“She named her dog after me.” Theo’s words silence the room. “I should get top spot.”
Then numerous snorts invade my ears, everyone truly amused. I’m not sure why. He’s right. I did.
“My God, this is becoming dreadfully modern.” Johnny necks his bubbles and nods his approval as he holds up his empty glass, studying the crystal.
“Again,” Ryan yawns. “You challenged someone to a duel, Winters. Sit down.”
“I want to go back to 1816.”
“Me too,” Franks sighs. “Modern men confuse me.”
“Enough,” Jesse snaps. “I’m at the top, Luke, Jack and Dec anchor the base, and Drew is nowhere near the rope or ribbon.
Collective chuckles collide from all, including me, excluding Drew. “I feel attacked,” He remains stoic, not looking insulted at all.
“You should,” James says, topping up his vodka.
“See?” Jesse smiles his killer smile. “Democracy.”
“Temporary,” Jack adds, looking at me. “Jodi?”
“You boys are forgetting something.” I find the wine and refill my glass, and when I turn around, all attention is on me, none of them brave enough to ask what it is exactly they’re forgetting. “What about my 2026 alphas?”
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Jesse cries. “There aremore?” He drops to a chair heavily. “It’s not enough I have to deal with all these impostors?”
“Why does it sound like someone just grabbed your balls and squeezed?” Theo is monotone. Unimpressed.
“My balls wouldn’t fit in anyone’s hands,” Jesse throws Theo a look to kill. “Not even yours. Not that you can touch them.”
Theo very quickly looks like he wants to put Jesse in a cage and do serious damage. “He really is an ego maniac, isn’t he?”
“It’s a front,” I assure him before I glance at all of them. “All of you have a front.” Not one of them dares tells me otherwise.
But Danny hums and once again draws his gun. Translated: not a front.
I snatch it out of his hand, and he jumps back, surprised. “I’m going to put this gun somewhere really uncomfortable.”
Brad chuckles. “See where I get my dry wit from?”
“I never said anything about small balls.” I take a big swig of wine, once again asking myself what the hell I’ve got myself in to.
All the men look down at their groins.“Well-endowed in that department is a given if Jodi’s created you,” Miller murmurs. “Why are we even debating it?”
“Mine’s biggest,” Jesse declares.
“Fuck, I want to shoot him so badly,” Danny’s hand twitches, desperate to grab his gun back.
“No,” I say, firm, opening a drawer and slipping the gun inside. “No one shoots anyone.”
“You can’t shoot him,” James murmurs quietly. “He’s loved.”
“So am I.”
Luke gives me the eye across the room, and I shy away from it. I know what he’s thinking.AndJack. Dec comes over and dips, getting his mouth close to my ear. “Next time you’re in the mood to go to the dark side, or the unreasonable side, or the ego-maniac side, call me. I’ll talk you down from the edge.”
Jack and Luke raise their brows in agreement. Dec gives me a sympathetic smile. Like, you created these monsters, now you’ve got to deal with them.
“Right, okay, enough of this crazy.” Jesse slaps his thighs and stands, and Dec withdraws from me, looking over his shoulder, waiting for what’s going to fall out of The Lord’s mouth next. I’ve got a horrible feeling I already know. And when his determined stare lands on me, that horrible feeling worsens.
