Honeymoon from Hell III

Other titles by R.L. Mathewson:

The Pyte/Sentinel Series:

Tall, Dark & Lonely

Without Regret

Tall, Dark & Heartless

Tall, Silent & Lethal

The Hollywood Hearts Series:

A Humble Heart

A Reclusive Heart

The Neighbor from Hell Series:

Playing for Keeps

Perfection

Checkmate

Truce: The Historic Neighbor from Hell

The Game Plan

The Neighbor from Hell Collection I

Double Dare

Honeymoon from Hell Series

Honeymoon from Hell I (Jason and Haley)

Honeymoon from Hell II (Trevor and Zoe)

The EMS Series:

Sudden Response

The Cursed Hearts Series:

Black Heart

Misc. Titles

The 2014 R.L. Mathewson Chronicle Collection

Nonfiction Titles:

How to Write, Publish and All That Good Stuff…

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events described in

this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

Edited by R.L. Mathewson, Jessica Atchison and Ricki Feldberg Wieselthier

Cover designed by Rochelle McGrath

e-book ISBN:

9781311506122

Dedication Page

This book like everything else I do in my life, I wrote for my children, Kayley and
Shane. They’re the best people that I know, make me happy, give me a reason to
smile every day. I love you, Kayley and Shane.

This book is also dedicated to the readers, who have stood by me. Given me a chance
and helped me along the way. I honestly don’t know where I would be without you.
So, on behalf of my family, thank you for taking a chance on me and my seriously
disturbing humor.

Prologue

(Just in case you need a reminder of where we left off…)

“I can’t believe we did it,” he said, pulling into a spot on the freshly paved parking lot
of the newly refinished Strawberry Manor.

“And one week ahead of schedule, too,” Rory said, beaming with excitement as she
looked at the beautiful new hotel. He had to admit that it was beautiful, but that
wasn’t what he’d meant.

He chuckled as he threw the truck in park. “I meant, I can’t believe that we’re
married.”

“Well, I really wasn’t left with much of a choice,” Rory reminded him, smiling that
pleased little smile that she’d been wearing since the nervous Justice of the Peace had
announced them husband and wife about an hour ago.

After  the  initial  shock,  the  Justice  of  the  Peace  decided  that  they  needed  a  little
fatherly  advice  and  explained  that  he  believed  that  they  were  making  a  mistake  and
that perhaps they needed to take some time and come back on December 2nd. At first,
Connor  had  been  pissed  that  he  was  interfering,  but  by  the  time  the  JP  mentioned
December 2nd for the third time, it became clear that the man had placed a bet that
they would get married on December 2nd. Once the J.P. resigned himself to losing two
hundred  dollars,  he’d  married  them,  scowling  at  them  the  entire  time  until  the  deed
was done and he could storm off.

“You didn’t have a choice, huh?” he mused, reaching for his wife as she unclipped her
seatbelt and moved to straddle his lap.

“No, not at all,” she readily agreed with an impish smile that had him wishing that
they could skip the final inspection and start their wedding night early.

“And how’s that?” he asked, wrapping his arms around her.

“I had to do it for our deal of course,” she said solemnly, looking so damn serious that
he couldn’t help but laugh.

“For our deal, huh?” he asked with a chuckle, leaning in and stealing a kiss.

“Mmmhmm,” she murmured, returning the kiss.

Before he could deepen the kiss, Rory opened his door. She pulled away and climbed
out of the truck, laughing and jumping back when he reached for her.

“We need to clear the site so that we can start that insanely expensive honeymoon
that you promised me,” she said, heading for the manor.

“That wasn’t part of our deal,” he pointed out as he climbed out of the truck.

“It is now,” she said, sounding happy.

“Do I get a veto?” he asked, following after her.

“Sorry. You’re a married man now, Connor. Your job is to fulfill each and every one of
my needs,” she explained, throwing him a wink over her shoulder.

“And you need an insanely expensive honeymoon?” he asked, chuckling as he veered
off to the right towards her trailer.

“I really do,” she said, sounding happy, really happy and for a moment he was content
with just watching her as she made her way inside the manor.

How had he gotten so lucky? he couldn’t help but wonder as he turned around, hoping
to get this done quickly so that he could move onto the insanely expensive honeymoon
that his beautiful wife was demanding when he realized that he had one last problem
that he had to handle before it bit him in the ass.

“I heard you tell Andrew that this was all a game,” Jacob, the surly assistant from
hell, said numbly as he looked at Connor with what could only be described as disgust.
“I kept my mouth shut, because I thought Rory could handle herself, but apparently I
was wrong.”

“It’s not what you think, Jacob,” Connor said, taking a step towards the man only to
have him take two steps back.

“Then you didn’t just marry Rory so that you could take over her company?” Jacob
demanded.

Connor opened his mouth to tell him that he had it all wrong, that it wasn’t like that
anymore when he realized that this simple misunderstanding had just blown up into a
huge fuck up in under sixty seconds.

“Married?”  Johnny  repeated,  sharing  a  confused  look  with  his  brothers  as  they
quickened  their  pace  as  they  headed  towards  him,  looking  pissed.  As  he  watched  the
five  large  men  make  their  way  towards  him,  he  realized  that  there  was  no  way  that
he could explain any of this without landing in a body cast. They wouldn’t believe him,
not that he really cared, but he did care if his wife believed him. As he watched them
approach  and  listened  as  Jacob  ratted  his  ass  out,  he  realized  something  very
important. He was out of options. So he did the only thing that he could think of.

He made a run for it.

“Get back here!” Johnny yelled as Connor shoved past several men and ran inside the

manor and into the beautiful lobby.

“Where’s Rory?” he asked Andrew when he spotted his friend sitting on the couch,
going over paperwork and looking better than he had in months.

“In the ballroom. Why?” Andrew asked, but Connor didn’t have time to answer him,
not with five seriously pissed off James brothers after him.

“You have some explaining to do!” Reese, one of the Bradford twins and a fucking cop,
shouted, drawing his attention.

Scratch  that,  he  had  five  James  brothers,  a  little  prick  bastard  and  two  seriously
pissed  off  looking  Bradfords  after  him  and  he  probably  only  had  seconds  to  convince
Rory that he loved her and wasn’t after her company before they beat the shit out of
him.  Not  wanting  to  waste  another  minute,  he  made  a  run  for  the  ballroom,  shoving
men aside as he ran down the long hallway. The entire way he heard the sounds from
the  very  large  men  chasing  after  him,  and  he’d  be  lying  if  he  said  that  he  wasn’t  a
little  wary  of  the  ass  whooping  that  he  was  about  to  receive,  but  he  was  more
concerned about losing Rory.

He  was  just  about  to  run  through  the  open  doorway  of  the  ballroom  when  Rory
stepped  out,  looking  down  at  the  clipboard  in  her  hands  and  unaware  of  all  the  men
barreling down on her. She’d barely looked up when he grabbed her arm and gave it a
pull  towards  the  elevators.  He  didn’t  have  a  plan,  but  he  hoped  like  hell  that  this
would at least buy him a few minutes.

“What the hell are you doing?” Rory demanded as he yanked her into the elevator,
pushing her behind him as he slammed his finger against the “Close Door” button just
as her brothers and cousins abruptly turned and headed for them.

“Come on, come on, come on!” he muttered, panicking as the door started to close, but
not fast enough.

Her brothers were getting closer and closer until all they had to do was put their arms
out  to  stop  the  doors  from  closing,  taking  away  his  only  chance  to  make  this  right.
Just  when  he  resigned  himself  to  a  trip  to  the  hospital  and  losing  Rory,  something
unexpected  happened.  The  two  Bradford  twins  reached  out  and  grabbed  Craig  and
Johnny  just  as  they  reached  out  to  stop  the  elevator  doors  and  yanked  them  back,
allowing the doors to close.

“What the hell is going on?” Rory demanded.

“First things first,” he mumbled as he reached out and pulled the emergency elevator
button. The elevator shook hard once as it came to a complete stop. When the alarm
began to blare, he flicked it off, took a deep breath and turned around to face the
woman that he loved.

“I love you,” he said, needing her to know that. “I’ve always loved you and no matter
what happens, I will always love you.”

“You son of a bitch!” Bryce shouted, reminding Connor that it probably wouldn’t take
the brothers long to crack those doors open and kill him.

“I love you too, Connor, but what the hell is going on?” Rory asked, shooting a nervous
look past him at the closed doors.

“I need to tell you something,” he said, cringing when the banging behind him started.

“Yeah, looks that way,” Rory mused, shifting her gaze right back on him.

“Did I mention that I love you?” he asked, shooting her a nervous smile as he tried to
figure out how exactly to explain the whole fucked up deal he’d come up without Rory
going for his balls.

“Start talking, Connor,” Rory said, arching an expectant brow as she folded her arms
over her chest.

Since time was a serious factor, he decided to get right to the point. “I fucked up.”

“And…..”

“There was more to the deal than I let on,” he said in a rush. “I didn’t think it was
worth mentioning, because once I realized that I was still in love with you, I didn’t
want it any longer.”

“What didn’t you want any longer?” she asked with a putout sigh, the same one she
always used when he was telling her how he’d screwed her over. He felt himself relax,
somewhat.

“The plan,” he said, searching desperately for the right way to explain his original
plan to her without making her hate him.

“And why did Darrin and Reese attack my brothers?” she asked.

“Because of me,” Mr. James suddenly announced from behind him, making him curse
when he realized that at some point during their conversation the doors had been
opened.

At least the doors worked quietly and efficiently, he thought as several pairs of hands
grabbed him and yanked him out of the elevator. As Craig pulled back his fist and let
it fly, Connor hoped that they didn’t break his jaw so that he could beg Rory for a
second chance. That’s if she came to visit him in intensive care.

*-*-*-*

“Mother fucker!” Connor gasped as Craig punched him in the stomach, causing his
legs to give out, but before he dropped to the ground, Bryce and Sean were there,
picking him right back up for more.

“Stop!” she cried, moving to help him, but her father stopped her by moving in front of
her.

He kept his eyes locked on her as he told the twins, “She doesn’t get past me until
we’re done and you make damn sure that no one interrupts us.”

“Sure thing, Uncle David,” Darrin said as he stepped in front of the elevator with
Reese by his side, standing guard and blocking her view of Connor getting his ass
kicked by her brothers.

“Shit!” she heard Connor groan a few seconds later.

“Dad, please tell them to stop!” she begged, panicking as she placed her hands on her
face, struggling to keep it together.

“I’m sorry, Rory, but he has this one coming.”

“They’re going to kill him,” she said, trying to stay calm.

“Probably,” her father agreed with a shrug.

“Dad, please-”

“Why didn’t you call me when you were hurt? For that matter, why don’t you call me
when you need help? And why did you just get married without me there to give you
away?”

“What?” she asked, taken off-guard. “Why would I call you?” she blurted out before
she could stop herself.

“Because I am your goddamn father!” he shouted, losing his temper for the first time
in her life. While her father could get pissed, really pissed, he never lost control, never
shouted and never at her.

“When you’re hurt or need someone, I should be the first person that you call! Do you
have any idea how fucking scared I was when I found out that you’d been rushed to
the hospital? I had to hear it from the fucking mailman that my daughter was
seriously injured, because no one called me!”

“Dad, I-”

“Do you have any idea how it feels to have to sit outside your child’s house, scared to
death that she’s in pain or worse that she might not make it through the night? Do

you?” he snapped, looking angrier than she’d ever seen him before.

“But, you taught us to be self-reliant. I didn’t think that-”

“That’s bullshit that your brothers shoved down your throat! You are my daughter and
there will never be a time when I don’t worry about you or want to take care of you.
You were stubborn and didn’t want to let your brothers think that you were weak so
you tried to act tough. You were my little girl, my little princess and you used run into
my arms crying my name every day when I got home from work until you turned five
and your brothers decided to treat you like a little brother. From that moment on, you
thought that you had to be as pigheaded as they were and you stopped being my baby
girl,” he said, his voice softening, his expression turning sad.

“You are my baby girl, Rory. I love you more than you will ever know, but you are so
damn stubborn,” he said with a sigh. “You need to know that you can always call me,”
he said, stepping aside only to pause and glare at her. “And the next time that you’re
hurt, sick or you need help, you better call me, because if I have to hear it through the
mailman again, you and I are going to have words, young lady,” he said, shooting her
a wink to soften his words, making her relax as he stepped back.

“I will, Dad,” she said, feeling close to crying. Her daddy loved her and she’d probably
be rubbing it in her brothers’ faces if she wasn’t very much afraid at the moment that
they were killing her husband.

“Step aside, boys,” her father said, as he took her hand in his and led her off the
elevator. The scene that met them had her heart skipping a beat and her stomach
dropping.

Johnny and Brian held back a struggling and still weak, Andrew while Craig and Sean
held Connor up as Bryce pulled back his fist and let it fly, connecting with Connor’s
face and splitting his lip.

“Stop!”  she  screamed,  releasing  her  father’s  hand.  She  tried  to  help  him,  but  Reese
grabbed  her  and  pulled  her  back.  She  went  to  elbow  him,  but  the  large  bastard  was
fast,  too  fast  and  he  had  her  arms  behind  her  back  and  restrained  before  she  could
take her next breath with a simple hold, but a damn effective one.

“Okay, let’s clear this up, shall we?” her father said, gesturing for Jacob, who looked
like he wanted to take a swing at Connor, to come forward. He didn’t look like he was
going to listen, but one hard look from her father had him swallowing and stepping
forward.

“Okay, tell her what you told my boys,” her father said, gesturing for him to get on
with it. She was just thankful that Bryce had stopped punching Connor to listen.

“Connor’s plan was to use you to get your brothers. He was using the relationship to

look good in your brothers’ eyes to win them over. When the project was finished, he
was going to get them to come work for him and run you out of business,” Jacob said,
shooting Connor a murderous glare, which explained why he’d been acting like such a
jerk for the past couple of months. He’d known about the plan and knowing Jacob, he
wasn’t happy about it, but he’d obviously trusted her to handle it on her own.

“Don’t fucking listen to him, Rory!” Connor yelled, but he was quickly silenced by a
punch to the gut from Bryce.

“And how exactly did you find out about that?” Darrin asked.

“Because I overheard Connor explain it to Andrew,” Jacob said, gesturing to Andrew,
who’d closed his eyes in resignation and cursed.

“When?” Reese demanded.

“In June I think,” Jacob said, looking thoughtful, “he was just using her. He wasn’t in
love with her. As long as he didn’t hurt her, I stayed out of it. I didn’t know that
marrying her was part of the plan. I thought he was just going to screw up and Rory
was going to end their deal.”

“That’s bullshit!” Andrew snapped, but thankfully no one hit him, probably because
none of them were mean enough to strike a man recovering from a life threatening
illness.

“I heard every word!” Jacob said firmly, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I love her!” Connor shouted.

“Then why are you after her company?” Jacob demanded.

“Okay, let’s get this over with, I have somewhere to be in an hour,” her father said,
gesturing to her brothers to drag a bloody and panting Connor forward.

“I’m a little confused about something,” Johnny said. “If he was trying to get on our
good side, then why didn’t he try sucking up to us?”

“He only kept telling us to fuck off,” Sean said, sounding confused.

“He punched me,” Bryce bitched.

“That’s because I didn’t want any of you!” Connor snapped.

“What the hell do you mean that you didn’t want us?” Johnny demanded in outrage.

“We’re a fucking catch!” Sean snapped.

“You’d be lucky to get guys like us! Lucky!” Bryce said, sounding pissed and insulted.

“I don’t want any of you!” Connor snapped.

“You bastard!” Johnny gasped as her brothers glared at him.

“Rory?” her father said, drawing her attention, but not enough to look away from
Connor, who was looking up at her through one swollen eye.

“Yes?”

“Do you love him?”

“Yes,” she said softly with a small nod that had Connor noticeably relaxing.

“And what are you willing to do to prove to my daughter and my boys that you’re
telling the truth and that you love her?” her father demanded, watching Connor
intently as he waited.

For a minute, Connor stood there, not saying anything as dread twisted in her gut.
She wanted to tell her father that he didn’t have to prove anything, but she needed to
know that their deal was truly a thing of the past.

Connor looked up and met her eyes as he said, “Anything. Everything. She can have
my house, my business, everything that I have. I don’t care about any of it. The only
thing that I want is her.”

She bit back a smile as she walked over to him, making a show of thinking it over.
“What about the bathtub?”

“It’s yours.”

“Will you stop stealing my hot chocolate?” she asked, reaching up to cup his slightly
bruised handsome face.

“No,” he said, turning his head so that he could press a kiss against her palm. “But I’ll
learn to make it the way that you like so that I can make it for you.”

“Highland Construction is mine?” she asked, already deciding a month ago to combine
their companies into one and run it with him.

“Yes,” he said with absolutely no hesitation.

“You’ll work for me?”

“Yes.”

“Fetch my drinks?”

“No.”

“Be at my by beck and call?” she asked, loving the way his poor abused lips kicked up
into a grin.

“No.”

She sighed heavily as she said, “You really suck at interviews.”

“Do I have the job?” he asked, giving her that bad boy smile that she loved.

“I’ll have to think about it,” she said with a shrug as she turned to walk away.

“Uh, Rory, what do you want us to do with him?” Johnny called after her.

“Give him the official welcome to the family,” she said, laughing as she walked away.

“Rory?” Connor called after her, sounding uncertain and for good reason. “Rory!”

She paused long enough to look over her shoulder and wink as she announced smugly,
“Checkmate.”

Chapter 1

One Week Later…

“Mmmm,” Rory murmured with a sleepy little smile as she slowly sank down into the
old-fashioned clawed tub that was now legally half hers and closed her eyes as she
savored the scent of lemongrass and mint carried by the steam rising from the tub.

She couldn’t believe how wonderful this past week had been. She’d slept in late every
single  morning,  caught  up  on  her  chores,  took  naps,  moved  her  stuff  into  Connor’s
house, well, their house now, sold her house at a very tidy profit to Andrew, caught up
on e-mails, managed to make Jacob’s life a living hell for a few days for all the trouble
he’d  caused  and  simply  because  she  could,  and  just  enjoyed  herself.  All  in  all  it  had
been  a  very  productive  and  relaxing  week.  It  was  the  first  time  in  years  that  she
actually took time for herself.

Then again, it wasn’t really as though she had a choice in the matter, not since all of
her brothers and most of her cousins had disappeared over a week ago, taking Connor
with them as well as the decision to work out of her hands. Since she’d overestimated
the time that they would need to complete Strawberry Manor, they actually had a few
free  weeks  before  their  next  job  started.  Normally  when  that  happened  she  would
have  her  guys  organize  their  supplies,  manage  supplies  for  future  jobs,  provide
estimates  and  make  bids  for  future  jobs.  To  her,  there  was  no  such  thing  as  down
time…

Until this past week when her brothers had stolen her husband that is. Granted, she’d
given  them  permission  to  give  him  the  official  Bradford  welcome  to  the  family.  Since
they’d  disappeared,  she’d  had  nothing  but  down  time  and  she  hated  to  admit  this,
especially  after  priding  herself  for  her  strict  work  ethic  for  so  long,  but  it  had  felt
wonderful to wake up with absolutely nothing to do. Just so she didn’t feel completely
lazy she did get a few things done, but for the most part she’d lounged.

She’d lounged in this tub…

On the bed…

On the couch…

On the porch…

And  if  it  hadn’t  been  so  damn  cold  out  she  would  have  bought  a  kiddie  pool  and
lounged  outside  in  it  with  Bunny.  When  she  wasn’t  watching  mindless  television  and
her  favorite  movies,  she  was  napping,  soaking  in  a  hot  bath,  making  chocolate  chip
cookie  batter  at  two  in  the  morning  just  so  she  could  eat  raw  cookie  dough  in  bed
while  she  watched  a

Harry Potter marathon and just basically doing absolutely

nothing.

It  was  without  question  the  most  decadent  week  of  her  life  and  even  though  she
missed Connor and was actually a bit concerned about his safety, it was still the most
relaxing week that she’d ever spent in her life and no matter how much she tried, she
couldn’t  make  herself  regret  this  past  week.  It  didn’t  hurt  that  she  knew  that  her
brothers  and  cousins  wouldn’t  let  anything  bad  happen  to  Connor,  so  she  wasn’t  too
worried about him.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true since there was a very good chance that he might come
back…different.  It  had  happened  before  to  several  of  the  men  that  had  married  into
the  family  and  to  be  honest,  she  really  didn’t  like  to  think  about  them  or  what  had
happened  during  their  “Welcoming.”  She  certainly  couldn’t  allow  herself  to  think
about  it  now,  because  the  thought  of  Connor  coming  back

changed like those other

men before him terrified her.

To this day she still cringed when she thought about the first man that she’d seen
“welcomed” into the family. That was the first time that she’d ever seen a grown man
cry. It hadn’t been a pretty sight and it wasn’t something that she liked to think of,
especially now that poor Connor was going through the same level of hell.

Maybe she shouldn’t have egged her brothers on to do it, she thought as panic tried to
take over and threatened to send her running for her keys and her cellphone, praying
that  she  could  find  them  before  it  was  too  late,  but  she  knew  that  nothing  that  she
said or did at this point would make a difference to the men in her family. They were
doing  whatever  it  was  that  they  did  to  ensure  that  the  men  that  married  into  this
family  followed  their  rules  and  they  wouldn’t  stop  doing  whatever  it  was  to  Connor
that they were doing until they were positive that he was never going to hurt her.

There  had  only  been  one  man  in  the  history  of  their  family  that  she  knew  of  who
hadn’t  made  it  through  the  “initiation”  and  that  was  Trevor’s  father.  For  whatever
reason, they’d decided to put his father through their initiation process before he got a
chance  to  propose  to  Trevor’s  mother.  As  soon  as  they’d  found  out  that  he’d  got  her
pregnant  they’d  beat  the  shit  out  of  him  before  quietly  taking  him  off  to  God  only
knows  where  Bradfords  went  when  they  were  making  sure  that  a  man  was  good
enough to join the family.

From  what  she’d  heard  from  her  father  and  the  rest  of  the  older  generation  of
Bradford  men  that  had  taken  part  in  the  initiation,  he’d  quickly  failed  to  meet  their
standards. They’d decided that he wasn’t good enough to marry into their family, but
because of Trevor, they’d decided to put him through a completely different initiation,
letting  him  know  exactly  what  they  expected  of  him  and  what  would  happen  if  he
failed as a father.

Apparently he’d completely forgotten that warning several times over the years,
forcing the men in their family to pay him a visit and refresh his memory. The last

time  that  he’d  failed  Trevor  had  been  the  final  straw.  After  Jason  had  gotten  a  few
swings in, the rest of the men stepped in and took care of him. She’d only been a child
at  the  time  and  she  wasn’t  supposed  to  know,  but  when  they’d  heard  Trevor’s  father
call  him  a  “stupid  fucking  retard,”  they’d  snapped.  Trevor  didn’t  even  know  this,  but
they’d  dragged  his  father  off  and  made  sure  that  he  didn’t  come  back  until  he  was
ready to be a real father.

He’d decided never to come back.

Her stomach dropped at the thought of Connor never coming back. She kept telling
herself that Connor could take whatever they dished out and more, but…

What if he couldn’t?

What if they’d finally managed to break him? God, she couldn’t stomach the idea of
him coming back

changed, which was the only way that she could describe how most

of  the  men  came  back  after  the  initiation.  She  wasn’t  sure  that  she  could  handle
seeing  a  strong  man  like  Connor  flinching  anytime  a  noise  startled  him  or  find  him
curled  up  in  the  corner,  sobbing  and  muttering  to  himself  because  the  memories  had
become too much for him to handle.

Once  upon  a  time  she  may  have  willed  that  kind  of  hell  on  him,  but  with  time  and
really  great  sex,  she’d  been  able  to  get  over  their  shared  animosity.  Sure,  it  would
probably  entertain  her  to  see  him  dive  for  cover  whenever  the  doorbell  went  off,  but
now that they were married it just seemed wrong to take immense satisfaction out of
seeing someone screwing with his head.

Unless that someone was her of course.

Just because they were married didn’t mean that she was going to give up something
that brought her such joy. She might take it down a notch or two, but she really just
couldn’t imagine going through life without screwing with her husband in that way
that always seemed to bring a smile to her face. It just seemed wrong somehow to
give up that side of their relationship that had kept them together all these years, but
she wouldn’t be able to screw with his head if he didn’t survive the initiation.

With that in mind, she climbed out of the tub, after enjoying five more minutes simply
because it felt wrong to let all this decadent hot water go to waste, and reluctantly
climbed out of the tub. She wrapped a large pink towel around herself and headed for
the bathroom door, trying to decide which brother would cave the quickest and tell her
where they were keeping Connor as she pulled her hair free from the loose bun she’d
made so that she could soak in the tub without getting her hair wet. She stepped into
the hallway and headed for the bedroom, deciding that Bryce was her best bet when
she saw him.

Lying passed out in the middle of their bed.

Covered  in  varying  stages  of  drying  mud,  leaves,  clumps  of  grass,  and  twigs  was  her
husband,  lying  passed  out  on  his  back.  His  clothes,  the  same  clothes  that  he’d  been
wearing  a  week  ago  when  he  was  released  from  the  emergency  room  thanks  to  the
beating  her  brothers  had  dished  out  to  him,  were  torn,  stained  and  definitely  ruined.
His  short  hair  was  in  the  same  condition  as  his  clothes,  messy,  full  of  bits  of  leaves,
and  small  clumps  of  mud,  but  that  did  nothing  to  take  away  from  just  how  truly
handsome  he  was,  even  with  his  face  covered  in  dirt,  scrapes  and  about  a  week’s
worth  of  whiskers,  her  husband  was  still  an  incredibly  handsome  man,  she  thought
with a smile as she walked over to the bed, dropping her towel as she went.

She climbed on the bed and threw her leg over his lap in one smooth move so that she
could straddle his lap while she got a closer look at the damage. Considering that he’d
just spent the past week trapped somewhere with her brothers and cousins, she had to
admit that he didn’t look so bad. She’d seen men come back worse from an “initiation,”
a hell of a lot worse, so maybe they’d lucked out and weren’t going to have to spend a
fortune on therapy to fix whatever her relatives had done to him.

At least she hoped they didn’t, she thought with a long drawn out sigh as she leaned
over and gently ran her fingers through his messy hair and felt her lips pull up into a
wobbly smile as she leaned down, unable to help herself, and softly brushed her lips
against his.

“Missed me bad, huh?” he asked, smiling against her lips as his arms came around her
and held her close so that he could kiss her back.

“Maybe,” she mumbled, theatrically squishing up her face with disgust when she
caught his scent.

It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t something that she would want to wake up to every
morning. He smelled like mud, pond water, fresh cut grass and for some odd
reason…Christmas trees?

He chuckled with that bad boy smile that she loved as he released his hold on her. “I
guess I should probably go take a shower, huh?”

“Probably,” she murmured teasingly, brushing her lips against his one last time before
she climbed off his lap, but he didn’t let her go far.

“Join me,” he said, taking her hand in his as he ran an appreciative eye over her.

Having absolutely no willpower when it came to him and that wicked smile of his, she
gave his hand a squeeze and let him lead her out of their bedroom.

“Do you want to tell me where you’ve been?” she asked offhandedly, doing her best to

hide her curiosity, remembering all too well how much he enjoyed screwing with her
head whenever the opportunity presented itself.

He turned around and walked backwards, cocking his head to the side, studying her
with a curious tilt of his brow. “You really don’t know?”

“Do you think if I did I would have left you at the tender mercy of my brothers and
cousins?” she shot back, kind of hurt that he thought so little of her.

Okay, granted there had been a time when she might have sat back with a big cup of
hot cocoa and savored the moment, but things were different now. A year ago she
would have treated her brothers to dinner and a round at McKay’s Bar, but not now.
Now she was already planning her revenge, because Connor was hers.

It was as simple as that.

He shook his head, his smile never wavering as he said, “No, I know you wouldn’t.”

“Good,”  she  said,  immensely  pleased  that  he  believed  her.  “Now  tell  me  where  they
took  you,”  she  demanded,  too  curious  to  pretend  otherwise  now,  especially  since  the
men  were  usually  hogtied  and  left  on  the  front  step  where  they  usually  stayed  until
someone stumbled across them sometime the next morning after their release.

“Hmm, I’m not sure that I can tell you that,” he said, that devastatingly sexy smile of
his turning mischievous as he led her across the small hallway and back into the
bathroom of her dreams.

“And why’s that?” she asked, returning his smile as she released his hand, walked
over to the large stone shower stall, slid the glass door open and stepped inside.

“I’ve been sworn to secrecy,” he said, shooting her a wink as he grabbed his
toothbrush.

She blinked at him. “You’re kidding me, right?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he asked, chuckling as he turned around and focused on
brushing his teeth while she stood there, hating to admit that yes, yes she really
would like to know.

Chapter 2

“Are  you  planning  on  pouting  all  night?”  he  asked,  chuckling  even  as  he  somehow
resisted  the  urge  to  grab  her  and  make  a  strategic  retreat  while  they  still  had  the
chance,  but  after  a  week  of  being  away  from  her,  he  just  couldn’t  force  himself  to  do
the right thing, not when she was standing naked in the shower, wet and waiting for
him.

God,  she  was  so  fucking  beautiful,  he  thought  in  a  daze  as  he  rinsed  his  mouth  out,
tossed  his  toothbrush  aside  and  headed  towards  her,  pausing  only  long  enough  to  toe
off his boots and tear off the clothes that he was going to have to incinerate. But, that
was  a  problem  for  later,  because  right  now  he  had  the  most  beautiful  woman  in  the
world waiting for him.

“Are you planning on telling me what happened?” she asked, absently adjusting the
temperature of the water as she waited for him to join her.

“Depends,” he murmured absently as he shoved his boxers off, finally stepped inside
the large shower stall and wrapped his arms around his wife, closed his eyes and
simply savored the feel of her in his arms.

“Depends on what?” she asked, smoothly turning in his arms even as she maneuvered
him beneath the spray of hot water and man, did that feel good after spending a week
stuck out in the woods.

“Many things,” he whispered as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her neck as he
let his hands glide over her body, reacquainting himself with her body as she reached
over and grabbed a bottle of shampoo.

When  she  moved  to  step  back  in  his  arms,  he  allowed  it  and  simply  stood  there,
savoring  her  touch  as  she  began  washing  his  hair,  running  her  fingers  through  his
hair as he simply stood there, watching her. When she was done, he simply closed his
eyes  and  dropped  his  head  back,  allowing  the  hot  water  to  rinse  his  hair  clean  while
she shifted her attention to the rest of his body as he told himself that they would put
an end to this in a few minutes and go before it was too late.

He  licked  his  lips  hungrily  as  she  ran  her  soapy  hands  over  his  shoulders,  down  his
arms, over his chest, his back and down to his ass where she gave him an appreciative
squeeze and used her hold to bring him closer. The move caused his erection to brush
up  against  her  flat  stomach  and  had  him  instantly  forgetting  that  they  needed  to
leave  and  soon.  All  thoughts  of  self-preservation  went  flying  out  the  door  when  she
released a hungry little moan.

“Oh, fuck,” he groaned, leaning down and taking her mouth in a hungry kiss that had
all thoughts of leaving the state for an extended period of time evaporating as he

pulled her tightly into his arms.

“I missed you,” she admitted on a needy little moan that had his heart racing and
reigniting the fire inside him that had him fucking over every single one of her
brothers and cousins so that he could return to her.

He’d never been so fucking desperate in his life than he’d been over this past week to
get to her. He’d missed her so damn much that sometimes it had been difficult taking
his next breath without feeling that sense of panic that came along with not knowing
that the person that you loved most in this world was okay. A whole week without
seeing her, talking to her or knowing that she was safe had taken its toll on him.

It hadn’t mattered that he knew that someone was always looking after her, making
sure that she was okay. The only thing that mattered was that it hadn’t been

him

taking care of her. It had killed him not to see her or hold her for the past week, but it
wasn’t like he’d had much of a choice in the matter. He’d needed to teach the James
boys and their cousins a lesson about coming between him and Rory.

Sure, he could have probably got the message through to them on that first day, but
he’d wanted to make sure that the lesson stuck. Then again, there was no doubt that
by day two the lesson had sunk in. Day three had definitely done the job, but he liked
to be thorough when it came to making sure that no one came between him and Rory,
always had, ever since they were children.

Her brothers really should have known better, was his last coherent thought before
Rory reached down between them and wrapped her soapy hand around his cock and
squeezed. After that he stopped thinking completely.

“Connor,” she moaned his name with a dreamy sigh as he moved his mouth away from
hers and began kissing and licking his way down to the large breasts that he’d found
himself fantasizing about more than a few times over the years. Her hand tightened
around his cock and her breath hitched into a gasp of pleasure when he rolled his
tongue around her nipple before taking it between his lips.

He licked and suckled on the large nipple hardening between his lips as he moved
forward until he had her back pressed against the smooth marble wall, right where he
wanted her. He shifted his attention to her other nipple as she adjusted her hold
around his cock so that she could slowly stroke him, making him groan in appreciation
and damn near ending this before it had a chance to start.

They’d never had a wedding night thanks to Jacob and his big fucking mouth and
unfortunately, they probably weren’t going to get one now, but he was going to make
sure that he took the edge off just enough so that he could think of something besides
how fucking wet and tight she was going to feel once he slid inside her. He just needed
to take the edge off so he could think straight, he told himself as he reached down and

wrapped his hand around one shapely calf.

In one smooth move he had her leg hooked over his hip and his free hand reaching
between her legs and-

“So fucking soft and wet,” he whispered reverently without realizing or really caring
that he’d spoke, not when he was sliding a finger inside her to find her ready for him.

“Connor,” she groaned his name as she wrapped her arms around him and pulled her
other leg up and hooked it over his hip, using her hold on him to bring him closer and
letting him know exactly what she wanted.

Shit!

“We don’t have time,” he said, more of a reminder to himself that they really needed
to move their asses before it was too late.

Rory laughed softly, clearly unaware of the dangers that they faced, and threaded her
fingers through his wet hair again as she pulled him in for a kiss that he was helpless
to deny her.

They had to leave. They had to no matter how badly he wanted to stay here and give
her a proper wedding night, they had to grab their shit, get in his truck and put some
space between them and this place quickly. He’d make this up to her, he silently
promised her even as he allowed himself to return her kiss, but only for a moment.

He just needed a minute to hold her in his arms and maybe let her rub her incredibly
wet slit against his cock, because it felt wrong to stop her and oh, so fucking good
when she tilted her hips down and rubbed her pussy against his balls. God, that felt
fucking incredible, he decided, groaning loudly as the little tease that he loved sucked
on his tongue as she continued to tease him.

“We have to go,” he managed to get out although at the moment he really couldn’t
remember why, not when she was using her hold on him to tilt her hips and-

“FUCK!” he roared, unable to help himself, not when Rory managed to take him by
surprise and took his cock inside her in one smooth move that had his legs threatening
to give out on him and Rory screaming in pleasure against his mouth.

Oh, God….Oh, God….Oh, God….

They didn’t have time for this.

Not now…

“Oh, fuck yes,” he groaned even as his brain screamed for him to pull out when she

used her hold around him and the wall at her back to roll her hips and…and…

“Fucking hell!” he snarled, knowing that he no longer had a choice in the matter.
She’d made damn sure of that when she slowly slid her wet sheath down his cock with
a slight twist as she tightened every last muscle in her talented body and threatened
to squeeze him dry.

Fuck doing the right thing, he decided, knowing that he wasn’t thinking straight and
that there was no way in hell that this night was going to end well for him, but as he
pulled out of her, put her on her feet and dropped to his knees in front of her, he could
honestly say that he didn’t fucking care.

Before  his  knees  hit  the  tiled  shower  floor,  his  beautiful  wife  was  shifting  her  legs
apart  for  him  and  giving  him  easier  access.  He  leaned  in,  closing  his  eyes  and  slowly
traced her wet slit with the tip of his tongue, loving the hungry little moans that she
was  making  and  the  way  that  she  threaded  her  fingers  through  his  hair,  silently
encouraging  him  to  continue  as  she  spread  her  legs  even  further  apart,  giving  him
better access.

“Connor,” came the soft whisper that was barely audible above the sounds of the
water splashing against the tiled floor, but he heard it and it was enough to have him
groaning her name in response as he forced himself to slowly trace her little clit and
greedy core with the tip of his tongue.

So.  Fucking.  Sweet,  he  thought  hungrily,  berating  himself  for  forgetting  exactly  how
good  she  tasted.  All  week,  when  he  hadn’t  been  fucking  over  the  males  in  her  family
to  teach  them  a  lesson,  he’d  been  thinking  about  her,  about  this,  about  the  sounds
that  she  made,  the  way  her  skin  felt  against  his  and  just  how  fucking  delicious  she
tasted. He’d been close, but not close enough and for that he’d never forgive himself.

When  he  slid  his  tongue  inside  her,  desperate  for  more,  she  gave  him  a  greedy  little
moan  that  he  liked  so  he  did  it  again  and  again  until  she  was  gripping  his  head  and
riding  his  mouth.  He  was  barely  aware  that  he’d  wrapped  his  hand  around  his  cock
and was stroking himself in time to her groans. All he cared about was how she tasted
and felt against his tongue and he wanted more.

As much as he wanted to stay there on his knees and lick her clean, he needed to feel
her  wrapped  around  his  cock,  squeezing  him  with  every  thrust  until  he  thought  he’d
die with pleasure. The decision was barely made before he found himself surging to his
feet,  grabbing  her  by  the  shoulders  and  turning  her  around  until  she  was  pressed  up
against  the  tiled  wall.  He  grabbed  her  hips,  pulled  her  ass  out  and  watched  with
greedy  anticipation  as  she  read  his  mind  and  pushed  her  ass  out  to  him  in  offering,
her back curving in the process as she reached up and placed her hands on the wall by
her head and gave her ass a little shake in invitation.

He  shifted  his  feet  apart,  placed  his  hands  over  hers  and  pushed  back  inside  her.  A
startled  moan  escaped  her  as  he  stood  there,  closing  his  eyes  and  savoring  sensation
after incredible sensation as he slowly slid back inside her. She felt fucking fantastic,
better  than  anything  that  he’d  ever  experienced  before  and  he  couldn’t  believe  that
she was finally his after all these years.

Apparently he was taking too long, because his bossy wife reached back, grabbed a
handful of his hair and yanked his head down as dropped so that she could kiss him
while he slowly fucked her. He wrapped his arm around her, palmed one of her large
breasts as he pushed all the way inside her as she pushed back against him.

“I  love  you,”  she  whimpered  in  his  mouth  as  he  slowly  fucked  her,  thrusting  just
enough  to  take  the  edge  off  the  overpowering  need  to  slam  her  against  the  wall  and
fuck  her  hard  until  they  both  were  screaming  with  pleasure  and  too  fucking  tired  to
care  that  he’d  probably  end  the  night  getting  the  shit  kicked  out  of  him  by  her
seriously, and rightfully, pissed off relatives.

“I love you more, Rory,” he admitted, still surprised at just how good it felt to be able
to say those words.

“Don’t leave me again,” she pleaded softly even as she moaned against his mouth
before she turned her face away and pressed her forehead against the tiled wall.

“I won’t,” he promised her, deciding that he would do whatever it took, take whatever
beating that he had coming for what he’d done, anything and everything to make sure
that he kept that promise.

“Good,” she said, panting hard on a whimper as she slapped her hand against the wall
and pushed back against him, letting him know exactly what she wanted.

Unfortunately, he refused to give it to her.

Thanks to her family’s fucked up tradition, they’d spent their wedding night apart,
which meant that he had to make tonight special and fucking her against the wall of
his shower was not the way that he wanted her to remember their wedding night.

He had to do this right and at this moment doing the right thing was the last fucking
thing that he wanted to do, but for her he would do anything. Somehow he found the
willpower to stop, after he savored one last slow thrust inside her wet sheath. Gritting
his teeth against the pain that it caused him to stop, he slowly pulled his cock out and
pressed a kiss between her shoulder blades.

“Connor?” she said, panting so hard that her body was actually trembling with the
need for him to finish this, but he had to do this right. He had to stay strong.

“Let’s do this right,” he said, forcing his hand away from her breast so that he could

wrap his arms around her and draw her back against him.

“But-”

“Let me give you the wedding night that you deserve,” he said even as he turned her
around in his arms and swept her off her feet, determined to do this right.

He was going to lay her down on his bed, start a fire, dim the lights, put on some soft
music, grab that bottle of champagne that he had chilling in the fridge and spend the
rest of the night showing her just how happy he was that she’d married him.

It was the only way to do this and unfortunately for him, it also didn’t look like it was
going to happen. At least not if all the large, really pissed off men standing in their
bedroom glaring at him had anything to say about it.

Chapter 3

“Oh, my God! What the hell is wrong with you?”Rory yelled to no one in particular as
the realization that every single one of her brothers and several of her favorite cousins
had just seen her naked and moaning in Connor’s arms as she begged him to fuck her.

“What the hell is wrong with us?” Bryce demanded as he stumbled back and fell over
the bed as he squeezed his eyes shut and slapped his hands over his eyes, doing his
best to block out the sight that had greeted the interfering assholes when Connor had
opened the bedroom door and stepped inside, completely naked, aroused and carrying
her in his arms.

“Oh my fucking God, I think I’m going to be sick,” Jason, the melodramatic bastard
that she loved like a brother, said, gagging and pretty much guaranteeing that she
was going to have to kick his ass after this.

Connor  being  Connor,  simply  sighed  as  he  carried  her  over  to  the  bed,  ignoring  the
large bastards jumping out of his way. He made quick work of putting her in bed and
tucking her in even though she refused to lie down. By the time he was finished, she
was  sitting  up  with  the  sheet  tucked  around  her  breasts  and  glaring  at  every  single
one  of  her  asshole  brothers  and  cousins,  letting  them  know  in  her  own  special  way
that  she  was  going  to  get  each  and  every  one  of  them  back  for  this.  Judging  by  the
glares that they were shooting Connor as he pulled on a pair of gray sweatpants, they
knew it and didn’t give a flying fuck at the moment, because it seemed that they were
focused on a little revenge of their own.

“You should have kept running, asshole,” Johnny said, pushing away from the wall
right around the time that the rest of the men decided that it was time to do what
they came here for.

Connor rubbed his hands down his face and lazily gestured towards the door. “Let’s
just get this over with, shall we?”

“And let you out of our sight again?” Darrin asked, shaking his head in disbelief as he
pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his back pocket and tossed them to his twin, who
made quick work of cuffing Connor’s hands behind his back while Connor simply stood
there, sighing heavily.

“Is this really necessary?” Connor asked, sounding bored, which for some reason
seemed to really piss off the men in her family.

“After the hell you put us through over the last week?” Trevor demanded through
clenched teeth. “You bet your fucking ass it’s necessary, you little bastard.”

Connor pursed his lips up in thought as he sat on the edge of bed next to her,
somehow managing to take one of her hands in his so that he could lazily run his

thumb over the back of her hand. “Nobody told you to kidnap me,” Connor pointed out
with a slight shrug as he continued to caress her hand, not really seeming to care that
there were nine large men in the room who looked more than ready to tear him apart
with their bare hands.

Which of course brought up an interesting question…

“What exactly happened?” she asked, wrapping her hand around his and did her best
to pretend that she wasn’t blushing like a schoolgirl just from touching him.

“Tradition,” Craig bit out between clenched teeth as he stood there, seething along
with the rest of the men in the room.

“Okay…” she mumbled slowly, not even trying to hide her confusion as she glanced
around the room to take in the angry and slightly embarrassed expressions on her
brothers and cousins’ faces. “Then why exactly are you here?” she asked, wracking her
head to try and remember a time when the men in her family had forced the newest
member of the family to go through the “Welcoming,” twice.

Normally once they welcomed the newest man into the fold and the rules were
thoroughly explained, they usually just left him alone unless he forgot to follow one of
the family rules. Either the guy raised his voice to his wife, stepped out on her, fucked
up as a father, etc. and the men in her family would step in and handle it. If there was
one thing that the men in her family made sure of, it was that everyone, young and
old, was taken care of and if you were given the privilege of being allowed to care for
one of them, you were expected to do your job and do it well.

Then again, this was Connor they were talking about here so…

“What  did  you  do?”  she  asked,  closing  her  eyes  in  resignation  as  she  waited  to  hear
what  her  husband  did,  because  as  badly  as  she  wanted  to  believe  that  it  was  her
brothers  and  cousins  that  had  done  something  seriously  fucked  up,  she  knew  her
husband too well to even consider any other possibilities.

His warm chuckle only confirmed her suspicions.

“I took the golden opportunity to get to know my in-laws a little better,” he said,
sounding amused as he shot her a wink over his shoulder, which earned outraged
gasps from the big babies still glaring at him.

“He went too far!”

“I felt dirty!” Johnny cried, wrapping his large arms around himself as he backed up
against the wall and shuddered at whatever memory was running through his head at
the moment. “Dirty. So, dirty,” he mumbled to himself, staring down at the floor as
another shudder tore through him.

“There are things that you just don’t do, you sick bastard!” Bryce snarled, taking a
threatening towards Connor only to have Craig grab him by the arm and stop him.

“Not in front of her,” Craig bit out even as his glare told her just how much he’d love
to get his hands on Connor.

It  was  at  that  moment  that  she  realized  that  all  of  her  brothers  and  cousins  looked
like  they’d  been  dragged  through  hell  and  back.  Their  clothes  were  torn,  they  were
covered in dirt, debris, their hair was a mess, all of them could use a shave, their eyes
were  bloodshot,  they  looked  exhausted  and  each  and  every  single  one  of  them  was
looking at her husband as though he were the devil himself.

“Why don’t we take this conversation over to Dad’s place,” Bryce suggested with an
anticipatory gleam in his eye that she didn’t really care for.

Not at all.

“Sure. I’d love to go for another ride,” Connor said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze
as he stood up, but she wasn’t in the mood for any more games, especially not tonight
when he still owed her a real wedding night.

Keeping  a  tight  hold  on  the  sheet  covering  her  breasts  with  one  hand,  she  reached
over  and  grabbed  the  short  link  of  his  handcuffs  and  yanked  him  back  on  the  bed.
Chuckling,  because  he’d  always  enjoyed  fucking  with  someone’s  head,  he  quickly
shifted onto his back, brought his cuffed hands in front of him and pushed back until
he  was  lounging  on  the  bed  by  her  side,  looking  as  though  he  didn’t  have  a  single
worry in the world while the grumpy bastards continued to glare at him.

“Tell me what happened,” she said with a heavy sigh.

“He crossed a line!” Trevor snapped, taking a step towards the bed only to have Jason
and Bryce grab him and pull him back. “There are just some things that you don’t do,
you sick bastard!”

At that, she looked at Connor and waited for an explanation.

With a shrug, he admitted, “I locked him in a spider infested cellar and cut the power
so that he couldn’t find his way out without walking through at least a hundred
webs.”

“You traumatizing bastard!” Trevor snapped as he absently brushed his shirt and
arms off, probably imagining spiders crawling all over him, she mused with a sad
shake of her head, because really, it could have been a hell of a lot worse.

“He stole the spark plugs out of our trucks and left us in the middle of nowhere!”
Reese snapped as his twin narrowed his eyes accusingly on him and added, “Then he

stole our supplies and hid them, forcing us to hole up in that old abandoned house on
Resin Pond,” making her frown with confusion, because she’d thought that old house
had burned down years ago.

“He trapped us in that house, stole the batteries out of our trucks and hooked them up
to a stereo and blasted fucking Justin Bieber day and night!” Brian, her normally
laidback brother, snarled with a haunted look in his eye that she’d seen so many times
in the eyes of some poor bastard that had made the mistake of coming between her
and Connor. “Fucking

Bieber!”

“When  we  finally  escaped,  the  bastard  followed  us  through  the  woods,  taunting  us
every  step  of  the  way!”  Bryce  snapped,  flexing  his  hands  into  fists,  obviously
struggling against the urge to wring Connor’s neck while  she  sat  there,  trying  not  to
laugh  since  she  didn’t  think  it  would  help  the  situation,  but  heaven  help  her,  there
was  just  something  about  seeing  Connor  fucking  someone  else  over  that  brought  a
smile to her face.

Still…

She shouldn’t laugh.

She really shouldn’t.

These  were  her  brothers  and  cousins  she  was  talking  about  here.  They’d  kidnapped
Connor  to  protect  her  and  make  that  he  knew  what  was  expected  of  him,  but  then
again, anyone who knew Connor knew that even when they used to make each other’s
lives  a  living  hell  that  he  would  beat  the  shit  out  of  anyone  who  fucked  with  her.  If
there was one person in the world that would always take care of her and protect her,
it  was  Connor  and  her  brothers  knew  that,  which  of  course  made  this  attempt  to
“teach him their ways,” kind of sad, yet sweet.

“Since I really didn’t feel like putting up with their bullshit for the next fifty years or
so, I decided that it was imperative that they learned what would happen if they ever
came between us again,” he said, shifting to get comfortable as he reached over with
his cuffed hands and took her hand into his, making sure not to interfere with the
hold that she had on the sheet covering her.

“I see,” she said, biting her lip to stop herself from smiling, because she could only
imagine the hell that he’d just put her family through.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Johnny demanded, catching the action.

“After the bullshit that he put us through you actually have the balls to laugh at us
and mock our pain?” Brian demanded, looking incredibly pissed, which of course made
it even more difficult not to laugh.

“We did this for you!” Jason gasped.

“And this is how you thank us?” Trevor finished for him, sounding completely insulted,
which of course was just too much, because once she started laughing, she couldn’t
seem to stop, which of course made all the men glaring at her husband shift their
pouts and glares on her.

“Thank you?” she managed to ask through snorts of amusement. “I didn’t ask you to
kidnap him,” she pointed out, but they didn’t care.

“It’s tradition!” Craig snarled as though she cared.

“We were protecting you!” Johnny snapped.

“We could have been killed!” Jason added, shifting his glare back on Connor, who’d
apparently decided to ignore them and focus on tracing her hand with his fingertips,
looking completely enthralled by the action.

“I left you water and bread,” Connor murmured absently as he brought her hand to
his lips as he locked eyes with hers, making her breath hitch, as he pressed the
softest, sweetest kiss to her palm.

“You left us one bottle of water and a can of brown bread with absolutely no way to
open it, you bastard! You starved us!” one of the men said, but she had no idea who
since all of her attention was on the man that she loved and missed.

“Damn you’re beautiful,” Connor whispered reverently, pressing one last kiss to her
palm before he tilted his head and leaned in to-

“Oh, come the fuck on!”

“We don’t need to see this!”

“Oh, I’m going to be sick!”

“This is so wrong,” she thought she heard Johnny say as well as a few gagging sounds,
but she could care less as Connor leaned in and brushed his lips against hers, slowly
teasing her until she couldn’t take it anymore and released her hold on her sheet,
reached up and threaded her fingers through his hair and held him close as she sat up,
kicked the sheet away and straddled his lap and took up where they’d left off.

Chapter 4

“They’re gone,” he said, smiling against Rory’s lips as he allowed her to push him back
down on the bed as she straddled him.

“They were gone the second you kissed me,” she explained, panting hard as she
threaded her fingers through his hair and held on as she deepened the kiss and as
much as he would love to make sure that the assholes that he now had the pleasure of
calling his in-laws weren’t coming back, he couldn’t do that, not with his wife sucking
so sweetly on his tongue and rubbing her large bare breasts against his chest.

“What did you do to them?” she asked, not really sounding like she cared as she spread
her legs further apart and ground down hard against him, making him realize that
he’d never fully lost his erection, which at any other time probably would have
embarrassed him to know that he’d given his in-laws an eyeful, but not now, not when
his wife was grinding against him and quickly bringing his cock back to full attention.

“Nothing much,” he whispered on a moan as she ground down against him hard
enough to push the top of his sweatpants down and expose the sensitive underside of
his cock to her soft, flat stomach, making him groan on contact.

“Nothing much, huh?” she asked playfully as she continued to tease his cock with her
soft stomach as he lay there, helpless to do anything but enjoy it.

“Just a little male bonding,” he said absently as he reached back with his cuffed hands
and grabbed hold of the headboard, deciding to let her have her fun.

“Male bonding with my brothers and cousins?” she asked, shifting so that she was
straddling his stomach and placing her pert ass on his cock and making him hiss with
pleasure. Smiling, she leaned over and brushed her lips against his and asked, “Where
did they take you?” while she ground her beautiful ass against his cock.

He chuckled even as she managed to wring another groan out of him. “I can’t share
that with you, baby. Sorry,” he said, using his hold on the headboard to pull himself
up so that he could kiss her.

“Why’s that?” she asked, teasing his bottom lip between her teeth as she shifted so
that her wet slit slid across the tip of his exposed cock.

“Because one day we might have a daughter and whatever bastard is lucky enough to
marry her is going to have to learn what will happen if he ever hurts her,” he
explained, because even though he felt that their efforts had been wasted on him for
the simple fact that he’d rather die than hurt her, he had to admit that he liked their
methods.

He’d tear apart anyone that hurt his wife or children with his bare hands and the fact

that the Bradfords were not only the same way, but were more than prepared to back
it up actually eased some of the terror that had plagued him since he’d decided that he
couldn’t live without Rory. He could honestly say that he wasn’t a man that frightened
easily, but just the thought of something happening to Rory or their children because
he wasn’t around to protect them absolutely terrified him.

From what he knew about the James boys and what he’d learned about the Bradfords
over the past few months, there was no doubt in his mind that if something happened
to him, every single Bradford and James boy would step up and do right by Rory and
their children. They would be protected, never want for anything and always have
someone there to take care of them.

It  was  more  than  he  could  have  ever  hoped  for  and  for  that  he  would  be  eternally
grateful. That didn’t mean that he was going to let her family fuck him over and put
him  in  “his  place.”  They  needed  to  know  from  the  start  that  Rory  was  now  his
responsibility  and  he  wouldn’t  tolerate  any  interference.  He  was  pretty  sure  that
they’d figured that out over the past week.

If not…

He was more than prepared to go through their “Initiation” again, he thought with a
chuckle as he used his hold on the headboard and raised his head up and latched onto
one of her large nipples, earning one of the sexiest little groans that he’d ever heard
her make. He sucked and teased her large nipple until it was hard in his mouth. Then
he teased it a little more before he released it and shifted his attention to her other
breast, licking and kissing every square inch along the way until he had the nipple in
his mouth and making her moan louder.

God,  he  fucking  loved  that  sound,  he  decided  as  he  tightened  his  hold  on  the  bed,
ignoring  the  creaking  sounds  of  the  headboard  protesting  the  abuse,  spread  his  legs,
planted  his  feet  on  the  bed  and  used  his  hold  on  the  headboard  to  raise  his  hips  and
grind  the  tip  of  his  cock  against  her  wet  pussy.  She  gasped  in  pleasure,  a  small
whimper  escaping  her  when  he  did  it  again  and  again  until  she  was  holding  onto  his
biceps,  her  fingers  digging  into  his  muscles  as  he  continued  to  thrust  up  against  her,
harder  and  faster  until  the  tip  of  his  cock  finally  found  her  core  and  with  one  hard
thrust, he slid inside her.

“Connor!”

“Oh, Fuck!”he roared, tightening his hold on the headboard as he dug his feet harder
into the bed and thrust inside her hard enough to force his sweats down further and
freed his cock so that he could slide deep inside her.

The bed creaked and with each hard thrust he sent the headboard banging into the
wall, but it wasn’t enough, not nearly enough. He needed to be deeper inside her, fuck

her harder and as amazing as it felt to slide his cock inside her wet pussy, it wasn’t
enough. Releasing his hold on her breast, he dropped back onto the bed, giving up his
hold on the headboard and brought his cuffed hands over his head until he was
gripping her ass and using the hold to move her on top of him.

It didn’t take long before Rory caught on and took over. Raising up on her knees, she
shifted  so  that  she  could  spread  her  legs  wider  and  take  him  deeper  inside  as  she
released  her  hold  on  his  biceps,  cupped  his  face  and  kissed  him  like  she’d  die  if  she
stopped.  He  kissed  her  back,  tangling  his  tongue  with  hers  as  she  rode  his  cock  with
abandon, taking him deeper and harder with every stroke.

“That’s it, baby,” he said, encouraging her to take what she wanted. “Take my cock,
sweetheart.”

Her answer was an incoherent moan and a cry of frustration as her movements
became more desperate and frantic. “So fucking wet and tight,” he groaned, loving the
way she lost it when he talked dirty to her.

Keeping his hold on her bottom, he rolled her onto her back and thrust inside her,
ignoring the bite of the metal cuffs digging into his wrist as he kissed his way to her
ear and whispered. “I missed you, Rory. I’m missed holding you at night. I missed
touching you, kissing you and sliding my tongue inside your pussy before I fucked you.
Did you miss that, Rory?” he asked, slowing his thrusts as he fucked her.

“Yes,” she moaned,“Yes!”

“Say it,” he demanded, slowing his thrusts even further as he had to grit his teeth,
struggling not to come until he had her screaming his name and digging her nails into
his back. “Tell me how much you missed me, Rory. Tell me how much you missed
getting fucked!”

“Oh, God! she gasped, licking her lips hungrily as she spread her legs and tried to ride
his cock, but he wouldn’t let her, not until he heard her tell him how badly she’d
missed this, missed

him.

“Tell me just how badly you missed this,” he said tightly as he fucked her.

“I missed you,” she admitted, practically yelling the admission and earning a harder
thrust. “I missed you so much, Connor. God, I missed you!”

“And did you miss this?” he asked, pulling out so that he could slowly slide back inside
her, letting her feel just how hard she’d made him.

Gasping, she nodded frantically, but that wasn’t good enough.

“Tell me!” he whispered harshly, needing to hear her say the words. “Tell me how

badly you missed getting fucked!”

“Oh, God!” she screamed just as he felt her sheath clamp down tightly around him.

“Fuck!” he growled, wanting to hear how badly she missed him, but unable to stop
himself from fucking her harder, the feeling of her pussy squeezing him too fucking
good to ignore.

Within seconds she was screaming her release and he was cursing harshly as he
continued to fuck her, his orgasm building down his spine as he felt his balls pull up
tight and-

“Oh, fuck no!” he groaned when she somehow managed to take him by surprise and
shove him onto his back.

Before he could stop her, she was pulling off his cock and sliding down his body,
ducking beneath his cuffed hands when he went to reach for her, needing to slide back
inside her so badly that he’d thought he’d fucking die if he didn’t feel her sheath
wrapped around him again.

“Rory,” he said her name tightly as he reached blindly for her again, never so close in
his life to begging before, but he needed her so fucking badly that it hurt. “Baby,
please-Oh, fuck!” he roared as she grabbed the waist of his sweatpants and yanked
them down right around the time that her lips wrapped around the tip of his cock.

Gasping, he reached back and grabbed hold of the headboard, terrified of what he’d do
if he didn’t stop himself, and looked down to watch Rory swallow his cock with that
mischievous glint in her eyes, the one that he’d seen over a hundred times in the past
and the one that told him that the tables had just been turned on him.

Panting hard, he watched as she slowly pulled her mouth back, allowing his glistening
cock to escape her beautiful lips. “Did you miss me, Connor?” she asked calmly with a
sensual smile as she dipped her head and ran her tongue from the base of his cock to
the tip as though she hadn’t just been screaming his name less than a minute ago.

This woman was calm and in control and they both knew it.

“Yes,” he answered harshly, groaning seconds later when she rewarded him by licking
his cock from the base to the tip again.

“Did you miss fucking me, Connor?” she asked, making him close his eyes in pleasure,
because there really was nothing like Rory taking control and bringing him to his
knees.

“Yes!”

“What did you miss most about me?” she asked, licking her way back up to the tip of
his cock and then slowly took it back between her lips.

“Every fucking thing,” he admitted.

She chuckled around his cock, sending a new wave of pleasure through his body.
“Everything, huh?”

“Yes!”

“What do you want, Connor? Hmm, my mouth or my pussy?” she asked right before
she took his cock back in her mouth and robbed him of the ability to think.

A loud, long groan escaped him when she cupped his balls and sucked on his cock,
making it difficult to decide, because as much as he loved sliding deep inside her, he
loved this, too.

“Did you think about me over the past week?” she asked as she once again allowed his
cock to slide free of her mouth.

“Every fucking minute of every fucking day,” he admitted, gasping for air as he
watched Rory slowly sit up and straddle him again.

“Really?” she asked with that teasing little smile of hers that drove him crazy as she
ran her hands over his torso and ground down against his cock, rubbing her wet pussy
over him.

“Yes!” he practically snarled, desperate for her as his hold tightened on the headboard
and he somehow resisted the urge to shove her on her back and fuck her until his balls
stopped hurting.

“What do you want, Connor?” she asked, slowly rubbing her pussy on him, rubbing
back and forth…back and forth…

“You!” he roared as she sent him over the edge with a simple twist of her hips,
rubbing her clit over the underside of his cock, making him groan and every muscle in
his body tighten as he came, harder than he ever thought possible without being
inside a woman.

She kept grinding her wet pussy on him, causing his cock to jerk with each movement
until he suddenly found his cock back inside her tight sheath as she lost control, riding
him harder and faster as he laid there, gritting his teeth and watching her as she lost
control until he couldn’t take anymore and he found himself yelling her name just as
his name was ripped from her beautiful lips. She fell on him, panting hard as she
turned her head, gave him a sleepy little smile that ended on a sigh as he turned his
head and brushed his lips against hers.

Chapter 5

“I am never speaking to you again!”

Rory sighed heavily as she walked past Jason, pausing only long enough to ram her
finger into his side, a move she’d perfected years ago thanks to Connor, and sighed
with satisfaction when the big baby gasped in pain and jumped back.

“How could you?” he demanded in outrage, pressing his hand against his side as he
gave her what he probably considered his best pout.

“Easily,” she admitted with a smile that was quickly followed by a yawn as she walked
past all her brothers and cousins standing around the kitchen, devouring everything
from boxes of cereal to bags of chips and letting her know that there was absolutely no
hope of finding something to eat, not with her brothers and cousins in the house, but
she still held out hope that they’d missed an egg or two.

She opened the fridge, sighed, shook her head with disgust, let the refrigerator door
close and walked back the way that she came, contemplating her choices. She could go
next door and see what Andrew had, but something told her that her brothers and
cousins had most likely spent the night over there, staking out the house, waiting for
a chance to get their hands on Connor and finish what they’d started and had probably
already eaten everything that they could get their hands on.

That left her with a couple of choices, she could go pick up donuts, drag Connor out of
bed and make him take her out for breakfast or go back upstairs, crawl back in bed
and have her wicked way with her husband again.

Decisions…..decisions…..

“I’m going back to bed. Make sure to lock up on your way out, boys,” she said, heading
for the kitchen door that she’d already decided to replace with her own design when
all five of her brothers stepped in front of her and blocked her way.

“Not just yet,” Bryce said, folding his large arms over his chest as he did his best to
glare down at her.

“Not until we have the ‘talk’,” Johnny added, mimicking Bryce as the rest of her
brothers followed suit.

“Oh my God, you can’t be serious,” she said, rubbing her hands down her face, because
if they were seriously trying to have the sex talk with her, she was going to have to-

“Good morning, gentlemen,” Connor drawled as he strolled into the kitchen behind her
brothers, tossing the set of handcuffs to one of the twins, and startling the hell out of
all of them and making them jump out of the way as Connor, wearing only a pair of

jeans and a devilish glint in his eyes that she knew only too well, walked past her
brothers, who practically scrambled across the room to get away from him.

“Sick bastard!”Bryce hissed as he grabbed one of the kitchen table chairs and pulled it
in front of himself as though that would somehow protect him from the man that only
seemed to have eyes for her and seriously making her wonder what he’d done to them,
because she’d never seen any of her cousins or brothers this freaked out before.

Then again, this was Connor they were talking about here…

“Good  morning,  Rory,”  he  whispered,  oblivious  to  the  fact  that  he  had  every  single
man in the room plastered against the wall and  shooting  desperate  glances  at  all  the
exits. He leaned down and kissed her, ignoring the gags and groans of protest coming
from  her  brothers,  he  gave  her  the  sweetest  kiss,  laying  claim  to  her  and  letting  her
brothers know with that one kiss that he would not be intimated by them.

“Good morning,” she said, smiling back as she returned his kiss, pleased beyond words
that she’d found the one man in the world that wasn’t afraid of her family.

“You got up too early,” he said softly, wrapping his arms around her and pulled her
close so that he could press a kiss to her forehead as he savored the feel of having her
in his arms.

“Look,” Jason said, reminding them that they weren’t alone, “as much as we’d all love
to be mentally scarred for life, we came here for a reason.”

Connor  pressed  one  last  kiss  against  her  forehead  before  he  let  her  go.  “You  mean
besides  eating  everything  that  wasn’t  nailed  down?”  Connor  asked  with  a  weary  sigh
as  he  leaned  back  against  the  kitchen  island,  which  for  whatever  reason  seemed  to
startle every single man in the room.

She shot Craig a questioning glance only to find him shooting Connor a nervous glare
even as he shifted ever so slightly to the right and further away from her husband.
Frowning, she looked around the room to find all of her brothers and cousins doing the
same thing. When Reese and Darrin, two very large and highly trained police officers
who never backed down from a fight, noticeably swallowed as they shifted away, she
decided right then and there that it was probably for the best if she never found out
what happened in the woods.

“Sick bastard,” Trevor mumbled, looking panicked as he moved even further away
from Connor.

Yeah…

There were definitely some things that she didn’t want to know about, she decided as
she hopped up on the counter and sat next to him, loving the way that he placed his

hand on her knee with a look that pretty much dared any of her brothers and cousins
to bitch. She tensed up and opened her mouth, ready to remind her brothers that she
was a married woman now and to back off when the most amazing thing happened.

None of them said anything about it, which meant that they’d accepted Connor. More
importantly,  it  meant  that  they  trusted  him  to  take  care  of  her  and  put  her  first,
which was something that didn’t come easily to the men in their family. They always
had a hard time trusting that someone outside the family was going to do right by the
women  in  their  family.  Whatever  happened  during  the  last  week,  and  she’d  already
decided  that  she  really  didn’t  need  to  know  the  details,  it  had  changed  their  minds
about  Connor.  He  was  one  of  them  now,  whether  he  wanted  to  be  or  not  and
something  told  her  that  most  days  he  probably  wouldn’t  want  to  be,  but  that  was  a
problem  for  another  day.  Right  now,  she  had  to  figure  out  how  to  get  rid  of  her
brothers and cousins so that she could climb back in bed with Connor.

“We came to warn you,” Jason bit out, folding his large arms over his chest.

“Not that you deserve it, you sick son of a bitch!” Trevor muttered with a pout and a
glare that had her rolling her eyes as she waited for the men to get on with it so that
she could tell them that the “talk” wasn’t necessary when something in Jason’s
expression made her stomach twist with fear.

That look…

She’d seen it before, but she just couldn’t for the life of her remember when. That is,
until she shifted her gaze to Trevor and saw the same expression on his face, the same
one that she remembered seeing on Uncle Alex’s face when she was five years old,
sitting around the campfire with her brothers and cousins as he explained for the first
time about the Bradford curse.

“Warn us about what?” Connor asked, sounding bored as she sat there, trying not to
panic and failing miserably.

She needed to get them out of there before they could say something to clue Connor
into the fact that he’d married into a crazy fam-

“The curse,” Jason said, sighing heavily as he reached up and rubbed the back of his
neck, suddenly looking exhausted and like he’d rather be anywhere but here, probably
because he knew that she had no choice but to kill him now.

“Jason,”  she  said  in  warning,  leveling  a  glare  all  her  own  on  the  large  bastard  that
was  about  to  give  Connor  enough  reason  to  file  for  a  divorce  based  on  insanity,
because  really,  there  was  no  other  way  to  explain  the  bullshit  that  the  Bradfords
bought into and like it or not, she was a Bradford.

Speaking of her Bradford roots…

Shooting  Jason  an  additional  glare  to  warn  him  to  keep  his  big  mouth  shut,  she
hopped  off  the  counter  and  walked  around  the  kitchen  island  to  the  cabinet  near  the
sink, the same one that she’d claimed as her own last week when she’d moved in, and
opened  the  cabinet,  silently  promising  to  kick  every  last  one  of  her  brothers  and
cousins’ asses if they so much as-

She released a pleased little sigh when she saw that her hot cocoa supply cabinet was
just  as  she’d  left  it  last  night.  Deciding  that  offering  them  a  cup  of  hot  cocoa  would
only encourage them to stay, and since that was not in her best interest, she grabbed
two of her favorite mugs and set them down on the counter. Connor walked past her,
barely  pausing  long  enough  to  press  a  kiss  against  the  top  of  her  head  and  brush  his
hand  down  her  back  in  a  slow  caress  as  he  made  his  way  past  her  and  filled  a  kettle
with fresh water.

“Rory,” Jason said with a touch of annoyance, “we have to have this talk.”

“No,” she said, focusing her attention on making two cups of hot cocoa, “we really
don’t.”

“He knows what he’s talking about,” Johnny said, not really surprising her since all of
her brothers, like most of their cousins, had always bought into the bullshit Bradford
traditions and dire warnings of doom.

“No, he really doesn’t,” she said, adding an extra spoonsful of cocoa to her mug,
because she knew that she was going to need it.

“Then explain Dad,” Bryce said, sounding a touch too smug for her liking and for that
alone, she decided to argue just to shut the large bastards up and get them out of the
house.

“That doesn’t count,” she said firmly, because it didn’t and it shouldn’t and the fact
that they didn’t see that still pissed her off even after all these years really pissed her
off.

“Someone want to tell me what’s going on,” Connor said, reaching over and added two
small pieces of Belgium chocolate to her mug, knowing her well enough to know that
she was going to need it this morning.

“No,” she said, right around the time that Craig took it upon himself to add, “The
curse.”

“The curse, huh?” Connor repeated with an amused chuckle and a wink.

“It’s not a joke, asshole,” Bryce snapped with a slight pout, sounding offended as most
of the men in her family who took the curse seriously usually did when it was
questioned or mocked, which was pretty much guaranteed to happen anytime it was

mentioned.

“This is serious,” Brian added before Darrin stepped in with a sigh and an expression
on his face that told her that even though he didn’t buy into the whole curse bullshit,
he was still here to watch out for her.

“Even  if  it’s  bullshit,  it’s  still  better  to  be  safe  than  sorry,”  Darrin  said,  gesturing  to
Connor,  who  was  watching  her  cousin  with  an  odd  expression  that  she’d  never  seen
before. It was more thoughtful than anything and was gone seconds later, but it was
still  enough  to  instantly  put  her  on  alert.  It  was  a  reaction  that  had  been  instilled  in
her  after  twenty  years  of  making  each  other’s  lives  a  living  hell  and  something  that
she couldn’t easily ignore.

Well, she actually could since it wasn’t aimed at her, she mused a moment later when
Connor  handed  her  a  cup  of  delicious  hot  chocolate.  It  wasn’t  as  good  as  hers,  but  it
was  a  close  second  so  she  happily  sipped  her  cocoa  while  she  sat  back  and  decided  to
watch  the  show  since  convincing  her  brothers  and  cousins  to  drop  this  whole  thing
probably  wasn’t  going  to  happen.  They  really  were  a  bunch  of  stubborn,  loveable
bastards,  she  thought  with  a  resigned  sigh  as  she  sipped  her  cocoa,  absently  noting
that  her  husband  was  definitely  making  progress  with  the  ratio  of  cream  and  cocoa
mix.

“Enlighten me,” Connor said, leaning back against the kitchen island as he sipped his
cocoa, causing the muscles in his perfectly sculptured torso to ripple and flex, earning
a sigh of appreciation from her that earned a few eye rolls and muttered curses from
her brothers and cousins that she easily ignored as she focused on her husband and
wondered if they could get right to the point so that she could get her husband back in
bed where they belonged.

Chapter 6

“Did Rory ever tell you about the curse?” Jason demanded, looking completely serious
and making it difficult for Connor to keep a straight face, but somehow he managed
it.

“No,” he said, technically not lying since it had actually been Mr. James that had
taken him aside at the emergency room and further explained Bradfords and their
seriously fucked up traditions and bullshit beliefs.

If the warning had come from anyone other than Mr. James, he would have called it
bullshit, told him to fuck off and walked away, but the fact that Mr. James had been
so worried about his little girl getting hit with the Bradford curse that he had actually
taken him aside and forced himself to explain the whole thing to Connor even though
it had clearly embarrassed him to do it had caught his attention. Even though he was
clearly skeptical about the “curse” and thought it was foolish, he had still forced
himself to tell Connor with the hopes that he would be saving his little girl from a
nightmare.

So of course Connor had listened…

And  then  immediately  came  up  with  a  plan  of  his  own  that  would  save  them  from
hearing about this bullshit for the next year while still taking his incredibly beautiful
wife on a honeymoon. Not that she would know that they were going on a honeymoon,
because  really,  did  it  matter  if  she  knew  that  she  was  going  as  long  as  he  kept  her
safe?  As  long  as  he  didn’t  make  the  mistake  of  referring  to  their  little  trip  away  as
anything  more  than  a  business  trip,  they  should  be  safe  from  hearing  anymore
Bradford bullshit and get him exactly what he wanted.

His wife, naked and smiling, in his arms for the next two weeks without any
interruptions from the overbearing assholes in her family.

It was going to be fucking perfect.

Okay,  so  it  wasn’t  exactly  what  he’d  had  in  mind  when  he’d  been  thinking  about
bringing  her  on  a  honeymoon,  but  as  long  as  he  had  her  to  himself  for  the  next  two
weeks  then  he  could  wait  a  year  before  they  went  on  their  real  “honeymoon.”  He’d
bring  her  to  a  tropical  island  where  the  only  thing  that  she  needed  to  wear  was  a
skimpy bikini that he would remove every night with his teeth before he slowly licked
her-

“Look,” Trevor cut in, drawing his attention away from his plans for Rory’s incredible
body and back on the men that he needed to get out of his house, “here’s the deal,” the
large bastard that screamed like a girl whenever a spider was around, said as he
rubbed his hands roughly down his face. “If you take her on a honeymoon before the

year mark you’re going to seriously fucking regret it.”

“You have to wait a year. I know it sounds stupid, but-,” Jason cut it in while the rest
of the men began nodding in agreement, but he didn’t have time for this bullshit so he
decided to end it before it could get out of hand and he was stuck with a houseful of
Bradfords and James boys for the night.

“Let me stop you right there,” he said, holding up his hand to stop the large bastards,
because honestly he wasn’t sure that he could listen to another moment of Bradford
bullshit no matter how good their intentions were. “We’re not going to be able to go on
a real honeymoon until sometime late next year.”

“What are you talking about?” Craig asked, sharing a look that he couldn’t read with
his brothers and cousins.

“We’re merging our companies after completing an extremely large renovation on time
and under budget. We’re going to have more work than we can deal with in a few
weeks and probably have to hire more men. We’re in no position to turn down the
work right now, not if we want to take advantage of all this good press we’re getting
right now.”

“So,” Trevor said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously on him, which would have hurt if he
really cared at all, “you’re not going to take Rory on a honeymoon until next year?”

He sighed heavily as he shook his head regretfully. “I don’t think we’re going to have a
chance,  Rory,”  he  said,  sending  his  wife  an  apologetic  look  that  had  the  rest  of  the
men  visibly  relaxing  and  his  wife  busied  herself  with  her  cocoa,  clearly  suspicious  of
him,  but  not  foolish  enough  to  point  that  out  in  front  of  her  relatives,  not  if  they
wanted to get rid of them.

“That’s okay,” Rory said with a shrug and a questioning look that he easily ignored,
because it meant that she was willing to go along with whatever plans he had and he
had plenty.

He released a long-suffering sigh, careful not to go  overboard  with  it  and  adding  just
enough regret to his expression as he placed his nearly full cup of hot cocoa next to her
on  the  counter  as  he  leaned  back  against  the  counter  and  folded  his  arms  over  his
chest,  making  damn  sure  to  look  pissed  when  he  said,  “I’m  afraid  that  I’m  not  even
going to be able around much for the next two weeks.”

“Why’s that?” Craig asked, cocking his head in question, clearly suspicious, which was
fine with him since he was used to dealing with the paranoid James boys.

“Because,” he said, reaching up to rub the back of his neck, “I have to head up to
Maine for a few weeks and do a consultation job that I’ve been putting off since last
year. As much as I’d like to put it off for a few more months, I can’t. I promised that I

would come up there after Strawberry Manor was done and help get the old place off
the ground and ready for the spring season.”

He dropped his hand down by his side and took Rory’s hand in his. He gave it a small
squeeze as he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers in apology. “I’m sorry,
baby,” he said, resisting the urge to look up and see if the assholes he’d enjoyed
torturing over the past week were buying this line of bullshit.

“But, we just got married,” Rory whispered softly, sounding hurt as she entwined her
fingers with his and looked up, sending him a look that would have normally had his
stomach twisting and his heart breaking, but the discrete little caress she ran over the
back of his hand with her thumb let him know that she was on board with whatever
he had planned.

“I know and I’m sorry,” he said, dropping her hand and pulled her into a hug, kissing
the top of her head as he held her tight. “I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”

“When  do  you  have  to  leave,”  she  asked,  sounding  a  little  distracted  and  drawing  his
attention  to  the  fact  that  her  attention  was  now  on  the  cup  of  cocoa  that  he’d  left  on
the  counter  and  damn  near  making  him  roll  his  eyes,  because  the  little  addict  was
seconds away from giving them away for a second hit of cocoa.

They really needed to find a twelve step program for her, he mused as he pulled back
so  that  he  could  brush  his  lips  on  her  forehead  and  try  to  get  her  to  focus,  because  if
she didn’t they’d end up with a houseful of assholes with absolutely no way of getting
rid of them. He needed to get rid of them so that they could make their escape and he
could  comfortably  spend  the  next  two  weeks  lying  between  her  legs  and  making  his
cock  extremely  happy.  Before  he  could  do  any  of  that,  and  his  cock  was  definitely  on
board with where this plan was heading, he needed to convince these bastards to leave
them alone.

Then  they  were  going  to  make  a  run  for  it,  because  if  there  was  one  thing  that  he
knew  about  the  James  boys,  it  was  that  they  would  do  whatever  it  took  to  keep  her
safe,  even  from  a  bullshit  story  passed  down  from  generation  to  generation  meant  to
warn them away from the dangers of taking a honeymoon before the year mark. If he
tried  to  take  her  now,  they’d  attempt  another  “talk,”  which  he  was  ninety  percent
positive that he could get out of again.

That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that he didn’t want to waste another week
on  her  brothers  and  cousins.  He  wanted  to  spend  the  next  two  weeks  with  his  wife,
savoring  the  fact  that  she  was  his  before  their  schedules  filled  up  with  more  work
than they could handle and finding time to be  together  took  effort.  He’d  do  whatever
he could to be with her. That wasn’t the problem. He didn’t care if he had to sneak in
some time at lunch, or on the way to give an estimate for a job, or just holding her in
his arms and falling asleep on the porch because he was too damn tired to do anything

more, he’d savor every single minute with her.

But the idea of two straight weeks of Rory in his arms with absolutely no
interruptions was too tempting to pass up. Just thinking about making love to her any
time he wanted to, had his cock hardening and had him licking his lips in anticipation,
because the first thing that he was going to do to her was-

“So, you’re going to be out of town for two weeks?” Trevor asked, sharing a relieved
look with his brothers as he did his best to play it cool.

“I’m afraid so,” he said, pulling back to give Rory a sad smile. “I’ll hurry back as fast
as I can.”

She bit her lip as her eyes watered and for the first time since he was eight and she’d
taught herself that little trick, he was more than happy that she was using it on him.

Until she went a little too far…

“I-I’m going t-to m-miss you,” she said, softly sobbing as she wrapped her arms around
herself and stepped closer, but not towards him.

Oh no, not his hot chocolate addicted wife.

She took a step closer to his abandoned hot cocoa, picked it up with a sniffle and took
a sip, which unfortunately was followed by a pleased little sigh as every man in the
room rolled their eyes and went for him.

Oh, she was going to pay for this betrayal, he decided as he was taken to the ground,
his arms yanked back and his hands cuffed before he was yanked to his feet and
dragged back towards the stairs while his wife stood there, shooting him an “I’m
sorry,” wince even as she continued to savor his cocoa.

Oh, she was so going to fucking pay for this one.

Chapter 7

“Open the goddamn door!” she yelled, pounding on the door that was apparently going
to keep them locked up for the next two weeks until they were too swamped with
work to even think about taking a honeymoon to “keep her stubborn, unappreciative
ass safe,” according to her brothers and cousins.

“No!” Johnny snapped back, sounding pissed from the safety of the other side of the
door, apparently still holding a grudge against her for that last nipple twist.

“Yes!”

“Not happening!” Bryce added, backing their brother up and making her seriously
regretting her choice in trying to take Johnny down so that she could make her
escape.

She should have gone for the little bastard that had laughed his ass off when he tossed
her over his shoulder and carried her upstairs and threw her in the bedroom with her
husband, who hadn’t said a word since this whole thing went down. He also hadn’t
stopped glaring at her either, but since she was the only one making any attempt to
get them out of this situation she decided to ignore him.

“I’m going to tell Dad!” she threatened even though to be honest, she wasn’t exactly
sure where he stood on this issue.

According  to  the  rest  of  the  family,  her  father  had  seriously  fucked  up  by  marrying
her mother. Not that she would or even could disagree since her mother had not only
left  him,  but  had  also  abandoned  her  and  her  brothers  for  some  loser,  left  town  and
never looked back. He’d married their mother right out of high school, worked his ass
off,  saved  up,  bought  the  ring,  proposed  and  gave  her  the  church  wedding  and
honeymoon that she wanted.

All bad choices according to the rest of the family, but her father had refused to listen
to anyone and had married the wrong woman. If she had truly been the one, he would
have  been  out  of  his  fucking  mind  to  have  her  and  had  married  her  as  soon  as  he
realized  that  he  couldn’t  function  another  day  without  her.  He  would  have  dragged
her down to City Hall, terrified the Justice of the Peace and then had every Bradford
within  a  hundred  miles  trying  to  talk  him  into  waiting  a  year  before  he  took  her  on
that honeymoon, but it hadn’t gone down that way.

“Go ahead!” Johnny shot back. “He’s the one that snuck up into your room when you
came downstairs and made sure that you and that sick bastard that you married
weren’t getting out of here until it was time.”

“Johnny,” she said, stressing every last syllable of his name and letting him know that
it was his ass that she was going to go for first when she escaped even as she glared

over her shoulder at the boxes of supplies that someone, apparently her father, had
stacked in the corner for them.

He’d also apparently taken it upon himself to attach metal bars to the outside of the
patio doors that led to the deck, making sure that they could get fresh air, but making
it impossible for them to escape. At least not that way and by the sounds of the nail
guns, grunts and high fives, they weren’t going to be able to escape by pretending that
she needed to use the bathroom either.

“Think of this as a much needed two week vacation, little sister,” Bryce said,
chuckling as he punctuated his words with one last shot of a nail gun and then
nothing.

Absolute silence.

Closing her eyes in defeat, she reached for the doorknob, already knowing what she
would find when she heard the

click. So, when the doorknob easily turned, she pulled

the door open and sighed in disgust at what waited for her.

A tunnel.

They’d  built  a  goddamn  tunnel  leading  from  their  room  to  the  bathroom  with  take
down walls, walls that could be quickly installed and  set  up  to  block  office  employees
and  tenants  from  walking  through  dangerous  construction  areas  and  getting  hurt.  It
also prevented them from stealing tools and damaging property.

And they’d set one up in their house, with a passage door locked from the outside and
everything.

Sneaky little bastards…

She  considered  trying  to  break  down  the  walls,  but  she  already  knew  that  it  was
hopeless. Her brothers had put them up so she knew that there was no way that she’d
be  able  to  break  free  until  they  were  ready  to  take  the  walls  down.  Knowing  that  it
was  pointless  to  try  and  not  really  in  the  mood  to  deal  with  the  pouting  bastard
glaring  at  her  from  the  bed,  she  headed  across  the  makeshift  tunnel,  threw  open  the
bathroom  door,  turned  on  the  light  and  began  the  long  process  of  pulling  her  clothes
off and tossing them aside.

By  the  time  that  she  was  naked,  she  had  the  tub  filled  halfway  and  had  already
selected  a  lovely  orange  and  mint  soaking  salt.  She  was  just  sprinkling  it  in  the  tub
when the grumpy bastard that she’d married came walking in, shoving his jeans down
as  he  walked  past  her.  Without  a  word,  he  climbed  into  the  large  tub  that  was
rightfully hers, settled back, pulled his knees up and spread his legs to make room for
her.

For a moment she considered telling him to get the hell out of her tub, but in the end
she climbed in the tub and settled back against him. When he wrapped his arms
around her and kissed the top of her head, she sighed and placed her arms over his as
she snuggled back against him, closed her eyes and waited for it.

She didn’t have to wait long.

“You overplayed it,” he finally said, kissing her again as his arms tightened around
her and he pulled her closer.

“I know,” she admitted with a grumble, because she knew that they were stuck here
because of her. She’d overplayed it, gone for the tears too quickly and allowed herself
to be distracted by the aroma of that delicious cup of hot cocoa.

If she’d just held back, said less, maybe argued with him a bit, her brothers might
have believed them. Instead, she got cocky, jumped the gun and overplayed her part,
instantly making her brothers suspicious and screwing up any chance that they might
have had to make an escape.

He sighed heavily even as he rewarded her with another kiss. “We’re stuck with them
now.”

“I know,” she admitted with a pout, because she knew her brothers well enough to
know that they wouldn’t make the mistake of leaving them unguarded.

“For two weeks…,” he said, sighing heavily and she didn’t need to look back to know
that he was most likely cringing.

Not that she could blame him.

She really couldn’t.

They were now stuck here for two weeks with her brothers and cousins as their
guards instead of going wherever Connor had planned on taking them. Which
reminded her…

“Where were you planning on taking me?” she asked, tilting her head back so that she
could look at him.

“A Bed and Breakfast in Vermont!” Trevor, the bastard that she was going to get with
her pliers, yelled from the vicinity of the hallway, letting her know just how seriously
they were taking this.

“But don’t worry!” Brian added, “We found the reservation information and canceled it
before you got hit with a cancelation fee!”

When she finally managed to look back, she’d expected to find Connor glaring towards

the hallway, about to tell her family to go fuck off, but instead he met her with a kiss.

“Oh, God,” she whispered against his mouth, because this was no sweet, “I forgive
you,” kind of kiss. This was the type of kiss that he usually gave her just before he
ripped her panties off, shoved her up against the wall and fucked her.

He palmed one of her breasts, pinching the nipple between two fingers as he devoured
her mouth and-

“Oh, God! Oh, God!” she moaned, rocking her hips against his hand as he slid two
fingers inside her. “Connor!”

“What the hell?” she thought she heard someone mutter in horror from the hallway.

“We don’t need to hear this!” was added, followed by a gagging sound that she easily
ignored as Connor continued to finger her, rubbing her clit just the right way to make
her whimper and moan with each thrust.

He didn’t say anything as he moved his hand over to her other breast, paying special
attention to her sensitive nipple as he moved his fingers inside her, harder and faster,
leaving her struggling to catch her breath as she slapped her feet against the rim of
the tub, spread her legs and did her best to ride his hand.

“I didn’t sign up for this shit!”

“Please don’t stop,” she babbled, grabbing onto the sides of the tub and holding on for
dear life as she threw her head back and screamed his name until the pleasure
became too much, but the bastard didn’t stop.

Sometime  in  between  the  time  that  she’d  grabbed  onto  the  tub  and  yelled  his  name,
his  mouth  had  found  her  neck.  “Rory,”  he  groaned  against  her  neck  as  he  kissed  and
licked  her  sensitive  skin,  driving  her  pleasure  higher  and  higher  until  she  found
herself  trying  to  ride  his  hand,  the  move  grinding  her  bottom  against  his  hard  cock
and making her body tremble for it.

“Please, Connor….Please!” she cried out even as a powerful orgasm tore through her.

Groaning and muttering a curse, he somehow managed to pick her up, place her on
her knees and force her to grab hold of the rim of the tub as he grabbed her hips, held
her still and thrust, filling her in one smooth motion that had her screaming his name
and begging him to fuck her harder and faster.

He did.

His hold tightened around her hips as he slammed into her, shoving his cock into her
harder with each thrust and sending water sloshing over the side of the tub and

turning  her  inside  out  as  her  hold  on  the  rim  of  the  tub  tightened  and  she  screamed
his  name,  over  and  over  again  until  she  didn’t  think  that  she  could  possibly  survive
one  more  thrust.  Just  when  her  arms  threatened  to  give  out  on  her,  he  grabbed  her,
pulling  her  up  onto  her  knees  so  that  her  back  was  pressed  against  his  chest  as  he
continued  to  fuck  her,  slamming  into  her  harder,  making  her  scream  his  name  over
and over again until she felt him shudder behind her and heard him growl her name.

Panting hard, he kept one arm locked around her and reached out in front of her and
slapped his hand against the tub to stop them from falling forward and slamming into
the tub face first.

“What…,” she started to say, only to gasp and have to start all over again, “What was
that for?”

“Are you complaining?” he asked, sounding just as winded as she was.

“God, no,” she groaned, licking her lips as she shook her head in denial just in case he
couldn’t understand her. “J-just curious,” she managed to get out on a moan as she
pushed back against him, savoring the semi-hard cock still inside her.

“To buy us a little privacy,” he said with a weak chuckle as he kissed the back of her
neck and reached down between her legs to make sure that their jailers got the
message.

Chapter 8

“I haven’t heard them in a while,” she moaned, running her fingers through his hair
as she rocked her hips lazily against his mouth.

“Better to be safe than sorry,” he said, tilting his head to the side so that he could slide
his tongue inside her.

He heard her chuckle weakly at that even as she continued to run her fingers through
his hair, encouraging him to keep licking her out. Even if he wasn’t absolutely positive
that  her  brothers  and  cousins  had  stopped  coming  upstairs  unannounced  four  days
ago,  he  would  still  be  doing  everything  in  his  power  to  make  sure  that  they  knew
exactly  what  they  were  doing.  He  was  making  damn  sure  that  they  only  came
upstairs when it was absolutely necessary and since they’d just dropped off their lunch
and  run  off  like  the  cowards  that  they  were,  Connor  had  decided  to  up  his  game  and
buy  them  a  little  extra  time  just  in  case  one  of  them  got  it  into  his  head  to  come  up
here and check on them.

“Oh God, Connor,” she whimpered through another orgasm, “please, I don’t know how
much more I can take,” she said even as she threaded her fingers through his hair and
kept his head right where it was.

“Just a little more,” he promised her, although he wasn’t sure just how much more of
this he could take.

Every  single  muscle  in  his  body  was  on  fire.  Muscles  that  he  never  knew  could  hurt
before were threatening to unite and kill him if he forced them to keep going, but he
didn’t  have  a  choice  in  the  matter.  He  needed  to  keep  going,  needed  to  keep  fucking
her,  needed  to  make  her  scream  his  name  even  though  her  voice  had  gone  hoarse  a
day or two ago, but it didn’t matter, none of it did.

The only thing that mattered was getting out of here and if fucking her day and night
to scare off her brothers and cousins was the only way to do that, then that was
exactly was he was going to do, he bullshitted himself. His sore cock tried to argue,
but the taste of her had his cock hardening and grinding against the sheets, desperate
for relief, but she tasted way too fucking good to stop.

“Connor!” she cried his name as she spread her legs and rolled her hips, riding his
mouth harder and making his eyes roll back in pleasure.

They should be escaping. No, correction, they should at least be considering the
possibility of escaping, but so far, neither one of them had even mentioned the word,
never mind made an actual attempt to escape. What they did do was sleep, eat, read,
and fuck like it was going out of style.

He should be pissed that they’d done this, but he just couldn’t find it in him to get

angry  at  his  in-laws  when  they’d  inadvertently  given  them  the  perfect  honeymoon.
Well,  perhaps  that  was  a  lie,  because  when  he  first  found  himself  locked  up  in  his
bedroom  thanks  to  his  wife’s  weakness,  he’d  been  pretty  pissed.  He’d  been  furious  at
being  forced  to  stay  trapped  in  his  house  with  his  wife,  but  that  all  changed  the
moment that he’d slid his fingers inside her.

Now he couldn’t get enough. He’d never been so well-rested or sexually satisfied in his
life  as  he  had  been  these  last  couple  of  days  and  he  owed  it  all  to  the  woman  who
would  most  likely  kill  him  in  his  sleep  one  night  over  a  cup  of  hot  chocolate.  As  he
gave her slit one last lick and began kissing his way back up her body, he couldn’t help
but wonder if the James boys and their asshole cousins realized that in their attempt
to stop them from going on a honeymoon that they had actually ended up giving them
the perfect one. They had unlimited room service, privacy, peace and quiet, could sleep
in  without  worry,  never  had  a  reason  to  leave  their  bedroom  and  were  free  to  spend
every second of the day finding new ways to make each other scream in pleasure.

He  couldn’t  have  planned  a  better  honeymoon  if  he’d  tried,  and  he  had  tried.
Apparently, the Bed and Breakfast that he’d booked them at, which would have been
fucking perfect by the way since it was in an old colonial mansion, next to one of those
working  historical  national  parks  filled  with  old  houses  saved  from  all  over  New
England and the southern states to preserve our national heritage, had been hit with
food  poisoning,  some  kind  of  staph  infection,  an  electrical  fire  and  a  few  other
problems  that  made  him  glad  that  their  plans  had  been  changed.  Every  single  one  of
the guests had been rushed to the emergency room for one reason or another over the
last  few  days,  making  him  wonder  if  there  might  just  be  something  to  this  bullshit
tale.

Then  again,  he  thought  as  he  traced  a  line  from  her  navel  to  one  incredibly  large
breast,  at  this  moment  he  really  couldn’t  fucking  care  less,  not  when  the  only  thing
that  mattered  to  him  in  the  world  was  the  woman  moaning  his  name  and  shifting
beneath him, desperate for him to fill her. When she threaded her fingers through his
hair, he let her guide him back up her body and took her mouth as he slid inside her.
They both moaned as he slowly slid inside her, savoring the feel of her tight, wet core
welcoming  him.  God,  she  felt  so  fucking  good.  He  could  happily  spend  the  rest  of  his
life inside her and that’s exactly what he planned on doing.

*-*-*-*

“Breakfast?” came the hesitant question at a moment that would have normally had
her cringing, but right now those words made her want to kill her brother.

“Go away!” she yelled, struggling to fight back the moan that threatened to break
free, praying that her brother left whatever it was that he’d brought up and left
quickly before Connor did that thing with his hips and-

“Oh, God!” she screamed, earning an approving moan from Connor as he tightened his
hold on her hips and changed the angle so that when he pulled back out, the tip of his
cock would tease the top of her core and drive her out of her mind.

“Oh, what the fuck!” one of her brothers, and she really wasn’t sure which one it was
or really cared, yelled. “I don’t want to hear this!”

“Then fucking leave!” Connor snapped as he tightened his grip on her hips and held
her still as he rotated his hips, ripping another moan from her lips as her fists
tightened around the footboard of the bed.

“Perverts!” her brother yelled, sounding horrified as the sound of the door slamming
shut vibrated throughout the room, followed by the sounds of someone running away.

Connor chuckled as she felt him press a kiss between her shoulder blades. “That
should keep them away for a while.”

“Mmmhmm,” she murmured in agreement even as she pushed back, demanding that
he continue what he was doing so that she wasn’t forced to have to hurt him.

*-*-*-*

Two Weeks Later…

“You feel so fucking good,” he groaned, running his thumbs over her nipples as he
gave her breasts a gentle squeeze, encouraging her to keep riding him.

“Mmmm,” she moaned in agreement as they ignored the pounding on their bedroom
door.

“Let’s go!” Craig snapped, pounding on the door harder.

“Your two weeks are up!” Johnny added with a pounding of his own.

“We  have  work  to  do!”  Bryce  added,  sounding  exhausted,  which  was  understandable
since  they’d  been  pounding  on  their  door  for  the  past  three  hours,  demanding  that
they  get  their  asses  moving  and  join  the  real  world,  but  after  spending  the  last  two
weeks in pure heaven he was in absolutely no rush to give this up.

As far as he was concerned, the outside world could go fuck-

“You have until the count of ten to get out of there,” Mr. James suddenly announced
and before he could make a grab for her and finish what they’d started, Rory released
an adorable squeal, grabbed one of his shirts, pulled it on, ran towards their bedroom
door while pulling on a pair of his boxers, yanked the door open as soon as she was
decent and muttered, “Sorry, Dad,” with her head down and ran towards the
bathroom where he assumed she was going to take a quick shower and get ready for

work.

He also assumed that the men standing in the doorway, scowling at him were going to
take advantage of this fine opportunity and beat the shit out of him, drag his body out
back and feed him to Bunny, who just happened to be standing in front of them,
baring his teeth and reminding him that he had to be nice to the little bastard or his
wife would kill him.

Sighing heavily, because it looked like their vacation was over, he grabbed hold of the
sheet, sat up and wrapped it around himself as he stood up. Ignoring the growling
little bastard and the men, who couldn’t seem to stop glaring at him, he stumbled his
way across the hallway, opened the door and-

“Hey!” Bryce yelled in protest, reaching for him.

-closed the door behind him and locked it.

Yawning,  he  dropped  the  sheet  and  walked  across  the  bathroom  floor  following  the
trail  of  clothes,  absently  scratching  the  back  of  his  head  as  he  reached  out  with  the
other  hand,  pushed  the  shower  curtain  aside  and  joined  his  wife,  who  was  shooting
him a glare of her own.

Chuckling, he reached for her and pulled her back against me. “You knew this had to
end at some point,” he said even as he shifted and pushed back inside her, pleased to
find her still wet.

“I thought they’d give us a few more days,” she said on a moan as she pushed back her
hips and leaned forward so that she place her hands against the shower wall, making
him chuckle.

“They took the wall down a few days ago, sweetheart,” he pointed out.

“They could have given us another week,” she muttered with a pout that had him
smiling as he leaned down and kissed her damp shoulder.

“They’ve been trying to get us out of the room for days now, Rory,” he said, pressing a
kiss to her other shoulder as he slowly took her from behind.

“They didn’t need us,” she muttered pathetically as she greedily pushed back against
him.

“They’re getting backed up,” he reminded her even though he’d rather pretend that
the rest of the world could go on without them, but he knew better.

Work was already piling up, they had more than twenty people waiting for job
estimates, and all of their employees waiting to hear how the merger was going to

effect their jobs. In other words, it was past time that they returned to the real world.

“You’re buying us breakfast for this bullshit!” Brian snapped, sounding pissy.

Again, not that he could blame him.

The  poor  bastard  had  just  spent  the  last  two  and  a  half-weeks  playing  jailor  to  them
while  Connor  exhausted  himself  trying  to  come  up  with  new  and  interesting  ways  of
pissing  him  off  right  along  with  the  rest  of  her  brothers  while  enjoying  the  fact  that
he’d finally made Little Rory James his.

Epilogue

Four Months Later…

“I hate you,” Bryce said, sighing heavily, sounding just as bored with their morning
routine as he was.

“I know,” he said, handing his brother-in-law a cup of coffee as he accepted the folder
from Jacob, the little bastard that hated him the most.

“I hate you, too,” Jacob decided to add just in case he’d forgotten.

“Don’t fucking care,” he muttered, looking through the work plans for the day.

“I didn’t think you did,” Jacob said with a haughty sniff as he reached over and
pointed towards the order form that required his signature.

“And yet, you still bring it up,” he pointed out, accepting a pen from the little prick
who enjoyed pissing him off and signed the purchase order.

“I don’t want you to forget,” Jacob said, accepting the clipboard back as he shot
Connor one last dirty look and returned to his desk, leaving Connor standing by the
door with Bryce, finishing their morning coffee while they waited for the dumpsters to
be placed next to the old house they’d been hired to renovate.

Renovate,  he  mused  with  a  sigh  and  a  shake  of  his  head  that  his  brother-in-law
seconded  with  a  sad  shake  of  his  own,  because  what  they  were  really  doing  was
tearing  this  house  down  to  its  frame,  saving  what  they  could  and  rebuilding  the  old
farm  house  to  its  former  glory.  In  his  opinion  this  old  house  wasn’t  worth  saving.
There was too much damage to the frame and not enough of the original woodwork to
make  it  worth  it,  but  his  wife  saw  it  as  a  challenge,  so  they  were  here,  rebuilding  a
house for people with more money than common sense.

He’d  explained  to  them  that  they  could  actually  rebuild  the  same  house  exactly  the
way that it once was, but with all the modern conveniences for about a hundred grand
less.  Their  client  wouldn’t  hear  of  it,  because  he  wanted  to  save  as  much  of  the
original house for the “authentic” feel. It didn’t hurt that their client was a thirty-two
year  old  tech  genius  with  more  money  than  common  sense.  If  the  guy  wanted  to  pay
them an insane amount of money to save an old frame with termite damage, who was
he to argue?

“They’re in place,” Bryce said with a nod towards the old house.

Sighing  heavily  because  they  really  should  be  bulldozing  this  old  house  down,  he
placed  his  coffee  cup  on  Jacob’s  desk,  simply  because  he  knew  how  much  that  would
piss  him  off,  grabbed  his  tool  belt  and  headed  for  the  door  with  Bryce  following  after
him.

“Where’s my sister?” Bryce asked, gesturing to some of the men to get the ladders.

“She had to run into town to pick something up from the office,” he said, gesturing for
a few more men to join them.

“What’s for dinner tonight?” Bryce asked in that bored way the James boys did when
they were trying to decide whether or not they were going to crash at their house for
a home cooked meal or go home, order take out and kill the rest of the night by
watching whatever game was on.

“Meatloaf,” he said, grabbing a crowbar and headed up the first ladder to get this job
started.

“Mashed or scalloped potatoes?” Bryce asked as if that really made a difference.

“I think mashed,” Connor said absently with a frown, because sitting at the top of his
ladder crying, was his wife.

“Rory?” he asked, tossing the crowbar down away from his men and started to head
up the ladder faster, terrified that she was hurt or-

“I’m pregnant!” she announced with a wobbly smile right around the time that he lost
his footing.

With a loud “Ooomph,” he landed on the ground right next to Bryce as the bastard
released a pained groan that matched his, while he laid there trying to catch his
breath, he couldn’t help but smile at the beautiful woman that he was going to spank
for climbing up a ladder while she was pregnant.

Closing his eyes, he resigned himself to a very long, stressful nine months, because
something told him that the she was going to drive him out of his fucking mind and he
was going to love every fucking second of it.

About the Author

Writer, Facebook stalker, mother of two and hot cocoa addict, R.L. Mathewson lives
life to its fullest.

When she’s not chauffeuring her children to and from school or their various
activities, she runs a Lego Club for a bunch of chocolate addicted children, blasts
Sirius XM’s The Highway, writes, edits, cooks, cleans and oh yeah, she even watches
movies on Netflix.

It’s safe to say that she does it all…………..

Intrigued?

Of course you are...

If you would like to know more about this author, her latest books or information on
the latest methods to stalk people on Facebook, visit her site

www.Rlmathewson.com

Or you can email her directly at,

Rlmathewson25@gmail.com

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