Sophie Oak - Sirens in Bliss

Barnes’s eyes rolled. “Julian, he’s five. Give me a fucking break. He’s not trying to get married.”

“Yes, because the men of his line aren’t known for their singular stubborn will. She can’t eat bananas, Joshua!”

Both men took off for the children, but Jen stayed where she was, an idea forming in her brain.

Sometimes a girl just needed to talk to her friends. Who else could she tell her problems to? Who else could come up with a brilliantly evil plan to solve her problems?

Yes, that should do it.

Aidan, Lexi, and Lucas

Aidan took his seat at the breakfast table across from his hosts. Jamie and Noah ran the Circle G along with two men Aidan knew damn well. Trev McNamara took a long pull off what had to be his third cup of coffee of the morning. If Aidan remembered correctly, it wouldn’t be his last. Trev drank the stuff all day long. Bo, Aidan’s little brother, sat down beside Trev, a plate of bacon and eggs and hash browns in front of him.

Bo looked so good. His little brother had truly grown up under Trev’s mentorship and with the love of their shared wife, Beth. He’d gone from an obnoxious brat to a man Aidan could rely on.

He glanced over to where Lexi was pacing just outside the kitchen, her cell phone to her ear and a baby on her hip. Little Jack clung to his momma like a monkey. Sometimes Aidan thought the only way to get her attention these days was to be able to climb up her body. Or to be her agent.

“Is Lexi going to come eat? I could make a plate for her.” Bo looked out to the living room, a worried frown on his face.

Lexi’s voice carried through the house. “No, use the second excerpt. Yes, the one where the hero gets in the shower and finds out the heroine is already there. I agree. It’s the best one and it’s not so hot that it will scare off new readers. Twenty-five hundred should be enough. We just need to get through conference season.”

Lucas stepped in, finding Aidan’s eyes and smiling. Until he heard Lexi talking. Then those gorgeous lips of his turned down. “I thought we were on vacation.”

Lexi was never on vacation anymore. Since her career had taken off, she’d become a workaholic and nothing could get her off the phone. Sometimes he wondered how she got any writing done since she was on the phone all the time.

“Her PA called. Apparently she has to get ready for some conference in Denver. She wasn’t supposed to go, but she got invited at the last minute so she’s hustling up books and promo material. She thought we wouldn’t mind since we’re already in Colorado.”

“But Denver is six hours away,” Lucas pointed out. “It’s not like it’s down the street. Are we supposed to rent a car and shove the kids in? Julian’s jet leaves in two days. And we can’t just let the ranch run itself. I trust the hands, but you need to be there.”

“I don’t think she expects us to go with her. I think we’re supposed to head home at the appointed time and let her go to Denver on her own.” Aidan stared at his wife. “You know, it’s a really big deal for her.”

Those last words were spoken with just a hint of sarcasm. Everything was a big deal now. Everything except him and Lucas.

“What’s a really big deal?” Shelley McNamara walked in looking slightly tired.

Trev had a smile and a big hug for his sister. “You are. How was the bachelorette party?”

“Insane.” Shelley had the biggest smile on her face. “Georgia brought the makeup and the booze. I’m now addicted to Chanel and Ciroc. We had makeovers and watched movies and drank too much. It was perfect. But my mother-in-law is a little bit crazy. I have to meet with someone today who’s going to run some tests to make sure I’m not an alien queen seeking to breed with her sons. I’m a little worried about what’s going to happen if I flunk that test. She was deeply disturbed that I refused to eat beets. Apparently aliens are allergic to them. I understand, because they taste like crap and stain your teeth. I am not getting married with purple teeth, damn it.”

Trev grinned at his only sibling. “You have some interesting in-laws, sister. I’ve been lucky. I only have to deal with Aidan.”

A cell phone trilled and Aidan would have sworn that Shelley turned white. She sighed. “It’s my mother-in-law. Again.” She ran her finger across the screen and brought the phone to her ear. “Hello, Cassidy. How are you this morning? What? No. No. You can’t trade my champagne for beet juice. Have you talked to Leo about this? Could you please put him on the phone? If he’s not there then let me talk to Wolf, please.”

She walked off, her voice getting lower.

Shelley’s almost husbands, Leo and Wolf Meyer, had an interesting background. Their mother apparently firmly believed that her sons were half-alien and that someday the queen would come back for them. She and some guy in a trucker hat named Mel had vowed not to let it happen. The citizens of Bliss were taking bets on whether or not the alien queen would show up to gather her mates.

It was the kind of thing that Lexi used to love.

Before all she did was work.

Lucas sat down beside him. His lips curled up slightly, and Aidan felt his hand slide under the table, over Aidan’s thigh. It was a sweet intimacy he needed, but then Lucas always seemed to know what he needed. “Sweet baby girl is still sleeping.”

Their baby. Chelsea. She had Lucas’s coloring. There was no doubt in Aidan’s mind that little Jack was his, but somehow he was fascinated with the baby who didn’t look anything like him. When Aidan looked down at her, his whole heart melted. If Jack was his mini-me, then Chelsea was all Lucas and Lexi. He couldn’t wait to see her running around the ranch with a head full of wild black hair and a smile that could bring him to his knees.

He had it all. He had his girl and his guy and his kids. The only problem was his girl always seemed to be on the phone or at her computer.

“I’m glad. She had a long night.” Chelsea had been off the breast for three weeks and she still needed a nighttime feeding. Aidan liked to do it. It was just him and his daughter in the quiet of the night. He could stare down at her and she would stare back and they were so connected. He doubted she had his DNA, but she owned his soul.

She and her brother and their parents. They were his whole world.

Lucas’s hand tightened on his leg, making his cock twitch. Lucas was the one who sought him out in the middle of the day. Lucas worked from home now, having turned Aidan’s old crappy office into something truly elegant and beautiful. At least twice a week, Aidan could count on Lucas’s sex drive sending him into overdrive. Lucas would show up wherever Aidan was and they would throw down hard. They’d done it in fields and in the pond behind the house, in the barn and in the pickup truck Aidan had been driving.

It seemed like the longer Lexi held out on the both of them, the rougher he and Lucas got with each other. He still had bruises from the last time, and he coveted each and every one. They were proof someone still wanted him.

They both missed their wife so much.

“Okay. I’ll see you there.” Lexi hung up the phone and walked into the room, a harried smile on her face. “Sorry,” she said to the room. She shifted Jack on her hip. “Work is never done.”

He needed to take control. Somewhere along the way, he’d lost it and he was having a hard time taking it back. “Come and sit down and have some breakfast. You only have a few hours until you’re supposed to be out at the Talbot estate.”

Her face tightened, lips turning down. There was a small reception for the ladies this afternoon while the men were going up the mountain to a party thrown for them. Lexi had promised him she would attend. “I really want to go, but I might have to skip it.”

He shook his head. “No, you don’t. I already have a sitter for Chelsea and Jack.”

Bo grinned. “Little Jack and I are going to hang out and play. Trev and I are skipping the men’s party. We would rather hang out here with the kids and keep an eye on Beth.”

Trev laughed. “You have no idea how long he’s been looking forward to that. He’s just a big kid himself. Jamie found an old trunk of his and Noah’s toys. There’s a train set.”

“See, I took care of everything,” Aidan said. He really wanted her to get out and see her family and friends. Maybe it would remind her of what she was missing. “You promised Beth and Dani and Shelley that you would go. You missed the bachelorette party.”

She looked at him, biting her bottom lip lightly. “I didn’t mean to miss it. Something came up.”

Something always came up lately. He motioned toward the seat he’d saved for her.

She started to sit down, but her cell rang again. She grimaced. “Damn. It’s my publisher. Can you hold Jack?”

He settled his son on his knee as Lexi walked away again, talking into that damn cell phone that seemed to be the center of her existence. He knew he should take the phone and chuck it in the toilet, but he didn’t want to cause a scene at his brother’s house.

Lucas put an arm around him, his mouth close to his ear. “We have to do something, Master.”

Aidan agreed. Lexi might think work was never done, but Aidan was starting to worry that maybe his marriage was finished.

And he just couldn’t accept that.

* * *

Lexi shifted Jack on her hip as she tried to hang on to her phone. She’d attempted to leave him with Aidan, but he’d toddled into the room looking for her. Her baby boy didn’t care that she had things to do. After she’d hung up with her publisher, her assistant had called. Again. “Yes, so just order a thousand more. That should last all the way through conference season.”

She could feel their eyes on her. Oh, there might be a wall between them, but she had no doubt that both of her husbands were growing deeply annoyed.

They seemed to be that way a lot these days.

Her assistant’s voice came over the line. “But I don’t have the new cover yet. The new romantic suspense is coming out before the end of the season and we should have the cover on your promo materials, but the artist is completely backed up.”

Lexi held her patience. She loved her assistant. Jessica had moved from Austin to tiny Deer Run for a shot at helping run Lexi’s business and she’d been a godsend, but sometimes she took her job far too seriously. “We can print some single title promo materials for it later.”

Jack wiggled and his hand clutched at her shirt as though he was just about ready to use it as a way to climb down her body. He’d been patient, quiet, but her baby boy was restless. Since he’d learned to walk, he didn’t exactly love to be carted around.

“All right.”

Thank god. She could get off the phone. If she hurried, she might still be able to make part of breakfast. Maybe that would make up for the fact that she’d had to skip out on the bachelorette party in order to finish her edits.

Jessica barely took a breath before she started talking again. “One more thing.”

“No.” She had to get off the phone. She’d been on the phone for almost an hour, and she’d promised Aidan she wouldn’t work this weekend. “I can’t. I’m supposed to be on vacation and I’ve spent the entire time on the phone. Aidan is giving me killing looks.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll handle it. You enjoy your weekend.” Jessica’s smile practically came over the line. “I will do my level best to not call again.”

The button on her blouse popped open and her son started trying to crawl across her body, searching for a way down. Baby Jack wouldn’t cry except as a last resort, but he would ruthlessly seek out his goal. Unfortunately she hadn’t put on a bra yet, and now she was hanging out. “I’ve got to go.”

“Hey, Lexi. How’s it going?” Her brother-in-law stood in the doorway, a broad smile on his face. “Motherhood agrees with you.”

She flushed. Somehow Bo always managed to catch her in her most awkward moments. Even after he’d gotten married and he no longer ogled her, he still seemed damn amused whenever he caught her in dishabille.

“You pervert.” His wife, Beth, just laughed as she walked into the room, her infant daughter in her arms. “Go and find something to do besides make your sister-in-law deeply uncomfortable. Come on, sweetie. Sit over here. That baby looks like he wants down.”

Bo leaned over and kissed his baby’s forehead. He winked at his wife as he headed out.