“You’re right. I want to give her more credit. And give us some. But after only one night together—most of it having sex or sleeping—we haven’t established a solid foundation of trust yet.”
“Exactly. And I’ll be honest. If Gwyneth finds out about Raine, I’m worried your ex will do something devious. We know she’s capable.”
Was she ever… “If Gwyneth came to make a mess of my life, I wish she’d done it a month from now. Hell, even a week from now. By then, our relationship with Raine would be stronger. But Gwyneth has already lit the fuse on this bomb.”
“I don’t like it.”
“I’m determined to keep Raine safe, just as you are, but Juliet’s suicide rattled you. It makes you a mite overprotective at times.”
“Don’t psychoanalyze me,” Macen grumbled. “You used to be easy to deal with. When we shared in the past, you let me make the decisions.”
For eight years, Hammer alone had carried the burden of failing Juliet. Now that Liam knew the circumstances, he realized he’d failed the woman just as much.
“I was barely more than a kid then, and I let you decide with Juliet because she was your wife.” And Liam hadn’t loved her the way he loved Raine. “But her death taught me that if we’re both involved, we should both be responsible.”
Hammer nodded. “You’re right. And that was the hardest fucking lesson to learn.”
Liam stood and stuck out his hand. “I know. I almost lost my best friend because of it.”
Hammer brought him in for a shoulder bump and a manly hug. “Like you could get rid of me that easily.”
With a little smile, he sat back in his chair. “How do we prepare Raine so she isn’t blindsided?”
“I can’t believe you two are finished with that pretty girl already.” Seth Cooper sauntered down the stairs and entered the kitchen. “Pussies. I have more staying power than you both combined.”
“They look like they left Raine alone to start in on each other,” Beck, aka Dr. Kenneth Beckman, said with a smirk, waltzing in behind Seth, surprisingly showered and dressed.
“Piss off, you wanker,” Liam grumbled as he sat once more. “Go back to bed.”
“But before you do, make some coffee,” Macen groused.
With a shake of his head, Beck crossed the room and began brewing a pot of liquid caffeine. “Still haven’t figured out how to work complicated machinery, huh?”
Hammer eyed the coffeemaker gratefully. “We’re a little preoccupied at the moment, trying to sort out a clusterfuck.”
“What mess did you two make this time?” Beck asked.
“Did Raine pack her bags and leave you again?” Seth looked at them as if they were idiots.
“No,” Liam shot back. “She’s upstairs sleeping. My ex-wife is the problem.”
“Newsflash: She’s always been a problem.”
Hammer agreed, then filled the men in on Gwyneth’s unexpected visit and the extra bundle of joy she’d brought with her.
“Holy shit! Is it yours? Did you have ex sex with Gwyneth?” Seth looked as if he might puke at the thought.
“I don’t know.” Liam sounded every bit as miserable as he felt.
“Or maybe you nailed your ex because your palm had a date with some other cock.” Beck chuckled.
Liam flipped him off.
“Is she hot at least?” Beck wagged his brows.
Hammer rolled his eyes. “Oh, she’s hot, all right. A hot mess of toxic waste.”
“I can do toxic.” Beck shrugged. “Does she like pain?”
Liam shook his head. “She’s much better at dishing it out than taking it.”
Seth just laughed. “It’s always a goddamn soap opera with you two.”
“If you’re not going to help, get the fuck out,” Hammer growled.
“Hey! I dropped my life in New York and braved the San Andreas Fault to help,” Seth defended with a scowl, then turned a concerned gaze on Liam. “Do you remember anything?”
“I do. Waking up next to Gwyneth in horror. I leapt out of bed, hit the loo, then got the hell out.”
“Crap.” Seth looked stunned. “How old is this kid?”
“We need to find out.” Hammer scowled and plucked his cell phone from his pocket. He dialed Pike, then engaged the speakerphone.
“That was a little bit longer than ‘right back.’ Just saying,” Pike grumbled.
“What’s happening there?”
“Nothing. Mom and baby are in your office,” Pike answered.
“Who else besides you has seen them?” Liam asked anxiously.
“No one. Since a kid at a BDSM club is bad for business, I stashed them out of sight quickly. Most folks were gone by then, anyway.”
Liam let out a breath of relief. The less anyone knew about Gwyneth, the better chance gossip wouldn’t reach Raine before he’d had a chance to tell her himself.
“Good,” Hammer replied. “But I don’t want her in my office. When we hang up, stash them in one of the rooms we’ve just remodeled. The farther back, the better.”
“You got it.”
“Thanks. Now, how old is this baby?” Hammer demanded.
“Um…” Pike went silent. “I don’t know.”
“Take a wild guess.”
“It’s small.”
“How small?” Hammer exhaled heavily.
“It’s a baby-sized baby. It’s… I don’t know, wearing little clothes and shit.”
“All babies wear little clothes.” Hammer gnashed his teeth. “Is it a boy or a girl?”
“I haven’t volunteered to change its diaper, but I’m guessing it’s a boy because she calls it Kyle and swears he looks like his daddy.”
Liam’s heart froze. “Does it fucking look like me?”
“How the hell would I know? All babies look the same—drooling, squalling, smelly little monsters,” Pike grumbled.
Hammer muted his phone. “Why did Master Donald and his wife, Vivian, have to be out of town right now?”
Good question. They were getting nowhere with Pike. “When are they due back?”
“Later today, but we need to take action before then.”
“Hammer,” Pike shouted. “Hammer!”
He unmuted the phone. “What?”
“When are you coming back to deal with this? I’m not getting hazard pay here, and I’ve got to tell you, O’Neill, your wife is—”
“Ex-wife,” Liam barked.
“We’re working on it,” Hammer insisted. “But we need to know how old the kid is. Just give me your gut feeling, Pike. Is it a month? A year?”
“I have no goddamn clue,” he screeched. “It’s small and it screams. I’m trying to be helpful, but…shit.”
“God, you two are morons,” Beck cut in, all business now. “Pike, can the kid walk?”
“I don’t know. She held him a lot, but now he’s sitting in a little cage thing, drooling.”
“It’s called a playpen,” Beck snorted. “Tell me how she held him. Was it in her arms or on her hip?”
“Mostly on her hip, but when she fed him, she, like, cradled him.”
“Breast or bottle?”
“Bottle, damn it,” Pike groused. “But I would have liked to have seen her tits. Gorgeous woman. Nice rack.”
Hammer rolled his eyes.
Liam banged his head on the table, wishing he could just get an answer. Or disappear altogether.
“Did he reach up and grab the bottle when he ate?” Beck continued.
“Yeah,” Pike answered.
Liam was damn glad Beck knew what questions to ask. He didn’t have a clue.
Beck nodded. “Okay. Does he have teeth?”
“I saw two on the bottom when he screamed earlier. That kid has a healthy set of lungs.”
“Hang on, Pike.” Hammer darted an expectant glance at Beck. “What do you think?”
The doctor shrugged. “Based on what I’ve heard, my best guess is somewhere between five and seven months.”
&
nbsp; That fit perfectly with Gwyneth’s silken-spun timeline. Dread sank into Liam’s belly like a boulder.
“Fuck,” Hammer breathed.
“God, did I really knock her up that night?” Liam groaned, slapping a hand down his face.
“I think we’ve got a better idea now, Pike,” Hammer said. “Thanks. We’ll be in touch.”
“Wait! When the hell are you coming back?” Pike sounded antsy.
Liam and Hammer shared a gaze of silent communication. The answer to that was something they still had to work out.
“Not sure yet. I’ll keep you posted.” Hammer ended the call.
Liam’s head pounded as if a drum line practiced on his skull. “We have to tell Raine something when she gets up.”
The coffee finished brewing, and Hammer pounced on it, nearly shoving Beck aside to pour a steaming mug. He took a sip with a long, satisfied sigh. “Until we’re sure that kid is yours, I think our responsibility is to shield her from Gwyneth.”
“Withholding the truth isn’t the answer,” Liam interjected. “Besides, Raine is clever. She’ll figure it out.”
“She will.” Beck nodded knowingly. “She’s proven herself pretty capable at handling whatever life throws at her, even you two bozos. You just need to sit Raine down and tell her about Gwyneth’s unexpected visit the right way.”
“There is no right way,” Hammer asserted. “Not without facts.”
“I agree,” Seth piped up. “If you tell Raine that Gwyneth is here to pin paternity on you, then it turns out your ex is here for a totally different reason, you’ve upset her for nothing.”
Liam blinked in disbelief. “You’d withhold the truth? Guess that explains why you’ve never managed to keep a sub for much more than a night.”
“Never wanted one for longer than that,” Seth shot back. “I’m not saying lie to the girl.”
“Neither am I,” Hammer insisted.
“If you go mute, Raine will figure out long before you fess up that something’s wrong,” Beck chided. “You want to protect her, Hammer, but how is she supposed to feel secure if she knows you’re not being honest?”
“Exactly.” Liam nodded.
“I’m worried. We’re asking Raine for a lot of trust. I don’t think we’ve given her enough of a foundation yet.” Hammer sent him a sour glare.
“Well, as entertaining as it is to watch you two ladies smack each other with your purses, I don’t have time.” Beck glanced at his watch. “I got a call from the hospital, and I have to get back and assist in an emergency surgery this afternoon. So Liam, I can take that spanking new Escalade of yours and leave, but I won’t be back for at least five or six days.”
Liam blanched. “That long?”
“Transplant patients are high maintenance.”
“We can’t leave Gwyneth and that baby at my club,” Hammer pointed out. “She needs to find a hotel. Or better yet, go back to London.”
Liam’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He glanced at the screen, swore, and shoved it in his pants again. “Damn it, she won’t stop calling. And I don’t want this hanging over my head for days. I’d rather find out what she wants and put it behind me.” Liam stood. “What if I ride down with Beck and hear what Gwyneth is bleating on about, then bring the car back by nightfall?”
“We already talked about this,” Hammer reminded him.
“Not only that, you’ll be giving her exactly what she wants,” Seth pointed out. “You. Alone. Split apart from everyone who could support you, especially Hammer and Raine.”
Liam paused. He hadn’t considered that. Since Gwyneth was at Shadows, she already knew he was with Hammer, whose lifestyle she abhorred. Likely, she suspected Liam was involved in kink again as well. But she also knew they’d shared Juliet and might assume the two of them had found some sub to fill that role once more. Knowing Gwyneth’s spiteful nature, if she’d come for him, she intended to wreak havoc—and would gleefully spread that to others in his life. She would start by dividing and conquering.
To hell with her. Whatever damage Gwyneth thought to incite, it only served to solidify his commitment to Hammer and Raine.
“Over my dead body,” Hammer returned immediately. “I say we all go back. We’ll tell Raine that Beck has an emergency. It’s not a lie.”
Liam shook his head. “It’s also not the whole truth.”
“Well, unless you’re staying here, you need to be ready to pull out in thirty minutes,” Beck said. “If you’re going, you better figure out what to tell Raine as you pack up.”
“Can I just say you two make me glad I lead a boring life?” Seth jabbed.
“Fuck you,” Liam and Hammer shot back in tandem.
After Liam filled a mug of coffee, he followed Hammer upstairs again. Anxiety still gnawed at him. They had to reach some quick decisions. What would they tell Raine about their sudden departure? How would she react?
“Even if we agreed that we should tell her about Gwyneth, Beck’s emergency doesn’t give us long enough to explain everything and reassure her,” Hammer said over his shoulder. “She’ll have more than thirty minutes’ worth of questions. We’ll never get out the door in time.”
As much as he hated it, Liam couldn’t disagree. “And I can’t see telling Raine in the car.”
“With Beck and Seth there? No. She’d be embarrassed if they see her upset, and I’d rather not have them witness her slicing our nuts off with the sharp edge of her tongue.”
“I don’t like it,” Liam rejoined. “As soon as we reach Shadows, we sit Raine down and tell her everything.”
As they approached the bedroom, Hammer turned back with a scowl. “When we reach Shadows, we figure out our next move.”
Before Liam could argue, Hammer pushed the door open and stepped inside. The soft moonlight reflecting off the snow spilled through the curtains. The scent of their shared passion lingered in the room, and Liam slid his gaze over the sheets draping her curves. His cock swelled instantly behind his zipper.
Hammer charged across the room and flipped on the bathroom light, then began tossing clothes into their suitcase. Liam gathered their condoms and personal items from the nightstand and shoved them in a duffel bag. Once he’d finished, he sat on the mattress beside Raine and skated his knuckles over her bare shoulder. Her skin felt like warm velvet.
Visions of all the ways she’d seamlessly taken them both last night, shattering time and again around them, filled his brain. How long would it be until they could lose themselves in that nirvana again? He had to hope that Gwyneth wouldn’t try to drive a wedge between them.
The chances of that… Liam grimaced. Not good.
Macen zipped the luggage shut, then sat down beside him. Liam switched on the bedside lamp. Raine recoiled and frowned. Her eyes flickered open, big pools of blue, before she slammed them shut again, then grabbed the edge of the pillow and folded it over her face. “It’s too early.”