Honeymoon From Hell III

Connor and Rory’s Honeymoon Experience

R.L. Mathewson

A Smashwords Edition

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

This book like every book that I have ever written or will ever write is dedicated to
my children, Kayley and Shane, who have been with me through this journey from
day one.

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.

Table of Contents

Thank you for purchasing this book.

Sign up for my newsletter and receive the latest news about the Neighbor

from Hell Series as well as my other series at:

www.Rlmathewson.com

Honeymoon from Hell 3

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.

“I love you, Rory,” he managed to get out before he joined her with the knowledge that
he would never have to spend another night without her.

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.

The R.L. Mathewson Chronicles

If you’ve enjoyed the characters from this book or any of R.L. Mathewson’s books and
want to see what happens to them after they get their happily every after, then the
R.L. Mathewson Chronicles are definitely for you.

Every week a new chronicle is posted to the website, continuing their stories.

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

[BЯ]

Document Outline

Title Page
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Epilogue
Chronicle
About the Author

Wyszukiwarka

Podobne podstrony:
Honeymoon from Hell 4 Honeymoon from Hell IV R L Mathewson
Honeymoon from Hell 2 Honeymoon from Hell II R L Mathewson
Honeymoon from Hell 6 Honeymoon from Hell VI R L Mathewson
A Neighbor from Hell 2 Perfection R L Mathewson
Honeymoon from Hell 1 Honeymoon from Hell I R L Mathewson
Honeymoon from Hell 5 Honeymoon from Hell V R L Mathewson
A Neighbor from Hell 1 Playing For Keeps R L Mathewson
Napoje-z i bez alkoholu, Shot From Hell, Shot From Hell (przepis w j
Prom Nights From Hell 1 Stephenie Meyer Hell on Earth
Anthology Dates From Hell eng
Harry Harrison Bill 06 On The Planet Of The Hippies From Hell (David Bischoff)
Robert E Howard Horror 1938 Pigeons from Hell
Hell A Vision from within
Harrison, Harry & Bischoff, David Bill 6 Bill on the Planet of the Hippies From Hell
Anthology Weddings from Hell
Meg Cobot & Lauren Myracle & Kim Harrison & Michele Jaffe & Stephanie Meyer Prom Nights from Hell
Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu by Maurice Joly translated from the French by N
Meyer Stephenie Hell on Earth (Short story from Prom nights from Hell)
The Wedding from Hell, Part 1 Ward, J R

więcej podobnych podstron

Honeymoon from Hell 3 Honeymoon from Hell III R L Mathewson

Document Outline