The Temporary Siren (Texas Sirens: Legacy #3)

Chapter One

Olivia Barnes-Fleetwood glanced around the ballroom

and wished she was anywhere else.

And then hated herself for the thought.

She was in a beautiful city. Fort Worth glittered beneath

them. This hotel was luxurious. Her family and friends were all around her. The

dress she was wearing could have come off a runway in Paris. She had the best

job. She had every privilege. Every reason to be on top of the world.

Yet she sat here while everyone else was having a marvelous

time.

“Hey, you look way less happy than a maid of honor should,”

a familiar voice said. Bobby Farley. He looked handsome in his suit, his hair

slicked back. He usually dressed like he was a cast member of The Big Bang

Theory, but then he could be. He was about to graduate from MIT with a

doctorate in physics.

And he was about to graduate into his truth by telling his

parents what he’d known since he was a kid.

“I guess I never thought my little brother would get married

before me.” She would hand it to her parents. They knew how to throw a party.

Well, her mom did. Dad would have thrown a backyard barbecue, and Papa would

have brought the beer. For all their success, her dads were still down to

earth, which was probably why her papa was standing to the side pulling at his

bowtie like it was strangling him.

And then her mom stepped in and smiled and took his hand to

lead him to the dance floor, and Sam Fleetwood didn’t look like he cared about

the fact that she had forced him into a tux.

She wanted that. Wanted it so badly she couldn’t stand it,

and she had to consider the idea that it wasn’t in the cards for her. Her

parents loved each other. They were each other’s best friends. Together for

years, they still kissed and held hands and had real passion between them,

along with all the softer things that came with a long-term marriage. They took

care of each other.

Josh and Nicole and Grim were going to do that, too. They

were going to start a family in their house on the ranch their parents had

bought them. She had moved into the guest house, and it was nice to have her

own space.

She hadn’t had a real date in over a year.

Bobby grabbed another two glasses of champagne, offering her

one like the complete gentleman he was. “Well, I never thought Josh would marry

anyone. I remember way too many times he would come to Bliss and hit on every

available woman in sight. Some who weren’t so available.”

Olivia couldn’t help a snort that came with the memory.

“Yes, he even did that when he was five. That boy has always liked the ladies.”

Her heart ached as she said it.

His hand came out to cover hers. “I can hold off if you need

time. Honestly, I’m not sure I need to tell my parents anything at all. They

don’t talk to me much anymore. Or Will. It’s like we betrayed them by leaving

Colorado. I think the only reason my mom called Will was because she got the

invite to the wedding.”

“Do you think she’ll actually go to Massachusetts?” Bobby

had a twin brother, and they were still close. They had gone to college

together and chosen MIT for their PhDs, and now they were both accepting

positions in California. They were starting their lives.

For the longest time everyone thought they would go the

Bliss route when it came to a relationship. Even their parents had wrapped

their very closed minds around the thought of having a single daughter-in-law.

After all, there were throuples everywhere.

And for some of that time, Olivia acted as their temporary

girlfriend. When she would go to Bliss she would hang out with Bobby and Will

and look like the perfect long-distance threesome. It worked for all of them.

It kept Bobby and Will’s parents off their backs about settling down. It kept

her momma from setting her up with every half-eligible man in their circle.

But she had to face the truth now. There was some part of

her that had wanted it all to be real. Will had offered, but the truth was

she’d always loved Bobby.

And she wasn’t Bobby’s type.

How was it she still ached after all this time? She loved

this man, but it wasn’t romantic anymore. It was comfortable. It was friendship

that felt like it could have been so much more if not for that one trick of

fate.

She gave him what she hoped was a bright smile. “No. You

need to come out to your parents once and for all. If they reject you, you know

you always have a home with me.”

He huffed and sat back. “Maybe not once your parents know

you’ve been my cover for ten years with my parents.”

Now she was sure her smile was bright. In her parents’

minds, she and Bobby had been off and on for years because of the distance and

them settling into their careers. She’d dated plenty since it wasn’t like

Bobby’s parents heard gossip from Texas. Bobby had to be far more careful. “Oh,

my dads cannot have a say in that. Though they might ask if you’ve tried being

bi. I think they’ve been comfortable because they thought once your PhD is done

we would get serious and settle down. They would definitely have preferred you

to some of the losers I’ve dated.”

He held her hand, tangling their fingers together. “Well,

they’ll know something’s up when they get their wedding invite next week. I

asked Will to delay sending them out so I could be your date to this function.”

She squeezed his hand. “Thank you. If you weren’t here, my

mom and sister would be trying to introduce me to every single man in the

ballroom. I overheard Mom and Lexi talking about how they thought Travis

Taggart would be a good match for me if he could find a friend to share me

with. Seriously? He’s almost ten years younger than me and already has a kid.”

Bobby shrugged. “I mean technically you would be getting two

men. Only one of them is in diapers.”

She rolled her eyes. “You are terrible.”

He sobered. “Sometimes I worry I am.”

“Bobby, you are not. You are who you are.” She knew he

worried about her. He worried he broke something in her, but that wasn’t true.

She didn’t blame him for being who he was. He had never promised her anything.

He told her when she tried to kiss him once and then he cried because he

worried he would lose her friendship.

Never.

“I know, and I can’t tell you how much I love you for

believing that and letting me be who I am when I’m with you,” Bobby replied.

“For keeping my secret all these years. But I worry I’m holding you back.”

“You are not.” She said the words, but she knew that being

around Bobby was an excellent excuse to not pay attention to her own love life.

She could keep telling herself that she would start trying after her travel

schedule calmed down. After Bobby’s graduation. After her brothers’ wedding.

There was always a reason to stick her head in a book and pretend the world

didn’t exist.

Bobby’s voice dropped to a whisper. “When was the last time

you had crazy, righteously nasty sex? You belong to a whole sex club and from

what I’ve heard you never go.”

She felt herself flush because the real answer was sad. “I

do. I was at The Hideout a couple of weeks ago.”

“And did you play?”

She sighed and sat back, taking another sip of champagne.

She was in Dallas every couple of weeks. The company kept an apartment there.

She always had a meeting with her uncle, and she always went to play night at

The Hideout. She did not always play. The Hideout was as much for socializing

as it was for D/s. “No. I sat in the locker room most of the night listening to

Chloe complain about Seth.”

Bobby leaned in because he loved some gossip. He always

claimed the gossip in his lab was boring compared to Bliss and Dallas. “That’s

Big Tag’s older son and the really scary dude’s daughter, right? I mean I know

she’s got a fluffy, happy dad like most of you do, but the other one is… He’s a

lot, and I say that as a guy who’s known Big Tag for years. I would be kind of

scared to be Seth.”

Ian Taggart would have usually been the scariest authority

figure in their world. He was an ex-Green Beret, maybe not-so-ex-CIA operative,

but they weren’t supposed to talk about that. He ran a security company. He was

six and a half feet of pure sarcasm on a good day, and he could freeze a person

with his stare.

He was nothing compared to Julian Lodge. Oh, he would argue,

but Taggart followed rules, and she was pretty sure her Uncle Julian made the

rules up as he went along. There were always rumors that he was mafia, but she

discounted those. He was just a ruthless billionaire who didn’t mind getting

his hands dirty. That’s why they made soap, he would always say.

In a lot of ways, Julian was her mentor. Oh, Dad was

ruthless, too, but Uncle Julian took it to new levels.

“Yes,” she replied. “But I happen to know that the whole

Seth and Chloe thing is never happening. He’s one hundred percent into her, and

she is dating some asshole named Tom. Seth is a singer/songwriter. Tom has an

MBA and all the right qualifications. She’s looking at her relationships like

there’s a checklist she has to fill for it to be real. She thinks she needs

someone who’ll look good standing next to her in boardroom photos.”

“Uh, Seth is hot as hell. I mean seriously, he’s glorious. I

should know. I’m a connoisseur.”

He was, but Chloe wasn’t simply looking at Seth’s hotness

level. “I mean in a business sense. She’s known for a long time that she’ll

take over Lodgecorp and her mom’s business one day, and she wants to present

the right image. Apparently a super-hot guy with a guitar isn’t it.”

He shook his head. “We are getting off topic.” He looked up

as someone approached their table. “Hey, when was the last time Olivia had hot

sex with a random, gorgeous man?”

“Bobby,” she admonished. He was usually so discreet, but

something about making the decision to be open and honest had caused him to

throw all his caution straight to the wind.

Miranda McNamara-O’Malley’s pretty face lit with a grin. A

mischievous one. She was the daughter of one of the members of the

Barnes-Fleetwood Collective, a group of independent cattle ranchers who worked