“Yeah, it’s like that,” he replied, hitching his head toward the door. “So hands off, numbnuts.”
“Why does everyone feel the need to get territorial when I’m around? It’s the abs, isn’t it?” He smacked his hand against his rock-hard stomach, the hard ridges visible through the tight athletic shirt he wore.
Jamie snorted as they fell into step, heading toward the main exit. “I’m guessing it’s because you’re a man whore who’ll fuck anything with a pulse.”
“Nah.” Cody cut his teeth through the flesh of his apple. “It’s definitely the abs,” he mumbled around a mouth full, and then they were gone, and Summer was left alone with her cheeks burning and her mind whirling.
He’d claimed her. Infrontof Cody. With action and words, Jamie had made himself clear, she belonged to him, and thanks to his testosterone flare, within the hour, the whole house would know. Oh God! Her heart thumped against her ribs. What would they think? What would they say? What—
His reappearance with Halia in his arms made her already shaky legs weaker, and she stood rooted to the spot, her knees locking to keep her from falling. His eyes on hers, he crossed the floor, and when he got near, he kissed her again before handing her the baby. “Don’t think twice about it, buttercup.” He brushed a curl off her forehead. “They already knew you were mine. Maybe even before I did. Trust me. It’ll be fine.”
She nodded. There wasn’t a person on the planet she trusted more than Jamie, and the realization had a rush of emotions making a break for the surface. Unprepared for the onslaught, tears blurred her vision, and to hide her feelings, she lifted Halia to her lips, inhaling her sweet smell as she pressed a soft kiss to the crown of her head.
She’d never belonged to anyone before. Never put herself in someone else’s hands. Never taken that leap of faith and trusted another person with her body. Her heart. Her soul. He’d made it easy. Uncomplicated. Simple as simple gets.
He wanted her—and he didn’t care who knew or what they thought about it—because it didn’t matter. With the world on the cusp of a crisis unlike any it had faced before, he had his priorities. Her. Halia. The JTT.
And he wasn’t a man who’d let anything get in the way of his priorities.
His finger under her chin, he lifted her head. She met his eyes, and his ice-blue irises searched her depths, burning her to the quick. “Yeah, now you get it.” He lowered his head, his lips skimming over hers. “You belong to me, baby.”
“Do I?” she teased.
“You know you do.” His hand slid to the back of her neck and down the length of her spine, his fingers tracing the crack of her ass. “No point in denying it.” He dug his fingers in deep, pressing them against her butt and sending a shock of electricity ripping along her nerve endings. “You’re mine.”
Her moan filled the kitchen.
“Fuck,” he mumbled. “I don’t know how long I’ll be, but you’d better be naked, and in my bed when I get there. Got it?”
She nipped at his lip. “Yes, sir.”
“God damn,” he mumbled, straightening to look down his nose at her. “You really do like to play with fire, don’t you?”
“Yes, sir.” She grinned and lifted her chin higher. “When it comes to you…I really do.”
* * *
“So how do we find her?”Cody asked, and the last bit of residual tension Jay had been holding disintegrated. Christ, he’d never been more grateful for the men around the boardroom table.
He’d told them the truth about Becca. About her being the key to controlling Dominion. About how he’d stumbled across her months ago when he’d found her poking around Jonas Johnson’s hard drive.
He’d come clean about his attempts to locate her and confessed to her less than thrilled response at being contacted by herex-boyfriend. The personal stuff he’d kept to himself. The reason for their breakup. The guilt he carried for the irreparable damage he’d caused.
The shame for what he’d done—and what had been done—to him.
No one judged him. There’d been no condemnation. No what the fuck outbursts. No reprisals for keeping the information to himself. As usual, his teammates rolled with the new development, adopting a pragmatic approach and immediately starting to puzzle out the pieces to see the big picture.
“We give her what she wants,” Adam said.
Grant snorted. “Well, we know that’s not Jay.”
He grinned when Jay flipped him the finger, and it felt good to be joking again. With the burden of his secret off his chest, he didn’t have to figure everything out on his own anymore. And thank fuck for that. He was tired, the weight of the world too much for one man to carry.
He needed his teammates. His brothers. His best friend. He just hadn’t known how much until Diane dropped Dominion in their laps. Keeping Becca alive, safe, and out of harm’s way was the only thing that mattered anymore. And these assholes were the only ones he trusted with her life.
“We give her Johnson,” Jamie said, nodding when their gazes collided, his way of saying he understood. His way of acknowledging Jay’s dilemma when it came to choosing between taking Johnson out or leaving him in play. His way of saying he’d made the right choice. “If she’s searching for something she thinks he has, then we need to give her a reason to come looking for it.”
“Exactly,” Adam said.
