m a lawyer.”
“Criminal or civil?”
“Civil. I have my own practice.” She’d nearly said the name of her firm, but stopped short. Lucas might not recognize the name Wallace, but there was no way in hell he didn’t know the Collins family owned this pub.
“Large firm?”
“No. Small. Just my cousin and I, though recently we’ve started putting out feelers, looking to expand, perhaps add another attorney or two.”
“So business is good.”
“Yes. It is. We work with lower-income families, senior citizens.”
“I see.”
“I primarily deal with property disputes, landlord and tenant issues, immigration. My cousin works more with divorce and child-custody type cases.”
“So you’re not ambulance chasers.”
She shook her head and grinned. “No. We’re not.”
Ailis returned and placed their pints of beer on the table. Tris must have clued her cousin into the fact that Caitlyn was up to something, because she simply said she’d check on them in a bit and moved on to deliver drinks to the table next to them.
If they were counting on Caitlyn for information, they were going to be sorely disappointed. She was striking out. Big time.
She glanced toward the door to her apartment again. This game of cat and mouse had her on edge. And horny as hell.
She’d joined Lucas intent on discovering his secrets. Instead, it felt as if he was uncovering hers.
Caitlyn needed to move the conversation away from herself. Lucas was too good at dodging her questions, making her forget why he was here. “Was your meeting tonight successful? Were you able to buy what you wanted?”
“Not y
et. We’re in the beginning phases of the project.”
“What does that involve?”
Lucas took a sip of beer and leaned back in his chair. “Research.”
Caitlyn fought to control her temper—and the niggling bit of fear—his words provoked. He still wanted to buy Pat’s Pub. There wasn’t any doubt in her mind. What she couldn’t tell was if he knew who she was, if he was baiting her, using her as part of that so-called research.
With her family’s livelihood on the line, Caitlyn found herself better able to snuff out her ill-advised, unwanted attraction to Lucas. “Sounds like we’re similar souls. I know quite a bit about research myself.”
Her tone was more threatening than she’d intended, but she refused to cower, refused to let Lucas think he had the upper hand.
It was obvious her sudden aggression caught him off guard, making her think, once again, that he didn’t have a clue who she was.
He recovered quickly. Damn him. “Tell me about yourself, Caitlyn.”
She took a deep breath. Clearly, she still had a shot at trying to figure out his intentions. “I’m not sure what there is to tell. I think we pretty much covered all the bases already. I’m a lawyer. I’m single. And I have shitty taste in men.”
Lucas chuckled, and she couldn’t help but think it sounded rusty. Was this guy always so serious?
“I’m curious what the attraction was between you and Sammy. He doesn’t seem like your type.”
She frowned. “We’ve known each other approximately twenty minutes. How do you know what my type is?”
“You don’t make it very far in my line of business without paying attention to details. You studied law. I study people.”
Caitlyn felt compelled to push Lucas’s buttons. The man seemed unshakable. Which made her long to rattle him. “You can’t figure someone out in just twenty minutes.”
“Sammy is weak.”
She shrugged. “So?”
“So that’s not what you want. What you need.”
The way he said the word “need” had her chest going tight with fear…and, God help her, longing. “You have no idea what I need.” She’d meant to put some power, some strength behind her assertion. Instead, the words came out in a whisper that belied them.
