Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 106065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Despite the rather loud background noise from all the guests, it felt like I could hear a pin drop when no one said anything. They were processing; I got that. But I was growing increasingly nervous—until Daddy squeezed me so tightly that I could barely breathe.
Greer followed suit and pulled Archie in too, and I allowed myself a breath of relief.
We were on the same page, weren’t we?
“Sold!” I heard Tate announce. “Macklin will spend a day with…um, an anonymous online buyer. That seems safe. We might wanna vet this guy.”
I coughed a giggle.
Greer chuckled and chuckled some more, and then he was laughing.
Poor Macklin!
“Uh-oh,” Tate went on into the mic. “Mack, the buyer’s from Boston.”
Oh shit!
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Mack yelled.
Now several others cracked up.
“Finally!” Colt hollered. “That’s what you get, boy!”
Oh my gosh. It was Walker, wasn’t it? It had to be! Mack’s ex-husband who wasn’t actually an ex-husband. They were still married.
Daddy managed to steal my attention again, and he cupped my face in his hands and kissed me softly.
“Never stop dreaming about the future, Corey. Do you hear me? Never.”
I smiled and slipped my arms around his middle. “I think I can obey you on that one.”
“Good boy.” We shared a stupid grin, and maybe he felt the same ridiculous joy I did.
It made me wanna bite him!
EPILOGUE
FOUR YEARS LATER
“Oh my God, we overslept.”
Nothing wrenched me out of sleep faster than those words. Disoriented and kinda stuck in my dream about Sloan rudely interrupting my game night with Jason and Jamie, I stumbled out of bed and realized we were in Greer and Archie’s bedroom. I mean, it was ours too, duh, but we were careful with the kids around.
We’d installed a door between our rooms a couple years ago, which made for easier sneaking around, but we were really bad at returning to our own beds after a round of fucking. If Greer and Archie didn’t end up in ours, we ended up in theirs. Like right now.
“I’ll go wake up the kids,” Daddy yawned. “You’re not that late.”
“I’ll help you, Sir,” Archie said.
“So no time for a morning quickie?” Greer asked drowsily.
“What do you think?” I shot him—and his naked ass—a look, then darted for the bathroom.
Throwing a glance at the clock on the wall in the hallway, I allowed myself a deep breath. Daddy was right; we’d only overslept a little. Like, half an hour. But that was essentially breakfast that just flew out the window. We’d have to buy something on the road.
I’d showered at three in the morning after three men decided to use me as a come dumpster, so I skipped that part of my morning routine. Instead, I peed, washed up, applied extra deodorant, and then aimed for our bedroom to get dressed.
“Emma JoJo Beans!” I rushed up the stairs and down the hall till I reached her room and knocked on the door. “It’s time to go, honey.”
“Help me!” she complained.
I opened the door and poked my head into her princess heaven. “You okay?”
She sat on her bed and held up two books. “I can’t choose which to bring.”
I felt my forehead crease. It was two books. “How about both?” We’d be gone for ten days, and she loved to read.
“My backpack is already full,” she huffed.
Sloan liked to tease me and say she’d gotten her huffiness from mimicking me, but I insisted it was a phase. Eight-year-olds were huffy, weren’t they? Jamie had certainly been at that age.
“I can put them in my carry-on,” I told her. “But we gotta go, bean.”
I supposed it was a downside to travel in large groups sometimes, because it wasn’t always possible for us to get seats next to one another. Sometimes, we didn’t even end up on the same flight. But honestly? I was looking forward to traveling solo with Emma-Jo today.
For starters, we’d be in business class, because we wouldn’t have Sloan and Archie there to protest that kind of spending. They simply fucking refused and said premium economy was more than enough.
Greer was easier to persuade for the leg room alone, so he and I had gone business class a couple times. At which point he loved to waltz back into premium economy to Daddy and Archie, holding a glass of wine, very demonstratively, and a serving of mixed nuts, and go, “Want some of my warm nuts?”
Thankfully, it took no effort at all to persuade Emma-Jo. We were best pals that way.
When we returned downstairs together, it was mayhem for a moment.
“Can you get me that delicious soda, Corey?” Jamie yelled from the dining room where they were eating breakfast. He and Jason sported impressive bed heads and didn’t have to worry about a damn thing.
“I want some too!” Loki shouted.
Jason spoke with his mouth full of food. “And thofe chocolate thins? They were fuckin’ amafing on toaft.”