AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Of course I am,” Jack replied like it was a forgoneconclusion he would be writing a big check.
“And now Nicole’s got a cube of her own.” Sam wrapped an armaround his wife’s shoulders. “We can show you how to style it and everything.”
She wanted to argue but she was getting a new car out of it.Shouldn’t she be more upset about the principle of the thing? Or should she bepractical? She could find a nice, inexpensive used car.
Or she could teach all the men not to mess with her. “I likeOlivia’s Benz.”
“An excellent choice,” Kim said, settling her bag againsther hip. “I’m going to get some sleep. I’ll reschedule my flight back and wecan discuss how this is going to work over breakfast. I’m sure Jack’s payingfor that, too.”
“Oh, I’ll be paying for a while now,” Jack replied.
Abby reached for his hand. “Come to bed and I’ll show youhow you can pay me back, Jack.”
“They have zero discretion,” Grim said with a shake of hishead.
She thought it was sweet they’d been married for so long andstill wanted each other. Still wanted to play and hold hands and explore. Stillgot excited about coming to the club.
Could she have the same with these men?
Should she even want it when she knew how badly it could go?
“I’m tired.” She was infinitely weary, and nothing wasgetting solved tonight.
“Then we’ll go to bed,” Grim promised. “Come on. I’ll carryyou down.”
“I can walk.”
But Grim was already lifting her up into his arms. “Youstill don’t have shoes, baby. You know as long as you don’t have them, I’llhave to carry you around.”
Josh’s eyes lit up.
“You are not cubing my shoes,” Nicole protested. Althoughhers were kind of ragged.
“I promise.” Josh leaned over and brushed his lips acrossher forehead. “And I’ll sleep on the couch. Grim didn’t want to do any of this.He wanted to wait. He wanted to be patient. I had to push.”
“I let you do it, so I was involved. I take responsibility,”Grim argued.
She didn’t want to go to bed alone. Josh was right. Thisproblem wasn’t getting fixed with a conversation. It would take time. “Justcome to bed, Josh.”
He nodded solemnly and they carried her out.
When she was finally between them, she was able to sleep.
* * * *
“You can’t sleep?” A deep voice brought Josh out ofhis brooding.
There was no other word for it. He was brooding in the dark,looking out over the Austin night. He was high enough up he couldn’t hear thepeople milling about on the streets below as the clubs started closing andpeople started finding their ways home.
His home was in a bed behind him, wrapped around Grim. Ithad started awkward with Nicole in the middle, but at some point she’d fallenasleep and turned into Grim’s warmth.
And Josh had been jealous as fuck.
He turned to his father, who stood on the balcony besidehis. Between their suite and his parents, they were taking up half the floor,and the wraparound balconies met in the middle. Which appeared to be a goodthing since both he and his dad were in the doghouse.
“No. I’m afraid I can’t turn my brain off tonight. I thoughtyou would be…” How did he put this? “Making things up to Mom.”
His father chuckled. “I’m not being forced to sleep on thecouch. I think offering to buy Nic a car helped. It’s not like your momma wantsher new baby driving around in a piece of crap that’s as likely to explode asit is to get her to her destination. She also understands that Nicole’sdestination might have been somewhere dangerous. She and Olivia have becomefond of Nic.”
