“Wasn’t gonna sleep on your couch, buddy,” he told me and I blinked then I finally came to myself.

“You can’t sleep with me.”

“In your bed right now,” he pointed out.

“Yes, but you carried me to it and threw me in it.”

“You didn’t struggle much then, Vi, and pointin’ out the obvious, you aren’t doin’ it now.”

He was right so I pushed off and tried to slide away but he gave me more of his weight which meant resistance was futile.

So I glared up at him and demanded, “Get off.”

He looked like he was trying not to laugh, a new look, a good one on him. “Too late.”

“Off.”

“You like me here.”

“Off!” I shouted.

“You missed me, told me so yourself, buddy.”

God, I did do that, just blurted it right out.

I closed my eyes and turned my head away but, even doing this, I could hear his soft laughter and feel it against my body.

I didn’t want to like it but I did.

Then something occurred to me and my body got tight and my head righted with a snap, my eyes opening.

“Shit,” I whispered.

“What?” Joe asked.

“Do you hear that?”

Joe’s face instantly got serious, his head cocked to listen then he looked at me and his voice was serious too when he asked, “What, buddy?”

“Nothing,” I told him.

“Come again?”

“Nothing!” I cried. “Shit, hearing nothing means Mooch is getting into trouble.”

If Keira wasn’t around (and she was good with taking care of her dog) then it was me who had to deal with Mooch and Mooch, being a very active puppy, was a lot to deal with.

I couldn’t do that with a big, naked man on me.

Then suddenly that big, naked man wasn’t on me. He was at the side of the bed and pulling on his jeans.

I stared as he walked out of the room.

Then I pulled the sheet up to my chest, sat up in the bed, bending my knees and watching the door, curious despite myself at what he was going to do. So curious, I didn’t get out of bed, get my clothes on and run far, far away. Instead, I waited.

Not minutes later, Joe came back with a squirming dog under one arm and my purse in his other hand.

He dumped Mooch in the bed and my purse on the nightstand.

Mooch ran to me and jumped up, licking me with his puppy tongue and dousing me with his puppy breath.

“Need a new dog bed, Vi,” Joe declared as I gave an active Mooch a rubdown and my eyes went to Joe.

“What?”

“Dog ate it,” Joe told me, pulling my cell out of my purse.

“He ate it?” I breathed, wondering, if he had dog bed in his stomach, if that meant a vet bill in my future.

“Not all of it but he did a number on it.”

“Shit,” I whispered.

Joe tossed my phone on the bed then got in after he did that, grabbing the dog, stretching out on his back and pinning the puppy to his bare chest.

“Call your girls,” Joe ordered as Mooch licked Joe’s jaw.

I stared at Mooch licking Joe’s jaw and the way Joe accepted this without looking angry or sinister or badass. Well, he still looked badass but not angry or sinister and I felt my belly go warm and soft again.

“Honey, the girls,” Joe prompted when I didn’t move.

He was calling me honey a lot lately and, stupid me, I liked that too.

He taught me a lesson (twice), a lesson that burned so deep I thought I’d never forget that night in his house with him in that chair, telling me he fucked someone else.

But here I was, right back where I began.

And I liked that too.

“Right,” I whispered, snatched my phone from the bed and slid it open.

Joe moved the dog from his chest to the bed and Mooch started gnawing on his fingers. This Mooch did a lot and it didn’t feel great. It started off okay but if Mooch got into it, it hurt.

As my phone rang Kate’s I noticed Mooch was getting into it but Joe didn’t push him off or even wince.

“Hi Mom!” Kate called cheerfully into my ear and I heard instantly that Dane was right, she was faking it.

“Hey baby,” I replied.

“Everything okay?” Kate asked.

My eyes went from Mooch to Joe to see his head was to the pillows, one arm cocked, his hand behind his head and he watching me.

“Not really,” I said to Kate, moving my eyes from Joe’s face to Joe’s feet, which were crossed at the ankles and bare under the hems of his jeans.

Kate’s voice grew concerned and she asked, “What’s up?”

“Well… I don’t want to, um… it’s just that… do you think you and Keira could come home a bit early?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine I just kinda want you guys home with me. Do you think Dane’s folks’ll mind?”

“No,” she said immediately, “they’ll understand.”

Yes, my girl wanted to come home.

It was now confirmed. Dane was a good kid and I was forced to like him, even love the guy.

Shit.

“Dane can um…” Damn! I looked back at Joe and widened my eyes at him but he just lifted his brows and then I said, “If his parents’ll let him, we’ll look out for him. I know he’s seventeen but he can stay with us, sleep on the couch and I’ll keep him fed.”

“Seriously?” Kate breathed.

I stopped looking at Joe, dropped my head to my knees and said, “Seriously.”

“I think they’ll be cool with that,” she told me and she sounded genuinely happy now.

I turned my head, putting my temple to my knee and saw Joe was smiling at me.

There it was; I’d done the right thing.

“Good, honey, but enjoy today. Get your fill and then come home tomorrow.” I told her, “but do it safe and slow, yeah?”

“Okay.”

“Call me before you leave so I know when to expect you.”

“Okay.”

I decided to give her more to look forward to and shared, “Your Gram and Gramps are comin’ down next weekend.”

“Killer!” she cried and I smiled, my eyes dropping to Mooch who was going to town on Joe’s hand and, not thinking, Kate at my ear, I spoke to Joe.

“Joe, your hand is not a chew toy.”

“Baby, he’s fine.”

“We don’t let him chew our hands like that.”

“He’s fine, Vi.”

“Stop him.”

“Honey, I said… he’s fine.”

The way he said this made me look at him and clamp my mouth shut. He was definitely done telling me Mooch was fine.

“Is Joe with you?” Kate asked, sounding beyond happy now, sounding freaking thrilled.

I jerked my eyes from Joe and realized I was naked in bed with Joe and Mooch, talking to my daughter, who was thrilled Joe was with me.

God, total slut.

And also, totally screwed.

“Um… yeah.”

“He’s stayin’ with us, you know, while his house is renovated. Did he tell you?”

“Yeah.”

“Keira and I think it’s great.”

“Keira does?”

“Yeah.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

The hundred dollars.

“How much of Joe’s money she have left?” I asked and Kate laughed.

“We gave Dane’s folks the money you gave us for food and stuff but we haven’t had time to go shoppin’ or anything so all of it, I think.”

“You get back, whatever you have left, you return it.”

“What?” Kate asked.

“What?” Joe rumbled.

I ignored Joe and told Kate, “When you get back –”

I didn’t finish because Joe sat up, reached in, pulled the phone out of my hand and put it to his ear.

“Money’s yours, girl. Don’t listen to Vi.”

“Joe!” I snapped.

He nodded and said, “Yeah. Everything’s good here. Tell Dane to remember the speed limit and that he’s got precious cargo. No screwin’ around.”

My anger vanished, my body stilled and my mouth dropped open at listening to Joe sounding just like a Dad.

“Right, see you tomorrow. Later.” Then he slid my phone shut.

I stared at him then at my phone then my eyes went back to him. “I would have liked to say good-bye.”

“Yeah, and you would have liked to say other shit,” Joe said as he turned and tossed my phone on my purse.

“Like what?”

He turned back, his brows drew together and he got that sinister look when he asked, “Givin’ my money back, Vi?”

“Two hundred dollars is a lot.”

“No it isn’t.”

“Yes, it is!”

“No, it fucking well isn’t.”

He was getting pissed but I figured I was getting more pissed.

I turned to him and declared, “Joe, you can’t buy my girls.”

His body went still and his face got hard and he didn’t speak for long seconds, seconds I didn’t realize he was using to gain control.

Then, low and angry, he told me, “I’m not buyin’ ‘em, I’m takin’ care of ‘em.”

“They’re not yours to take care of,” I snapped and immediately he moved. Mooch jumped away and I found myself plucked out of the bed and planted astride him, my knees in the bed, his arms locking me close.

“It was a shit time for you, the worst, but you were there and you saw ‘em doin’ it. They crawled into this same fuckin’ bed with me, so did you, and when you did, you all became mine.”

“That’s insane,” I informed him.

“That’s the way it is,” he shot back.

“Joe, we were beside ourselves with grief.”

“Yeah, and when you are you don’t lock tight to some guy you don’t know or some asshole you hate. You lock tight to what’s yours to remind yourself that it is and that you need it.”

“That wasn’t what was happening.”

“Buddy, you’re naked in my lap, your girls want me in the house, you’re pissed at me, tellin’ yourself it’s over and all I gotta do is kiss you and you turn wild. This shit gonna sink in?”

“It did, twice,” I reminded him, “and no matter the signals you gave me, Joe, it wasn’t what I thought.”

“Not givin’ you signals this time, Vi, I’m tellin’ you straight out and I’ll tell you somethin’ else, always listen to your gut.”

“Joe –”

“It told you you belonged to me, I’m tellin’ you it was right.”

I felt my heart start beating fast and that feeling in my belly again, the one I liked, so I whispered, “Stop it.”

“And I’ll tell you somethin’ else. I’m fixin’ up my house to sell it, we’re movin’ on from this, from Sam, from Hart, and we’re doin’ it together, you, me and the girls and along the way, I want a kid, our kid.”

I stilled and stared at him, his words another sock to the gut but it was a gut that had already gone warm, it had gone soft and, even with the wind knocked out of me, I felt that gut flutter.

Then I asked in a whisper. “What?”

“You’re not cool with that, I’ll deal. The girls’ll be all I need. But I’m not tellin’ you what I need, I’m tellin’ you what I want and I want a kid, with you.”

“Oh my God,” I whispered and his hand went to cup the back of my head and bend it to his.

“You got a lotta shit in your head, I know, but I’m layin’ it out for you. There it is. That’s what’s goin’ on here. Now, buddy, you need to cut Mike loose or I’ll do it for you.”

“Joe –”

“You want him to know you spent this mornin’ with my cock inside you, you keep playin’ this game. You wanna do it yourself, you end it with him.”

“I keep trying to but he’s like you, he won’t listen.”

“Then game on,” Joe announced.

“Joe –”

“He shoulda listened.”

“Why? You don’t listen.”

“You don’t belong to him, you belong to me.”

“That’s insane too!”

“Baby, you told me so your fuckin’ self.”

“Sexual coercion.”

He stared at me a second then burst out laughing, rolling me to my back and covering me with his body again.

“Joe, get off me!” I snapped, pushing ineffectually at his shoulders.

“Nope, feel like coercin’ you again,” he said in my neck.

“Joe, stop it.”

“Keep sayin’ Joe, baby, you’re makin’ me hard.”

I growled, he grinned against my skin then, Lord help me, he lifted his head, his mouth came to mine and he coerced me and before I came I told him I belonged to him.

Twice.

* * *

Cal stood, back against his truck, arms crossed on his chest in the Police Station parking lot and he waited.

It took fifteen minutes before Haines came out and when he did, he came out with Colt.

Fuck.

Both men looked to Cal, Haines’s eyes narrowed, Colt’s head dropped so he could study his boots and not give anything away.

Haines turned his head to Colt, said something, Colt nodded and they separated, Haines coming to Cal, Colt going to his GMC.