“I’m still breaking up with you on Friday,” I went on.

“No you aren’t.”

I went silent.

Whatever.

I tried to hold a grudge but I was too tired, his body was too warm and I’d had two orgasms. A grudge was physically and mentally impossible.

Instead my body relaxed, my mind went blank and I fell asleep.

* * * * *

I was dead asleep when I felt Vance tense then move swiftly. He’d been pressed against my back and I felt the cool air when his body came away from mine.

I turned, got up on an elbow and watched Boo go flying off the bed just as Vance vanished over the side.

I came up to a seated position, confused, then my breath caught in my throat when I heard a knock on the backdoor, it opened, the alarm started beeping its warning and Nick called, “Jules?”

“Hey Nick!” I yelled immediately and rolled forward, taking the sheet with me. I twisted to the side, yanking the sheet around me frantic now for a different reason. I threw my legs over the side of the bed, missed the steps and went flying.

I would have landed likely painfully on all fours but Vance caught me at the last minute with an arm around my waist. I doubled over his arm with an “oof”. He pulled my torso up and set me on my feet, his arm still around me, my back to his front.

Throughout all of this, Nick kept talking while he punched in my alarm code and walked through the kitchen. “I thought I’d treat the birthday girl to coffee and a muffin. What do you say to –”

He stopped talking when he hit the doorway to the hall and caught sight of Vance and me. Then he came to a dead halt.

Oh crap.

I really hoped that Vance had some clothes on even though I did not, just the sheet, somewhere during the second round last night I’d lost my nightgown.

Um…

How embarrassing was this?

“Nick –” I started.

He didn’t miss a beat. “Vance can come too.”

“Nick.”

“We’ll go to Fortnum’s. I hear they have a great new coffee guy,” Nick continued.

I nodded, deciding to pretend I was dressed, life was cool and I wasn’t caught by the only father I remembered standing in an advanced state of undress in the arms of… whatever Vance was to me.

“That sounds good,” I said.

“Vance?” Nick’s eyes went over my shoulder.

“Yeah,” Vance said.

“Great. Just knock on my door when you two are ready.”

He turned to leave and I sagged against Vance’s body. Then he turned back and I went ramrod straight again.

I heard Vance’s quiet laughter in my ear and I kept my face perfectly composed and my body still so as not to turn around and gouge his eyes out.

“Just to say… I’ll be a little more cautious next time. Don’t want to get shot in the ass walking into my niece’s kitchen.”

Behind his glasses, Nick was laughing too.

The men in my life, I wanted to murder them all (except Roam and Sniff but they weren’t men yet, they were boys – when they became men I was sure they’d get scratched on to Jules Hit List just because men on the whole were vastly annoying and they wouldn’t be able to help themselves).

Then before I could say anything, Nick was gone.

The minute I heard the door close, I whirled on Vance and I saw that luckily he had his jeans on. Unfortunately, he had his gun in his hand.

I ignored his gun and the sight of his chest (very hard to ignore, seriously) and clipped, “What’s funny now?”

Instead of answering, he snatched me into his arms and kissed me, full-on, full tongue. Even in a snit, I had to admit, it was delicious.

When he lifted his head, he said in his silky voice, “Happy birthday, Princess.”

Um…

Wow.

He looked at me with sexy eyes and said, “Let’s take a shower.”

I could do a shower. I could do a lot of things after a “happy birthday” like that.

He let me go and twisted to put the gun on the side of the bed platform by the mattress.

And that’s when I saw his back.

“Oh my God,” I breathed.

He came back around to me but my eyes didn’t move from the space where I’d seen it even though I was now staring at his chest.

“Jules?” I heard Vance call.

I walked around him and he came with me but I put my hand to his waist and whispered, “Stand still.”

Surprisingly he did as I asked.

I got to his back and saw the puckered scar of the gunshot wound. I put both my hands on him then, my arms tight against my sides to hold up the sheet, one hand went to his belly, one hand at the small of his back.

I leaned around and looked at his chest.

Nothing.

I looked to his back again.

Gunshot wound.

I went back to his chest then to his back and again.

Then…

I lost my mind.

“They shot you in the back?” I yelled.

He turned to face me. “Jules.”

I lifted my eyes to his face. “The back?” I shouted.

His arms started to come around me but I jerked away.

“What kind of ass**le shoots someone in the back?” I was still shouting.

“Jules, listen –”

“That is just… I cannot believe… no one shoots anyone in the back. Only gutless sissies would shoot someone in the back.” My brows drew together and I frowned at Vance. “What happened?”

Correctly reading that there was no way he could interfere with my rant, Vance leaned against the bed platform and crossed his arms. “I can’t tell you. When it happened, we were workin’ a contract with the Feds.”

I put my hands on my hips. The sheet started unraveling so I compromised and put one hand to my hip while the other one held the sheet around me.

“How did you get shot in the back?” I asked.

“I can’t tell you that, Jules.”

I looked to the ceiling. “I just cannot believe this shit,” I told the ceiling like it would respond. Then I looked back at Vance. “I want a word with Lee. Government contracts where you go up against cowardly ass**les that would shoot his men in the back, I… think… not.”

“I’m fine,” Vance told me.

“I know you’re fine. I can see you’re fine. I do not care if you are fine.” I ended my tirade enunciating every word like my life depended on that particular communication.