Raven Masterson is a walking work of art, with that long raven black hair I’d love to bury my face in, those long bronzed legs I’d love to have wrapped around my back, and those pouty red lips that spell nothing but trouble. I have a few places on my person singled out just for them. Yes, Raven looks every bit like hell on heels, and too bad for me because she’s exactly that. Growing up at the Masterson house, I never saw Raven that way. But slowly, over time, she grew to be a beauty queen, and it was then I knew I needed to keep my distance. I missed the hell out of her while she was working, though. That ad agency swept her to every ritzy locale the globe has to offer, and I’d live vicariously through the steady stream of texts she sent me. Of course, they were group texts along with her brothers because that’s essentially what I am to her. A brother.

I fold my arms over my chest as I watch her whooping it up with about ten different guys from afar. The beefed-up wrestler moving in on her from behind looks as if he’s about to take a bite out of her neck, and just as I’m about to bolt over, she dodges the canine bullet.

“Geez,” I pant as I crane my neck to get a better look at the situation. I know for a fact Levi is going to be pissed if he finds out I let Raven swim in that sea of sweaty balls. Hell, I’m pissed at myself.

“You want a beer?” A smiling waitress holds out a cold one, and dammit, if I don’t need it. Hell, maybe Raven is right and this is an Uber kind of night.

“Sure.” I hand her five bucks and trade her for the icy deluge I pour down my throat. I knock back a fourth of it and growl as I come up for air. Raven is still bopping up and down like she just don’t care—and she doesn’t. Not about me anyway, not in that way.

It was funny that she asked about falling on the sword back in my truck. Long before Levi fell for Low—hell, before either he or Chip fell for Meredith, I fell for Raven. Stupid crush. Nothing more. She was dancing one night, much like she is right now—only it was with me at a New Year’s Eve party at Levi’s place. Things were getting wild. I would have sworn she was into me that night. But much like tonight she was tanked and I was sober.

I down the rest of my beer and wave a waitress over and buy another. I drink and Raven dances. That’s how the rest of this night evolves until the waitress convinces me to try my hand at something called a Tomahawk shot, and I knock back six or seven—hell, it might have been twelve. All I know is I’m not feeling so charitable with those boys running their nut sacks over my girl—my little sister. Fuck it, my girl—and I head on over.

“Brody, my man!” Raven bounces her bottom into my crotch three times hard, and had I been able to walk a straight line, I would have sprung right into her by now. “Come here.” She wags her finger at me, while flicking her hair on top of her head until it looks as if it’s smothering her. And I head over without hesitation. My hips glide right along with hers as we sway to the music, getting drunk, getting high off the night, off the shitty, shitty music that I will hear into my last decade of life—it is so damn loud I can feel it commandeering my heartbeat. But my heart isn’t beating for the shit music. Nope. It’s beating for this girl right here. Her pretty face so dangerously close to mine. For a moment I see Levi there dancing, laughing, ready to rip my balls off. I give a few hard blinks, and it’s right back to Raven. So luscious. A real woman. I don’t see a little sister. Hell, I don’t feel about Raven the way I do about my own little sister, Colby. Not anymore. Not if I’m honest. In fact, I wish I never met Raven until tonight. I wish I never met Levi or Chip. I’d take her right off this dance floor and find the nearest bathroom stall to make her mine. Yeah, I’m real romantic like that.

“What are you thinking?” she howls with laughter into my face, her body falling over mine as we do the drunk man shuffle.

“I’m thinking you’re too damn beautiful to be here.” I point to my crotch when I say here, and even in this out-of-my-mind, chemically altered state, I realize that was a boneheaded move.

“Oh?” She bites her lips as she hops up and down on me, her chest grazing mine like two soft pillows, and suddenly the only thing I want to do is sink my head down her sweater and take a nap. “You like what you see, bad boy?” She tickles me under the chin and trips over her feet.

I carry her to the bar, both of us laughing, and we liquor up, dance, and repeat until we can’t feel our limbs anymore. My fingers knot up in her hair. Her arms leash around my waist. That drugged look in her eyes says find that damn bathroom stall for two, and I pick her up and stumble us both toward the hall. I make a left instead of a right and end up back on the street, the smell of old beer and urine soaking up the virginal hours of a brand new day.

“Whaddy wanna do nows?” she slurs the words as she plunges a finger sloppily into my mouth, and I nearly bite it off trying to suck it down. None of my responses seem to be working. I haven’t been this wasted in as long as I can remember.

That shiny white chapel catches my attention as I continue to stagger in that direction.

“I’mmana make love on a sword which you,” I garble as the night fades in and out like a dream. Don’t drop her, I can hear some distal sane part of me command my limbs. Just don’t fucking drop her.

“You’re so beautiful, Brody,” Raven thunders it out as if her mouth had suddenly morphed into a megaphone. “We’re going to have beautiful babies.” She covers her lips and hiccups. “I’ve had too many alcohols.” She pulls my chin to hers sharply, and I nearly lose a vertebra. “If the Dungeon had a beauty contest, you would win.”

“Thank you, I think.” My tongue sloshes in my mouth as if it were stuffed with cotton. And all I want to do is kiss those luscious red lips, but my damn legs won’t stop moving. We hit the entry to that tacky damn chapel, and I lean against the wall for support. “Your face or mine?”

She lets out something between a howl and burp before pulling me to her, her mouth covering mine. My face is wet as her tongue lashes me wildly. Raven and I fumble with fingers, with lips, teeth, and tongues until the world starts to spin out of control.

Everything around me spins so damn fast it becomes a beautiful dizzying blur. Too bad I can’t feel her kisses.

I can’t feel a single damn thing.

A horrid thumping, followed by a sharp shrill, lights up my senses, and it feels as if someone is beating my body with a jackhammer.

“Shit,” I mutter, struggling to open my eyes.

Cold. So freaking cold. My body gives a mean shudder as I pry my lids open one at a time. Sprawled over my lap lies a girl, her face hidden by a sheet of dark hair. We’re outside. Sidewalk. Oh shit. I blink to life in a panic as I spot a construction crew jacking out the sidewalk down the street. The obstructive sound ready to burst both my eardrums doesn’t seem to faze the chick on my lap so I bounce a knee hoping she’ll bounce right out.

Fuck. Where am I? I study the old brick buildings around me for a moment until I spot the sign for an all-male strip review, and I close my eyes and groan. I recognize this place. It’s the shitty side of downtown Jepson.

The chick on my lap lets out a hostile groan, and I blink back to life in the event she decides to christen me with her stomach acids.

“Ugh!” she screams as her head rolls back, and I freeze because I just so happen to recognize that beautiful face, those luscious full cherry-smeared lips, those dark charcoal stained eyes. It’s a zombified version of Raven Masterson. “Levi, is that you?” She smacks me in the face a few times as if trying to identify me with the palm of her hand. “Animal?” Her voice perks.

“Yup. It’s me, Tater Tot.” Those are the nicknames we had for one another growing up. Mine, Animal, because I used to growl like a bear at her and my sister so they’d give Levi and me peace while we watched the game. And she was Tater Tot as a testament to her love for the stumpy deep-fried treats.

“Shit,” she hisses.

“Shit,” I growl right back. We both blink to life and take one another in as if assessing the damage.

She gives my cheek a light slap. “You look like crap.”

“No offense, sweetie, but you’re not a ray of sunshine either. Let’s get some coffee and get the hell home.”

“Easy for you to say. You have somewhere to lay your head at night.” She pulls a stiff sheet of rolled parchment from her cleavage and we both look at it mystified. “What’s this?”

“Probably a no vagrant citation issued by the city. If The Pelican loses its liquor license because of your debauchery, I might have to press charges,” I tease, unsure of where my words were meaning to go. A dull ache penetrates my skull, and I don’t care about making sense. The only thing I care about right now is throwing myself into a nice warm shower and downing a fistful of aspirin to stop my brain from pounding.

Her slender fingers work to unfurl the paper, and my pornographic mind goes into overdrive envisioning her fingers hard at work undoing my jeans. I shake the thought away as she pulls the scroll open.

“Marriage certificate?” she balks.

“Marriage?” I lean in. “Who the hell’d marry you?” A dark laugh rumbles in my chest as snatches of last night come back to me—dancing, drinking, not necessarily in that order.

She clears her throat. “This license authorizes any judge, clergy, licensed, or ordained member of the clergy or any other person authorized by the state to solemnize marriage between Raven Virginia Masterson of the county of Jepson and state of North Carolina, who is over the age of twenty-one, and Brody Big Dick Wolf.” She gasps as she looks to me in horror, and I quickly nab the paper from her.

“This is a joke. For one, they got my middle name wrong.” I wince because I used to tell the girls Big Dick was my middle name, and now I deeply regret it. “My middle name is—never mind what it is.” It’s Boner—Brody Boner Wolf. Boner is my mother’s maiden name, but it’s just as bad as Big Dick if you ask me. I search the paper between my fingers for some sign of a hoax, but everything from that county seal to our signatures, to this morning’s stamp of approval by someone whose signature I can’t make out looks one hundred percent legit. “This looks real.” A strong wave of nausea rolls through me.

Raven tips her head back and gasps. “It is!” she cries as we look up to find ourselves nestled under the little white chapel of love with all its tacky accouterments of giant bell-like plastic flowers and a neon sign blinking stop for love. “Oh my God!” Raven crawls off me as if I were suddenly a corpse. “What have we done? I’ve ruined my life!” she howls out in anguish.

“Gee, thanks. I like you, too, Tater Tot.” I struggle to rise and pull her to her feet as well.

“That’s not what I meant.” She tosses her hands in the air in exasperation. The look on her face suggests she’s about to have a good cry. “I promised my mother I wouldn’t elope. She was going to take me to Kleinfeld in New York!” she wails as she swats me over the chest as if it were all my fault. “I was going to bring Low and probably that psychotic who had my butthole bleached, and we were going to sample ca-a-a-ke,” she sobs out that last word in four long syllables over my chest. She tips her head back for air. “I hate myself!” she cries so loud and so strong that for a moment she overpowers the jackhammer still doing its best to drill a hole right through my skull.

I dip my finger into the front of her shirt and pull out my keys, molten hot just like her body. “Come on, Mrs. Wolf. Let’s get out of here before we do something stupid, like set the world on fire.”

I take her by the hand as we make our way to the truck. We hop in, and I speed the hell out of Jepson and head for Hollow Brook. Raven asks me to drop her off at her car, and I do.

“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about a thing.” I mock shoot her, and she gives me the finger. “I’m going to take care of this!”

“You’d better!” she screams as she gives my tire a good kick. Raven has always been a handful. Another chief reason why it would never work between us.

No sooner does she get into the driver’s side of her own vehicle than I speed out of the lot, straight for my house tucked in the hills on the residential side of town. It’s quiet here. Too quiet for a rowdy soul like me. I let myself in, and the place smells like stale coffee from the day before. I hit the shower and then the sheets. I dream of Raven, her mouth sinking hot over mine as last night comes back to me in shards so dangerously sharp you could cut your dick off on them. Raven threatening to jump my bones. Raven mimicking how she would jump my bones. The two of us out of our effing minds as we felt each other up.

A groan comes from me.

Levi is going to hang me by the balls.

This had better work out, and quick.

About six in the evening, I roll out of bed, let Mojo, the bartender, know I might be in later—might not. Send Raven about a dozen I’m sorry I’m an asshole texts, which she promptly ignores, and that’s when I spot a voice message from an unknown number. I listen and, oddly enough, it’s my grandfather, Grandpa Joe. It’s my dad’s father, once removed if that’s a thing. Grandpa Joe and Dad had a falling out when I was about eight, and we never heard from him again. That is, up until now. He wants to meet for coffee. Hallowed Grounds tonight. I call him back and we exchange awkward niceties, and he agrees to meet me there in a half hour.

I shower once again, thoughts of Raven demanding I pump out a little relief, but I decline myself the pleasure. She’s as good as my sister, I try to tell myself. Besides that, I’m meeting my grandfather for what amounts to the first time in years in just a few minutes. Definitely not a cool idea. Not tonight at least.

I head out and drive down through the main thoroughfare until I glide into the lot that houses everybody’s favorite coffeehouse. Hallowed Grounds is one of those Hollow Brook traditions that nobody seems to resist. They’re brimming with business tonight, the doorway festooned with pumpkins and a wreath filled with fall leaves. Halloween is just around the corner, and this just so happens to be one of my favorite times of the year.

My phone buzzes in my pocket. It’s Colby. I frown at it as if it were my baby sister herself.

At the Pelican with Teagan. Where the hell are you?

I let out a solid breath. Colby and Teagan have been hanging out an awful lot lately. Teagan is Axel’s sister. We introduced them last year when we ventured into business together. They’re both about the same age, both at Hollow Brook Community College. Teagan seems like a good girl, and I’m glad about it. Colby needs someone with a sane mind to ground her to planet earth—someone to be the voice of reason. God knows it won’t be Colby.

I text right back. Meeting up with a friend. Be there in a bit. Hang out for me.

A friend? I guess I couldn’t bring myself to tell her the truth. Colby has always felt as if I were the golden child of the family, and if she knew our grandfather wanted a meet and greet with yours truly while excluding her, it would turn her night into a tailspin.

I head in and the scent of strong coffee bowls me over. Strings of fall leaves sit draped over every surface in bright hues of red and orange, and I glance around the place before spotting an older gentleman seated near the window waving me over.

“You’re late,” he says with a smile as he pulls me into a partial embrace. “And you’re wet. Your generation doesn’t bother drying off after the shower, now does it? Must be nice to be young. I ordered you up a cup of joe.” He gives a quick wink and looks decidedly like an aged version of my father, thick capful of gray hair, velvet blue eyes, and elongated dimples on either side of his leathered cheeks when he smiles. He’s wearing a long black wool coat with driving gloves and looks dapper with a white silk scarf wrapped around his neck. “Take a seat. I got your coffee black like a real man.” He shoots me with his finger, and I freeze a moment because it’s a gesture I do often. “I bet you’re wondering what I dragged you out in the middle of the night for.”

A short-lived laugh bounces through me until it occurs to me when you’re near ninety, six thirty in the evening most likely is the middle of the night.

“I am curious,” I say. “You look great, by the way. I know Dad and Mom would love to see you.”

“Bah.” He waves them off as if they were a couple of gnats. Really, it’s my father who’s the nexus of the equation. I don’t know what their beef is, but I’m hoping to find out. “I’m not interested in them right now. I’m interested in you. Tell me about yourself. Where’ve you been. What have you seen, kid?” He flashes a mouthful of perfectly white teeth, and I admire him for the impeccable dental work alone.

So I oblige him. I tell him about high school football. Whitney Briggs, business school. My foray into the restaurant business. How we almost went under. How Low and Lex saved our necks.

“And that’s where we are today.” I lift my coffee to him as if we were about to toast. “How about you? What have you been up to? It’s been almost a solid decade since I’ve seen your face.”

“Never mind about me,” he gruffs before taking a sip of his coffee. “I know all there is to know.” He gives a sly wink. “It sounds like you’ve got a pretty good head on your shoulders. How about love? Anything in the romance department nipping on your heels?”

All of those nameless, faceless girls who have traveled in and out of my bed filter through my mind like some bad movie montage. The twosomes, the threesomes, the foursomes. Yes, I have had my fair share of wild nights. Then, in a blink, that visual of waking up this morning in a fog only to find the world’s most beautiful girl sprawled over my lap comes to mind. Raven. She stands out above the rest, and God knows we didn’t share anything more than a few sloppy kisses that my fuzzy brain has little to no recognition of.

“You’re awful quiet. She must be pretty special.”

“No,” I’m quick to contest. “There’s no one special.” My gut cinches tight as if it were a lie. “Just a few girls here and there. You know how it goes.”

“I used to know it well. I see we have that in common. Nobody ever said life was going to be easy.” He gives a quiet yawn and stretches his arms to the ceiling. “How about we do this again some time? I’m ready to hit the sack. Not even this muddy water can save me from the sheets.”

“Sounds good.” We stand and share a solid embrace. It feels good. It feels like family. “Don’t wait ten years before calling me again, okay?”

We share a quick chuckle.

“I’ve only got a few left.” He pats his heart with a wink. “Do me a favor and don’t tell anybody about this little meeting. I’d like to keep our get-togethers just between you and me, if you don’t mind.”

“Not even my sister?” My heart aches a bit for Colby. She fights to be the apple of every eye, so already I know she’d be hurt.

“Is she any good at keeping a secret?”

I offer a sorrowful shake of the head, a light smile dancing on my lips because it happens to be true. Colby no sooner wraps a gift for you than she tells you what’s in it.

“Then it’s no can do. You keep it zipped, Brody. You got that?” He pinches my nose and twists it. God, I used to hate that as a kid, and now I find it strangely endearing. “Check that phone of yours once in a while, would you? I’ll be calling soon.” He hobbles on out the door like a far more fragile version of my father, and my heart sinks at the thought of keeping this from my parents.

Secrets suck. I should know. I’ve been harboring one for years.

The Pelican is pumping, and my head is consequently thumping, over and over again like some demonic conga drum gone wild, and I suddenly want to be anywhere but The Sloppy Pelican. Then I spot her sitting alone at the bar, head sunk in a drink, that long river of ebony hair draped over one shoulder like a scarf. That soft, fuzzy sweater she’s wearing looks vaguely familiar, and it’s quickly apparent Raven hasn’t had the luxury of two showers like I did.

Colby waves to me from the dance floor, and I give a meager wave back. She’s out there cutting a hole in the floor with Teagan, letting loose, a little too loose according to that skintight dress and heels, and I can’t help but frown. I don’t think I have the energy to deal with both Colby and Raven on the same night, but I do my best to conquer.

“Hey, Mrs. Wolf.” I fall into the seat beside her, and Raven grunts in lieu of a response.

“Don’t call me that.” She blinks over to me with bloodshot eyes.

“Geez, did you get a nap in today?”

“I tried, but my Range Rover isn’t quite meant for going horizontal.”

“How about your bed?”

Mojo comes over and slides a cup of coffee her way. “She’s been pounding them all night.” He nods at me. Mojo is an ex-biker who looks like he is still very much in the club, built like a solid mass of muscle. He shaves his head daily just to show off that snake tatted onto his scalp with its slithering tongue running down his forehead. He’s tatted from head to foot, and he’s one mean mother I wouldn’t want to meet at the end of a dark alley.

“Rough night.” I give a slight shrug until he disappears at the other end of the bar again. “Raven, what’s going on? Why didn’t you head home? Is something going on?” For a minute, I’m fearful she’s sustained a head injury and a trip to the ER might be in order.

“No, nothing.” She shakes her head in a fevered rush, and I can tell she’s trying to change the subject. “Hey, did we, uh—you know?” She motions down toward my crotch. “Consummate the nuptials?”

“What? No. I’m pretty sure we didn’t.” Thoughts of Raven sitting on my lap naked, my body over hers, her hair dripping over my skin like silk, burn through my mind, and my boxers tick to life. “When I’m that jacked up, I’m pretty much useless.” I glance down to my jeans, and I feel my balls pinching tight as if giving me the big FU for ratting them out.

“Oh, thank God!” She spins in her seat, and her hair fans out like a carnival ride. “I never thought I’d be so thrilled over erectile dysfunction,” she says the words a touch too loud, and about three different customers look my way.

Great.

“I never said that,” I protest with my hands in the air. “I do not have that. Trust me, all of my parts function just fine.” The last thing I need is for Raven to come up with some mocking nickname that involves my limp dick that I will never live down.

“Whatever you say, Limp—”

I hold up a finger in protest. “Don’t even think about it. I’ve got about a dozen different nicknames percolating from last night, and all of them have to do with a hairless cat.”

She wrinkles her nose in disdain. “You got me there.”

Colby and Teagan pop up, breathless, just as Raven hops off her stool and heads over to Axel. He’s been hit-and-miss ever since he and Lex got engaged. But I know they’ve been busy celebrating, and I’ll be the last person to stand in their way.

“Hey, big bro.” Colby hops onto the newly empty seat. “How about two Long Island Iced Teas?” She gives a little wink, and I frown at the two of them as they giggle up a storm.

“Two iced teas coming right up.” I head over and make the innocent libations before sliding them over. “What are you two up to? Other than kicking off your heels and dancing up a storm?”

Teagan looks uneasily to my sister, but neither of them says a word.

“You guessed it.” Colby shoots me with her finger, and I’m taken right back to that meeting with our grandfather. As much as I need to keep my meeting with him quiet, it’s killing me to do so. “Hey, Mom says to stop by sometime and say hello. A phone call won’t hurt either.” She rolls her eyes because Colby wishes she had the power to irritate them this way. Colby still lives at home, which has lit a fire in her to attend Whitney Briggs next year.

“Will do.” I make a habit of calling my parents regularly. Mostly we talk about the wild shenanigans Colby has gotten herself into lately. “You sure you’re staying put for the night?”

“Oh yeah,” Colby says in that fake high-pitched voice that assures me she’s not. “Then we’re headed straight to bed with our footy pajamas and teddy bears. Face it, we’re good girls on acid.”

Teagan laughs, but I’m not as easily amused. “Good girls don’t even know what acid is.” No sooner do I get the words out than Axel joins our small circle and offers his sister’s hair a quick tug.

“I think I pulled a muscle just watching you two on the dance floor. How’s school going?” Axel is sporting his signature look, a suit and tie, looking tall, dark, and dapper per his usual self.

“Great, now that we’re on the countdown clock.” Teagan sounds repulsed by the idea of school in general. “It sucks that all of the fun in life is actually taking place over at WB, and we’re forced to miss out for an entire solid year.”

“You could go to the games,” I offer. “I’m sure the school would be happy to give you a campus tour, too.”

Axel folds his arms across his chest as if he suspects a set of horns to sprout from the two of them. He might be right.

Colby tips her head toward Teagan. “Or go to the keggers—or go to the bar!”

“No,” Both Ax and I say in unison, and they happily flip us each the finger with a smile and scoot back to the dance floor where they came from—where they probably belong.

“Dude.” Ax takes a seat and grinds his palm into his eye. “We are so screwed once they get to Briggs. You do realize we’re not dealing with a couple of good girls, right?”

I swat him with the rag draped over my shoulder. “You realize you’re not supposed to vocalize that stuff out loud, right?” I’m only partially teasing. “Now the universe has to oblige.” My mother told me that once. Be careful what you speak. Words have power has always been her mantra. She’s a high school English teacher, so if anyone knows it’s her.

I slip Axel his favorite bottle of beer, and he nods a thank you.

He takes a sip and shakes his head at me. “So, what are we going to do about Raven?” The look on his face makes it feel as if we had a body to dispose of.

I glance over to the entry and spot her gesticulating wildly to Lex, and per usual Lex looks unmoved by whatever dilemma she’s presenting. Last night bounces through my mind, her lips on mine, and dammit to hell, for the life of me I couldn’t appreciate it.

“What do you mean?” I try not to look as if she has the power to get me going.

“Lex gave her the boot.” He shakes his head wistfully before downing a third of his beer. “Apparently, she’s a real slob, and Lex can only take so much. That and the fact Lex is selling her place and moving in with me. We plan on tying the knot shortly after Levi and Low get back, so we’re trying to get all the messy details out of the way.”

“Messy details, huh?” I look up as I spot my favorite messy detail headed this way with Lex herself. “Rumor has it, you’re homeless.” I glance to her sweater from last night as a testament to this. Come to think of it, her hair looks a little messy, and her mascara is doing that hot smudged thing that drives me wild on a girl. Hell, it drives me wild on Raven.

“No thanks to my new best friend,” she smears it with all the false enthusiasm she can muster.

Lex picks up Axel’s drink and toasts him. “And good thing you weren’t there this afternoon. The realtor just called and let me know it sold over asking price.” She and Axel whoop and high-five, but Raven looks as if she wants to murder somebody.

“Great”—Raven motions for me to get her something to drink—“so glad I could be a tiny blip on the screen of your success.”

Lex sneers at her. “Since you’re so quick to assist me, I have one more request.”

“What’s that?” Raven grouses. “You need a kidney? Both kidneys? Or better yet, you’d like me to voluntarily impound my car so that I might be both residentially and vehicularly challenged. Would you like my vast and extensive—read expensive, stiletto collection as well? My two front teeth?”

Lex rolls her eyes. “As if I’d dare dip a toe into those cesspools you walk in. I want you to take my job.”

“Not everything I own is diseased!” Raven careens right past the job offer.

Lex’s mouth falls open. “So, you admit those things you let proliferate all over the floor are incubating the plague?”

“You’re disgusting.” Raven’s cheeks pinch with color as she looks to me. “I, however, am not. Isn’t that right, hubby?”

“The Piña Colada Song” starts to croon over the speakers, and Axel helps Lex to her feet.

“They’re playing our song,” he says cheerfully. “The two of you can spar about hygiene later.” He offers Raven a warm smile before he mercifully leads Lex to the dance floor.

“She’s a handful,” I say, handing Raven a Shirley Temple. “And so are you. How about we cap the hubby talk before your brothers get wind of this?”

She sticks her tongue out at me, and my boxers twitch. It’s something she used to do when she was just a kid, but the older she got, it started to feel like an invitation.

“So, you up for the job?” I ask, despite the fact I know the answer. I doubt Raven would be caught dead wearing an apron. She’s a snob—a loveable one, but still a snob. “It could lead to good things—like an apartment.”

“As if.” She shoves the maraschino cherry into her mouth and plucks it off the stem. “I have an MBA and background in advertising. You can’t afford me, Wolf.”

A laugh belts from me. “That might be true, Masterson. Where are you headed? Back to your mom’s?”

She sits up abruptly and snarls my way, “You have met my mother, haven’t you?”

We share a quiet laugh. Bonnie Masterson isn’t exactly known for her charity.

“But don’t worry.” She lifts her glass my way. “There’s always the Dungeon. My showers might be cold, but at least my roommates will be hot.”

“I wouldn’t worry about cold showers or hot strippers. You’re no longer homeless.”

“You have a spare house you want to lend me?”

“A spare bedroom.”

“Oh no,” she’s quick to protest. “And subject myself to the nonstop parade of harlots? The horrors that go on in your bedroom? No, thanks.” Her back shudders hard, and that sweater bounces in all the right places. Crap. I force myself to look up at her eyes.

She’s right about the harlots, but I’ll be the last to admit it. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll shut down the show until you get your own place.” My lower half demands to revolt, but the rest of me is glad I went there. “I think it’s time to give the boys a breather.

Besides—” I lean over the counter, toward this gorgeous girl I’ve known all my life and yet everything about her seems exciting and new. Her ocean blue eyes latch to mine, but it’s those pillow soft lips that call to me, and everything in me demands to go in and affirm exactly how soft they are. “You’re my wife. You’re the only one who belongs in my bed.”