by Lexi Blake
Siren in the City
Texas Sirens Book 2
Lexi Blake
writing as
Sophie Oak
Siren in the City
Texas Sirens Book 2
Published by DLZ Entertainment LLC
Copyright 2018 DLZ Entertainment LLC
Edited by Chloe Vale
ISBN: 978-1-937608-73-6
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.
Dedication
To my first readers, that amazing group of women who never flinch when I ask them to read my books. Kim, Mindy, Britta, and Maggie—I couldn’t ask for a better group of friends. Thanks for everything.
Special thanks to Shayla Black for making this a better book than it was in the beginning.
Updated dedication: to my team on the second edition—Kim, Rich, Dylan, Liz, Stormy, Riane, and Danielle Sanchez and the InkSlinger family. And Margarita Coale, without whom this edition doesn’t exist.
Author Foreword
I’ve had readers ask me why write a second book for Jack and Abby and Sam. I mean, come on, Lexi, they’re happy. Let them be happy. It’s funny how stuff happens in the background the reader doesn’t see. If you look at the publication schedule, Siren in the City is my second published book, but the truth is I wrote Three to Ride, Bound, The Dom Who Loved Me, and Away From Me between Small Town Siren and Siren in the City. I wrote Siren in the City because I missed the characters. I also wrote it because I realized that my lovely threesome was left undone. While Abby had her happily ever after, Sam had only begun to truly find his.
I didn’t actually plan Sam’s confession in the first book. It was one of those things that surprised me as I typed the words. Those are the best surprises—the ones that take the author to a new place she hadn’t expected to go and forces her to look at the characters again. Even in reworking this book, I’ve gotten to take another look at the characters who so shaped the beginning of my career. Though you might not notice it because one is paranormal and this one is contemporary, Siren in the City has a lot in common with Steal the Light. At the heart of both is a hero dealing with trauma by pulling away from his loved ones. This happened to my husband and me. I won’t go into the hows and whys, but I was still dealing with it at the time. My books are my therapy. Like all my characters they are a little bit me, a lot of my husband, and ultimately, they show you who I want to be. Strong like Jack. Brave like Abby. As loyal as Sam. Seven years later, I’m still working on it.
I hope you enjoy this new edition. It’s got insights on how my Texas Sirens characters fit into the Lexiverse, but remember the timing of these books. Siren in the City takes place as a small startup security company is just getting its feet on the ground. So don’t be surprised if this new version includes a young Viking or another twosome who will someday look for one woman to love.
Much love,
Lexi
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Table of Contents
Dedication
Author Foreword
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Author’s Note
An excerpt from Away From Me
Siren Enslaved, Coming Soon
About Lexi Blake
Other Books by Lexi Blake
Chapter One
“Open, Abigail.” Sam Fleetwood’s voice had gone dangerously low.
Abby Barnes sat back. That deep tone of his was a sure sign that her husband number two was rapidly getting irritated with her refusal, but it didn’t matter. She was done taking his crap. It had been going on for far too long. He’d been shoving stuff in her mouth for days. She simply wasn’t taking it anymore. This was her bedroom, not some prison cell. He was her husband, not her jailer. Her hand toyed with the magazine lying on top of the comforter.
She had to figure out how to handle Sam. Then she could figure out how to handle the real problem in her life.
“No.” There was really only one way to handle Sam. He had to be handled head on. She eyed him, giving him the sternest look in her repertoire. She crossed her arms and sat back against the headboard of the bed. It was time to make a stand. She wasn’t spending one more day with him like this. She was done obeying him.
“I swear to god, Abby, if you don’t open that pretty mouth of yours and let me inside, I’m going to turn you over my knee,” Sam promised. His gorgeous face was turning an amusing shade of red.
It would be a bad idea to laugh though.
Abby primly pulled up the comforter. She was settled in for a nice long fight. “I don’t think Jack will like the idea of you turning me over your knee. You’re supposed to be taking care of me.”
Jack Barnes was her legal husband. They had married in a civil ceremony six months before. Together with Sam, they’d formed a happy threesome. Jack was an alpha male, and beyond that, he was a Dom in every sense of the word. Abby was more than happy to be his wife and his submissive. Jack took very good care of her, and he also took care of Sam.
Well, he had.
Sam’s blue eyes narrowed, and he cocked his head to the side, studying her for a moment. “That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to take care of you like Jack requested. You’re the one being extremely stubborn. Come on, baby. Don’t you want to be full?”
The last question was asked with a low growl.
She rolled her eyes. She wasn’t giving in simply because he used his sexy voice. “I’m full enough. I don’t need you to fill me up. I’m fine. I’m perfectly satisfied, so you’ve done your duty. Why don’t you go see if Jack needs help? You’ve been in bed with me for three days. I can’t take anymore.” And if Jack Barnes didn’t agree, he could come and tell her himself.
“You’ll take as much as I give you.” Sam leaned forward aggressively. “Now, Benita made this chicken soup, and you’re going to eat it. It’s supposed to be good for colds.” He held out the spoon once more. “Open up.”
“No.” She was sick of eating no matter how delicious the soup was. She wasn’t sure what Sam’s health care plan was here, but it definitely had something to do with stuffing her way past full. She. went back to reading her magazine.
The way she viewed it, she was well on the path to recovery. The bacterial infection that had settled into her lungs was almost gone thanks to antibiotics. It wasn’t as though she didn’t have some skill in this case. She was a registered nurse who’d served over a decade in trauma ERs. She wasn’t coughing anymore, and her head felt clear. She was tired but feeling better.
Now she just had to convince Sam to
get off her back. He’d been playing nurse for days, and it was starting to drive her crazy. She’d been a nurse for ten years and never once had she ridden herd on a patient the way Sam did.
Sam stood up. He moved the tray off the bed and stood over her. Abby glanced up at the man she thought of as husband number two. Though she was annoyed with him at the moment, she couldn’t help but sigh. Sam Fleetwood was a gorgeous man. He had sandy blond hair that curled around his ears. His blue eyes were the most prominent features on a handsome face that also boasted sensual lips. His chest was what had her attention now, though. He was wearing nothing but a faded pair of Levi’s, and it left his perfectly cut torso on heart-stopping display. She wanted to reach out and run her hands down those muscles to his six-pack and lower, but she had a point to make.
“Go away, Sam,” she said dismissively, as if she didn’t want to throw him down on the bed and have her way with him. That would only reward his overbearing behavior.
Sam’s Texas accent was thick as he explained his world view to her. “You don’t seem to understand the order of things. Let me explain a little geometry to you. You seem to think we’re a triangle, with Jack at the top and you and me on equal planes at the bottom. We aren’t a triangle. We’re a straight line, baby. Jack might be at the head of this household of ours, but I’m on top of you, and that’s exactly the way I like it. Jack gives the orders to me, and I give the orders to you.”
Now Abby felt her eyes narrow. She loved him. Oh, how she loved that man, but Sam didn’t have a dominant bone in his body. Jack might be at the head of the household, but she would be damned if Sam wasn’t on the same level she was. Sam was her playmate. Sam was her best friend. He was not her keeper.
Abby got to her knees on the big bed. She was wearing a cute set of green baby doll pajamas, which proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was feeling distinctly better. If she hadn’t she wouldn’t have put on some sexy lingerie. As she leaned forward, she couldn’t help but notice Sam’s distinct interest in her breasts, bouncing without the support of her bra. She kept her voice low so he would know she was serious. “Is that right, Samuel Fleetwood? Do you think simply having been born with man parts gives you the right to top me?”
That seemed to give him pause. His hands went to his lean hips and his handsome face screwed up into what she liked to think of as his thinking face. Yes, she watched as he thought about his answer, and then still got it all wrong. “Yes, Abby, yes I do. I’m the man in this relationship, and you should obey me.”
She hurled a pillow toward his head. “You’re the man? Who are you kidding? Jack’s the man. You’re the…” She struggled to find a word to describe him. Sam was fun and playful. He wasn’t demanding in any way except sexually. Sam was the indulgent one. She settled for truth. “You’re the Sam in this relationship, and that means you follow Jack’s orders just like I do.”
They did follow Jack’s orders, when they couldn’t find a way around them. Though lately there hadn’t been all that many orders to follow.
Sam’s blue eyes lost some of their luster as he broke contact with her and seemed to suddenly find the comforter endlessly interesting. Shit. She’d handled this morning’s confrontation all wrong. Her heart softened toward the man who formed one half of her world.
“Baby, that didn’t come out right,” she tried.
Sam took a step back, his handsome face marred by a frown. He waved off her worry. “It’s no big deal, darlin’. I get the message. You’re feeling better. You don’t need a keeper. I’ll go get dressed and find some work to do. Jack’s been on his own for days.”
He turned to leave.
She was off the bed in a shot. There was no way she could allow him to leave like that. He was sensitive. Oh, he would say he wasn’t, but when it came to her, Sam Fleetwood was one big teddy bear and she’d hurt him.
She wound her arms around Sam’s waist, knowing he would never do anything so impolite as break her hug. He stood still for a moment, and then all of his instincts took over. He relaxed against her as his hands curled around her body and found her backside.
“You honestly feeling better?”
Abby didn’t bite, not yet. “I feel like crap, Sam, and not in a physical sense. I shouldn’t have talked to you that way. You are so important to me. You know I love you.”
He laughed softly. “I know you love me. You wouldn’t put up with me if you didn’t love me.”
There was the trouble. She kissed the well-defined muscles of his shoulders softly. He smelled like soap and some masculine smell she couldn’t quite define. “You aren’t hard to put up with. I love you, Sam. Jack loves you, too.”
She knew exactly where Sam’s insecurities lay.
Though there was no legal way to marry Sam, she considered herself his wife as well. Jack and Sam owned a highly lucrative cattle ranch together. They’d been friends and partners for years. Jack had grown up in foster care. Sam had spent a portion of his teen years in the same group home Jack had been assigned to. From the day they met, they’d been inseparable. They shared a home, a business, and now a wife.
And Sam wanted more. He wanted to be a true threesome, not merely a pair of friends sharing a woman. Sam wanted Jack, wanted him in every way a human being could want another.
“I know,” he said, but she could hear the sadness in his voice.
It made her ache for him. Made her ache for them. She’d thought the day they’d married they’d become complete, but something was missing. Something deep.
If only they’d been able to go on their honeymoon like normal people. If only the day hadn’t ended the way it had…
On their wedding day, Jack had taken a bullet meant for her. A woman with a long-held grudge against Abby had shown up as they were walking out of the courthouse and taken a shot at her. She could still remember how it felt to look down and see a hole in Jack’s strong chest, to know how close he was to death. To know that she could lose him just when she’d found him.
It was funny how the world worked. The same woman who’d shot her husband had been the one who’d sent her out into the world alone at seventeen and pregnant. It had been Ruby Echols who’d fueled her desire to prove her hometown wrong. If Ruby hadn’t driven her out of town, she didn’t think she would have chosen nursing as a profession, wouldn’t have been so deeply determined to reach the top of her field.
Her skill had saved Jack that day, and oddly her skill was wrapped up in Ruby Echols.
Jack had spent time in the hospital and his recovery period had been long and hard. Physically, he’d come out stronger than ever. She wasn’t so sure he’d recovered emotionally yet. He’d been very close to death. As a nurse, she’d seen what facing your own mortality could do to a person.
For some people, it was a wake-up call. The revelation that they weren’t immortal spurred them to do things they never would have before.
There was another portion of the population that retreated into themselves. It was as though they’d never thought of themselves as fragile and couldn’t handle it even though they’d come back. Jack had been a bit like that.
It wasn’t that he held himself apart. He was generous with everything. He told her he loved her. He made love to her most nights and a whole lot of the mornings, too. But there was something missing. The outrageous dominance Jack had always brought to the bedroom before had disappeared. Jack liked to be in charge, but coming close to death and being weak for so long seemed to have humbled him in a way she didn’t like. It had also caused him to stop the playful experiment he and Sam shared before the incident. Sam had been close to getting what he wanted, and now it seemed a million miles away.
When they were in bed together, Jack avoided Sam physically, and it was starting to wear on them all. Cracks were forming where she would have sworn there was a solid concrete foundation.
“He needs some time,” Sam said quietly.
“Or he needs a good, swift kick in the ass.” She rubbed against Sam’s
back, the warmth of his skin comforting. Of course there was something else that was comforting, too. Something they hadn’t done for a couple of days. She ran her hands down his chest to the front of his jeans. His cock was already erect, but that wasn’t surprising. A slight breeze could get Sam erect. It was one of the things she loved about him. He was always ready to go. She cupped that big cock of Sam’s and felt him sigh.
“You going to give it to him, baby?” Sam’s voice went low and husky. He pressed himself into her hands.
She could feel the heat coming off Sam’s body. “I think our Dom needs to be reminded of who he is. When was the last time he punished me? I stayed out until three in the morning at Christa’s three weeks ago and forgot to call. He was panicked by the time he found me. Did he toss me over his knee and spank my ass? No, he very politely requested that next time I text him when I’m going to be out late. Seriously? That is not the man I married. He walks like Jack, and he looks like Jack, but I want the real Jack back.”
Sam shook his head. “I tried to talk to him, but he always says he’s fine. We haven’t been in the playroom for months. I bitched about it, and he said we’re married now and should show you more respect. I married you because I wanted to do all sorts of dirty things to you. I love you, and I respect the hell out of you. I respect how smart you are and how funny you can be, and I also respect your blow job skills.”
“Good to know.” She sobered quickly as she considered the problem. Jack was wrestling with something. He wasn’t willing to talk about it yet. Maybe what he needed was a shake-up. Though he wouldn’t admit it, Jack considered Sam his own, just as he believed she belonged to him. Sam was as much Jack’s sub as she was, but he didn’t feel it. When the Dom lost control, it was up to the subs to force him to take it back. None of them were truly content with the current situation, and they wouldn’t be until things got back to their weird version of normal.
