“You got it bad, bro.” Sam smiles at me before taking a swig from his beer bottle.

“Shut the f**k up.”

Sam laughs. “What? It’s about time. You had us worried you were going to get STDs the way you tore through women.”

“I didn’t tear through women.”

“Yeah, ya did.”

“You’re just jealous, ass**le.”

“Jealous about what?” Elle’s voice surprises me, I hadn’t realized she was near me.

“Nothing.” I snake my arm around her waist, pulling her close to me. “Come here.” I kiss her forehead as I wrap my other hand around her waist. She looks up at me and smiles. Jesus Christ I’m so far gone for this woman that I do shit like kiss her forehead and smile just because she smiles. Yep, I’m god damn whipped. And I love every damn minute of it. It doesn’t even bother me when I look up and find half my family watching us, smiling like complete idiots.

***

Sarah insists on sitting in between me and Elle during dinner. She’s the only girl among the seven boys my brothers have spawned. She’s wearing a silver princess crown, pink bodysuit, and her Girl Scout sash across her like Miss America. She’s also wearing yellow rain boots and it’s not raining. But whatever, she’s freakin adorable and she seems to have taken a liking to Elle.

“Can I paint your nails after dinner?” I look over at Elle’s manicured hands and try to save her, throw her a lifeline.

“I think Elle’s nails are already painted, Sarah.” Yeah, reasoning with her should work.

“I wasn’t going to repaint them, Uncle Nico.” She responds to me as she rolls her eyes, like I’m crazy for thinking she wanted to paint her nails, even though that’s the exact question she asked. “I’m just going to polka dot them!”

Elle smiles at Sarah. “I’d love that…mine are too plain.”

Sarah beams at Elle and looks back to me flatly, her face bearing the words “I told you so.”

The pair chat their way through dinner, covering pressing issues such as favorite cookies, favorite color, favorite cartoon, and favorite fighter. There seems to be a running theme with Sarah’s question topics. Elle pretends to struggle with her answer on the last question and, for a second, I think things might go sour with Sarah, but instead she just jumps up and down, amused. “Elle, you’re supposed to say Uncle Nico is your favorite fighter! I have a poster of him in my room and all. Uncle Nico gave it to me to scare away the monsters in my dreams, because he looks mean. Really mean.” Sarah makes a face that is supposed to be mean, but it’s freakin cute as hell instead. “And it works! Do you have monsters in your dreams? Uncle Nico, Elle needs a poster too!”

Everyone is laughing at Sarah’s excitement, so they don’t hear it when Elle leans in close and whispers to me, “I’ll take a poster for over the bathtub. For next time.”

The woman is going to be the death of me. Giving me a hard-on while sitting at a table surrounded by my family and next to a six-year-old.

***

“Go away with me this weekend?” We’re driving back to Elle’s, so I can’t see her reaction to my question, but she doesn’t keep me waiting long.

“Okay.”

“Don’t you even want to know where we’re going?” Her answer is f**king awesome, but I’m curious.

“Nope. I don’t care where we go, as long as I’m with you.”

Yep, I love this f**king girl.

Chapter 44

Elle

“What about your training? Is there a gym?” We’ve been heading north for a long time, and I regret telling Nico I didn’t want to know where we’re going, because now curiosity has gotten the best of me. I keep asking him questions, trying to get a hint of our destination, but he doesn’t budge an inch.

“There’s no gym, but I’m planning on lots of cardio this weekend.”

Nico smiles but keeps his eyes on the road as he drives in the dark. There aren’t any street lights and the road has narrowed to one lane in each direction. I take in his handsome profile, the beautiful lines of his cheek leading to his square jaw. A jaw that hasn’t seen a razor in twenty-four hours and the stubble makes him look even more rugged and handsome, if that’s even possible.

“You’re staring.”

“I like what I’m looking at.”

Nico takes his eyes off the road for a second and glances at me quickly and then they return to the road. But in that split second I see the green in his eyes and it makes me want him. His bright eyes light up his sexy, dark-tanned face. As he turns back to the road, he smiles and his stunning cheek dips, revealing the dimple that makes me weak in the knees. I don’t know exactly what it is, but there is something about the contrast of how strong and masculine Nico is that mixes with his boyish, dimpled smile that does me in. I actually need to squeeze my legs shut to calm the swell growing between them. I have the urge to reach over and feel him. Start at his solid thigh and slowly follow the heat that will undoubtedly lead me to a place that will leave us both panting with need.

“We only have another five minutes drive, or I’d be pulling off to the side of the road the way you’re looking at me.”

I laugh at his comment, grateful that he can’t see my face as it reddens. I’ve never been one to seek out physical contact with a partner. I usually enjoy it and participate in it actively, but I have just never been the pursuer. Yet with this man, I find myself unable to stop my body’s natural reaction to being near him. It has a mind of its own when it comes to Nico Hunter.

***

We finally turn off the road and head down a long driveway, or perhaps it’s a private street, I can’t tell in the darkness. But we drive for a while and there are no longer any houses. There’s a light off in the distance that seems to be in the direction of where we’re going.

“Where are we?”

“Preach’s lake house.”

“I can’t even tell there’s a lake it’s so dark.”

“It’s behind the house. Tomorrow in the daylight you’ll be shocked you couldn’t see it, the damn thing’s huge.”

We finally pull up to the house and I can see the light that was flickering in the distance is now on the porch. It’s one of those solar lights that gives off a blue tint and barely enough brightness to see more than three feet ahead. But the porch looks huge, wrapping around the entire house. There’s Adirondack chairs and small tables set up in various places that I can barely make out in the dark. Nico comes around and opens my door to help me down out of his SUV.