Total pages in book: 179
Estimated words: 170878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 854(@200wpm)___ 684(@250wpm)___ 570(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 170878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 854(@200wpm)___ 684(@250wpm)___ 570(@300wpm)
Beau had kissed me back until my intention for more than kissing was made clear.
“Baby,” he protested meekly. Well, as meekly as was possible for Beau. “You’ve been through enough today.”
“Yes,” I agreed against his mouth. “And now I need you.”
His eyes were strained with hesitation. Worry.
I gripped his beard. “Please?”
Beau’s arms banded around me. Then he gave me what I wanted. Gently. Lovingly, worshipping me.
His touch didn’t heal me, but it helped me drift away. For a time, at least.
There were practical things that needed doing to ensure that Jacob was punished as he deserved.
Beau held my hand as I gave my statement against Jacob, pressed charges.
It didn’t look good for him. He had assaulted me. Threatened a pregnant woman who the police chief happened to be madly in love with and vehemently overprotective of. Then there were the two wives of some serious badass alpha males who were out for blood.
In a normal situation, it would’ve been safe to say Lori’s asshole baby daddy was going away for a long time. Except he, apparently, had wealthy, powerful parents. So it was more complicated, which was why Finn had moved into Lori’s house. Temporarily, according to her.
She was not happy about it. In fact, she ranted about it almost as often as she apologized to me about my nose. Which was not her fault. I continued to remind her that violence from a man was never the fault of a woman.
Though I hated what had happened, how it had traumatized her, I was secretly happy that it had pushed Finn into her house. I was hopeful about something happening between them. Maybe because I was living in my own bubble of love and now had faith it could also happen to people I loved.
Lori teased me good-naturedly about becoming “one of them.” Them being the Jupiter women, paired in unlikely, too-good-to-be-true love stories.
Which maybe, just maybe, I was.
Except now my estranged brother was at my doorstep, likely dragging more drama with him.
When I felt a warmth at my back, I wasn’t surprised Beau made his presence known. I’d opened the front door, he’d heard a male voice from his open door in the office. He was protective before. Now it was almost out of control.
Before Beau could assert his dominance, my brother rustled some up. Yet too little, too late, and in the completely wrong direction.
“Did you do this to her?” Jack stepped forward, to do what, I didn’t know since Beau had about a foot and a hundred pounds on him.
Jack was stepping into Beau’s house, accusing him of abusing his woman. I knew that wasn’t going to go down well. Yet Beau had been on his best behavior. He hadn’t raised his voice in the house that past week. He was trying not to trigger me. Treated me with care.
But he was still Beau. Grumpy. Alpha. Overprotective. I figured this was when his self-control would break.
Beau’s spine stiffened, but he kept his hand on the small of my back. “No,” he replied calmly. “I absolutely did not do this to her. And who are you?”
His tone was perfectly even.
“Hi.”
All three of our heads spun downward. Clara. Standing next to us, in her tutu, offering a smile to my brother.
And my brother, for all his misgivings, was not the asshole who didn’t smile at small children.
He looked ten years younger when the grin stretched across his face. “Hi there, darling.”
“I’m Clara.” She held out her hand.
“I’m Jack,” he replied, looking upward at Beau for a small moment—maybe ensuring that he wasn’t going to punch him—then shook Clara’s small hand. “Hannah’s brother.”
Clara looked up at me, beaming. “Your brother! Oh, come in. Daddy will make you a hot chocolate. I’ve heard all about you.”
Jack’s brow raised, looking at me. “You have?”
He was likely surprised I’d been telling anyone about him.
“Of course, she has. Hannah tells me everything.” She tugged on his hand. “Now come in. It’s cold. Are you staying here? We’ve got a spare room. Daddy, get his bags.”
In a couple of sentences, Clara had made her will known and had ensured that there was no way around this family reunion.
And who were we to disobey her?
I had not imagined that the first evening I’d have with my brother in years would end up being nice. But Clara was in attendance. She made the benign wonderful and the complicated tolerable. She told Jack about everything we had done since I arrived, asked a multitude of questions about Jack’s own life, and he’d told her everything—even things I didn’t know. He had a puppy named Spot, he played pickleball, and had recently been scuba diving in Jamaica.
And she’d somehow fished out some happy memories from our childhood—us fishing together then trying to cook the fish ourselves in the woods, almost starting a forest fire. Backyard baseball games.