Everlasting (Family Justice Book 6) Read online

  “You didn’t seem to mind the chapter I read aloud.”

  “Oh, you mean the throbbing turgid staff or how he wielded his mighty sword?”

  “If I recall, you rather enjoyed chasing me around the backyard.”

  Draegyn smiled. “My virgin captive. You liked getting caught.”

  “I liked the ravishing. Oh,” she added with a naughty stroke and swirl, “and the sleep fucking. Waking up to this? Inside me?”

  They stopped talking. She had a beautifully hard cock to slobber over.

  It ended as she wanted. On her knees, ass up. Being a gentleman, he put a small pillow beneath her cheek to help her hair from unraveling on the carpet. When it got a little wild, he dialed it back, teased her ass with his probing fingers, and brought her to a shaking climax.

  After he had come, her adoring husband pulled out and kissed her ass. “Don’t move.”

  Wonderfully blissed out from the satisfying orgasm, she sighed and stayed as she was. He stood, and Tori heard him pulling up his zipper. He left for a moment and came back with a warm washcloth.

  “The spit polish has to wait for another time.”

  Refreshed and on her feet, she let him help slip her panties on. “When I tell your mother she’s the most beautiful woman in the room today, I’ll be lying.”

  Tori grabbed his face and bent over for a kiss. He adjusted her lingerie, smoothed her dress, and stood. She rubbed her fingers on the most obvious of the lipstick kisses she had left on his handsome face.

  He smiled his thanks. “Let’s go get your mother married before she embarrasses the whole family with an illegitimate kid.”

  “We need to stop at Lacey’s real quick and give Danny a kiss. Cheryl and her daughter are wrangling the kids while we do the official stuff.”

  She stopped and grabbed her wrap and purse then proudly took her husband’s arm as he led her outside to the Mercedes SUV they just bought.

  Life was just about as perfect as it could be.

  Cam sat in the middle of domestic chaos and watched the amusing pre-wedding pandemonium swallow everything and everyone. Like it was for most everything, his house was the staging area for the kids and wives.

  The chief strategist and bedlam wrangler in this free-for-all was Betty’s pal Cheryl—along with her daughter, nicknamed Bug, who helped run Stork Affairs. At first, he thought their system would be a guaranteed shitshow, but some sort of female logic existed with the way they managed the young kids and overexcited women.

  He plopped a foot on one knee and enjoyed the show. Sipping from a mug of blazing hot coffee, he watched his wife zooming back and forth, her bare feet slapping the floor.

  He grinned and blew on his hot beverage, so his tongue didn’t end up scalded. Dylan was being a bugger to Danny. Their developing dynamic closely resembled the one he shared with Drae—right down to Dyl finding his little buddy’s outfit hilariously funny.

  “I’ve got him,” Cheryl declared as she grabbed a fast-moving Danny. “Bella, honey, can y’all lend me a hand?”

  Bella, who lived to be helpful, ran to Cheryl’s side. “He needs his ball,” she remarked casually. She bent over and searched until she found the laughing ball Drae’s son was so in love with. The damn thing wobbled like a drunken Marine on leave and made giggle sounds when turned on.

  “Don’t turn that thing on!” Bug and Cheryl hooted in a Texas-style twang.

  Bella looked at the women like they were crazy. “He knows how.”

  “Well, of course, he does. Why not?” The starting-to-get-frazzled party planner shook her head. “Whatever. If it keeps him in one place …”

  Dylan strolled over in an adorable toddler swagger and smacked the ball out of Danny’s hands. It hit the floor with a thud and started vibrating as a cackling laugh rang out.

  Both boys were instantly distracted.

  Lacey dashed into the living room. She was so lovely in her pretty dress that his heart gave a little shimmy.

  “I can’t find my earrings,” she mumbled. Her fingers were tugging an earlobe as her eyes frantically darted around the room.

  Bug shouted, “Here they are.”

  “Mama,” Dyl yelled. Danny looked up at Lacey and gave her a toothy grin.

  Bella started twirling in a circle—pushing off on the hardwood floor with one foot while spinning in her shiny ballet flats. How did he know the style of her shoes was called that? Because a woman’s fascination with footwear apparently began quite early—it was all they talked about.

  The commotion went supersonic when, in a relatively short period, more people arrived.

  First, Tori and Drae appeared. As usual, the full force and focus of the St. John arrogance was on display when they came through the front door. With the smug facial expression of a man who was well taken care of—and yes, he meant that in a sexual way—he escorted a radiant Victoria with such devilish chutzpah that Cam laughed loudly.

  The laugh earned him a stealthy ball grab and lip-curling sneer.

  Tori sashayed like her mama taught and performed a perfect pirouette to the applauding approval and delight of the head-nodding females. Her red dress flared out and offered more than a peek of her legs. Drae was grinning like the fool that he was when he pointed at her shoes.

  “Red soles,” he proudly announced.

  What? Had he given birth to the fucking shoes? Cobbled them together in his woodshop? What a dick.

  “Ooh,” Bella cooed. She stooped and closely inspected Tori’s red shoes. “I like red bottoms.”

  Lacey laughed.

  Then Cheryl and her daughter gave a funny hoot and high fived.

  Tori smiled broadly and gathered Bella into a hug. “It’s good to know we’re raising you right, sweetie.”

  Bella had no idea that a Junior Justice meme had just been born, but the ladies did. All he could do was groan and look at Drae.

  Suddenly, Tori drew in a sharp breath, covered her mouth with both hands, and stared at Danny. “Just like his daddy.”

  Drae went to his son, shoved a hand in one pocket, and placed the other on Daniel’s shoulder. Dressed alike, they each wore a classic tuxedo and a cocky smirk.

  A bit of toddler belligerence shone through when Danny stomped a foot and vehemently shook his head. “No.”

  Everyone stopped. Even Dylan. Daniel St. John had the floor.

  “No,” he said again with another foot stomp.

  Still nothing.

  Bella chimed in. “He doesn’t like the shoes.”

  Dylan concurred. He’d been gnawing on a finger shoved in his mouth but stopped to shake his head with jerky toddler humor.

  “Oooohhh,” each of the assembled adults murmured at different times.

  Cheryl clapped her hands together like a lady-in-waiting and demanded Danny’s sneakers. Stat.

  Bella, Lacey, and Tori scurried. He and Drae exchanged another amused eye roll.

  “Grab a coffee,” he said with a tilt of his head at the overloaded beverage cart.

  “Has this been going on all morning?” Drae asked when he joined him on the sofa.

  All around them, the bedlam was once again in full swing. He chuckled into his mug and shrugged.

  “Alex should be here soon. He’s dropping off Meghan.”

  “Why the hell didn’t he just have Ben run her down here? Isn’t he a bit busy with the bride right about now?”

  Cam furtively glanced around, ascertained that they were being largely ignored, and set his mug on the coffee table.

  “Something’s up.”

  “With Meghan?”

  “Nah. You feel it too, Drae, so don’t play dumb.”

  Drae let out a frustrated grunt. “His shields are up, but I can’t get a beat on why. It’s way more than him overcompensating because of the twins.”

  He mulled over how to respond. “Might not be connected but something strange happened last week.”

  “Oh?” Drae also looked around. This wasn’t the time or place to get int
o this, but sometimes, shit just happened.

  “Yeah. Got brushed off by Frank. Seemed odd to me. That’s not how we do.”

  “Jesus,” Drae muttered.

  Cam nodded at the concern flashing on the guy’s face. His old friend Colonel Frank Davis was the next best thing to having a top-level security clearance. They’d known each other forever—even longer than he’d known Drae. The man had red, white, and blue in his blood and had covered for Cam several times in their early days. Back when the order of the US military rubbed him the wrong way, and he pushed back against the rules.

  He was also the first of Cam’s friends to meet Lacey—purely by happenstance. It was during a stopover where Frank was stationed that had led to an introduction. Like everyone else on the damn planet, he too fell for Ponytail’s gentle sweetness.

  They touched base on the regular, so the unusual brush-off stood out.

  Drumming his fingers on his thigh, Drae quietly asked, “He’s at the Pentagon now, right?”

  “Counterintelligence.”

  “Fuuuuuuck.”

  Cam paused and looked at his friend. “It pings, doesn’t it?”

  “Shit,” his friend muttered. “Damn straight, it pings. Oh, man,” he grumbled through a deepening frown. “I don’t like this at all, Cam.”

  “It feels connected,” he grimly replied.

  They sat silently for several minutes. “It’s odd, don’t you think?” Drae asked.

  “What exactly?”

  “Well,” Drae began as he sat forward and rested his forearms on his thighs. His hands clasped between his knees as he spoke quietly. “I was thinking the other day how strange it was that the cowboy prince sent that asinine dance arcade machine last year. Out of the blue.”

  “Riiight,” Cam murmured. He remembered. It was odd. “While Alex was on his honeymoon.”

  “Yeah,” Drae continued.

  While he had hoped the pieces weren’t falling into place, Cam suspected they were on to something. “Ugh. My stomach hurts.”

  “Major Alex is here!” Bella screamed at the top of her six-year-old lungs. She ran through the room at warp speed and flung open the front door.

  They both stood and shook a leg. Cam buttoned his suit jacket and ran a hand through his hair.

  “Look,” Drae muttered. Scowling, he looked him in the eye. “He’s not going to give anything up. Not till he’s ready. But I think in light of what Frank did, it’s best if we turn on the spigot. See what drips out.”

  “I have a bad feeling.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  Alex scooped up a beaming Bella as he swept through the door. “Gonna get in trouble with the wife,” he barked jokingly. Leaving loud smacking kisses on the kid’s happy face, he chortled. “But I saw the most beautiful girl in the world when she opened the door and had to come get some love.”

  Bella’s joyful bear hug was adorable as shit. She thought Alex walked on water. In her mind, Alex was second only to that rat bastard Finn O’Brien.

  “Oh, well. Pfft,” Meghan mugged from the doorway. “Left to waddle those stairs by myself and what do I find? My husband flirting with another girl.”

  Bella jumped from Alex’s arms like a seasoned gymnast and hurried to Meghan. “You look pretty, Aunt Meghan.”

  Bella held a childlike reverence for the Major’s wife. Because Alex was so perfect, she had put Meghan on a pedestal—right next to him.

  “Thank you, sweetie,” Irish replied as she bent over for a smacking kiss. “But nowhere near as pretty as you are. Girlfriend!” Meghan hooted. “You make that dress look good.”

  Bella’s beaming smile was bright enough to give them all a sunburn.

  On his way to them, Alex stopped to fist bump the boys. As with Bella, they stuck to the Major like glue and followed right behind.

  They were going through their usual handshake, hug, back slap when Bella’s laughter cut through the air.

  “Look,” she gleefully exclaimed. Pointing at the boys, she excitedly drew everyone’s attention to Dyl and Danny doing a toddler’s rendition of their bro-hug.

  “Drae,” Alex said briskly. “Have a minute?”

  Cam and Drae exchanged concealed looks made easier by the kids’ shenanigans. He tried to telegraph through his expression to tread softly with the big guy. It didn’t require a doctorate to see that Alex was on edge.

  Drae nodded to him as he walked down the hallway toward the study. It didn’t feel peachy-keen that whatever Alex needed to say required a secure room.

  Putting on a good show of seriousness as the Major paced and issued orders, Drae leaned his butt against the desk and crossed his arms. Somehow, the position made it easier to reflect on Alex’s behavior. It was all there as soon as he opened his eyes.

  The brittleness lurking in the far reaches of his expression. A slight listing to one side. The way his hands became part of the conversation—each gesture sharp and forceful. When Alex stopped his nearly manic movements for a few seconds, Drae groaned inwardly at the biggest tell of them all. After a quick finger scrub through his hair, Alex’s hand fell to his side and pushed against the part of his leg that took the brunt of the bomb blast, which nearly killed him.

  Shit. How had he missed it? Yeah, it was true that Alex had moments of seeming a bit off—moments that made him pause—but he hadn’t looked further. And he should have.

  Had he been phoning it in from the bliss cocoon where he, Victoria, and Danny set up camp? The thought made his jaw clench.

  Then a flashing light went on in his head. Oh, holy fuck. Where in the hell was his common sense?

  Alex clamming up made sense. Of course. From the moment he and Meghan came home after their honeymoon, it had been one thing after another.

  Cam being spirited away by the Feds went over like a fart in church. Finding out Lacey was unexpectedly pregnant at the same moment Cam’s status became murky in a deadly sort of way hadn’t helped. At all.

  Then Finn was dumped on them for a wake-up call that led to the shithead Irishman buying Whiskey Pete’s. A situation that put quite a crimp in many a pair of shorts.

  The emotion of Gus leaving the Villa and being replaced by Remington Bisset along with her cousin Jace Delacroix—not to mention Remy’s dubious coupling with the aforementioned Irishman—was no picnic either.

  Then there was Carmen and her amusing romance with the head of Justice security, Duke Winston.

  Add to that a bunch of pregnant women, the opening of the family center, a couple of weddings, the arrival and subsequent falling in love with Bella Mia, and the picture was almost clear.

  As if all that wasn’t enough, Alex’s parents retired and returned to the States in time for the holidays. Aided and abetted by Parker’s folks, having the elders on the scene had been challenging for Alex. Maybe it still was.

  And then the icing on the cake. Sophie Marquez came marching home too, quite literally carrying the mother of all surprises in the form of a pregnancy that was pretty far along.

  No wonder Alex wasn’t saying anything. How could he with everyone wrapped up in their own shit?

  He felt like the worse friend possible but didn’t know what to do about it.

  “Whatever happens, Drae, don’t let her do too much. She doesn’t recognize her limits, you know? She’ll be fine one second and then bam. Hit the wall.”

  “Okay. I understand. Went through something similar with Victoria. And I read you loud and clear about keeping Meghan off her feet. Don’t worry, man. I’ve got this.”

  Alex absently plucked at the cuff of his shirt. The distracted move said a lot about his state of mind.

  “Have you talked to Calder?” Drae tried changing the subject to lighten the mood. It was a wedding day, after all. Laughing, he commented, “I cannot believe your uncle is going to be my father-in-law. Dude! That is so fucked up.”

  “My father and Uncle Ed have him on lockdown. Mom says the bridegroom had an episode when Stephanie left to spend the night at
the big house. Pussy,” he added with a gruff chuckle.

  “Been there. Done that.”

  Alex brightened. Being apart from their women was not something any of them took lightly. “Indeed.”

  “Have you heard anything about the top-secret honeymoon that old fart has up his sleeve?”

  “I’ll tell you, but I swear to god, St. John. If you let Tori in on the surprise, I will rearrange your face—and it won’t be pretty.”

  “Man.” Drae chuckled. “This must be some serious chick shit for that level of threat.”

  “Bitches like romance,” Alex drawled. “Your wife, I believe, prints the t-shirts.”

  “Ha!” He barked with laughter. “Learned a lot from my little nerd queen. Like how to track my fucking dog with a GPS sensor and why not to send dirty pictures through a non-secure server.”

  “Yeah? Well, she’ll shit over what Unc has planned. Ya know, Stephanie walked away from a career and the life she built. That took balls, and Calder knows it. There was no way to have her friends come to the wedding—not for a small, family-centered event. And then there’s the whole baby thing.”

  “Holy fuckballs,” Drae murmured when he started seeing where this was going.

  Alex smiled broadly. “He’s been coordinating with Stephanie’s former business partner. He’s taking her to Atlanta, and they’re staying in a high-end rental complete with staff. They’re hooked up for a wedding reception at the Four Seasons and an over-the-top baby shower.”

  “There’s no way I’m telling Victoria any of that. Makes me look like a massive jerk because I’ve never taken her anywhere.”

  “That’s because you knocked her up right away and then tried to blow up your family with dumbassery.”

  He grinned. It wasn’t a compliment, but he didn’t care. His stupidity was well on the way to urban legend territory

  “And besides”—Alex snickered—“aren’t you guys headed off on a searching for Big Foot adventure?”

  “Oh, yeah. Real romantic.” He scoffed. “Don’t think hanging with Desi and the kids and listening to Tyler give environmental workshops rises to the level of bitches and romance.”

  “My advice? Be nice to the in-law. As to the romance thing, I’m sure you’re creative enough to figure something out.”