Mastered by Malone (Haven, Texas 6)

“What the hell is going on here?” Alec boomed from behind her.

Oh, drat.

“Mia sprayed us with the hose,” Butch complained.

“We were just having a bit of fun, Mia,” Raid added.

She turned the hose, which she’d had pointed at the ground, back on them. They held up their hands to protect their faces, spluttering and protesting. Suddenly an arm reached over and plucked the hose from her hand, before turning the nozzle off.

“Hey!” she cried out. She turned to look at Alec. “I told them not to go near my flower patch. Now look at them, they trampled my pansies.” She pointed over at the flowers. Then she turned back to Butch and Raid. “Apologize. Now.”

“You two better apologize or she’ll cut you off from dessert,” Jaret said. His tone was teasing, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes. He’d been more serious since Gloria had cheated on him.

She nodded. “Yep. Instead of getting lemon meringue pie like everyone else, you’ll be getting an orange. If you’re lucky.”

“You’re mean,” Raid said. But he smiled as he said that. “Gotta admire that.”

“Sure do,” Butch added. “And we did trample on her weeds.”

She gritted her teeth against pointing out that they weren’t damn weeds. They knew that, they were just needling her.

“Sorry, Mia,” Butch said.

“Yeah, forgot how much those weeds mean to you,” Raid added.

“Won’t happen again.”

They stood and shuffled off, the others following, already teasing them.

She turned to look at Alec. He stared down at her sternly. “Are you going to turn the hose on my brothers every time they do something you don’t like?”

“Yes,” she replied promptly. “You got a problem with that?”

He broke into a smile. She liked that he smiled more now. Then he leaned in and kissed her. “Not at all.”

He pulled back before the kiss could deepen. Frustration bit at her. Everything in her life was perfect. She’d been worried when Jake and Alec had secluded themselves in his office for hours. But Jake hadn’t arrested anyone, so she guessed everything was okay. All Alec would tell her was not to worry. Even Angelo had done the decent thing and gotten himself shanked in prison, so she didn’t have to testify. Yep, everything was perfect except for one thing. Alec was still holding back. In fact, he was worse than he’d been before. Oh, he’d given her a couple of fun spankings. He’d even tied her up the other night. But it wasn’t like before.

Somehow, she had to convince him she wasn’t broken. Th

at she could take all of him. She’d asked Molly what she thought she should do. She’d had a number of crazy suggestions but none of them felt right. Mia wasn’t one to play games.

As Alec turned away, she looked down at the hose on the ground and picked it up. Well, if it was good enough for his brothers . . . she turned it on full blast and aimed it at his back.

He let out a yell and turned to look at her. And the look on his face had her dropping the hose and turning to run. She didn’t get far before she was picked up and thrown over his shoulder. She let out a screech, and he immediately froze and lowered her to the ground. Gently.

“Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

“God damn it. No, you didn’t hurt me. Don’t stop!”

“What?”

She was aware of their gathering audience, but she didn’t care. “I said, don’t stop.”

He frowned. “Why did you turn the hose on me?”

“Because I wanted to get your attention.”

His eyebrows rose. “If you wanted some attention, you could have just asked to talk to me.”