“You shock the shit outta me sometimes, you know that?”
“This shit would get old quick if I didn’t. Besides, I could totally get off on the two of us sharing someone we could both dominate in bed.”
His cock twitched against mine as he ground our pelvises together.
“Fuck! As if I wasn’t already hard as a rock, you gotta go talking about threesomes,” he half growled and half groaned, his mouth slanted over mine, and I melted into him.
He took control of the kiss like a platoon storming an enemy stronghold. He advanced, leaving no option for me but surrender or retreat. Fuck retreat, I wanted whatever he wanted me to take.
“Hey! Don’t make me get out the hose like Nana would,” Heidi yelled from the porch.
We parted, not as fast as she wanted or as slow as I did, but enough so our lips brushed together when he asked, “What the hell’s that mean?”
I laughed, kissing him again and fighting to keep it as chaste as Hayden and I were capable of. He chased my mouth when I pulled away. As much as I wanted to say I was too manly to giggle, it was a bald-faced lie because that’s exactly what I did as I bent back over his arm to avoid getting lost in him again. For now, at least.
Twisting from his arms, I threaded our fingers together and tugged him toward the house. He planted his feet and didn’t budge.
“C’mon, Marine, there’s food and booze inside.”
He shook his head and cleared his throat, his eyes darting around the house. “Just call me, and we can meet up after your party is over.”
I moved closer, circling his waist with my arms. “Papi, this is for you. To celebrate your homecoming. It would be odd for us to eat, drink, and be merry without you.”
I could see the hesitance in how his gaze bounced between me and the house and how his hands gripped my hips as if he was moments from pushing me away.
“Declan… I appreciate this, but I don’t fit in here.”
Before I could answer, a car stopped in the cul-de-sac in front of the house, and a car door opened and closed. I glanced over Hayden’s shoulder, laughing when I had to lift on my toes to do so. Seeing the newcomer, I slid around Hayden with a smile on my face.
“Gunny, I’m glad you could make it,” I said, reaching out to shake his hand as he approached.
“Please, call me Taz.”
Hayden mumbled, “What the fuck,” behind me. When I looked over my shoulder, he stood at attention, saluting the gunnery sergeant.
“At ease, Sergeant.”
I stepped back next to Hayden and took his hand, hoping that with Taz here, he’d be less resistant about going inside. I nodded toward the house and said, “The food should be about ready. Y’all hungry?”
“After the chow from the mess, always,” Taz said.
“All right. Let’s eat.”
I led them through the front door and across the open-concept kitchen, living, and dining room to the wall of patio doors pushed back to remove the wall separating the inside from the outside. It was a perfect California day. The sun was shining, the grass looked like we’d robbed it from a golf course, the waves rolled in, cresting white to break the blue expanse of the Pacific, and the pool sparkled like diamonds. Music played, people were talking and laughing, and the sea air was filled with the smell of smoking meat so that if you closed your eyes, you’d think you were at a Texas barbecue.
“Holy fuck!” Hayden exclaimed.
“Amen,” Taz agreed.
27
HAYDEN
Declan led us into a house that would’ve held two of the one I grew up in. My eyes darted from surface to surface, trying to take it all in. The place was just as luxurious and expansive as the hotel suite in Vegas but in a different way. That was sleek and austere. This place felt… elegant and classy.
Stark, white walls surrounded us, and blond hardwood floors the color of sand laid under our feet, stretching throughout the house. In the living room, there were two ginormous full-sized couches and two massive armchairs. A television that could rival a movie screen hung above the mantle on the huge fireplace that scaled the wall to the cathedral ceiling soaring above our heads.
A dining table that seated ten stretched from the front of the house to the back between the living room and kitchen. And holy fuck, the kitchen looked like something from that home improvement show with the husband and wife who aren’t married anymore that Lucia loves to watch. Thick marble counters, a gas stove that had to be four feet wide, and cabinets so tall I’d need a ladder to reach the top shelf.
