One year later

“Baby, hurry up!” Vaughn shouted up the stairs to the apartment he shared with T.J.

“I’m coming!” she hollered back down.

But when she still hadn’t appeared several minutes later, he told the caterers he’d be right back and marched up the staircase that lay behind the floating wall on the ground floor.

At the top, he entered the living room with its wall of windows overlooking the ocean. The modern building was flush with glass, balconies, and views, meaning that every room in the two-bedroom apartment was filled with light and ocean breezes.

“T.?” he called out as he roamed through the living room, dining room, and kitchen. “What in the world is taking you so long?”

He walked into the bedroom and stopped, his heart racing as his eyes did a scan from the top of her perfect updo to the tips of her stiletto-clad feet.

He slowly released a breath. “My God, you look beautiful,” he finally gritted out.

“Is it okay?” she asked. “I don’t get dressed up that often, but I wanted this to be perfect. Janelle and I bought it that day we went to San Francisco together last month.”

He twirled a finger in the air, and she mimicked his instruction by turning around so he could see the back of the outfit as well.

“If perfection is what you were after, you hit it.”

She grinned and stepped forward. The white Grecian-style dress dipped down her chest to show a fair amount of cleavage and draped around her frame in an asymmetrical line to expose nearly the full length of one tan leg.

“Don’t move, baby,” Vaughn cautioned.

“Why? Is there something on it? Is a bug crawling on me?” T.J. looked down frantically, holding her arms out to the sides.

Vaughn chuckled. “No, but if you come any closer, I’m going to rip that thing off you and fuck you against the wall so hard, you see stars. I know you went to a lot of trouble getting ready, so I’m trying not to muss you.”

She grinned at him again. “Thank you, Mr. Jenkins.”

“You’re welcome, Mrs. Jenkins,” he answered with a gleam in his eye. “But after ten o’clock, all bets are off.”

“Noted,” she replied dryly as she sashayed past him toward the stairs. “Now, let’s go open your gallery.”

* * *

Vaughn had come up with the idea of a gallery during their first trip together. As they visited museums and T.J. asked him to talk about his art more, he realized that maybe the something that was theirs didn’t need to be a ranch like the rest of the family. Maybe it really did need to be something that was just theirs. He knew that someday they’d inherit her parents’ land, and that they’d always have a third of Big Sur Ranch. Hell, he still worked with his brothers on the ranch most days.

But he also knew that he loved art, that Big Sur was a mecca for tourists with money to spend on things like modern art, and that if he could run a successful gallery, he’d always have something that he’d earned, just for T.J. and him.

So he’d found a building with an apartment upstairs and an office space downstairs, and he’d spent a year renovating it into a place for them to live and a gallery for local art. Tonight was the opening, and all of Big Sur was there to wish him luck.

“You think he’s going to be okay?” Cade asked as they stood at the opening reception, beers in hand while people milled around looking at the paintings and sculptures—some Vaughn’s, most other artists’.

Vaughn looked over at Ty, who stood stiffly, Katie at his side while a pretty blonde talked to him nervously.

“We’ll make sure he is,” he answered. “What has your investigator found out about her?”

“What she’s said seems to check out, although there may have been a man involved with her that was bad news. She didn’t mention that.”

“Are you telling him what the investigator said?” Nina asked Cade as she slid up next to him, surprisingly stealthy considering she was six months pregnant and expanding by the day.

“Yes.” He looked at Vaughn again. “I’ve asked him to find out more about the guy. I don’t want anything sketchy following her here and putting…” His voice trailed off as he swallowed hard.

Vaughn felt the same ripple of fear go through his gut. “I know.” He clasped a hand on Cade’s shoulder. “We’re not going to let that happen, and if it means we have to hire the priciest attorneys in the state, we’ll do it.”

Nina, Cade, and Vaughn all looked at each other with a determination that said they would stop at nothing to protect their loved ones.

T.J. showed up at his side, sliding in under his arm. “Everything okay?” she asked, looking at him in a way that said he probably wasn’t going to make it until ten pm. Nine was sounding plenty late enough to host a party. Hell, the guests could stay as late as they wanted. As long as he could get under T.J.’s dress sooner than later, it would all be good.

“It’s all great, baby,” he answered, giving her a kiss on the tip of her nose.

“How do you feel?” T.J. asked, turning to Nina.

“Better every day. It’s so nice to be rid of that morning sickness. But I know that this is the honeymoon period, because if I get much bigger, things are going to get uncomfortable.”

T.J. patted her sister-in-law’s arm. “I’m so glad you’re doing this first so that when it’s my turn, I know what to expect.”

“Are you pregnant?” their aunt asked as she walked up with Katie by her side.

Katie’s eyes grew round. “Two babies?!” she squealed.

“No!” Vaughn said, bugging his own eyes out at her. “Your Aunt T.J. and I just got married a few months ago, we’re not ready for a baby. We’re going to live in our super-sleek apartment and run our super-cool gallery for a while before your dad and Uncle Cade make us build a house on the ranch and start hauling around a pack of rug rats.”

Katie pouted, and the adults laughed.

“I just wants some cousins,” she mumbled.

“And we’re giving you one in a few months,” Cade consoled her. “And I told you we’re going to rely on you to help take care of him. Aunt Nina has to run her business, so when she does computer work, you’ll need to watch the baby.”

“And I can give him his bottle and read him his books and rock him every day!”

“Yes, you can,” Cade answered. “But you know, if you feed him, then he’ll need to have his diaper changed too.”

Katie’s face twisted. “Eww, no. Constanza’s little bwuther has his diaper changed, and it’s disgusting.”

Vaughn felt strong hands squeeze his shoulders and looked behind him to see Ty. “Hey,” he said softly as Ty stood quietly behind him. “Everything okay?”

“It will be,” Ty answered, looking him in the eyes.

Vaughn nodded sharply, because it would be. The Jenkinses had hit more than one rough patch in the past, and they’d always come out stronger for it. They’d make sure to come out of this one stronger as well. And now they had Nina and T.J. on their side, they were nearly invincible. Yes, the Jenkins women were pretty damn special.

And as Vaughn watched his wife and sister-in-law laughing with Lynn and Katie, and he shared that special connection with Ty and saw the pride in Cade’s face when he looked around the gallery with most of the town there eating and drinking and looking at art, he knew that everything and everyone who mattered in his life was right here, in this room. He was blessed to have a lifetime to do right by them, to spend time with them, to watch them live and grow, and he’d never be too proud to love them again.

Turn the page for an excerpt from Selena’s super sexy political romance THE KINGMAKER…