FUCK. SHE’D TOTALLY distracted him with her tears and unexpected outburst. Some part of him was seething because his best efforts to redirect the turmoil had evaporated the second her waterworks started. They were heading for a furious fuckfest—exactly what he wanted to avoid. He hadn’t counted on his primal man to awaken and chest-thump some random threats.
Knowing those threats weren’t quite so random shook his moorings loose and shredded Alex’s composure so fast he struggled to take back control. All that cultured gentlemanly crap could fuck off if his woman were truly hurt. He wasn’t kidding—he’d kill anyone who harmed her. As far as mind-blowing thoughts went? That one was the crown prince of headfucks.
She was starting to crawl all over him. Her wicked mouth and tongue were doing all sorts of sexy things to his neck. This frontal assault was so perfectly Meghan that he knelt there and luxuriated in her passions until the line in the desert sand loomed way too close. Any more and he’d be inside her making damn sure she couldn’t walk when he was through.
Yanking her head away with a sharp tug of her hair, he grunted fiercely. “No.” She tried to override his command with an evil shimmy on his inflamed cock. His sexy Irish wife, the fuck goddess of his dreams, was in no way deterred by his heavy-handed response. His beauty liked the beast lurking inside him. She was fearless that way and proved on many occasions that she could take whatever he dished out.
“We don’t make love until you tell me what all this is about.”
Her frustrated growl didn’t deter him in the least. Sex wasn’t always the answer. He wanted answers, and he wanted them now.
“Meghan.” There was a warning in his tone.
Despondent, confused, horny, unhinged—she felt all those things and more. Giving in to the demand in Alex’s voice, she pushed him away and sat against the headboard.
“My brother hates me.”
He stiffened. For a brief moment, she felt sorry for Finn. Alex wasn’t going to take kindly to her brother’s hurtful behavior.
“Excuse me?”
Meghan pulled him close and turned into her husband’s warm embrace, snuggling against his chest.
“Please don’t get mad,” she pleaded. “I can only deal with one thing at a time.”
She wasn’t surprised when the beast answered. “Explain what you mean and then we’ll talk about my anger problems.”
Stroking her man’s wide chest, she rubbed her fingers in the dark hair she found so sexy and sighed loudly.
“He thinks I’m spoiled. And obnoxious.”
This time, when he barked, “Excuse me?” Meghan flinched at the sound of his anger.
“I think he might be right,” she admitted in a small, uncertain voice.
“The fuck he is not right,” her furious Major bellowed.
She quickly sat up and scooted sideways. He tried to keep her close, but she shook her head, pushed some loose strands of hair behind her ear, and sat cross-legged next to him.
She asked the question that had been dogging her since she and Finn argued. “Did you know that Deval is separated from his wife?”
Her eldest brother and new husband had bonded during the months leading up to the wedding. If anyone could confirm or deny what Finn insinuated, it was probably Alex.
“That little shit,” he muttered darkly.
Meghan leaned on her elbows and picked at the linens. “Sooo,” she answered with a long sigh, “I’m taking that as a yes.”
He didn’t say a word. What the hell was that? Some unwritten bro-code thing? She was Dev’s sister, for Christ’s sake. What else was everyone keeping from her? Had her vision of a happy O’Brien family all been fake?
Finally, when she worried more tears were searching for a parking spot so they could join in the fun, she chomped down on her lip and cleared her throat.
“I don’t like secrets. Eventually, they’re revealed, and somebody always gets hurt.”
The play of emotions battling out in his expression told her a lot. He knew more than she imagined. On one hand, she understood why he’d cut her off from every living soul on the planet except him during their honeymoon. Others might find his absolute control strange or even worrisome, but she saw it differently.
In the compound, people surrounded them. A quiet, uneventful day did not exist where Family Justice was concerned. Seriously. Today was a perfect example, which was one of the reasons why they’d stayed away so long. It was vitally important to her husband that their married life began with just the two of them. No outside influences. No families. No work. No extraneous bullshit. It was, he pointed out, probably the only time in their lives that they’d truly be off the grid. Alone. Husband and wife. Lovers. Partners.
But this little nugget of information wasn’t something she felt shouldn’t have been kept from her. Not when it meant she’d been subjected to a dog and pony show of family solidarity back home in Boston.
Alex reached for her hand and brought it to his mouth for an extended kiss. This was his way of expressing remorse. He wasn’t sorry—regret was something he learned to contain a long time ago. But she knew he was rethinking the wisdom of having kept her in the dark. For too long.
“There are no secrets between us, Meghan.”
Oh, my. He sounded quite solemn. And serious. She forgot how prickly he could be on this subject. Theirs was a complete partnership. A twenty-four-seven mating of more than bodies. He was inside her even when he wasn’t.
When he let go of her hand, she caressed the side of his face and traced her fingers along the line of his strong, masculine jaw. He turned his face and kissed her fingers.
“Just the facts, Major,” she murmured. With a respectful nod and quick lowering of her eyes, she added, “I defer to you on the details.”
‘Way to go, Meggie,’ she imagined her mother saying. Handing Alex the power to decide what was in her best interest was a rarely used but oh-so-effective gambit in their marital dynamic. He’d tell her everything simply because she hadn’t demanded. It was a ploy she’d seen her ma use a million times.
“He asked me not to tell you.”
Just as she suspected. If she could, Meghan would happily smack Dev up the side of his stupid, thick head. My god, men were fucking idiots. Keeping her reaction in check was a struggle.
“Seriously? That’s your explanation? He asked you not to?”
“Now, come on, honey,” he drawled with a decidedly mocking tone and expression. “You know damn well your brother keeps a jar nearby at all times …”
She jumped all over his humor-laden response. “Yeah, yeah, I know. To keep your balls in. I got that part, Alex.” She snickered. “The whole fam-damily gets that part. But last time I checked”—she made sure to glance quite pointedly at his groin—“your balls are just fine. And I highly doubt your posse of Justice bad boys would ever let Dev near the family jewels.”
She hmphed for emphasis and arched a brow.
“Get real,” he drawled. “Your brother wouldn’t even have to break a sweat. Parker would hold me down while Drae gleefully handed over the knife as Cam watched the door.”
Okay, now that was funny. She bit down on the inside of her cheek to stop from giggling. Eyes shining with shared amusement met briefly. They both knew a more accurate version would be that Drae would neutralize anyone who dared touch him with some Vulcan nerve pinch move as Cam took notes and posted pics on Instagram while Parker pissed down the throat of those stupid enough to threaten his friend and brother.
“And correct me if I’m wrong,” she hurriedly bit out. “But wasn’t the wedding months ago? I’m sure this ‘Don’t tell Meggie’ bullshit was because y’all feared my Boston Bridezilla busting loose. I get it. I do. But maybe telling me what was going on in my goddamn family before someone got to use it to fuck with my head might have been a swell idea.”
Dumped that one squarely in his lap, she did. At least he had the good sense to sound suitably contrite with his answer.
“What could I do, baby? Dev’s almost as protective of you as I am. He asked for time.” The slight shrug and uncomfortable grimace said what he thought of the whole thing. “Something about trying to work things out.”
He boxed her in with his answer. Shit. While she mulled over the situation, he circled back to the main event.
“Enough of that. Now you know. But back to Finn.”
Beating around the bush seemed sort of useless.
“He bought Pete’s.”
“Bought Pete’s what?”
“The bar, Alex. Whiskey Pete’s. He owns it now.”
“Are you fucking kidding? You’re not, right?”
His astonished bewilderment matched her own.
“Goddammit,” he muttered darkly. “What the hell is going on around here?”
Alex’s eyes had that look. The one she knew meant he was using his alpha vision to see inside her head.
“And he said I have my head up my ass.”
“Like he should talk,” her Major was quick to defend. “Okay, look. Do you mind if I put on my Major hat?”
“Please,” she answered swiftly. “I’ll just make a mess of it if you don’t.”
He kissed her on the mouth—hard, deliberate, and yummy.
“Here’s the shorthand on Finn O’Brien. Don’t interrupt unless I get something totally wrong.”
She nodded.
“He’s got baby brother complex.”
Meghan rolled her eyes but didn’t disagree. “So he’s Angie only with a shitty attitude and a cargo ship chock full of jealousy and envy toward his elders.”
Well, well. She hadn’t thought of it quite like that. Angie certainly was a handful, but the difference between her and Finn was that Angelina Marquez had a good head and some wicked bad organizational skills. Plus, she adored Alex and Sophie, unlike her brother, who apparently thought the whole O’Brien clan was a bunch of snotty overachievers who purposely left him in the dust.
“Your parents dump him here—wisely, I might add—hoping that the power of Justice would set him straight without taking into consideration that he’d resent the fuck out of us.”
She sighed heavily and kissed her man’s shoulder.
“He arrives while we’re on another continent, so right off the plane, he’s got carte blanche to act like a fucking dick. From what I gather, Cam and Drae barely stopped from killing him, and Parker made the mistake of playing crazy consigliore and threatening him with god-knows-what. Then Calder, who by the way wants to know if you’d go talk to him in the morning, well, he tried on the family Big Daddy hat only to have Finn knock it off with some well-placed old guy taunts.”
Meghan clutched Alex’s arm and hid her face in his shoulder with a low moan of distress. Finn’s behavior was worse than she realized.
They sat quietly for a few moments.
“He said a lot of stuff about me and the boys. How growing up in Deval and Mike’s shadow was hell on wheels. Said he never felt good enough. Couldn’t equal their accomplishments with any of his own. And then there’s me.”
Meghan didn’t hide the explosion of emotion that made her shudder. “Apparently, I’m a spoiled princess.” A frown full of regret settled on her face. “Did you know everything I touch turns to gold?”
“Meghan, I know he’s your baby brother and all, but I’m seriously considering making him gag on my dick.”
“I might pay to see that,” she drawled. “Anyway, apparently, he and Barry from the bar made Pete an offer.”
“Goddammit! Pete never said shit about retiring. What the fuck?”
“Well, it’s a done deal. From the sound of things, Barry is gonna handle the bar, and Finn is going to turn that grease pit of a kitchen into someplace offering actual food.”
“Holy fuck. Your dad is going to shit out a loaf of Irish soda bread when he hears this. I don’t think sending the youngest out here for us to straighten out was supposed to end with your Boston-based paramedic brother wearing a chef’s apron and owning a honky-tonk in the Arizona desert.”
Her parents. Ugh, right. How were they going to react? Meghan filled with melancholy. Was her childhood, and the picture she held of her family, just a sham? Finn made it seem so. He was so unhappy and felt so horribly left out and like a failure that she could barely wrap her mind around all of it. How had they all missed so much about him? Maybe they were a bunch of sanctimonious, judgmental snots. I mean how else could she explain Finn’s take on things?
Alex put his arm around her and pulled her close. She threw a leg over his and held on tight.
“Fuck your brother.”
Despite the turmoil running wild inside her, she could only think of one thing to say. “I don’t want Finn to be unhappy.”
If he hated her? So be it. If he didn’t think of their family with warmth and joy? She’d have to accept it. But he was her brother and no matter what, she loved him.
“I’ll talk to him.”
Of course, he would. The Major had special alpha persuasive powers when he put his mind to it. Wasn’t that what she’d hoped he’d say from the beginning?