Always (Family Justice Book 1) (26 page)

“Eeek,” Tori muttered. “A kingly ass kicking.”

“Right?” She heard him pause to take a sip of his drink. “Serves him right for taking me away from you.”

Awww. Hearing the terse, very pissed-off bite in his voice touched Tori’s heart. Maybe him going off from time to time on agency business wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

Wanting to distract her husband from the loneliness of their temporary separation, she snorted out an unladylike laugh and said, “Guess what?”

“You miss me?” Draegyn chuckled.

“Well, yes. That but something else. Never mind trying to guess,” she giggled. “That’d take all night so I’ll just tell you. Big Daddy and Irish practically threw mom and Calder together this evening. It was funny as shit, too. Was all Lacey and I could do not to crack up laughing.”

Draegyn chuckled. “Holy shit. For real? How’d Stephanie take it?”

“I thought she was going to kick Alex in the shins but she backed off. And Calder looked like he was gearing up to walk the green mile. Anyway—they all came here after movie night at Cameron’s then from what I gathered, since I was tucked in our bed and couldn’t see what happened, they all headed downstairs, Mom and Dad split with the puppy, leaving Uncle Calder behind. He stuck around for quite a while. I feel bad, though.”

“What in the hell for?”

“Oh, you know me. I watched my home flipping show then got restless and bored so I texted Mom and asked her to bring me some munchies. Apparently,” she quipped with heavy sarcasm dripping from every word, “I interrupted something.”

“Really? How’d you figure that?”

Tori laughed and rubbed her tummy telling Draegyn gleefully, “When she came up here with my snacks her lipstick was all sorts of smeared. I all but fell over laughing! I think they were making out.”

“Oh babe—that’s fucking awesome. Calder and Stephanie sitting in a tree….k-i-s-s-i-n-g,” he sang. “You okay with that? I mean, it must be kind of weird and all.”

She thought about it for a second and the intense ramifications that could come from Alex’s uncle and her mother having an affair or maybe even getting serious and was surprised to realize the notion wasn’t as off-the-wall uncomfortable as it had been at first.

“I want my mom to be happy, Draegyn. She’s been alone for a long time. And I sorta like Calder. He’s Alex in a way, only with blond hair, but with the same sexy swagger.”

“What the fuck!” her husband barked over the phone. “Did you just tell me your boss, my brother, has a sexy swagger? Goddammit, Victoria.”

She grinned ear to ear. Was there anything better for a girl’s ego than hearing her man lose his shit over an innocent comment?

“Too much information, husband?” she taunted.

“Victoria,” he growled in warning.

“Baby, you get your hot ass home as soon as possible. And wear one of those panty-dropping suits when you do. The minute we’re alone, I wanna see you tug on your cuffs and adjust your tie then I’ll show you who’s the sexiest motherfucker alive.”

“Better get yourself a harem outfit, wife—and no, I’m not kidding. Pregnant belly and all. While I’m tugging my cuffs, you’ll be stretching those pretty lips around my cock. Oh, and make sure there’s no crotch in the harem pants. Will save time.”

IT HAD BEEN A SHITTY morning and Calder was on edge. Drae and Cam had boarded the agency plane just after dawn on what could be a wild goose chase to Denver where Majid was supposedly hanging out. He’d received four fucking messages from Dashur about Sharif plus a half dozen more from the King’s piss-ant head of security who was clearly desperate to save the situation along with it his job.

He couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that this was the kind of shit Alex dealt with on a regular basis. No wonder his nephew wanted to take a step back, and not just to focus on Meghan, either. It would take better men than all of them put together to put up with such crap on a long-term basis.

Plus, his head was pounding. Lack of sleep. Shit-tacular breakfast choice that ended up being all sugar and no substance. A ridiculously long shower hadn’t helped. Not when his sex was hard, heavy, and distracting as fuck.
Stephanie.

She was the source of everything that was dancing on his last nerve. Kissing her had been a mistake. Especially since all he could think about now was doing it again. And again. The minute he’d tasted her, he realized he’d been starving. For her.

Needing a break and some air, he headed out to the stable determined to take one of the stallions out for a good, long run.

“Hiya, Gus,” he boomed across the paddock. “Can you saddle up Zephyr for me?”

The genial horse master came ambling toward Calder, removing his sunglasses at the last second. “No can do, Mr. Dane. He’s already out and about this morning. Will another horse do? Plenty to choose from,” he drawled.

“Zephyr’s out? Who’s riding today, Gus?” He knew it certainly wasn’t Alex because he rarely rode due to his old injuries. And with Drae and Cam gone that didn’t leave too many other choices since he sincerely doubted one of the women was strong or experienced enough to handle the feisty stallion.

Gus reacted like he was reading his mind and smirked. “Actually, sir, it’s Ms. Bennett. The ladies went into town in Mr. Marquez’s car but she wanted to ride for a bit so she hung back.” He scuffed the toe of his well-worn boots in the dust and added, “She specifically asked for a spirited stallion.”

Boom! It was like a bomb went off in Calder’s brain scattering his thoughts into a million fragments. The stallion was big and ornery. Stephanie wasn’t up to such a strong horse—she was far too feminine and genteel for a ride like Zephyr. Plus, there was a squad of security people engaged in a refresher exercise with live ammunition about a forty-minute ride from the compound in a mock village referred to as Little Tikrit.
Motherfucker
. Could this get any worse?

“Which way did she go, Gus?” he snapped as he pulled his phone out and fired up a text to Alex.

“Said she was going out to the ravine,” he answered pointing east.

Well, thank God for small mercies,
he thought since Little Tikrit was in the opposite direction.

“Get me a strong mount and hurry.” At Gus’s raised eyebrow, he checked his sharp delivery and added, “Sorry. There’s a training exercise going on, and I don’t want Ms. Bennett to run into any trouble.”

“Understood, sir,” the horse master boomed as he took off at a fast clip toward the stable.

Two seconds later his phone rang.
Alex.

Barking like a lunatic, Calder skipped the
Hello
part of the call and immediately started talking. “Dude—did you know there was a training exercise in Tikrit scheduled for this morning?”

Alex answered, “No. But why is that a problem?”

“It’s not a problem,” Calder snapped. “At least it wasn’t until I found out that Stephanie took a horse out for a la-de-dah.”

His nephew chuckled and said, “Settle. It’s cool. She knows how to ride, man. Probably better than you.”

“I don’t give a fuck how well she rides, Alex!” he yelled. “That training exercise is using live rounds. What if she stumbles into the secure zone?”

“Did she tell Gus where she was going?”

“Yeah, yeah. Something about the ravine, but you know women. She could be anywhere.”

“First of all,” Alex said sharply, “every saddle we have is fixed with a GPS. You can access her locale pretty easily from your phone so don’t freak out. And Stephanie isn’t stupid. If she said the ravine then that’s where she’s headed. She’s well aware of the need for safety and wouldn’t, as you put it, just go la-de-dahing about.”

“I’m going after her,” Calder bit out as Gus came toward him with a beautiful chestnut stallion—saddled up and ready to go.

“Let me know when you locate her,” Alex said, “and fire up the GPS program so you don’t spend time looking where she isn’t.”

“Will do. I’ll be in touch.” And with that, he swung up into the saddle, consulted his phone, checking out the GPS, then grabbed the horse’s reins and took off in a cloud of dust.

ALEX WAS LAUGHING WHEN HE called Meghan. She and Tori, with Lacey and the baby in tow, had driven into town on the pretense of checking out a new boutique but he knew the real reason had been to get Tori away from the Villa for a bit while Carmen, Betty, and Ria got up to no good.

When she answered, the first thing he asked was whether the phone was hooked into the car’s blue tooth– which meant everyone could hear their conversation—or whether it was just the two of them. He didn’t think Tori needed to hear what he had to say.

“Just us, Major,” Meghan told him. “Why? What’s up?”

“Stephanie took Zephyr out for a ride and Calder reacted like she was flying a 747 without auto-pilot. He’s now jumped on a mount and ridden off into the desert to rescue her ass! Can you believe it?”

“Oh, my God! For real? Doesn’t he know? I mean, honestly. Stephanie’s the last person needing an equestrian rescue.”

“Exactly,” he chuckled. “I’m guessing her background hasn’t exactly come up in conversation.”

Meghan laughed. “Yeah, well—from what Tori told us, I don’t think there was much conversation going on last night.”

“Meaning?”

“Well, I believe there was an AARP make-out session, at least that’s what Tori thinks. Something about heavy breathing and smeared lipstick.”

“Hm
mmm
. That reminds me. Did I happen to tell you how great my cock looks covered with that lipstick you got from Chanel?”

He thoroughly enjoyed Meghan’s throaty laugh. “Goddammit Major Marquez. Why’d you have to go and say that?”

“Squirming in your seat, my beauty?”

“Actually, I’m standing, but yes.”

He growled into the phone. “When will you be home? I’m hungry.”

“Didn’t Carmen make you lunch? I told her we’d be gone the whole day.”

“That’s not what I’m hungry for.”

“Oh.”

“You think about that while you’re doing whatever it is that you’re doing— then bring that pussy home to me dripping wet.”

“Alex?”

“Yes?”

“I, um….shit.”

He chuckled. “Imagining my tongue licking your sweetness?”

“Yes, dammit.”

“Where are you? Is anyone around?”

“We’re waiting in a store for something Lacey ordered for Dylan. The girls are busy picking out onesies for the babies while I talk to you.”

“Good. Go to the ladies’ room and take off your panties. Send me a picture of them stuffed in your purse. I think that’s enough to get your flesh quivering in anticipation.”

He could hear the hitch in her breathing and grinned. The woman was sexy as fuck and she was all his.

“I’m hanging up now,” she told him.

It took less than five minutes for her to send a text with the picture of her sheer yellow panties crammed inside her purse along with a message that read,
I want you to tie my hands to the bedpost.

Shit. Now he was the one to squirm as a hellacious hard-on gripped him while the vision of his naughty redhead tied to the bed while he ate her delicious pussy danced in his mind’s eye.

MY GOD, BUT IT’S BEAUTIFUL here
, Stephanie thought. No wonder Tori fell in love with the place. With nothing but wide-open spaces for hundreds of miles around, the Villa de Valleja-Marquez was a world unto its own.