Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
“I think we’ll handle Lou. No goats required.” Theo Taggart stopped in front of her and put his hands on her shoulders. “You did good, kid. Thank you for bringing our boy back.”
“Thank you, sweetheart,” Erin agreed. “Now let’s get him to bed. I take it he walked right into a microdoser.”
“He didn’t know I had them. He was trying to stop me from falling, and I grabbed him. Not his fault,” Lou explained.
“You know what is his fault?” Big Tag asked, but she knew a rhetorical question when she heard one. “My hysterical blindness.”
Kala strode from the other side of the vehicle, her finger pointing her dad’s way and a look of righteous indignation on her face. “Don’t you dare, old man. Don’t you dare start shaming Lou. You have no right. How many times did I walk in on you and Mom doing… I still haven’t figured out the purpose of some of those positions. How many?”
Kenzie seemed to pick up on her sister’s distraction ploy. “Yeah. One time you asked me how I thought I was made and to shut the door and you went back at it. We could all hear you. You were a sexual terrorist.”
“You knew your parents loved each other,” Tag argued. “How else would you know?”
“Any other way,” Kenzie shot back. “And by your own words, now we know how thoroughly TJ adores Lou. So good for them.”
Big Tag’s head shook. “No. It’s on the list. Thou shalt not fucketh thine rescuer.”
Kala’s eyes rolled. “You just made that up, and you didn’t have any problem when that French agent saved Zach from getting his ass poisoned by SVR.”
“I totally fuckethed her,” Zach agreed, helpfully. He leaned against the big SUV, as though ready for some entertainment. “It was payback. My life. Her orgasm. Also, think about the tenuous relationship we have with her country. Now it’s better, and all because of my dick.”
“I didn’t have to see that,” Big Tag countered, ignoring Zach.
This was ridiculous. She walked right up to the big guy. He was intimidating, but she’d been around the man since she was a kid. “I’m sorry, Uncle Ian. I made a decision when I thought the comms would stay out for a while. I thought we were being listened in on, and I couldn’t come out and tell TJ what was happening. He was talking too much so I distracted him.”
“With your vagina,” Tag said, his head nodding like he was still trying to process the trauma.
“Dad,” Kenzie said between clenched teeth.
“With my vagina. I forgot to bring in a laptop, so TV was out of the question, and it was pretty sparse in there,” she admitted.
Tag stared at her for a long time. “Fuck.”
“We did not quite get there.” Sometimes the key to Big Tag was to go with it.
He didn’t take the bait. His expression softened. “Is that how you’re going to play it?”
“I’m not playing. It was an op, and I might have made some bad decisions but it was still successful.” Lou was going to accentuate the positive.
She was going to stay calm because she could feel anxiety building. It was creeping up along her spine, and soon it would wrap itself around her lungs and she wouldn’t be able to breathe.
“Not if that’s the way you’re playing it,” Tag said with a frown. “All right. Go get some rest. We debrief at 1900. And Lou, you need to think about how you’re going to handle TJ when he wakes up because he didn’t know you were distracting him. He thought it was real.”
She watched as Theo and Erin carried their sleeping son up the stairs to the porch.
“He thought we were going to die, and he needed comfort,” Lou explained. “That was all it was. I’m sure if we’d sent someone else in, he would have come on to them, too.”
“Not me,” Kala pointed out.
“Lou.” TJ’s head was slung back, and his eyes were open now. “Lou.”
“Yeah, he sounds very not serious.” Tag sighed. “He’s drugged half to death and still calling for you.”
“Hey, Lou. He seems worried about you,” Theo called out. “Can you come let him know you’re still here?”
She wanted to run. TJ was going to wake up horrified.
So maybe it was best to be right there to assure him nothing had to change.
Yes. That was why she followed them upstairs, responding every time TJ called out her name. That was why she helped his mom get him down to his boxers and tuck him into the bed.
That was why she crawled in next to him when he begged her to come closer. His arms went around her, and he quieted finally.
“Lou,” he whispered, nestling his head to her chest. “Mine.”
Yes. He would be horrified when he woke up. She would let him get good and asleep and then ease out so they were on a proper footing when he woke.