Desert Angel (Family Justice Book 2) (30 page)

Whatever Alex was saying to talk his way out of the mess he’d made wasn’t working as evidenced by an angry huff coming from Irish a second before she turned her head. Immediately zeroing in on the woman at his side, she barked, “Angelina. We’re going. Leave these two perverts to reminisce about old times.”

Ohhhh, fuuuuck.

“Oooop, that’s my cue to ramble on,” she teased, turning toward him with a wicked smile on her face.

That she was openly laughing told Parker that she found her older brother’s dust-up with Meghan to be funny as hell. Laughing merrily, she whispered so only he would hear, “A threesome? Really? Is that how the big boys do it?”

He scowled at her. Witch.

Watching her hot ass sway with that sexy jiggle that might one day make him go blind, Parker growled quietly as she sashayed away from him. The afternoon had been going so well. They’d made actual headway and hadn’t ended up screaming at each other. He was going to throttle Alex for fucking things up.

As Meghan and Angie zipped away in the electric buggy, Parker boomed with laughter at the comical expression of astonishment on his friend’s face.

Seriously? Was the man daft? He’d obviously just foolishly admitted to his stressed out bride-to-be that he’d been a dirty dog and crossed ‘threesome’ off the bucket list.

“Oh, man . . .” He coughed as laughter wracked him. “You’re going to pay for that, you dumb fuck.”

Looking thunderstruck, Alex grumbled, “But she asked. I thought it was no big deal . . . was so long ago, y’know?”

“And let me guess,” Parker drawled mockingly, “you figured you could tell her anything. Right?”

The
“Pffft”
that answered his question said it all.

Slapping Alex on the back, he chided him, “For a smart man, you are one dumb motherfucker. Telling her anything?
Yeah.
That works for the big stuff—the important stuff. Not past sexual exploits. Irish was right. Are you insane?”

“Parker, come on! That shit’s funny no matter how you tell the story. We were high as fuck. That has to count for something.”

He chuckled some more. Having been the Grade-A fool who spoke before thinking, he had a bit of an idea how Alex felt right now.

“Major Marquez. Rocky Mountain High is not an explanation for what happened and you know it! Have some dignity, man! I was fifteen years old screwing some hot MILF while she sucked you off. Teenage benchmark! Don’t sully the memory with your apologies and crybaby bullshit,” he hooted.

Now that got a laugh.

Alex was almost doubled over when he said, “Shit! How did a dinner conversation about campfire cooking lead to me getting my balls ripped off?”

“I don’t know,” he replied, “but, seriously, man. You’re fucking with my chi here. Every time I think I’m making progress with your sister, you come along and fuck things up.”

“As if,” Alex answered snarkily.

Fixing him with his cockiest courtroom sneer, he spelled it out. “Throwing me and Angie together without warning.”

Alex smirked.

“Requesting that fucking song at Pete’s knowing we’d react.”

The smirk became a shrug.

“Bringing the word
threesome
into the conversation. Smooth move, butthead.”

“Okay, come on,” Alex replied with a heavy dose of grumpy. “Let’s load up the truck and get back. Looks like I’ve got some damage control to do.”

B
Y THE TIME THEY WERE
halfway back to the hacienda, Red seemed a little less steamed but not by much. Angie kind of understood why a conversation about a kinky escapade might ruffle the bride-to-be’s feathers. But for her? As used to Parker and Alex’s fuckery as she was, her first instinct had been to laugh.

Peeking sideways at the stern-faced redhead navigating their cart along the sometimes bumpy trail, Angie bit back a giggle. Meghan was having an emotional Bridezilla moment that she was happy to witness. From day one of planning for the wedding, this particular bride had been oddly detached from the details. But seeing her rip into an astonished Alex was nothing short of pre-wedding hilarious.

Angie might not understand Meghan’s nonchalant wedding approach, but she had no doubt about the underlying passion that drove her brother and his fiancée. If she had to freak out about something, the suggestion of a decades-old threesome was a good place to start.

Instead of going back to the Villa, when they hit the main road, Meghan turned the cart and continued down the private lane toward the Cameron cabin. Looked like Red needed a distraction.

“Wanna tell me about it?” she asked.

There was a moment of silence before Meghan sighed. “Men are just so fucking. . . .
aarrgghh!
”

She stopped the cart and turned to Angie with an exasperated growl.

“I mean . . . shit! I’m not stupid! But seriously!”

“He loves you,” Angie murmured—not knowing what else to say.

“Oh, fuck. I know that,” Meghan snapped. “And it’s fine. Really. It’s not like I believed he was celibate until we met. Everyone has a past. But what the hell was he thinking by telling me that he and Parker doubled up on some slutty campfire mother? I can’t have that shit in my head! We’re getting married, for fuck’s sake.”

Angie bit her lip to stop from laughing. Slutty campfire mother. Too funny for words.

“You know, I have like
zero
experience with this stuff.”

Really,
Angie thought, completely amazed. Wow. She and Red had a lot in common.

“Oh, my god.” Meghan yelped in obvious distress. Lowering her face into her heads, she groaned out loud. “You don’t think that’s something he’s into. Do you?”

“Meghan,” she drawled. “Think about what you’re asking. I’m pretty sure my brother would kill anyone who touches you and I’m not being facetious.”

Two worried green eyes stared back at her.

“I’m sure there’s plenty of hair-raising debauchery that stretches back ages for those two. Actually, I guarantee it.” She shrugged with a half-smirk. “But those experiences are what formed who they became. Alex most definitely does not share. I mean, shit. Weren’t we just plotting to put his brand on you?” She laughed. “Property of an arrogant, possessive Marquez.”

“I’m sorry,” Meghan mumbled. “You must think I’m crazy. Alex is your brother and all.”

“Actually, Red,” she answered cautiously, “I don’t think you’re crazy at all. And, um . . . well,” she muttered, “I think I know what got your knickers in a twist.”

It was funny how Meghan looked at her like she was completely crazy. Hell. She understood way more than poor Red had any notion of.

Turning sideways in her seat, Angie whipped off her sunglasses and pinched the bridge of her nose. “You sometimes worry that your man has, uh . . . needs. Because his . . . um,” she fidgeted. “His appetite, I mean, his focus is so . . .”

“Demanding?” Meghan whispered.

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Good word.”

They sat there surrounded by beautiful stillness.

“We’re pretty much the same age, right?”

Angie nodded.

“Do you ever think that men like your brother . . . and Parker, well—they’re grown-ups, y’know? Those two are not boys.” She snickered.

“I know where you’re going with this,” she was quick to assure Red. “Aldo was only three years my senior, but in many ways, I was the one who was oldest. In the end, he was easy to chew up and spit out.”

Meghan snorted with laughter.

“But Parker? Oh, my god. I’ve known him my whole life, and by the time I was old enough to really consider who he was, he already seemed like an adult. I’ve always felt like a kid around him.
Always.
And that’s probably why everything that happened was so overwhelming. There he was so big and powerful. All grown up as he headed for thirty and the sexiest man in D.C. And I was the dewy-eyed kid with a brain full of romantic rubbish. There wasn’t a single moment when I didn’t agonize over being out of my league with him. He knew everything . . . and I do mean everything,” she added sarcastically. “And I was so easily molded to his desires.” She shuddered remembering.

“I get it,” Meghan drawled. “The Major took me by storm. Well, actually . . .” she blushed—causing Angie to do a double take, “I took him first.” She smirked as she dipped her head and looked away.

Really? Well, high five, Red!
Angie thought.

“But I know what you mean about big and powerful and sorry because I know he’s your brother and all, but sexy as fuck. He just . . .” She shrugged. “I don’t know . . . he like owns me in some way.”

“And you worry that you won’t be enough?”

She chuckled. “Shit, Angie. I went from thinking sex was all about pulling back the covers and turning out the lights to being tied up and spanked. This is a learning curve for me.”

Hmmm.
Red was voicing Angie’s hidden fears. She’d always wondered if when Parker had dissed her that day it had been because, with his voracious sexuality, he found her inexperience dull and boring. She and Red had a lot in common. Two simple girls and the domineering men who changed everything.

“Thanks, Red.”

“For what? Acting like a lunatic? Telling you that your brother has a kinky side?”

She cracked up laughing.

“Both those things, actually. Your moment of lunacy
and
confirming that Alex thinks he’s god in the bedroom, too.” She snickered playfully. “I needed to hear that. Helps me put my predicament with Parker and where my life is heading into perspective.”

“What do you mean? How do you figure?”

“Well, just now when I heard myself say that I’ve always felt like a kid around Parker, I realized that might be what’s confusing me. I’m not even going to try and pretend to be uninterested. I mean, the man makes me twitchy all over. But feeling awkward and like, ridiculously young because he’s so. . . .
unf.
Maybe it’s time to turn the tables a bit. Up the ante, as Tori would say.”

“So, what you’re saying is . . . you’re actually serious about coming home. Permanently. But before you make that decision, you need to get the good counselor sorted out.”

She chuckled and sat back in her seat. “I would say that about sums it up.”

Meghan started up the cart and continued toward the cabin.

“Tits and ass, senõrita. Works every time. Take it from one who knows.”

Angie howled with laughter as Meghan started enthusiastically belting out the song of the same name from
A Chorus Line.

She felt lighter. Less weighed down. And why the hell not? I mean, might as well face it. The decision to make a life change and move home permanently—see what happened—was all but written in stone. And as for the hot piece of barrister ass known as Parker Sullivan,
Esquire
. . . it was time for her to stop acting like a lovesick teenager.

He fucked with her at Pete’s, which he really shouldn’t have—and totally pulled his man-god shit at the fondue restaurant. Both times he’d pushed her buttons. It was high time for some reciprocal button pushing. Remind him who the hell he was dealing with before this went any further.

She wasn’t a wide-eyed twenty-year-old innocent girl anymore, and he wasn’t the ambitious young lawyer burning up the hallways at the Justice Department. They’d gotten older, matured, and needed to be real with each other. And besides, she was pretty sure that was exactly what had been on Esquire Parker’s agenda when he duck marched her to dinner and then proceeded to quite deliberately establish his, uh . . . domination.
Yeah, right,
she snorted.

As they pulled up to the front of Lacey’s sprawling cabin, she waved Meghan on to go ahead inside—holding up her phone and mumbling, “I have to answer this. Be along in a minute.”

Once she was alone, Angie leaned against the buggy and muttered, “’Kay then Mr. Sexy Badass Lawyer, let’s see what ya got now, big boy.”

Let me show you how the big boys do it.
As long as she lived, Angie would remember him saying that all those years ago and since he seemed hell bent on poking her with the evocative expression now, it was most definitely time to throw it back in his face.

She stared at her phone a minute then swiped and tapped, bringing up a text message. The fact that he hadn’t given her his number almost stopped Angie, but then she figured
, What the hell. This was part of being real.
Yeah—she had his number. His address, too. Even had the location of his office saved in her map app.

She also wrote Mrs. Angelina Sullivan on tiny scraps of paper and made elaborate sketches of gowns with a suspiciously bridal flair. “So, shoot me,” she grumbled aloud.

Hola. Talk to your Mom and let me know when we can do dinner. My schedule is totally open. Any day. Anytime. Tell me and I’m there.

Her laughter split the air. He was, after all, a guy, and she knew how his mind worked. He’d read those words and think
capitulation.

Well, now that she’d tossed one over the fence, there was nothing to do but go find Red and Lacey. See what they’d gotten up to. Ooooh, maybe they could take the baby for a walk.

She’d moved less than ten feet when her phone buzzed.
Ahhahahahaaaaa. That was quick!