Chapter 51
***Memphis***
I sat next to Bea on the couch and looked at the door for the hundredth time.
Any second I was expecting it to come flying open with the kids chasing the guys in or the guys chasing the kids in.
I wasn’t sure who’d be the top dog in that match.
Bea and I had organized another play date for the guys, to prepare them, as we told them.
Really, Bea needed a night off and I was eager to see her while she wasn’t griping at me for helping her clean.
Instead of hunkering down like spies in the guardhouse, though, we were in the guesthouse, unable to see what was happening.
Jake had the night off and he’d really cramped our style by refusing to let us use the security system without him.
There was another guard, a man named Nico, but he was by the book.
I knew if I even suggested he let me spy on the guys that he’d probably tie me up with zip-ties until he’d run a full background check on me.
“Stop it, Memphis. You’re making me nervous.” Bea drained her glass of sweet tea and made another face at me. “And you just drink it like that? It’s pure sugar. Has Doctor Braddock checked you for diabetes yet?”
I scowled and pulled my own tea glass closer. “I don’t have diabetes, Bea.”
“And you know this because he checked you?” It was her turn to glance at the door. “I thought I heard something.”
“Should we just go and see what’s happening?
It’s been two hours. I can’t handle the suspense.
” When she nodded, I lunged off the couch and then stopped to groan at the heartburn threatening to make me vomit or maybe cry.
Or both. “How do I have five more months of this? My body is trying to kill me.”
She made baby noises at my belly. “But it’s so cute, though! Look at it, this cute little baby bump. I wish you’d just let me hold it. It wouldn’t have to be weird.”
I glared at her. I hadn’t known what to expect, not really.
Doctor Braddock had mentioned I’d possibly start showing at three months, but when I hadn’t, I thought maybe I was going to be one of those people who don’t put on a lot of baby weight and I’d maybe celebrated a little too hard with a cheesecake.
Overnight, the bump had dropped out of nowhere.
Then, it just grew larger by the day. I was having a hard time fitting into my clothes.
“Stop talking about it.” I grimaced as my throat burned with acid. “But ask me again in another couple of months when my back hurts.”
“I’ll mark it on my calendar now.”
“You don’t have a calendar. Sometimes I think you might not even have a watch.” I slipped my feet into the slippers I’d started wearing for comfort. Wells had found them for me through some online boutique and they felt like heaven. “You make me look punctual. And that’s really saying something.”
“You’re getting on my nerves. Have you been laid today?” She never failed to tease me about my relationship with the guys. “If you have, do you want to tell me about it?”
I laughed and pushed her out the front door. “You’re such a pervert.”
“As the woman who cleaned up the kitchen island that you got tied to, I don’t want to hear a thing about being a pervert.
” She cackled as I blushed. “You shouldn’t have told me that one.
I’ll never let it go. I didn’t have a clue what I’d walk in on that morning.
Leather straps, lube, and enough evidence left behind for me to know that you did not go quietly into that good night. ”
I groaned loudly to drown out her words. “I made Remy apologize for that!”
“Oh, and that went swimmingly.” She put on a deep voice. “Sorry about the sex stuff, Beatrix. It’ll probably happen again, but I’ll add hazard pay.”
“And I made him apologize for that, too!” I laughed at the memory of his face when I told him to go back and apologize for acting like Bea had any responsibility for cleaning up sex toys. Hazard pay or not, there were things you just didn’t do.
“Yeah, that one was even worse.” She laughed. “I’m pretty sure it was a drive-by apology. I wasn’t even sure what he’d said until you told me later.”
“They’re still such little boys at times.
Stubborn and petulant when they want to be.
Remy calls me a brat, but you should see them not get their way.
You’d think the world was ending.” Of course, I was complaining with a big, goofy grin on my face.
Every day I spent with them made me fall more for them.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever get out of my Hawke brothers sized hole. Or that I wanted to.
“But he also calls you his good girl.” She pretended to fall over. “God. I almost wish you’d never told me that. I think I’ve been horny ever since.”
“Bea!” I laughed hard enough that I had to stop and cross my legs before I peed on myself. I hadn’t even hit that part of pregnancy yet. I’d just been guzzling down water since Remy the Tyrant took away all caffeine from me.
It took us forever to get to the house but once we were at the door, we turned sneaky and quietly crept inside, wanting to catch the kids or the guys being wild again. Everything was silent, though. Bea and I exchanged a look and she rushed farther into the house, her eyes wide.
“Kids?!”
Wells stuck his head out of the informal living room and put his finger over his lips. “If you wake them up, you’re in so much trouble.”
I smiled into his kiss as he greeted me and looked past him, doubtful that they’d gotten the kids to sleep. To my shock and surprise, all four kids were passed out on the couch, tucked in under blankets. They all looked so peaceful.
“How the hell...?” Bea stared at the guys and then pulled out her phone to take a picture of the kids. “Did you drug them? I won’t be mad, but I have to know.”
Remy scoffed. “No, we didn’t drug them!”
Boone motioned for everyone to leave the room. “If you wake up Sara, I’ll never tell you where she hid your husband’s keys.”
“She told you where she put them?” Bea walked into the hallway in shock. “We’ve been begging her to tell us for weeks.”
“There’s a little hole in the back of her play kitchen.
She said she put them inside and can’t get them out.
” Boone bit back a laugh. “Of course, instead of admitting her mistake, she just dug her heels in and decided that getting into trouble would be better than saying she messed up. She’s a terror. ”
Bea nodded. “I know.”
I pressed my knuckles to my mouth and tried to fight my urge to laugh, or cry.
With my hormones being all over the place, I was never sure which would happen.
“How did you go from Code Red, kids destroying your lives in fifteen minutes to putting them to bed before bedtime? And I didn’t smell poop! ”
Remy met my eyes and actually looked a little bashful for the first time ever, that I’d seen.
“I did some research. After what happened last time, I knew I didn’t want to go through that again.
I read a few things and figured it out. And the kids in the program that you met that day of the gala might’ve given me some advice. ”
My heart grew even fuller with my feelings for him, even as my panties became uncomfortably wet in a moment. “You went to see the kids from the gala and got advice from them?”
He nodded. “They had some good ideas.”
“And the diapers?” Bea looked back in on her kids and rubbed her eyes. “Someone changed their diapers?”
Wells grunted. “Turns out, after scrubbing shit out of your leg hair, you can’t be all that stunned anymore.”
She patted his arm. “Oh, honey. I don’t want to discourage you, but a kids’ shit can always surprise you.”
“And you researched about taking care of kids.” I said it matter-of-factly. “Just in case?”
He looked down at my belly. “I wouldn’t say just in case.”
I tried to tell myself to calm down, but I felt like if I didn’t get that man inside me as soon as possible that I’d explode from all the tension. “Bea, thanks for a good night. Take your kids and go now.”
She laughed. “I don’t even blame you. If my husband ever researched anything I’d be on him so fast.”
I looked around desperately for the tools to get the kids out of earshot of what was going to happen very soon. “Okay, everyone grab a kid and let’s get them to the van.”
Remy took me into his arms and looked at his brothers. “We’ll be upstairs. Help Bea, please. We can’t all be cute and needy and get away with kicking our friends out of the house.”
I looked back at Bea and waved. “You understand. I know you do.”
“Hey, I didn’t say a word. I’d have my pants off already if I were you.” She winked at me. “Clean up your sex toys, Remy.”
He ignored her parting shot as he carried me up to his bed and started what would end up being a night of marathon sex. When the sun came up, I was just collapsing between Wells and Boone while Remy pulled on a suit.
“I’ll be back before you know it. It’s just for the night, sweetheart.” He sat on the side of the bed while pulling on his shoes. “You won’t even miss me.”
I crawled to him and pressed myself into his back. “I will.”
“Yeah?” He looked back at me and I saw so much softness in his gaze that I couldn’t stop myself from crawling into his lap. He held me close and inhaled next to my hair. “You could always come.”
I looked up at him, surprised that he’d asked.
There’d been several other times throughout our four months together that I wasn’t even informed that he was gone until I went to find him.
I always felt sad to be left out, but I knew he wasn’t used to letting anyone know where he was and if he was safe. “You want me to come with you?”
He cleared his throat. “Sure, if you want. I mean... Yes, Memphis, I’d like it if you went with me.”
I squeaked out a happy noise and threw my arms around him so tight that he grunted from the force. “I want to go!”
A very sleep Boone sat up and looked at us through bleary eyes. “Give me fifteen and I can be ready to go.”
Wells held up a hand. “I’ll need half an hour.”
Remy gently patted my ass, knowing it was sore from our earlier play. “You’ve got ten, both of you. Jake’s already waiting outside.”
“And me? I need to pack a few things.”
“It’s already taken care of.” He shrugged when I frowned at him. “I was hoping you’d ask to go soon.”
The words were on the tip of my tongue, the words that would either make what we were doing very real or that would blow it all up. I knew it wasn’t time. I just hugged him tight again and stood up. “I need something to wear for now, at least.”
He groaned. “I’m not so sure. Look at you, sweetheart.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Yeah, that’s the problem. This baby is making me look all sorts of ways that I’m not ready to see.”
His arched eyebrows were a warning. “I know your ass is still sore, M. I’d hate to let you feel a true punishment for insulting yourself.”
I stepped out of his reach. “You don’t have time for that, Remy. You’re a busy, busy man. No rest for the wicked. All that jazz. Should we go?”
Wells sat up laughing. “Remember when Mom spanked you that one time, Remy? I don’t remember what you did, but she sat you down and gave you plenty of warning before she lost her cool and sent you to your room to wait for her.
I could see her pacing outside of your room because she definitely didn’t want to spank you, but you’d been such a shit to her. ”
A small smile lifted Remy’s mouth. “I drove my bike through her new flowerbeds. After she sat me down and got on to me, I was mad that she’d just assumed it was me, so I went stomping through them. The breaking point was when she saw me pick up a flower and bite its head off, Ozzy style.”
I gasped. “Remy! I want to spank you for that now and it’s been decades. How did she not murder you?”
Wells was laughing harder. “He turned into a fucking old school auctioneer. I’ve never heard him talk as fast since that day. I could hear him screaming from his room and mom trying not to laugh. It was a lot of rambling pleas and stumbling apologies. You just sounded a little like it.”
I hit him with a pillow. “Hey! We were picking on Remy. Keep it clean, Wells.”
He grabbed me around my waist and tugged me back into bed. “Never, Memphis. Never.”