by J. A. Dennam
“Hey, Monkey,” Mac said as they exchanged hugs.
“It’s all in how you look at it, isn’t that right, Mac?”
The big man shrugged, picked up his glass and jerked it toward Austin. “I don’t think it makes him feel any better about it. Doesn’t do much for me, either.”
“Or me,” Melanie admitted, frowning at the memory. “You could just say something like... ‘I never thought one spontaneous round of unprotected highway sex could produce such wonderful results.’ Yeah. Much better.”
Austin tilted his head while Mac blinked, both in a state of perplexed wonder. “Still trying to picture that,” Mac mumbled in bafflement.
Danny reached for a glass in the cabinet and cringed. “The visual, Mel. The visual.”
“Better than yours. Besides, you traumatized me more when you threw me out of that tree.”
Water hissed from the fridge dispenser. “You know, I would have never done that if I’d known you were pregnant.”
Melanie leaned back into her hand, messaged her lower back. “S’okay, girlfriend. If this kid is anything like his daddy, the little guy enjoyed the action.”
“Why don’t you sit back down,” Mac ordered from his seat, sensing the woman’s physical discomfort from a distance. “I shouldn’t have to keep forcing you.”
Danny sighed, plunked her glass down on the counter. “Quit mothering her, Mac. Between you and Sue, she’s going to stop coming around.”
“No she won’t,” Austin piped in with a wink toward the expectant mother. “Babysitters.”
“And plenty of them,” Mac agreed with a smirk.
Danny looked at the two men nodding in agreement and began to tear up...again. They were all having a baby. At least that’s how it felt. She knew Austin was every bit as excited as she was, the man just hid it better behind male machismo. Most of the time.
“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” Melanie chimed in smartly. “You two have done nothing but threaten to teach him bad habits.”
The truth of it was, Melanie felt like the luckiest expectant mother in the world. She was surrounded by so much love, plenty of good friends and oodles of support. Though her baby’s father wasn’t here to share the joy, she couldn’t possibly feel lonely, not with the rest of the Bennett family behind her. As she mastered the ultimate stare-off with the two knuckleheads conspiring to play insubordinate roll model, well...her heart was full.
“There is nothing wrong with teaching a kid how to drive before he’s ten,” Austin informed riotously. “Hell, he’s already got a car.”
While Danny shot her husband a dry look, Melanie shook her head, sighed and tipped awkwardly back into the ergonomic chair specially purchased for her. Though the man didn’t say as much, she knew Austin had insisted on buying it partly because he hoped his wife would need it after earning her bachelor’s degree. At least that was the plan.
Mac grumbled into his glass of soda as he took a drink. “425 horses of pure penis envy...going to a child. That’s just wrong.”
But Danny didn’t hear the comment. Once Austin caught her look, he held it. Slowly he raised a single eyebrow and those black eyes sent her a promise her body was physically unable to ignore. Oh, yeah. Company...
The water forgotten, Danny’s heart picked up in tempo. “Hey, Mac.”
“Huh?”
“I think Mel needs a ride.”
Mac eyeballed her, then rolled his look toward the petite, rounded, blond in the recliner. “A ride...where?”
“Anywhere.”
Austin threw back his head and laughed while Melanie struggled to her feet once again. “Come on, big guy,” she said, reaching for her purse. “The sexual tension in here is downright copious. And since you and I already walked down the aisle together, you might as well take me to a movie.”
Mac grabbed her coat and helped her into it. The two had become pretty good friends since carrying out their most important rolls in the landmark Bennett/Cahill wedding. His lip crunched with trepidation. “What kind
of movie.”
“Wes Nean"lowlyll find out when we get there.”
“Not anything too mushy. Here, don’t forget your back pillow.”
Melanie took it from him, made a face. “Nothing too violent, either.”
They disappeared down the hall. “We’ll flip for it.”
“I call heads.”
The garage door closed. Austin rose, circled around the island and approached his wife with aplomb. “I call tails.”
With a giddy laugh, they lunged for each other. Danny yanked his shirt overhead with vixen-like aggression. “You always call tails.” Their mouths fused in a plundering kiss and she broke away to nibble breathlessly on his bottom lip. “In the shower, in the family room, in the kitchen, in the garage...”
Grabbing handfuls of her backside, Austin lifted, wrapped her legs around him and headed for the stairs. “Well, maybe we should try the bedroom in case they decide to come back.”
“If you say so.” Her thighs clamped tight while her hand found and explored the treasures below his waist.
“Christ, woman,” Austin moaned, halfway up the stairs. “You do like to test me, don’t you?”
Danny smiled against his neck. “You know what they say, Cahill. If everything’s under control, you’re going too slow.”
He reached the landing and fell to his knees. “How can I argue with that kind of logic?”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J. A. Dennam resides in a small Kansas town with her husband and four children. She shares many passions for the arts including fine arts, culinary arts and music. Storytelling has been a part of her life since childhood, when insomnia forced a young girl of six into counting popcorn on the ceiling in the dead of night. Confessing her problem to her older sister, they decided to tell each other stories to entice sleep; however, the inevitable snore always tore through her sister’s nose before she could utter the words Once Upon A Time. So, the stories began to flow in silence, her imagination taking her to quiet, private places so enthralling, the trick was suddenly to stay awake. Each night, she went to bed anticipating the continuation of the adventure that had been interrupted by sleep the previous night. Soon, insomnia was no longer a problem and the stories would sometimes take months to complete.
Those habits carried on to adulthood until the need to purge her stories demanded she put them in print. Her fascination with romance, fast cars and adventure films is what structures her stories today, making Roma ntic Suspense the genre she was simply born to write.
There are many ways to connect with J. A. Dennam!
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Table of Contents
Prolo g ue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Epilogue
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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