Tempting Boundaries

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  Decker raised a brow, and after opening his own drink, took a sip. “It’s only like four o’ clock. Why are you in need of a beer?”

  Griffin rolled his eyes. “It’s beer. Duh. Plus, that scene about killed me. It took me four days to get past this one chapter while it usually takes me maybe a day. I hate when I have to pull words out of me like pulling teeth.”

  Decker ran a tongue over his own teeth and winced. “Yeah, I don’t want to think about that. Glad you pulled through. Now, not that I mind you being here, but is there a reason you were camped out on my driveway?” Decker put his beer down then started to take everything out of the bag. He filled a water dish and set it down next to Gunner, who happily slurped it up, making a mess of himself and the floor. Well, at least he’d put in hardwood with numerous coats of lacquer. Small mercies.

  “What? Oh, yeah. My house is a mess.”

  Decker raised a brow. “Yeah? Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s always been a mess, and unless I change something, it’s going to stay a mess. I can’t help it. Once a deadline hits, everything like housework and grocery shopping gets pushed to the side. If I didn’t have Meghan coming over every once in awhile to make sure I ate something, I’d die.”

  Decker snorted then took another pull of his beer. “You’re a spoiled ass. Meghan has two kids and a husband that’s a fucking prick, and she still spends time to take care of you. Spoiled.”

  Griffin lifted his lip in a snarl. “I know I’m lucky. Maya and Miranda take turns checking in on me too. Actually I think the others come over to check on me as well, but they end up eating whatever food I have. Austin has long since given up taking care of me. Not that I’ve ever asked him to take care of me in the first place.”

  Decker pointedly ignored the mention of Miranda. “Damn straight. You’re twenty-nine, Grif. Grow up.”

  Griffin threw up his hands. “I know. I have a job that tends to take my brain away. I get it. That’s why I need help.”

  Decker picked up a ball from the bag on the counter and walked to the backdoor to let Gunner know where he could take a leak and run. The dog followed him, leaning into his leg when he could. They were lucky Decker didn’t trip and flatten them both.

  “I’m not going to be your maid, Grif, so get that out of your head right now.”

  “But you’d look hot in a French maid costume.”

  “Fuck you.” Decker threw the ball to the other end of the yard but still on his side of the fence. “Go get it, Gunner, and bring it back to me.” The dog looked up at him with that smile and long tongue then ran at full speed to the end of the yard, tripping over his feet in the process.

  Damn dog.

  “I don’t need a maid. I need…organization.”

  “Organization,” Decker repeated. Gunner ran back with the ball and deposited the drool-covered thing at Decker’s feet. “Good dog.” He picked it up and threw it again, slobber and all. Gunner ran off after it.

  “Yes, organization. I have a lot of books.”

  That was an understatement, but Decker had a feeling Griffin knew that. “True.”

  “I need bookshelves.”

  Gunner left the ball in the middle of the yard and proceeded to chase his tail. Well, it took all kinds apparently.

  “Bookshelves.”

  “Yes. Bookshelves. And stop fucking repeating me.”

  “Sorry. But how are bookshelves going to keep the rest of your house clean and shit?”

  “It’ll help.”

  Decker nodded, agreeing at least on that. It wouldn’t help much, but it would be a start. “You want me to build you some bookshelves so you can keep your house clean.”

  “Yes. I need help.”

  “Well, that goes without saying,” Decker said with a grin.

  “Eat me.”

  “Not my type,” Decker said pleasantly, doing his best to keep thoughts of exactly who was his type out of his head. “And yeah, I’ll build you some shelves. You tell me what you want, and I can get it done. Why didn’t you ask Wes or Storm?”

  Griffin shrugged. “I would have, but you came to mind first. And since I’m not allowed to use saws anymore, I couldn’t do it myself.”

  “You’re not allowed to use saws anymore for a good reason,” Decker put in.

  “I didn’t lose my finger,” Griffin snapped.

  “That’s not exactly the most promising endorsement to allow you to use a saw, Grif. Come with me to my workshop, and I’ll get some ideas down for you. Gunner! Come on in, boy.” Gunner rolled around in the dirt a minute more then stormed inside. He skidded along the floor, leaving dirt and leaves in his wake.

  “Nice,” Griffin said with a smile. “Looks like I won’t be the only one with a messy house.” He leaned down and gave Gunner a good body rub. “You know, I’m surprised he’s so well behaved and trained.”

  Griffin crouched down and petted Gunner’s head. “Yeah, me too. But who knows what’ll happen in storms or even when he gets more comfortable. The lady at the shelter didn’t know where he’d come from other than the fact he’d been dropped off one morning. So I don’t know how he is around kids or anything. I’ll call Austin and Meghan and give them a heads-up so we don’t scare the kids or Gunner. You know?”

  “Smart. You’ll figure it out. You always do.”

  “I hope so. Come on. Let’s go. While we’re there, I’ll look into what I can do for a doggie door or something. I don’t want to force him inside all the time. I don’t know how he’ll do with the sounds of the saw and construction equipment, and I don’t want to freak him out the first day. Stay here, Gunner.” Hopefully his furniture wouldn’t get beaten up with Gunner alone in the house, but he had to leave him alone for a bit eventually.

  “Aww, look at you being a good doggie dad,” Griffin teased then ducked when Decker threw a weak punch at him. “Too slow, old man. Fuck!” He winced and rubbed his shoulder when Decker’s fist connected that time.

  “Don’t taunt,” Decker said casually as they made their way into the garage.

  “Hey, look at these shelves,” Griffin said when they walked in. “I like them. They for Miranda?”

  Decker swallowed hard. Damn, if Griffin ever found out about what had happened in Decker’s kitchen just a couple days before…well…Decker would be dead, that’s for sure.

  “Yeah. Almost done with them.” Then he’d have to install them in her home. Hopefully he could do it when she wasn’t there because he wasn’t sure he could handle close proximity and short shorts again.

  “They look good. Maybe I’ll go with you when you install them so I can grill her over her new guy, Jack.”

  Decker froze, the ringing in his ears amplifying. He must have heard wrong because he was pretty sure Griffin had just mentioned some soon-to-be dead guy named Jack was dating Miranda.

  “Huh?”

  Griffin gave him an odd look. “I want to grill Miranda’s new boyfriend, Jack. He apparently works with her. He’s a teacher or something like that. I don’t know much about him, so I’ll need to make sure I get every detail out of her while I can. You can distract her with the shelves, and I’ll wheedle the information.”

  “She’s dating? Dating a teacher named Jack?”

  Griffin’s brows rose. “Yeah, buddy. Keep up. Anyway, no one has met him, and I hear they’ve only gone on one date so far. At least that’s what she told Maya. Maya wouldn’t tell us anything else since they have that sister bond or some crap.”

  Well hell, it looked like Miranda hadn’t wasted any time moving on from putting the moves on him in his kitchen. He couldn’t blame her, not with the way he’d acted. But hell, he wished his plan hadn’t worked so well, so quickly.

  He didn’t have much room to speak since he was still technically dating Colleen. Sure, he hadn’t talked to her in a week and hadn’t slept with her in six months, but still. He didn’t own Miranda and didn’t have anything to do with her.

  He needed to remembe
r that.

  “You okay, Deck?”

  He cleared his throat and nodded. “Yeah. Just trying to come up with a way to grill her,” he lied. Well, maybe that wasn’t much of a lie, but still.

  Griffin smiled. “Knew I could count on you.”

  No, bro, you really can’t.

  His phone buzzed, and he answered without looking at the read-out. Mistake.

  “Decker, honey, thank God you answered.”

  He cursed and set his beer down. Griffin raised a brow and did the same, folding his arms over his chest.

  “What is it, Mom? You okay?” He couldn’t help the question that popped out. Damned if he was crazy for wanting his mother out of a situation she refused to run away from, and refused to protect him from.

  “Yes, of course.” He could sense the lie but didn’t call her on it. Not this time.

  Griffin cursed under his breath and gripped Decker’s elbow. He let himself be led back into the house and into the living room while his mother talked about random goings on in the neighborhood. He sat down on the couch with Griffin on one end. Gunner jumped on the sofa between then, and Decker let him. It was a bad habit, but fuck, it wasn’t like he had top-of-the-line things anyway. A man needed his dog, and a dog needed space to lie.

  “Mom.” He interrupted her talk about jam or some other shit he didn’t care about. It wasn’t why she was on the line anyway. They both knew that. Hell, Griffin knew that.

  “Oh, honey. You need to come to dinner,” she said in a small voice. “Your dad wants you here. And you know how he can get.”

  Yeah, he knew how the old man got. Hence, why he wasn’t going. Fuck, he couldn’t just let his mom stay there alone, but he’d told himself long ago he wouldn’t let that man win.

  “Mom, I’m not coming. You know why I can’t. As long as he’s there, I’m not stepping foot in the house. Once he goes back to jail, because you know he will, then I’ll be there for you. You want to come over here to eat? I’ll make something, or we can go out. Just the two of us.”

  “You know I can’t do that,” she whispered.

  “Mom.” He closed his eyes, willing the memories to fade. They never would. “Please.”

  “I can’t. If you’re not coming to dinner…then I’ll let him know.” She hung up, and Decker screamed.

  Fuck. Once she told him that he’d said no, then the old man would take it out on her. If they were lucky, Frank would only yell and scream. He was still close enough to his jail time that he might not use his fists.

  Yet.

  “It’s not your fault, Decker.”

  “The hell it isn’t. He’s going to beat the shit out of her eventually because I won’t go to dinner. I should just suck it up and deal with it.”

  Griffin cursed. “No. You shouldn’t. It’s not your fault. You get that? It’s not your fault that your dad is a fucking drunk and cheats on her. That’s all on him. The fact that your mom won’t leave him even when you try to pull her out, well, I don’t know as I can say that’s on her, but it’s all on him no matter what. It’s not your fault.”

  Decker ran a hand over his head while Gunner put his head on Decker’s lap. The dog shook, and he sighed. Great, now he was scaring dogs too. “Sorry, buddy.” He petted Gunner and ground his teeth.

  “You’re not going to listen to me, and I get it. But what you will do is get in your truck and follow me to Mom and Dad’s. I was going over there anyway for dinner to see how Dad’s treatment’s going, so you’re coming with me.” He looked down at Gunner. “The dog too. They’ll be glad to have you both.”

  “I’m not fit company, Grif.” He just wanted to be alone and forget all the shit around him. Maybe he’d pound on his punching bag some more. It hadn’t helped to get Miranda out of his head, and his scraped knuckles hurt like a bitch, but he’d take that over this pain any day.

  “So what? You’re family. So get off your ass, dump the rest of your beer, and let’s go. I’ll call ahead and let Mom know. That way she’s not surprised. But hell, Decker, come to dinner with us.”

  Decker rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I didn’t want to go to dinner with Mom. Why should I come with you?”

  “Because we’re family,” Griffin said simply.

  Decker sighed, knowing he’d go with Grif tonight and be welcome like he was their son, brother, and friend. Hell, even Gunner would be accepted as one of them without a second thought. That was another reason why the Montgomerys were the best people in his life. He wouldn’t change them for anything. Without that relationship, the one with Marie and Harry, well, he wouldn’t be the man he was today. They’d opened their arms for him and never let him go.

  He’d needed that more than they’d ever know.

  Hell, he still needed that.

  Yet another reason he couldn’t be with Miranda Montgomery.

  The reasons were piling up, yet he couldn’t get her out of his head. He’d find a way though. There wasn’t another option.

  Chapter Seven

  Getting older sucked.

  Feeling old at twenty-nine was hell.

  Sierra Montgomery rubbed her hip and winced. The accident had happened a decade ago, and yet she still hurt every morning and in the evenings after a long day. Sometimes she even hurt in the afternoons too. There was no escaping the damage from a motorcycle accident—externally or internally.

  With a sigh, she turned so she saw her scars in all their puckered glory. She’d just gotten out of the shower, so rivulets of water trailed over the damaged skin and the bloom of daisies Austin had inked carefully on her skin. Her fingers danced along the petals, knowing her fiancé had touched each, softly, roughly, purposely.

  She stretched her arms over her head, ignoring the ache. Her breasts rose, her nipples hardening in the cool air of the bathroom. Austin thought her body was perfect, his, and after finally giving in, she agreed with him. She was perfect for herself. Perfect for him. The evidence of their rough lovemaking from the night before dotted her skin. Beard burn on her inner thighs, along her neck. Bite marks dotted her breasts, her stomach. She could see the faint outline of Austin’s hands on her hips from where he’d gripped her hard, pummeling into her pussy. She’d clamped around him, begging him for more. Her wrists had been tied to the bedpost, so she hadn’t been able to reach for him.

  Her body shivered at the memory.

  Austin knew exactly how to love her, make love to her, and just let her be her.

  That’s why she loved him so freaking much. Scary to think that she’d almost lost it all because she’d been afraid to take that chance, afraid to let herself love again. When she’d lost her first fiancé in the crash, she’d figured she’d had her one shot. She’d lost him and the baby she was carrying. She hadn’t known she was pregnant at the time. No, that had come as an awful surprise later on in the hospital.

  Now because of that day, that horrible memory, her joints ached like an eighty-year-old’s, and she had to talk to Austin about their future. She was going to marry him. That wasn’t going to change. But she was so freaking worried she’d never conceive. It wasn’t like they’d been trying in the first place, but it was something that had been tumbling in the back of her mind for far too long.

  Sierra was only twenty-nine years old, so if she hadn’t been in the accident, she’d have a good five to ten years of possible childbearing time left in her. Now, though, she wasn’t so sure. The accident had bruised her heart, as well as many organs. It wasn’t going to be easy. The doctor had broached that subject years before. So now she had to talk to Austin about what would happen if—no, when—they tried for a baby.

  They had plenty of time before their small—as small as a Montgomery event could be anyway—wedding. Austin, however, was turning forty within the next year, and she knew he wanted to be able to run with his kids and not feel like an old man. He’d never be an old man to her since he was damn sexy at thirty-nine, and she knew that wouldn’t be changing any time soon. They both wanted his son,
Leif, to have siblings nearer to his age though.

  Leif had just recently come into their lives after being hidden away with his birth mother for the first ten years of his existence. After a few bumps, he’d fit into their new family nicely. He called Austin Dad and her Sierra. It didn’t hurt her in the least that he didn’t call her Mom. He’d had a mom who had cared for him—even as she’d hidden the truth of his birth from Austin for all those years. But now Maggie was dead, and Sierra was raising Leif at Austin’s side.

  Sierra might have been an only child, but Austin came from a huge family. They wanted to meet in the middle.

  If only her body would cooperate.

  Sure, she knew she was freaking out and worrying before anything actually happened—or didn’t happen, as the case might be—but she couldn’t help it. She refused to hide things from Austin, so she’d have to tell him her worries. Yes, they’d be able to adopt if she couldn’t conceive. She wasn’t opposed to that in the slightest. In fact, if they wanted a larger-than-average family, she thought adoption would be a fantastic way to have that. She just couldn’t nudge the annoying part of her that told her that if she couldn’t have a baby on her own, there was something wrong with her.

  How stupid was that?

  Idiotic.

  Untrue.

  And horribly misguided.

  Hence why she needed to talk to Austin. If she could have a baby on her own, then great. If not, then she’d find another away. That’s what options were for, and making herself sick over what she couldn’t change wouldn’t help anyone.

  “Knock, knock,” Austin said from the other side of the door. She ran a hand over her face and sighed.

  “I’m naked in here.”

  The door opened, and Austin barged in. “Naked?” His eyes darkened. “Mmm. My favorite outfit of yours.”

  She rolled her eyes, warming at his words. His arms came around her middle, and she leaned into him. “You’re a dork. I thought you liked that little black number I wore the other night.”

  Austin growled and gripped her ass. She sighed, loving his rough hold. “That’s one of my favorites too. I seem to have a lot of favorites when it comes to you.” His fingers played with the crack of her ass, dipping lower until she shivered at his teasing.