Chapter 17
seventeen
brENNA
I’m riding so high from Mac’s return of my sketches I feel like I’ve smoked a whole bong of Super Lemon Haze.
After I jump up on him and nearly knock him over, he wraps my legs around his waist and carries me over to the couch. He sits with me in his lap, straddling him, and claims a hundred kisses as his reward. Some of those kisses are on his mouth but a lot of them land on his cock.
After he gives me a big load of “you’re welcome,” we cuddle on the couch, skin to skin.
Mac’s left his jeans open and his cock’s a soft, damp weight against my hip which is somehow more intimate than his cock being hard.
Logan’s ridiculously huge flatscreen is showing the news but neither of us is watching it.
I’m drowning in those sky-blue eyes. Mac’s lazily tracing the rose tattoo on my shoulder with his fingertip.
“I asked Logan and Max and the girls to be our witnesses on Monday,” he says, low and soft.
“What’d they say?” I run my fingers down the depression of his spine, my fingertips gliding in the sheen of sweat on his skin.
“Logan wants to talk with you.”
Tension creeps through my shoulders.
“About what?”
“I didn’t ask. I trust him and I trust you. Whatever you say to each other is fine by me.”
I blink up at him, completely at a loss for words. No one, not even Ruby, has expressed their faith in me like that before.
“Thank you, Sir,” I whisper.
He brushes a kiss across my mouth and nips my nose before he pulls back.
“What’s your top score on Frogger?” he asks.
“My—uh—what?” The non-sequitur after that stunning display of trust leaves me brain-dead for a moment.
“Top score. Frogger.”
“Like fifty thousand. Why?”
“Mmm, I think I can take you. I had an arcade date planned for tonight. I’ve had to shift location, but I found an arcade in Poughkeepsie online so after we ditch the bikers, we’re going to have a Frogger-off.”
The grin that spreads across my face is so wide it makes my cheeks hurt. “You’re crazy, Sir.”
“’Course I am. All the best people are.”
“Alice in Wonderland, Sir?”
“Naomi’s favorite movie for years. Still not sure what girls see in that Johnny Depp fella.”
“It’s an estrogen thing, Sir.” Although Cappa has been lusting after him for years.
“Must be.”
I trickle my fingers up his spine to feel his skin goose bump. “You know, I’m better at Pac Man than Frogger.”
“Too bad. That wadda-wadda noise puts me off my game.”
I capitulate with a laugh. “Okay, Sir. Frogger it is.”
“Uh-huh. You need anything from your place before we go?”
“No, Sir.” I glance at the zippered folder on the coffee table. “Do you think we should drop off the sample book?”
“Nope. Mad Bob and his boys might get it into their heads to try again. Let’s get those high-res prints done so you’ve got a backup and figure out some security for the originals. Until then, book’s safest here.”
I’m tempted to argue with him, but I bite the impulse back. He’s right, and I’d only be arguing to make the point that it’s my business, not his. That’s not a point I need to make anymore.
“Any thoughts on security, Sir? I was thinking maybe I could chain the book to the table.”
“Not the worst idea. That would at least prevent thieving bastards like me from snatching and grabbing it.”
“Did you really?” I still can’t quite believe Mac walked in to Mad Bob’s place, grabbed the folder, and ran out.
“I really did. Then I jumped into my get-away limo and raced away. Straight out of The Italian Job, only classier.”
I bury my giggle in his shoulder. “If the hundred kisses didn’t convince you, Sir, I’m seriously impressed.”
“I seriously wanted to punch Mad Bob’s lights out for stealing from you, but this was the right way to do it. I’m just sorry I didn’t get the ones that he’d put up on the walls.”
I trace the laugh line that runs from his nose to the corner of his mouth. He has a tiny mole that disappears into the line when he laughs. It looks like it’s winking at me.
“I can redo a couple of sketches, Sir. It was just the idea of redoing hundreds that got on top of me. Thank you for talking me down. Or, um, spanking me down.”
“Happy to spank you down anytime, girl—”
We both look up as the hallway door cracks open. Mac doesn’t even bother to tuck himself away but puts his arm around me and draws me close, so my lady parts are concealed against his body. When Logan pokes his head around the door, Mac relaxes his hold.
“Can I borrow Bren for a few minutes?”
“As long as you return her in the same condition,” Mac says. There’s an undercurrent there I don’t quite understand, but it’s reinforced when Mac slips his shirt around me and buttons up the front before sending me Logan’s way with a swat on my ass.
“Ouch, Sir.”
“Rule thirteen, girl.”
“Haven’t signed the contract yet, Sir.”
Mac growls and I beat a hasty retreat, following Logan into his office.
My spine stiffens as Logan shuts the door behind me. Mac might have complete faith in both of us, but I know Logan doesn’t like me. Whatever he’s going to say is not going to be good.
“Sit,” he says, pointing those two fingers toward the long, leather couch across from the cold fireplace.
I fold down onto it with a wince because, damn, my ass is sore.
Mac’s killing me. I expect Logan to sit at his desk.
Instead, he sits at the other end of the couch, crosses his long legs, and levels me with that dark, Dom glare.
I push my shoulders back and fold my hands in my lap. I haven’t done a damn thing wrong. Even if I had, if anyone’s going to reprimand me, it should be Mac.
“Sir?” I say, trying to keep it respectful without showing throat.
“I want to talk with you about Mac.”
I swallow hard while I parse that through. He wants to talk with me, not to me. Big difference. And about Mac, not about whatever he imagines I’ve done wrong.
“Yes, sir?”
“What’re you doing with him?”
Man, there are so many ways I could take that question.
“He collared me and offered me a contract,” I say.
Logan waves that aside. “What are your intentions?”
He sounds like one of the dukes in Emily’s books—and yes, of course, I’ve read them, although I’ll deny it to my grave—asking me whether I intend to dishonor his daughter.
“Um, I’m not sure what you’re asking, sir.”
Logan rubs his hand over the arm rest and grips it, his knuckles blanching white.
“Never thought I’d say this,” he mutters, before clearing his throat.
“You’re good for him, Bren. Coming out of the service the way he has, I’m not sure it’s something you can understand unless you’ve been through it.
He dedicated his whole life to serving his country and now it’s over.
There’s no reason for him to get up in the morning. He’s adrift.”
Is he? I feel a hard clench in my gut at Mac hiding something so deep from me. Then I remember his easy comradery with the bikers. His desire for another brotherhood. He hasn’t hidden it from me. He’s shown me. And he gave up a chance at that brotherhood for me.
“I think he’s looking for something to replace that, sir, but I’m good with being his anchor in the meanwhile,” I offer.
Logan’s gaze sharpens. “Is this temporary for you?”
“That’s not what I meant. I know he’s looking for another band of brothers—” Wasn’t that a movie? I’m definitely not saying this right. “Er, brotherhood. Until he finds it, if he needs a reason to get up in the morning, I’ll be that for him. He’s good for me, too, sir.”
Logan puts his head down and stares at his knees.
“Mac’s the best man I’ve ever known. I trust him with my life.
Emily’s life. He will do the right thing no matter what the cost to himself.
When I realized hurting my lovers got me off, I fell apart.
It brought back a lot of feelings I couldn’t handle.
Mac helped me accept my sadism and understand that I could still be a good person.
” He lets out a long breath and I realize this is the most vulnerable I’ve ever seen Logan.
I knew they were close, but I had no idea the depth of his feelings about Mac. “Don’t fuck him over, Bren. His wife—”
Logan trails off, shaking his head.
“He’s told me about Amy,” I say, keeping my voice gentle. “I’ve only heard his side of the story, but it sounds like she did a number on him.”
Logan gives one of his humorless laughs. Mac doesn’t seem to have those in him and I’m glad because I wouldn’t want that cold laugh aimed at me.
“You’ve got no idea,” Logan says. “Amy eviscerated Mac. I don’t know what she’s like now, but I met her several times while they were married.
She was sweet and soft-spoken and never argued and never broke a rule and all the while she was destroying Mac’s fucking soul, cheating on him with everyone including Mac’s own base commander.
You wouldn’t believe the things Amy told Naomi to turn her against Mac.
Mac lives for that kid. We’d be in the middle of a mission and the whole world would stop because it was time for Mac to call his daughter.
He never missed an occasion in her life.
He spent eighty hours on cargo planes flying back from Africa just to spend four hours at her high school graduation.
He risked a dishonorable discharge after eighteen years of service to go to her the first time she overdosed.
And all the while, Amy’s telling Naomi that Mac abused her. ”
I nod. I’m so glad Mac told me about that, even though it was hard to hear and made me question the foundations of our relationship.
“I’m not trying to get between you and Mac, Bren. I just want you to see that he’s different from Ten or the other Doms you’re used to—”
I hold up my hand to stop him.