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She only pulled against his grip twice before giving up and going limp. She didn’t protest when Jayden pulled her into his lap and held her. “We never set any boundaries. Those women over there want you, all three of you. I know Maggie was asking you out, Adam. And you’re free to go out with her because look at me! I’m forcing the three of you to do this thing with me. Why wouldn’t you be able to date other people? I just never considered it, okay? I never thought about you dating other people, the same way I am. Probably because I’m greedy and selfish. I want all of you all to myself, but I don’t want you looking anywhere else. It’s terrible of me.
“Seeing those women look at you and knowing that they all thought you were free for the taking… I wanted to scream. Worse, I wanted to punch them. I wanted to drag Maggie out by her pretty brown hair and shove her face in the mud. Which is insane! Maggie is a sweet person! I just can’t handle it. I can’t do it. I’m a horrible person, but I don’t want to share. I want you three to be mine and I want those women to know it. I don’t want their hands on any of you.”
I was speechless. I sat on the coffee table in front of her and shook my head, flabbergasted that she would think I wanted another woman. Thankfully, Jayden managed to put into words what I couldn’t in that moment.
“What about our behavior in the past couple of weeks has made you think any of us wanted another woman?” With a frown, Jayden gestured to me and Ian. “Tell me, Angel. What have we done that would make you think we don’t have our hands full with you?”
Ian stood up and paced. “You keep talking about yourself like that, with all those shitty words, and I’m going to be forced to do something crazy, baby. You’re close to being pulled over my lap and spanked for every name you call yourself.”
Violet gasped. “You wouldn’t!”
He glared down at her. “I would. You need to get that shit out of your head.”
I sat forward and rubbed the back of my neck. “You think I waited all these years, not touching a single other woman, just to look around when I finally have you back? That’s absolutely insane, little rabbit.”
Her eyes focused on mine. “You never…?”
I gave a sharp shake of my head. “No. And I felt pretty pathetic about it until you showed back up. Then it made sense. I don’t want to touch another woman. I don’t want to be shared. I wantyou.”
She shuddered and sat forward, hands reaching for me, before she froze and turned white. “Oh, no.”
That was how I found out that not even a vomiting Violet would send me running.
29.
***Jayden***
“Santa,bringmemyguys. Don’t argue this time, big guy.” Violet’s eyes fluttered and she curled up even more tightly under the pile of blankets we’d stacked on top of her shivering body. Still, sweat beaded across her forehead and nose. Her curls were wet and matted to her head, a testament to how sick she was. Those curls didn’t liedown for anything.
I grimaced and looked across at Ian. “Tonya said the medicine would work soon.”
He’d nearly worn a hole in Violet’s rug with all his pacing. “And you’re sure your sister graduated at the top of her class?”
I might’ve laughed if Violet weren’t falling apart from food poisoning between us. After searching the house while she was throwing up all over Adam in the shower they had to share, we’d found that the leftovers she’d said she ate were days old and didn’t smell the best. She hadn’t wanted to stop working, so she’d just shoved a few bites of the old Mexican food into her mouth before getting back to it. She’d managed to poison herself and would be missing a lot more than thirty minutes of work for a lunch break.
“Tonya is a badass doctor, man. You saw her. My sister once treated the governor.” I sighed, knowing that her intelligence would also have her calling me until I answered all her questions. Great doctor, nosy-as-hell sister. Seeing me with Violet after so much time, with two other men, was going to have her up through the night, trying to make it make sense.
“Which governor?” Adam took a second and then shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. What’s with all the doctors? Your sister, Vi’s sisterandher soon-to-be brother-in-law. Makes my family tree look a little light.”
Ian snorted. “There are no doctors in my family, either. A couple of assholes, but that’s about it.”
Violet groaned. “I’m too old for a dollhouse.”
I smiled. She’d been talking out loud while dead asleep for over an hour. Looking back at Ian, I thought about my family. “I’ve got plenty assholes in my family, too, but my parents are good people. They raised good kids. Most of my brothers and sisters still live close by, and we get together a lot. They almost all have big families of their own already.”
Adam rubbed his hand over his hair. “It was just me and my dad. Mom split when I was four. I remember her enough to remember what it was like to have a mom. Nothing personal about her, though. Then Dad took me up the mountain and we lived like that. It was good. He taught me everything I know about nature and the wild. Saved my ass from a bear once.”
“Sounds like a good man.” Ian didn’t look up from his boots.
“He was. He died a while back.” Clearing his throat, Adam stood up and looked Violet over. “She feels a little cooler.”
“My dad was military.” Ian crossed his arms over his chest as he sat back. “He ruled at work and home with an iron voice and fear. When those didn’t always work at home, he moved to whatever means worked. I have a brother, Seb. Sebastian. He’s no doctor. He is, however, doing thirty-five to life in a prison on the other side of Tennessee for a double homicide.”
We were all quiet as we processed those words from the man we knew. Finally I nodded. “So, one brother goes into law, the other breaks it. I saw your dog tags. You followed your dad into the military?”
He laughed bitterly. “I joined the Navy. Pissed him right off because he wanted me to follow him into the Army. I’d been a SEAL for two years, legally killing people for Uncle Sam, when Seb shot and killed our dad and a buddy of his. They were threatening to hurt our mom. Seb had enough and ended it. We were both protecting people, but because I was doing it in the name of the USA, I was praised. Seb got locked up and will never see the light of day as a free man. Shit eats at me some days.”
I blinked away a hot sting of emotion and shook my head. “Depending on how we come out of this, I’ll take you to my house and set my parents loose on you. They’ve got a habit of finding the people who didn’t get enough hugs as a kid or something, and then smothering them in love. They give their kids a break, and the person being smothered gets to experience what it's like to not be able to take a shit without a parent asking you if you need something.”
