Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 87284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
At that, he laughed, the damn bastard. “Oh, my sweet Macklin…I’ll fucking ruin you.”
I sucked in a breath, instantly trapped in the dark promise. My beast was right there, lurking in his eyes.
“I trust I still know your limits for play,” he said.
“Yes, Sir.” I nodded quickly.
“Good. You know mine too.” He patted my cheek. “Unless there’s anyone on this island you want to be off-limits, I reckon we’ll leave things here for now and rejoin the others.”
Oh, um, okay. I scrambled to my feet and took a couple steps back, and he rose gracefully from the ground and brushed his hands free of sand.
Had my mind ever been this fucked? We weren’t together, but we wanted to be. We belonged to each other whether we fucking wanted to or not. We were married. And we had very few boundaries right now. Jesus Christ.
The old Walker would’ve locked this down. He would’ve drawn me close and put up a fence around us. Which obviously didn’t work for us, but that was still the kind of comfort I was looking for.
We were so unfinished, in every way. Including this conversation, to be quite honest. We hadn’t even kissed!
I didn’t count the sadistic brush of his lips on the beach earlier.
“I don’t know what’s going on right now,” I confessed. “Like, are we… Are we something?”
He smiled down at me, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “We’re somethin’. And headed for more.”
Oh…kay.
Then I huffed, because this was just… “Yeah, you’ve changed.”
“I have.” He inclined his head. “Are you ready to get to know me?”
I stared at him, almost in wonder, and I wanted to ask if he was doing this on purpose. To reel me in quicker or…I didn’t even know. But fuck me if it wasn’t working.
“Yes, Sir.”
7
Macklin McKenna
“This is troubling,” Lane said, then promptly bit a big chunk from his hot dog. “Exciting but troubling.”
Troubling, indeed. I put more mustard on my hot dog before I tucked in.
“Is it just me, or is River more upbeat?” Shay asked quietly.
“It’s not just you,” I replied. “Walker and River are close.” They had that effect on each other.
“Interesting.” Shay straightened again and went back to watching the show on the other side of the fire. “I guess I didn’t get to see much of Walker last time he visited since I had a freaking bag over my head. Or a blindfold or whatever.”
I chuckled and chewed on the best spicy sausage I’d had in a long time. Ty knew good sausage. Oh, the puns…
By now, the sun was almost touching the horizon, and it was our second meal of hot dogs. That was the food the Tops had brought too. But I had more condiments. They thought we could just eat that shit plain…? Animals.
I hadn’t seen much of Walker since our talk. Well, that wasn’t right. I’d seen him, but I hadn’t been near him. He’d been busy reconnecting with the twins and getting to know Ty. The latter was most troubling for Lane. Exciting but troubling. Ty and Walker apparently had a lot in common. From boats and fishing to…all their fuckin’ hobbies. Ty evidently loved to work with his hands too, but rather than making whips and floggers and dildos, he crafted gadgets and tech stuff.
Think of the shit a craftsman like Walker and an Air Force engineer like Ty could get into.
“Okay, I’ve held this in all day, but I gotta say it,” Lane said quietly. “Walker is so fucking hot. Like almost Ty-hot.”
I coughed a laugh and shoved at him, to his amusement.
He got the first part right; Walker was fucking hot. As for Ty being hotter…nuh-uh. We all had our biases.
“He’s a genius too,” Shay added. “Macklin hasn’t looked away from him all day.”
“Too true.” Lane nodded. I scowled. “Yeah, seriously. If he’d been all up in Mack’s business, our boy would’ve felt cornered.”
“I’m sitting right here,” I grated out. “And you don’t know what you’re talking about. I was gawking at Walker when you were both in diapers.”
Both Shay and Lane cracked up at that—enough so that we caught the attention of four Tops and the fire reflecting in their curious eyes.
“Y’all’re too happy,” River stated.
“Just what I was thinkin’,” Walker murmured.
I blew him a kiss, to which he winked.
Fuck me, Master.
Sigh. I longed for the day he let me call him that again.
“Macklin’s just pretending to be old and wise,” Shay snickered.
“When we all know he’s young and dumb,” Reese replied.
I rolled my eyes.
“Well, we should get started, shouldn’t we?” Ty asked. “After we raise a glass and toast to the fact that I’m not the newest member of your community anymore.”
Okay, I really liked that part. Lane shot Ty a playful glare, and the snake-loving Southerner smirked wolfishly. They were seriously adorable together. I actually hoped they made it past our vacation. Even more so now that Ty had convinced Lane to join us. The man had used a clever route too, something Corey and I should’ve thought of months ago. As in, double membership. Nobody was forcing him to leave Old Town. He could just join our community as well. And he’d agreed to that.