Thief: A Bad Boy Romance (22 page)

E
mma runs across the sand
, giggling as her cousin Carter chases her. She stumbles for a second before Carter catches her, both of them laughing up a storm before they run off again.

“Is she wearing enough sunblock?”

I grin as I turn back to look up at Silas, who I’ve been using as a beach recliner.

Being seven months pregnant has its perks.

“Yes, she’s wearing the SPF 9000,” I say evenly. I love how much he worries over our first daughter.

He frowns, still watching Emma “They don’t make that.”

“Silas.”

He looks down and sees the sarcasm on my face.

“Oh har-har-har,” he murmurs, grinning before he leans down to steal a kiss.

“She’s fine, don’t worry.”

We’re all fine.

It’s been five years since the day on the pier of Shelter Harbor when I said yes, again. Four years and eleven months since we held a real ceremony, this time with my family present. We even got Father Murray, who married us the
first
time in the rectory at St. Michael’s, to come and preside over what was this time around just a formality.

Silas and my brother Kyle started their securities company. It’s based out of New York City, so there’s a fair amount of travel involved for Silas, but its working out, and the company is doing
phenomenally
well.

And he always comes home.

“Home” being here in Shelter Harbor.

Yeah, we stayed. We got our house, of course. No more basement couches under Jacob’s roof.

Sierra’s friend
did
put me in touch with an amazing lawyer. But, it turned out I never really needed him because Blaine managed to break contract
himself
when he was caught on camera blowing coke at some nightclub.

He and Ainsley are still together, for whatever that’s worth. I honestly don’t have an opinion on it.

After that though, Lori saw no reason to sue each other, and actually asked me to stay with the management company.

I declined.

I went solo, and it’s been the best thing I could have done. Plus, it’s the digital age, and I could honestly do my work from anywhere. And as it happens, my fans
love
“quaint New England charm” in their pictures. I took my yoga line that the management company had been holding over my head for years along with me. And after Vivian put me in touch with a few of her high class trust fund friends, it launched six months after I left to a pretty huge response.

Lululemon does carry it, by the way.

I also expanded into a “mommy yoga” line after I found out I was pregnant with Emma, and business has been
great
.

Declan’s currently serving twenty years in Walpole prison. Silas still goes to see him once a month, which at first I was appalled by, until he explained it to me.

“Believe me, no matter how shitty you act, you can’t lose your family entirely. Nothing’s worse than that.”

And so life goes on. Mom’s still gardening and teaching the odd piano lesson. Dad’s still giving sermon’s every Sunday. Sierra went back to her graduate program, Rowan went back to opening and closing his favorite bar six days a week, and Stella and Carter went back to being their own little team.

And we’re right here in the thick of it. Because somehow, running from home and the places we knew only brought us right back to where we started and right back together.

We just had to take the long way.

But we’re home now, right where we belong.

And nothing’s going to change that.

S
ports Romance
:

Player: A Secret Baby Sports Romance

Score: A Stepbrother Sports Romance

S
tandalone Stepbrother Romance
:

Secret: A Military Stepbrother Romance

Cockney: A British Stepbrother Romance

Crude: A Stepbrother Romance

S
oldiers of Fortune Series
:

Heat

Burn

Scorch

Roar

A
ubrey Irons enjoys writing
about bold, sassy, and intelligent women and the dominant, cocky, and quite typically forbidden alpha males who love and lust for them; gripping stories, happy endings, and enough heat to keep things extra steamy!

In the real world, Aubrey is kept plenty entertained by her own tattooed Marine husband, their precocious and adorable three year old, and one
very
ill-behaved puppy.

H
unter Ryan is a monumental
d
*ck.

Bad boy, womanizer, soldier, pr*ck. Oh, and he thinks he’s God’s gift to women - mostly because of his…
endowments.

What an ass.

I’d normally have nothing to do with Washington D.C.’s biggest playboy Secret Service agent, except things just got slightly complicated.

You see, my mother just became the first female President of the United States, and now she’s about to marry her Secretary of State - Hunter’s father.

Which means besides being my new security detail, that arrogant, insufferable man is my new
stepbrother

Oh, right, and it’s worth mentioning that I already slept with him
- once, before I knew who he was.

Forget John and Marilyn. Forget Watergate. Forget Monica.

I’ve got a scandal that could rock the entire world; a dirty, illicit, forbidden secret that could bring the most powerful country in the world to its knees.

My protector, my secret, my
stepbrother.

This is about to be a true state of emergency; a
national
catastrophe.

A
very special
thank you to the wildly supportive group of authors who I’m absolutely blessed to call friends and peers. “Thank you” doesn’t even come close.

T
o my husband
, who got busted proofreading this at work and might never actually live it down. You are forever my hero.

T
o you
, for reading.

S
o
, I wanted to start this book with a quote. It seems…
author-ish
to do so, and as much as my Aunt enjoys wrinkling her nose whenever I refer to myself as an author, I figure that seven novels in, I can go ahead and enjoy the moniker.

But right, quotes. At first, I was going to go with the
far
heavier-handed James Joyce “Secrets, silent, stony sit in the dark palaces of both our hearts: secrets weary of their tyranny: tyrants willing to be dethroned”, but
jeez
. How about a little levity, James?

Because sometimes, a little humor is what we need,
especially
when it comes to politics. This book
very
purposely does not choose “sides”, or “parties”, or decide who’s “right” and who’s “wrong”. In fact, the only “wrong” this book deals with is the very
very
good kind. The kind of wrong that makes your toes curl and pulse skip a beat. The kind of wrong you’re just
dying
to say yes to.

This book may be a bit dirtier and bit naughtier than previous ones, and if it shocks, ruffles, or scandalizes;
good
. It means I’ve done my job.

Besides, politics without anal in the Oval Office just sound like no fun at all.

Let this book be your hidden scandal, your dirty little secret, or your illicit affair, and I do hope you enjoy every single second of it.