by Lexi Blake
“Yeah, well, since then I’ve heard a whole lot about short-term sharing.”
He’d cut a wide swath through Southern Colorado after his time with the SEALs was done. He’d shared women with his friends Logan and Jamie before they’d all settled down and gotten married. Logan was sharing with his best friend and Jamie with his brother, Noah. They had all lucked out. “I found something better than short term. And I’m glad you’ve worked it out with your FBI guys.”
A hint of sadness hit her eyes. “Yes.”
She’d recently adopted a baby. She should be glowing with happiness. He liked Laura. He didn’t like the fact that she wasn’t glowing. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.” She sighed. “Rafe doesn’t seem happy.”
Rafe was the one from the city. Oh, both Rafe and Cam had lived in DC, but Cam was obviously a Southern, small-town boy and Rafe had big city written all over him. “He misses DC?”
“I think he misses the Bureau.”
“Small-town life isn’t for everyone.” He’d worried about Kincaid when he’d waltzed into town. “My wife, sorry, fiancée, she couldn’t live here full time. We can visit, but her ambitions are bigger than a small town can handle. She grew up in one and she needs more now. She needs theaters and art and a thousand restaurants to choose from.”
“What about you? You liked it here.”
He’d loved it in Bliss. But he loved Shelley more. “I’m good. Dallas is cool. We’re talking about buying some land here so we can come up for summers. I want our kids to know this place, to be close to my ma.”
He thought about the future all the time now. Why was Leo looking into the past? Oh, his brother didn’t think he knew about that e-mail he’d received, but Wolf had seen it, read it, and thought about it endlessly.
And found his peace. Somehow, since he’d fallen for that crazy sub of theirs, his peace was easier to find. He hoped his brother had the same serenity he’d found.
Laura took a long sip of her coffee. “What do I do if he’s not happy? How do I handle it if I’m not enough? We adopted a kid. I thought we would be perfect right now.”
He reached out and put a hand on hers. Laura had been a good friend to him. “Kids can be hard. Babies change things. You’re in transition. You’re going from being a trio to being mom and dads.”
God, he wanted that. He was two semesters into his business degree and he would put it all on pause for a rug rat of his own. Or two or three. He wanted a big family, brothers and sisters who could rely on each other, who had a shared history. He didn’t think he would have made it through without Leo. Of course, his kids would be lucky because they would have Chloe and Olivia and Josh. Eventually Ben and Chase and Nat would have kids, too. There would be a gang of kids growing up, forming their own family of brothers and sisters and cousins.
He and Leo had been alone, but their children would have a wealth of love to call on. And so would Laura’s daughter.
“What if we don’t make it?” Laura had gone a tad pale.
“I can’t see that happening. You grow. Every single human being does it. You all have to make the choice to grow together or to grow apart.” He knew what he was going to do. He knew what his role was. He was the in between. Leo had his intellectual pursuits. Shelley had her ambition.
And Wolf was the glue. He wanted his family more than anything else. He was the bridge. If Leo and Shelley were on their own, there was a high probability that they would grow apart and find themselves with a vast distance between them after a few years.
Wolf was going to make sure that didn’t happen. Not ever. He would get his degree. He was dedicated to that, but his chief job in life was to keep them all together. Love took work, and he was a hard worker.
Happily ever after was way easier to achieve with a damn fine work ethic.
“There’s nothing for him to do here in Bliss. I don’t think Rafe is going to be happy being a stay-at-home dad.” Laura sniffled. “You know, I found this calm center of myself about six months after I got here. I thought I would hate it. I only stayed because I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I’d run out of money, out of time, out of everything. Those first couple of months felt like I was in Purgatory. And then I opened my door and I really looked around. The world is softer here. I fell in love with the glow the world has. Why can’t Rafe find it? Cam did. Cam loved this place the minute he walked into it.”
His heart ached for her. “Maybe he needs more time.”
Laura’s head fell forward. “And maybe sometimes love isn’t enough. What am I going to do?”
God, he felt for her. “Well, you need to talk to him, first off. You need to ask him what’s going on. Have you talked to him?”
Laura’s hands were in front of her, clasped together. “I’m scared to.”
“You can’t be. That’s not the way this works. You have to be brave. You have a daughter. There’s no prevaricating now. Ask him.”
She nodded. “You’re right. I need to talk to him.”
And Wolf needed to talk to Leo. About a lot of things. “What’s the whole parenting thing like?”
“I love it.” Now Laura was beaming. “She’s the best thing I ever did. God, Wolf, I want to cry every time I look at her. Not in a bad way. Like, in a momentous way. I hold her and I know why I was put here. I was born to be her mom. And when I see the way Rafe looks at her, I know he feels the same way. Cam laid down at her tiny feet. He’s easy to love. What am I going to do if I can’t have them both? I promised Sierra that her dads would always be here. I know she doesn’t understand a word right now, but I do. I promised her two dads who would love her forever.”
“Then you have to make it happen. He’s not abusive, right?” He would have to step in if he found out Laura was being hurt.
“Of course not. Rafe is the sweetest. He’s just sad and I can’t stand it. And I can’t stand the thought of choosing between this town and my family. What am I saying? This town is my family. I’m choosing between Rafe and my family. Why can’t he see it?”
Why couldn’t Leo see that their family was complete until such time as they chose to add to it? Wolf wanted kids so bad it hurt, but he wasn’t going to force Leo or Shelley to move any faster than they wanted to. “I don’t know, sweetheart, but you need to work it out. That’s your only option.”
And he had to talk to Leo. There was no other choice.
* * * *
“So you regularly go to jail.” It wasn’t a question. Leo was pretty sure it was a simple truth of Max Harper’s life.
“He spend so much times in the jail that we have his orders for food on file. We provide the dinners. I think he get taken in because it be the only time he gets Buffalo wings.” The big Russian bartender put two beers in front of them and a big basket of the aforementioned wings.
Max’s eyes narrowed, and he looked around the bar. “There might be some truth to that, and let’s keep this little fried bit of joy between the three of us.” Max looked back at Leo. “My wife is serious about my cholesterol. I made the horrible mistake of actually following through with the physical, and apparently there’s some difference between good and bad cholesterol and I have the bad shit. So Rach has decided I should be a bunny rabbit. Men need food. Men need meat.”
Leo wasn’t sure Buffalo wings qualified as meat, but Harper seemed to think so. He dug into the fried treats with gusto, stopping only to enjoy his beer. “How do you usually get incarcerated?”
He shrugged. “The normal way. I punch someone and Nate gets pissy about it. I rarely stay overnight. Rye comes and gets me out most of the time. Let me tell you, I like the hell out of Gemma. I don’t care that she’s a lawyer. She’s easily bribable. Callie and Hope used to call Rach no matter what I did.”
“Do you think your violent tendencies come from your childhood?” He would far rather conduct this interview in his office. It would be quiet and serene there. The jukebox was screaming out something about crashing a party,
but Harper seemed to enjoy the chaos.
Harper’s expression turned thoughtful. “I think my violent tendencies come from people being assholes.”
“All right, I’ll rephrase. What was your childhood like?”
His eyes lit up. “Awesome. Rye and I had the run of the mountain. My momma made the best cookies. Me and Rye and Stef, we were mountain men when we were kids. We used to take a tent and sleep up on the mountain. There’s nothing better.”
“What about your father?”
Harper sighed. “He shouldn’t have stayed as long as he did.”
Leo frowned. “That’s an odd statement.”
Harper stopped for a moment as though he was deciding what to say. “He wasn’t cut out to be a father, you know. I think he tried his hardest, but it would have been better for all of us if he’d deserted our momma sooner.”
Leo was confused. “You’re happy he left you?”
“No. I was pissed as shit at the time,” Harper admitted. “But I’m an adult now and things look differently from this side. I loved my momma. She was a good woman. She stood by her man even when she shouldn’t have. Don’t feel sorry for me. It’s not like I didn’t have male role models. I had Hiram and Mel and Bill. Sure, Hi thinks bears are out to get him. Mel hunts aliens and Bill is always naked, but they helped a boy out. I just think Momma could have found someone who would have loved her better.”
“So you knew your mother and father weren’t in love?”
Harper sucked the juice off a wing. “I don’t know that anyone could genuinely love my father. It’s not that he was a complete ass, but he was closed off. I think he cared about my momma, but he didn’t know how to truly love someone.”
“Your mother died when you were young?” He’d heard a couple of stories.
“I was barely eighteen. When Momma died the man who called himself my dad left. He left me and Rye with my sister, Brooke. She was seven at the time. We had to work real hard because we couldn’t let the state come in and take her. But then I met my Rach. Lots of things changed after I met my Rach. Love, really loving a woman and being loved back, that’s the most important thing in the world. My momma was a good woman. She deserved to be some man’s whole world.”
Why the hell was this man insane? He made total sense. He had all the working parts to be a functional man. So why did Max Harper insist on being an asshole?
Maybe he chose to be.
“Leonardo?”
Leo turned his head, following the sound that came from his left. A man stood there. Leo would peg him somewhere in his sixties. He was well dressed, though the clothes were of middling quality. He stared at the man trying to figure out who the hell he was.
“Yes?”
“Leonardo, I’m your father. I thought we could talk.”
Harper pointed a wing his way. “Now we’re getting to the drama. Nice.”
Leo shook his head, hoping he was hallucinating. Maybe the strong odor of Harper’s superhot chicken wings was causing him to see things. Because this shit couldn’t be happening right before his wedding. He had enough to deal with. He didn’t need a long-lost father.
“What do you want?” He stared at the man who had supplied half his DNA. The man didn’t look anything like the father he remembered, but then a young mind could play tricks. Memory was a fragile thing. The man who stood in front of him was so much older than he remembered, his face showing decades of hard living.
A deep frown crossed Robert Meyer’s face. “I told you in my e-mail. I want to talk to my son.”
“I find your timing interesting,” Leo replied.
Max watched the byplay like he was invested in a tennis match. His eyes went from Leo to Robert and back again as he munched down on his precious hot wings. “Do you find it interesting because he doesn’t show back up in your life until you’re about to get married? That’s the worst possible time for extra drama.”
Did he really need Max’s input? “Yes. That was what I meant.”
Max smiled and nodded as though giving them permission to continue. “I found that interesting, too. He’s probably here to blackmail you.”
“I am not.” Robert shook his head, but there was something in his father’s eyes that made Leo think he was lying.
The fucker.
“I only want to talk, Leonardo. I think your mother has been lying to you about me for a long time. Isn’t it time to put the past behind us and be a family again?”
Max pointed a wing at Robert. “You found out how much money he’s worth, didn’t you?” His brow furrowed as he looked to Leo. “You are worth a lot, right? I mean you work for that crazy-rich Julian fellow so you’re bound to be loaded.”
“You work for Lodge? I’ve heard of him.” Robert’s face turned thoughtful. “He’s an interesting man. Your job must be fascinating. You’ve done well for yourself.”
“Cut the crap.” He didn’t feel like playing around. “What do you want? Look, I have no idea what you’ve been doing or where you’ve been. If you have some misconception that Wolf and I have spent our lives wondering about you, you’re wrong. We grew up fine without you. If you have a deep need to reconnect, try me again after the wedding.”
His father’s cheeks flushed a slight red, a sure sign of irritation. This obviously wasn’t going the way he’d planned.
“I think the shrink is trying to tell you to get lost or he’s going to hire me to shove a baseball bat straight up your rear.” Max nodded. “I’ll give a real good rate on that. He was married to Cassidy, right? Real fine lady. Crazy as fuck, but nice.”
“Are you threatening me, you asshole?” His father’s pleasant mask dropped.
Ah, now Leo remembered him.
“Go away. I don’t want to talk to you. I’ve moved on with my life. I suggest you move on with yours. Otherwise, I might have to take Mr. Harper up on his offer.”
Max let out a long sigh. “Please do. Rach won’t let me kill anyone anymore. It’s been months.”
Robert moved back, his mouth a stubborn grimace. “Don’t think this is over.”
He strode out the door.
Max leaned over. “So he e-mailed you? I don’t believe in e-mail. It’s one more way for people to try to get you to do shit for them. You should be like me. Get rid of it and don’t reload it again. I’m off the grid. Well, except for the cell phone. And cable. Can’t miss my shows. But other than that, totally off the grid. Does satellite radio count?”
Leo felt like growling. His father might have walked away long ago, but it looked like Leo couldn’t delete the fucker.
Chapter Five
Aidan, Lexi, and Lucas
Lucas waited patiently as Aidan rode in. He was sitting on top of a gorgeous brown and white mustang, his spine straight, sweat on his brow.
Working man. Cowboy. Sweat and leather. His cock sprang right up at the sight of that gorgeous man.
He needed Aidan because he couldn’t have Lexi. That wasn’t exactly right. He needed Aidan always, but he needed to fuck Aidan right now because he couldn’t have Lexi.
Aidan’s head came up and a smile lit his face. At least he could still make his Master smile.
Aidan brought the horse he was riding to a stop and gracefully dismounted, his body so long and lean that it made Lucas’s mouth water.
Of course after coming close to getting Lexi into bed, his body was primed for sex. He’d been in cock hell ever since that moment when he thought she would take his hand and let him lead her away for a few stolen hours. He’d envisioned laying her out and topping her, ordering her to suck his cock before he tied her up and fucked her six ways from Sunday.
It seemed like forever since he’d gotten to top her. It had been months—since before Daphne had been born, and even then she’d been pregnant. He’d had to be tender and gentle, and sometimes he needed it rough.
“Is something wrong?” Aidan had a tight rein on the lead.
He must look ferocious. Damn. He had to keep a lid on it
or he would scare the fuck out of his Master. He couldn’t let Aidan know how angry he was.
Shove it down. Don’t be a pain. Be helpful. It’s the only way you might have a shot at saving this. “Not at all. I thought I would come out here and see how your day was going.”
“Hey, I’ll put up Ghost for you.” One of Trev’s hands took the reins. “Thanks for all your help, O’Malley.”
Aidan thanked the young man and turned back to Lucas. “Come here.”
Lucas sighed, Aidan’s dark voice making his skin tingle. If he couldn’t dominate, then he would submit. He was a switch, caught in between both worlds, as he always had been. He stepped up, and Aidan immediately threaded a hand into his hair. He kept it longish because he wanted his Master to always have a good hold.
“Do you need something from me, sub?”
He needed far more than he was willing to say. He needed Aidan and Lexi to play their parts, but he couldn’t make waves. Everyone was trying. “I think I need you to clean up, Master. Would you like me to help?”
A smile creased his brow. “I think that’s a fine idea. Where are the kids?”
“Beth and Hope have them over at Hope’s. Their friend Gemma came by and apparently she wants to see if she can stand what she called ‘tiny humans.’”
Aidan looked toward the other house. “I don’t know that I want my children to be someone’s experiment.”
“Please, Master. Hope and Beth will take good care of them. Just an hour, please.” He needed to get out of his head for an hour. Then he could get back to worrying about what the hell was going on with Lexi. His whole world had revolved around her for so long, he wasn’t sure what to do now that she no longer seemed to need him.
He’d made himself indispensable in the beginning. He’d done everything for her. Her car needed gas? Lucas filled the tank. She needed coffee? Lucas ran to get it.
She didn’t even bother to ask now. She had an assistant do it all.
He wasn’t sure what his place was anymore.
