Always (Family Justice Book 1) (32 page)

“Are they coming home today?” she asked when he stood beneath the steamy waterfall with his head thrown back.

Scraping his hands through his hair, he looked down at her and shook his head. “No.”

Meghan grabbed a shower poof and poured his favorite bath wash onto it so she could stroke his chest. “More problems?”

Alex pushed the long wet strands of her hair off her shoulders and cupped her face in his big hands forcing her to look at him.

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry. There’s a weather event and Sawyer doesn’t want to risk flying through it.”

He was searching her eyes for something. Clearly, he wasn’t convinced she was okay with what had just happened. The imp inside her was chortling with glee. He was making this too easy.

Hmmm. Let’s see. What button did she want to push? He’d been dragging his feet and refused to give up about that damn prenup she wanted no part of. This seemed like as good a time as any to put the whole subject to rest.

Stroking his beautiful chest while covering him with fragrant suds, she let her hand drift lower on each swipe until she was fondling his dick with the pouf. His eyes darkened, and she felt his breathing change. Yep. Most definitely had his attention.

He kissed her. How could he not when she was teasing him as she was? There was something quite titillating about tugging on his manly flesh with the pouf acting as a barrier between her hand and his staff.

“Do you love me?” she asked breathlessly when he ended the kiss.

“Yours. Always,” he murmured.

She had him quite literally in the palm of her hand.

“Please tell Parker to stop hassling me about the prenup. I’m never going to sign it and him hounding me at every opportunity isn’t going to wear me down. He’s only pissing me off.”

“Meghan,” he grumbled with a deep scowl. She loved that he was trying so hard to do what he thought was the right thing, but she’d had enough. Time to pull out all the stops and go for full pout.

“I’m not signing it Alex, and frankly, all this talk about money and assets is upsetting me.” For good measure, she sniffled and even worked up some teary eyes. “I love you and I don’t give a rat’s ass about that money.”

She had to give herself props for strategic placement of the word
upset
. The Justice boys all had one thing common. Even the slightest suggestion that their woman was upset and shit was about to get real. They put up with all kinds of crap but that one thing? Deal breaker.

“It’s for your protection, baby,” he groaned.

“Protection from what? You? For Christ’s sake, Alex. Stop this. What do I have to do to make you see that I fucking mean it when I say,
whatever you want
? I trust you completely. Didn’t I just prove that?”

Bull’s-eye. He flinched at her in-your-face reminder, and while she maybe shouldn’t have played that card, it was the perfect one to remind him just how unconditional she was where he was concerned. In Meghan’s mind, it really was all or nothing.

“
Fuck.
Okay,” he growled reluctantly. “You have an unfair advantage at the moment and that really was a low blow…but you win.”

She grinned at him, wound her arms around his neck, and pressed their soapy bodies together. “Kiss me,” she muttered as his head lowered to hers.

When she was satisfied and his hands were roaming over her ass, she slid from his grasp and drifted slowly downward.

“Let me demonstrate what a low blow really is,” she cooed.

DRAEGYN LET HIMSELF INTO CAM’S suite right before lunchtime, moving like a hundred-year-old man. They were on different floors in the hotel, and while the walk from his suite to the elevator had been short, every step felt like a sledgehammer was pounding against his torso.

Despite the fact that Cameron had told him to stay put and that he would come to him, Drae had decided to get up and moving. He hated being restricted in any way, only right this second as a dull aching agony assailed his body, he was rethinking the wisdom of that decision.

Using the wall as an aide, he shut the door and slumped a bit, catching his breath. The notion of using Majid as a punching bag once he felt better was entertained for the briefest moment then discarded.
We were all young and stupid at one time
, he reminded himself.

There were voices at the end of the short hallway into the main space of Cam’s suite. Easing forward, Drae stumbled to a halt when he found Sawyer and Cameron deep in conversation. The captain was doing most of the talking as Cam nodded. His body language suggested he was disseminating information, rocking back and forth on his heels in what for Drae was a familiar tell on his brother’s part.

“What’s going on?” he griped. Finding the two in deep conversation struck Drae as odd especially after he heard the words,
family
and
surprise
. At the sound of his less-than-friendly voice, they jumped apart in a conspiratorial way that made his eyes narrow with suspicion.

“What part of
stay put
didn’t you understand?” Cam barked when they made eye contact. “What the actual fuck, Drae? You’re white as a sheet. Do as you’re told for once, goddammit, would you?”

“I’m fine,” he grumbled while gingerly lowering into a straight-backed easy chair. “What are you two girls plotting? And don’t pretend you were chatting about the weather.”

“Actually, asshole, it
was
the weather we were discussing. Looks like we’ll be staying overnight again, but Sawyer assures me we can probably be back in the air and on the way home right after breakfast.”

Drae cast a dubious eye on Cam and his deflective answer. That was more than a weather update he walked in on.

“Sorry, St. John,” Sawyer said. “Early winter storm about to hit but it’s a fast-mover and we’ll be okay when the sun comes up tomorrow.”

Fuck. He just wanted to get home. But the weather wasn’t Sawyer’s fault, so he just mumbled, “Uhhh huh,” and tried to find a comfortable position.

The captain hurried on his way after that, leaving Drae alone with Cam.

“Stop it,” Cam drawled. “You’re wiggling more than my two-month-old does.”

“Uncomfortable,” Drae muttered darkly.

Snorting, Cam bit out, “Which is exactly why I told you to stay put. It’s your own damn fault for trying to do too much.”

The next hour drifted by in much the same way. Cam bitching, Drae fidgeting, and not much of anything else. He checked the weather app on his phone so many times his battery was dying.

And then his phone rang. Fishing in his slacks for the phone turned to agony when Drae had to shift a hip to allow access to the pocket. He groaned aloud from the painful effort.

“Victoria.”

“Give me that,” Cam hissed as he grabbed the phone from Drae’s hand with a menacing scowl. “She’ll know in two seconds something’s wrong the minute she hears your voice.”

Drae tried to reach for the phone, but Cam outmaneuvered him, something which wasn’t all that difficult. Damn him. He really needed to hear his wife’s throaty voice. Would help take his mind off the torture of his ribcage in trauma.

“Hey babe,” he heard Cam chuckle. “He’s in the shower and you know I can’t resist a chance to tell you what a pussy you’ve turned him into.”

Drae glared at his brother and shrugged—and fuck it all if that slight movement didn’t also hurt like ballz.

“Oh, you know. The regular drama only with a royal edge. Pissed off father. Sulking teenager. There was some yelling but for the most part it was a father-son reunion with the usual emotional garbage and promises that will quickly be broken on both sides.”

Cam seemed to be listening to Victoria, but he kept an eye on Drae the whole time. Dammit. He just wanted to talk to his wife. Was that too fucking much to ask for?

Cam was laughing. “Fucking weather. I think we’re taking a cab to the planetarium later this afternoon to check out some space exhibit.” There was a long pause then the man burst out laughing. “Of course I’m kidding. Draegyn St. John in a museum? Not gonna happen, right?”

Drae’s mood darkened. Did they
have
to be sharing jokes at his expense? “Give me the fucking phone,” he grumbled.

There were some hand gestures. A couple of fingers waved in the air and a
blow me
crotch grab but that phone never passed within an arm’s length of Drae. When the call ended, Cam made sure the disconnect went through before he tossed the phone back.

“You can talk to her later. Tonight. That way you can chalk up your surly attitude to crappy dinner martinis. Drae! You listening?”

Yeah. He was listening. But he felt like shit, and there was no need to pretend with Cameron that everything was fine.

“I need to lay down for a bit. Maybe pack my side with ice. And don’t say I told you so, man. I must be getting old or something ‘cause I can’t remember ever being this put down after a fight.”

Cam snickered and nodded. “Ice is a good idea. And for the record—you’re not all that old. The problem is the three hundred pound wall of steroid-crazed bulk that tried to snap you in two like a twig.”

LACEY WAS TIPTOEING THROUGH HER wardrobe closet, damp hair wrapped in a towel and a plain cotton robe tied loosely at the waist when she heard her phone chirp. Jumping quickly to silence it before the sound woke Dylan in the next room, she was surprised to find herself looking into the face of the one she loved.

Gasping, she blurted out, “Oh honey! Your head. Those stitches look ghastly.”

Cameron shrugged as if a major wound on his face was no big deal and quirked a quarter of a grin. “Cell phone versus my hard head.”

Lacey frowned. Though ordinarily she was fairly even-tempered and controlled, the idea of either of her two boys being hurt had her seeing red. Seeing the heartbreakingly handsome face of her hunky husband on her screen and then seeing the jagged gash above his eyebrow had unleashed a double dose of seething anger. Why, if she ever got her hands on the jerks who dared harm her Cameron, why—she’d …

She heard him chuckle and focused at the screen. “Babe, your expression just got pretty damn fierce. Don’t worry, love. I kicked his ass good. You can stand down.”

“Cameron Justice—I want you home.
Now
,” she cried.

“Easy love,” Cameron murmured. “I’ll be back by lunchtime tomorrow. Can you hang in there a little while longer for me?”

Lacey dialed back her fury and took a deep calming breath. Hang in there till tomorrow? Like she had a choice. Studying her husband’s beautiful face on the small screen, she realized that while he sounded and maybe even looked halfway reasonable, she could hear the underlying tension in his voice. There was no reason to pick it apart—she didn’t need to know every thought he had. It was enough that she heard it. This was her husband. The love of her life and he needed something from her or he wouldn’t have gone the extra mile of going for a face chat.

“Where’s our little man,” he asked her with a sigh.
Poor Daddy
, she thought. The distance was as hard on him as it was on her. More so since he was the one getting beat up while she was at home surrounded by every imaginable back-up.

Lacey knew what he needed. Cameron wanted a distraction. There wasn’t a damn thing they could do about the weather, but he was at the end of his rope, too. Putting her cell phone on a shelf in the closet, she propped it up against a shoebox and just started nattering away as if he was right there with her.

“He’s sleeping right now, so shhhh!” she quipped with a wink and her finger pressed against her lips. Giggling, she told her husband, “The minute his eyes closed for more than thirty seconds, I ran off to grab a shower before he got going again.”

To make her point, Lacey whipped the towel off her hair and shook out her long, damp mane. “As soon as you get back, Daddy, you’ll be owing me one extra-long soak in the tub while you handle Dylan Duty.”

Cameron chuckled and gave her a mock salute. “Yes, ma’am,” he barked. “Whatever you say, Mrs. Cameron.”

Lacey was well aware that when she dragged the big towel off her hair, it had dislodged the front of the robe, allowing her breasts to gape in the loosened opening.

She sat down on a bench stool facing the phone and brought one leg up, bent at the knee. “I can’t wait for Thanksgiving! Can you?” she purred enthusiastically while squirting a glob of moisturizer into her hands that she began rubbing into her leg. It all looked so innocent. Just like any husband and wife having a distracted conversation while they dressed. But everything Lacey did, everything she said, was calculated to give Cameron maximum distractibility. Tits, especially peeking tits, always did the trick.