So, this was how the filthy rich lived.
After spending the afternoon with her daughter, Sylvia, Mia and Colin’s sisters trying on exquisite clothing and to-die-for shoes in trendy Tahoe boutiques where Sylvia refused to let her see a price tag, after having a massage and facial, getting hair and nails and makeup done, filling the back of their chauffeur-driven limo with bags and boxes, Amber decided . . . she liked it. All of it. The company of the other two women who loved her mate’s brothers, all of them laughing together like a big, deliriously happy family. She loved it!
But the practical side of her waited for the other designer shoe to fall.
They arrived for dinner in their new party clothes at a club closed to all but family. Sylvia’s smiles suggested she knew a surprise but wouldn’t give anything away as their group entered the classy private room where a lengthy buffet, intimate tables and inviting dancefloor beckoned. Finally, as Kendra approached them, Sylvia spilled it.
“For our two new princesses.”
The girls lit up with excitement. Mia withdrew behind an uncomfortable silence as Amber drowned in a sudden tide of panic.
Where was Rico? She cast an anxious glance about the room, noting Colin, Cale and Turow were also absent as the room filled with relatives she didn’t know, who probably had no desire to get to know them. A Guedry spy and a half-breed bartender with a fatherless child? She couldn’t imagine they were thrilled to embrace them.
But Kendra did, with firm, enthusiastic squeezes, saying, “I’m so happy to have you here. Mia, I apologize for the delay in welcoming you to the family. Politics, such foolish business when it gets in the way of love.”
Sylvia laughed. “If I can force myself down their throats, so can you. They can swallow, or strangle on their self-importance.” She glanced about. “And speaking of pompous asses, I don’t see Stephen and Fawn here to spoil the fun.”
Reaching out to discreetly squeeze Amber’s hand, Kendra said, “They’ve relocated to Reno. Cale had some sudden business he need taken care of there.”
“Really?” Sylvia drawled, not believing her for a minute but grinning wide. “No great loss. While we wait for our lesser halves, I’ll introduce you around.”
Sylvia was a force of nature gathering momentum, towing them about the room, presenting them to varying degrees of in-laws and cousins until names and faces fused into one cautious blur called Terriot. The girls quickly mixed and mingled and were soon enjoying the company in a noisy, giggling cluster. While Mia, Sylvia and Kendra talked family business, Amber found herself drifting toward the familiar.
Lee and Adam Terriot stood at the bar, silently sucking up drinks, looking like they’d rather be anywhere else. Both wore the gleaming family diamonds and harshly handsome looks, but the fiery temperaments that blazed about their brothers was muted to a more domestic flame. Family men, order takers not givers, at home behind the scenes, not within the showy bright lights the others thrived upon.
Feeling sorry for their obvious discomfort, Amber slipped behind the bar with a friendly nod toward the mixologist working busily at the other end. She gave the two Terriots a smile.
“Kind of overwhelming, isn’t it? I know how you feel. I’d rather be home with my shoes off watching TV instead of trotting around like a show pony because of the stone in my ear.”
They blinked at her, startled. A reluctant smile twitched about Adam’s lips.
“You know what I do when I feel out of place?” she continued, placing three glasses on the bar top between them. “I do what I enjoy doing, what I’m good at doing.” She started filling the glasses. “I like to get to know people, so they’re friends, not strangers. Did Rico tell you how we met?” When they shook their heads, her smile widened. “It’s quite the story. While I’m pouring this round, why don’t you start by telling me about those lovely families you came in with, then I’ll tell you about your brother and me. And by then we’ll be very drunk and very good friends.”
They reached for their glasses.
* * * * *
The second he stepped into the room he sought her out with his gaze. A smile curved Rico’s lips when he spotted her leaning on the bar from the business side, relaxed and nodding in response to whatever his two brothers were telling her. Why had he worried? She stiffened suddenly, chin lifting, stare darting about the room until it met and held his.
She’d changed her hair. Instead of the wavy cascade past her shoulders, it swung in a sleek, side-parted bob to emphasize the delicate shape of her face, teasing just below her chin on one side and tucked behind her ear on the other so the diamond stud flashed like a beacon with every tip of her head. Artfully applied cosmetics enhanced her natural beauty to a breath-taking level, making it hard for him to catch his as he crossed the room to wedge in-between the other two Terriots and croon to his lovely lady, “I feel the need of some laying on of the hands. Is the Church of the Broken Hearts open?”
Amber leaned on the bar top, her hands covering his. “For a dish like you, 24/7.”
His narrowed gaze slid to the right and left, and getting the hint, his brothers went to find their own mates after shoulder bumps and mutters of congratulations. Lifting one of her hands, Rico pushed his cheek into her palm for a nuzzle.
“Are you working the late shift?”
“I’m almost off. Something on your mind?”
“Thought you might like to keep a lonely guy company.”
“Anyone I know?”
“The one who’s dying to see what you’re wearing besides that rock in your ear.”
With a wave toward the good-natured bartender, Amber circled the bar and did a pirouette, the floaty short skirt of her red halter dress revealing even more shapely leg above strappy high heels. His arm scooped around her, dipping her back over it so he could fully appreciate the twists of fabric about her waist and the way it hugged the curve of her full breasts, then drew her up flush against the hard beat of passion in his chest and, lower, within the cradle of his hips. His kiss went from sweet to scorching with the flick of his tongue.
“How did I get so lucky?” he whispered against her lips.
“I was wondering the same thing,” she replied with sigh.
“Yo, Red!”
Colin’s meaty slap on his back knocked free what breath Rico had left. His brother jerked him into a fierce, one-armed hug and urged low and meaningfully, “You might want to tap that while you have the chance. Clock’s ticking.”
Like he needed that sobering reminder.
Colin’s arms encircled Mia possessively. “We’d better get seats up front. Cale wants to yap at us before we eat, and I’m starving.”
“You’re always hungry,” Mia chided, thumping his flat middle.
His eyes flashed. “Yes, I am.”
Tables for four lined the dancefloor. Six Terriot princes—Colin and Rico, Lee and Adam, Cale and Turow—half of their original number, all boldly sexy and sophisticated in black suit pants and vests over stark white untucked shirts paired off with their mates. Sadie, Derrick’s widow, sat off to the side surrounded by the royal offspring, including Colin’s sisters and Evie, content with that position. The room was filled though not packed with shoestring Terriots the way Turow’s event had been.
Cale bent to kiss his queen then stepped to the mic positioned at the edge of the dancefloor. He regarded the group with a smile, saying, “It’s short notice, I know. I want to thank you for coming tonight.”
“We’ll thank you for keeping it short, so we’ll have enough time to do that,” Colin muttered in a sly aside, wincing as Mia’s elbow found his ribs.
Struggling to hide his grin, Cale took a breath and sobered. “Before we welcome the new, let’s take a moment to remember those who aren’t with us tonight. Here’s to our absent brothers.” He lifted the glass he held, and five of the once twelve stood to toast with him.
When they settled in their chairs again, Cale continued. “Our House has prided itself on our isolation, on our closed borders that made us feel safe and superior. But if not for some unconventional friends and two lovely ladies here tonight, our family would have fallen under the weight of its own ignorance.” He waited for the surprised murmurs to die down before going on.
“We are the House of Terriot. Our line is long and strong and fierce, but if we don’t move with these dangerous and desperate times, we’ll be gone, and no one will remember our once-proud name.”
The room fell silent.
“Tonight, we open our ranks and our arms to embrace two new sisters, one who brings the power and shrewdness of her family along with the next generation of our own. Mia, princess in the House of Terriot.”
As the audience remained still, Colin rose, lifting his rigid mate to stand dwarfed beside him, turning to face his family. Rico came to his feet, lifting his glass, shouting, “To Colin and Mia, and the future of our House!”
All stood, echoing his cry. If any were reluctant, the forceful tide Rico set in motion swept them away.
When all resumed their seats, Amber knew a panic only second to seeing Warren Brady open that bedroom door. Her courage hadn’t failed her then but threatened to do so now. Her palm pooled with moisture within Rico’s tight grip as Cale turned to her with lifted glass.
“To Amber, princess in the House of Terriot, for her bravery and compassion, for giving all for the sake her prince, and for allowing us to join her family, though we are not worthy.” A secret wink her way.
While the Terriots sat back in stunned surprise, Colin stood, glass high, claiming, “To my brother Rico and his mate, Amber, and the bright light her daughter Evangeline brings into this family. Welcome!”
As Rico lifted her from the chair, his mouth brushing her brow, Amber met Evie’s teary gaze, and her smile burst in happiness.
“To Rico, Amber and Evangeline!” Lee and Adam called out, again encouraging that burst of support.
Amber clung tightly to the hand Mia slipped inside hers until the room quieted so they could be seated.
Cale, now relaxed by the acceptance of his brothers’ choices, announced, “I ask your indulgence for a moment before Colin leads the assault on the buffet table.” He laughed at Colin’s guilty shrug. “There’s one voice we haven’t heard from, that voice of reason who has yet to heed that siren’s call to have his freedom snatched away. . .” As Kendra’s brows lowered, he added quickly, “Which we surrendered to without a whimper of regret.”
As Cale stepped away from the microphone, a spotlight bathed the lone unmated prince on the middle of the dancefloor as the battle cry of Def Leppard’s “Let’s Get Rocked” began to blare.
Kip Terriot stepped with lanky, youthful exuberance to the average kid trapped under the weight of parental pressures anthem, hair flopping, open vest flaring as he spun. Amber snuggled into Rico as she heard the bevy of teenage girls, Evangeline included, squealing in appreciation. Mia’s voice added to it when Colin joined his brother on the floor, wooing her with the naughty thrust of his hips to lyrics about driving with his baby to get her in the mood. He grinned when Mia patted her belly in an affirmative that got the entire group laughing.
Amber gave Rico a push of encouragement when his brothers motioned for him to join them for a chorus about being sick and tired of being stuck alone to dance with a broom. Rico partnered with the pretend inanimate object with Fred Astaire flair. She couldn’t take her eyes off him, devouring the rhythmic power and supple grace of movements in perfect time with his brothers’ as they stepped and spun, going high and low, teasing with the sway and swivel of their hips, movements PG-13 in deference to their audience even as glittery stares promised a more explicit private showing once they got their mates alone.
When the chorus demanded they dance the night away, Colin and Rico tugged their mates into their arms, and a giddy Evie found herself partnered with Kip to the sighing envy of the other teens. The three couples whirled and dipped until the lights cut then came on throughout the room to riotous applause.
“I’ve paid for my meal,” Colin called out. “Let’s eat!”
As the family followed his race to the stack of plates, Mia, observing the way Rico and Amber were still very much in each other’s arms, took Evie’s hand, urging, “Sit with us.”
“Alone time again?” she asked with a knowing arch of her brow.
* * * * *
Oblivious to movement around them, Rico sought out Amber’s lips, kissing her slowly, endlessly, until she tipped her head down to catch her breath and ask, “Aren’t you hungry?”
“Starving. Ever since I saw that dress. You are so beautiful. I can’t believe you’re mine.”
“Get used to the idea.”
He gripped her hand and towed her away from the family, out onto a dark, glassed-in dining terrace overlooking the cold glitter of the lake.
“It’s freezing out here!” she exclaimed.
Rico responded by whipping a cloth off one of the tables to wrap about her bare shoulders, exclaiming in a husky whisper, “I’ll keep you warm.”
He tucked them into a corner booth, situating her on his lap, her knees hugging his hips as his big hands stroked up the bare skin of her sides, fingers tucking in around the lush globes of her breasts.
“Warmer now?”
She answered with a moan as he kissed her deep and long, the same way his rigid sex was eager to take her. She encouraged him with hungry laps of her tongue, firm strokes of her hand and urgent tugs at the opening of his trousers. Wiggling out of her panties, that hurried squirming against him triggering a chain reaction that almost ignited the instant she settled hot and tight around him. When she began hurried lifts, he caught her hips to hold her still, whispering, “Slow. Go slow, Amber.”
She leaned back so just their noses were touching, one hand at the back of his head, the other resting over his heart. He couldn’t meet her probing stare.
“I love you, Amber. Everything I am, everything I have is yours. Yours and Evie’s.”
“Frederick, what’s wrong?”
He kissed her to postpone that answer, pouring all the emotion dammed up in his chest into the tender union of lips and tongues and breaths as he lifted and lowered her by tortuous increments. Perfect. She was perfect, fitting him, completing him in every possible way, fulfilling every dream and desire imaginable. Bringing out in him every strong, brave and noble instinct percolating since the first time he’d seen mother and child together and recognized the family he’d longed for all his life. This moment was flawless, the one that would sustain him in the days and nights to come.
A spark. Sudden heat building, rising through him, swirling around him with a keen, shivery intensity, encompassing both of them in vital flame. Need for her, for them to be together, to be more, to be always, pounded, a primitive tribal heartbeat, growing louder, stronger. Breaking through the physical boundaries that separated them in a psychic and spiritual burst to create one heart, one soul, one new being forever joined.
Rico gasped into her mouth as she clutched like a fist around him, shuddering in the first throes of climax, those explosive shock waves shaking her, rolling through him with exquisite violence. Harsh, guttural sounds ripped from him as they shared . . . everything. Every rich, luscious sensation. Each pulsing surge equally experienced until both clung, weak and shivery and amazed, to the other.
Panting breaths mingling, their gazes met, all glassy and dazed and delighted.
“Oh, Rico, that was . . . I . . . I have no words.”
That was what their smug friends and family were talking about. The bond.
They cuddled on the cold, celestially drenched patio, stars in their eyes as the strange entwining of their souls relaxed and released them. Rico nudged into Amber’s palm as she stroked his cheek, turning his face from the dark sky toward his own heaven. Her intense gaze allowed no escaping her question.
“Rico, talk to me.”
“My brothers and I are going back to New Orleans tonight. Alone.”
Alone. That single word terrified beyond anything imaginable. Throat tight, she asked, “For how long?”
He was trying desperately to see past the careful blank of her expression. “I don’t know.”
“What do you know that you haven’t shared with me?”
He couldn’t miss the censure crackling through her softly posed question and responded with a guarded, “My king has asked me to continue working with the New Orleans Patrol. I want to, Amber. It’s something I can do for my clan that I’m good at.”
“I’d hoped you wanted to be a good mate and a father.”
A distancing veil came down over his expression, one she hadn’t seen before, and it scared her more than any words he could say. “This is for you two as much as it is for me. There’s more at stake than you know.”
“So, tell me, make me understand, because I don’t.”
Slowly, carefully, he laid out what he and his brothers had discussed with Cale. What he’d learned about the North’s plan to annihilate his clan, about their uncertainty over who they could trust, about the youngest prince’s dangerous masquerade under the nose of the demon who’d tormented her dreams. And while he didn’t mention his meeting with her brother because of the uncertain way it had ended, Rico went on to describe Cale’s determination to protect his people even while they celebrated as a distraction to anyone watching.
For as they’d drank and danced, and even as they’d loved, Terriot families were being evacuated from their mountain compound, quickly, quietly and without fanfare, under the guise of tourist groups on chartered buses. Most would go to safe havens in Reno and Las Vegas where they’d remain under the radar using aliases Kip would manufacture for them. Their queen and the royal families would travel to a small casino/winery on the Nevada/California border that Sylvia Terriot had turned into a secluded, high-tech fortress once owned by their traitorous brother James. And Cale, with his personal guards and a few brave volunteers, would remain at their compound pretending it was business as usual, anticipating an attack that may or may not come.
“Where will we go?”
Rico flinched at her flatly delivered question. “With Sylvia. She’ll take care of you, Evie, Mia and Colin’s sisters. His mother refused to leave. Syl’s strong and capable, and I wouldn’t want to mess with her. She’ll protect you.”
He tried to smile reassuringly, but Amber turned away. She pushed off his lap, restoring her modesty with a quick, silent efficiency.
“Amber, I love you. I’m doing this for you and Evie.”
“No,” she told him with a curt certainty, “you’re doing this for you. If it had anything to do with us, you would have talked to me before you made our decision for us. We’ll go pack. You go do . . . what you need to do.”
* * * * *
Swiping at the betraying dampness on her cheeks, Amber ducked into the ladies’ room to clean up the mess she’d made of their future and came face-to-face with Mia’s mascara-streaked reflection in the mirror. Colin’s mate turned toward her to bitterly state, “I see you’re being packed away as fragile merchandise, too. That arrogant son-of-a-bitch is going to get himself killed without me. What good is a nice, s-s-safe future going to be without him in it?”
Amber opened her arms, and they clung together in like misery while Mia continued to argue in heartbroken fury.
“It’s a stupid, reckless man plan! They think no one is going to notice that we’re gone, that if they tuck us out of sight, they can act like self-indulgent savages, with no one caring if they live or die? That we’ll sacrifice them for their greater good? What greater good doesn’t have them in it?”
“None.”
The intrusion of Colin’s low, rumbling voice had them turning toward where he stood just inside the doorway.
“You can’t come in here!”
He smiled at his outraged mate. “I’ve been in here before on behalf of other weepy females.”
His confidence lit Mia’s already smoldering temper. “I don’t want to hear about other females. I want you to go away!”
“No, you don’t. You want to hear me apologize for being a self-indulgent savage who doesn’t appreciate what a fine female he has to stand at his side.”
She sniffed, eying him suspiciously. “So? What if I do?”
“I’d say I’d better start apologizing, if Amber doesn’t mind.” He nodded toward the main room. “I think I saw my equally repentant brother heading in that direction.”
Amber didn’t let the door hit her on the hurried way out.
* * * * *
Since his new mate seemed to have disappeared, Rico dragged himself to where Evie sat alone, preparing to deliver the grim news. The look in the glimmering blue eyes that lifted to his said she’d already heard from Colin’s sisters and was equally unwilling to accept what was in their best interest.
“You need us.”
He smiled at her statement as he went down on one knee. “Yes, I do. More than you’ll ever know.”
“Then why are you being so stupid?”
He laughed at her bluntness. “Old habit, I guess. Evie, I’m just trying to keep you safe.”
“What can you do that my mama hasn’t been doing since before I was born?” At his blink, she continued with fierce pride. “My mom has protected me, and tried to protect Uncle Augie, every day of my life. She’s smart and strong and brave and willing to do anything, sacrifice anything, when she loves someone. I’ve seen her back down my grandpa and those men who had you, but I’ve only seen her afraid twice—when Uncle Augie said you’d been hurt and when you sent us here without you. She’s not afraid of danger. She’s afraid—”
Rico waited for her to finish, and when she didn’t, gently prodded, “Of what?”
A quiet voice answered from behind him. “Not being there when someone I love needs me.”
When he turned, Amber fit her palm to his cheek, stroking tenderly as she continued. “She’s wrong. I’ve been hiding all my life from things that scared me, from things that might harm us. Until you. You scared me to death because I couldn’t have you unless I faced all those things. When I thought I’d lost you, I realized that nothing, nothing except Evie’s safety, could be more terrifying than that. I’m not afraid of what you’re facing or of what might be waiting in New Orleans. I’m ready to go up against Brady if I need to. What I can’t do is let you go alone. Don’t do that to us, Rico.”
“Amber—”
“Uncle Rico?” When he glanced over, Rico found Colin’s oldest sister, Lucy, standing awkwardly at his side, murmuring, “Sorry to interrupt, but we’re about to leave, and I wanted to say thank you.”
“For what?”
She bent to hug him tightly about the neck. “It was you. I didn’t remember until Colin told me this morning. You were the one who jumped in that day when I was little. I remember the water being so cold and deep and being so scared, and then I saw your face and felt your arm around me, and I held on to you like this and you saved me. You saved me. Everyone thought it was Colin, but it was you. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“You were safe. That was the only thing that mattered.” Yet he clung to her words as tightly as she had his neck that day.
“Thank you. You’re my hero.” She bussed a kiss against his reddening cheek and gave another squeeze before hurrying to join her family.
Evie asked, amazed, “Why didn’t you tell them it was you?”
Rico let his breath out in a small, mystified laugh. “Because my brother needed to be their hero more than I did.”
“Well, you’re mine, and you always will be.” Evie punctuated that claim with a tight hug.
“You’re ours,” Amber agreed, stroking his crisply cut red hair so he’d look up at her over her daughter’s fair head. “Let us go with you, Rico. Let us be there for you every night when you get home. Mia was right. If we’re gone, it’ll look suspicious. If we’re there, they’ll think you’re foolish enough to believe all is well. But we’ll know differently. We’ll be careful and clever and prepared for them to make a move. I’ll go back to work and keep my ears open. Evie will go back to school and stay safe in our apartment. Mia and I will look out for each other. And Evangeline and I will both be there to love and support you in any way we can. As your family.”
Didn’t she know they just had?
Rico stood, holding Evie on his hip, pulling Amber against him within the curl of his other arm. He nuzzled her attractive new do and breathed in the stabilizing essence of her before kissing them both lightly. Fear and pride warred inside him for these two incredible females. What would he do without them? He never wanted to find out. And in that strong certainty, he found the only answer for the three of them.
“Let’s say our good-byes. It’s time this family went home.”