“Who’s at the do—oh fuck.”
Looking over my shoulder, I see Wren standing several feet away with a knife. Garlic butter is smeared down the edge, proving that he was using it to cook with, but he’s now gripping it like he may have to use it as a weapon.
“Put down the knife, Wren.” Even I step to the side at Deacon’s command.
“I’d rather keep it,” Wren answers, his throat working on a swallow.
I inch closer to Wren, but inside I’m doing backflips. I’d bitched to Sarah about the men of BBS possibly being involved with hurting women, and it makes me happy that Deacon isn’t the type of man to let that kind of stuff happen in his business. He was discouraging Wren’s action before I opened the door.
Wren shifts the knife from one hand to the other so he can wrap his arm around my waist. Anna smiles at us, and I can tell she’s trying to keep her cool when it looks like she wants to clap her hands and jump up and down. She keeps her eyes off of Wren, which I’m grateful for considering that he’s only in a pair of loose sweats. The woman is totally in love with her man.
When did I turn into the possessive, jealous type?
“Are you here to give him shit for stalking me for weeks?”
Deacon’s eyes dart to mine, holding my gaze instead of wandering down to my bare thighs.
“I know everything,” I tell them both when Anna’s eyes go wide with my question. “It’s still a sore subject right now, but we’ll get through it.”
Wren’s hold on me tightens, and I feel his breath against my hair. It’s as good as an I love you, and I’m putty in his hands, despite the fact that we have company.
“This motherfucker!” Puff yells as he flies overhead, landing on the top of the mirror in the entryway.
“You sure you want to put up with both of these idiots?” Deacon asks, but I can see his irritation fading away, replaced by a sense of calm. I wouldn’t call the man happy because he’s still frowning, but the anger has left his eyes.
“Wanna fight, asshole?” Puff raises his wings as if they’re hands, but then his head snaps to the side when he notices Anna. “Hey pretty girl, wanna fuck?”
Deacon growls, but Puff isn’t deterred.
“Come to Daddy!” Puff Daddy struts his stuff on the top of the mirror, nearly falling off when he tries to turn around to strut the other way.
“That fucking bird,” Deacon hisses, “needs to learn some manners.”
“Leave that sweet baby alone.” Anna swats his chest before stepping to the side as Puff drops down to the table. Anna obliges him with scratches on the top of his head.
“Can we talk?” Wren holds me tighter, a barrier between his boss and me with Deacon’s question, but I step away.
“Stop being a pussy.” I pat his chest, press a kiss to his cheek, and walk into the living room.
Anna follows, chuckling.
“You guys are working through your problems?” Anna asks as she sits down beside me.
“Trying to,” I say, somehow not feeling uncomfortable about answering her question even though I’ve never spoken to her before today. “Not trying. We are. We’ll get through it.”
“Takes a strong woman to do something like that.”
And lots of orgasms.
“He challenges me, and I tried to do the same thing with him. I looked everywhere. Just because his firewalls are better than mine doesn’t mean what I did was any more right than what he did.”
Wren was right when he slapped me in the face with that back at the club, and it just showed me how damn hypocritical I’d been. He was right. Our connection was real no matter how we got started and fighting the inevitable just meant we’d lose time with each other. Neither one of us wanted that.
“How was your honeymoon?”
Stars fill her eyes, and we sit on the sofa together talking about her trip and how in love she is. Normally these kinds of conversations would make my skin crawl. People getting all hearts and flowers was never my thing, but an hour later when the guys emerge from Wren’s home office, and I see his smiling face, I realize hearts and flowers is exactly the life I’m living right now.
Anna stands, molding herself into Deacon’s side the second he’s within reach. We make loose plans about hanging out before they leave, and I find myself gravitating right into Wren’s side.
“Sorry to leave you alone for so long.”
“We had a good chat. I hate resorts, but she made the place they stayed at sound amazing.”
I sigh into his neck when he clings to me tighter. I can tell something isn’t right.
“You have bad news.”
I swear if Deacon Black somehow managed to talk Wren out of being with me, I’ll track him down and stomp on his toes.