From Enemy's Daughter to Expectant Bride (The Billionaires of Blackcastle 1)

At eight o’clock sharp, that Amazonian parrot she had for a bell burst into song.

Ellie flew to the door, heart soaring as she snatched it open, expecting to see Rafael. He was there. Only not alone.

“Please meet my boor of a partner, Richard Graves.”

Her heart plummeted as she leveled her eyes on that menace, before turning her scowl on Rafael. “You shouldn’t be walking around with him so blithely. Without a leash, too.”

Rafael laughed. “I promise you I have him well in hand. Invite us in, querida.”

“No.”

Rafael’s smile tried to coax her. “Not even now that he got what h

e deserves?” He shoved Graves forward.

Graves rolled his eyes, moved into the light of her foyer and showed her the right side of his face. It was a swollen deep purple beneath the beard he now sported. After he’d given her a good look, he stepped back, resettled that harsh gaze on her.

She blinked dazedly up at Rafael. “You hit him?”

“You think I’d do anything less once I found out what he’d done? What he’d said to you?”

She turned her gaze to Graves. “You told him about propositioning me, huh?”

“Of course.”

Suddenly, a realization hit her, made her turn anxiously back to Rafael. “Is that how you hurt your hand?”

Rafael nodded. “You think anything less than his concrete jaw can break my bones?”

She gaped at him. “Your hand is really broken?”

“I do have fissures in two metacarpal bones.”

She dragged him inside, heart squeezing as she feathered anxious touches over his splint. “God—and I made fun of your injury! I thought it was a sprain or something and you were only teasing me.”

“No teasing.” Graves walked in without invitation and closed the door behind him. “Under your thrall, he went and broke his hand. After I spent years teaching him how to fight without ever injuring himself. Terrible student.” A mirthless laugh. “And he didn’t even get his boo-boo kissed for his trouble.”

She took Rafael down on the couch with her and glared up at Graves. “Oh, he will now. And then he’ll get everything kissed. Anything that hasn’t already been, that is.”

At Graves’s raised eyebrows, Rafael turned to him with a triumphant smile. “For the record, I didn’t employ your generously imparted techniques because I just wanted to hurt you. And myself. I was the one who gave you the impression you can be rude to Eliana when I walked away from her.”

“Is he always that vicious to women he thinks you’re done with? Or is he that brutal by default? Which wouldn’t surprise me. He doesn’t feel quite human to me.”

Graves turned his gaze to Rafael. “Very astute, this one. Foolishly outspoken, too. You may have to keep her.”

Rafael’s eyes ate her up. “Oh, I am keeping her.”

She mock scowled at him. “How kind of you both. But I’ve been known to keep myself, thank you. So why don’t you unstoppable forces of nature just run along and go exude charisma and testosterone all over someone else?”

Graves’s lips spread. “It really looks like you’ll have to keep her.”

Rafael gave an exaggerated sigh. “If only she keeps me.”

Graves tsked. “I trained you better than that, Numbers.”

“Seems all your efforts went down the drain, Cobra.”

She gaped at them. “Numbers? Cobra? You have code names in that brotherhood of yours?”