I tilt my head to the side, curl my lips up in a half smile and step toward her. “Is that right?”

“Mmm hmm.”

“Are you trying to make me jealous, little one?”

She bites her lip, and the pulse in her neck speeds up with excitement.

“I’m just telling you who’s here.”

“I see.” I lean into her and rest my lips next to her ear. “If any of them—brothers or not—so much as touches you, I will break their fucking fingers. You’re mine.”

She sucks in a breath in surprise and holds it, waiting for my next words.

“Mine,” I repeat. “I don’t share, remember?”

“Possessive much?” she asks breathlessly.

“Oh, fuck yeah, I am. You might want to remember that.” I grin down at her as I take her hand and lead her outside, back to the group, who quiets as we return.

“Everything okay?” Jules asks.

“I’m much better. Turkey does wonders,” Nic replies with a wink as I pull her into my lap and wrap my arms around her waist.

“Good.” Natalie smiles warmly and catches my gaze. “How about you, detective?”

“Never better,” I respond.

“We are talking about Meg and Will’s engagement party,” Jules fills us in.

“Engagement party?” I ask, surprised. “I didn’t think you were going to have one.”

“We weren’t.” Meg shrugs and rolls her eyes at Jules. “But Jules thinks it’s necessary.”

“Jules wants to have an excuse to buy a new pair of shoes,” Nate adds, earning himself a poke in the ribs by his wife. He lays his hand gently over her belly and nuzzles her ear. “I’ll buy you all the shoes you want, baby.”

“We can have it down at the vineyard and keep it pretty private,” Dom suggests.

“Alecia could totally pull it together quickly,” Jules adds and claps her hands.

I catch Dom’s scowl but choose not to comment.

“We should do it before summer training starts,” Will agrees.

“And before Leo leaves on tour again,” Meg adds.

“Hell, there’s not much to plan for just the family,” Isaac points out. “If Dom is gonna host it, and we’re going to have it catered, we could do it next weekend.”

“I’ll check the calendar, but that should work,” Dominic agrees.

“Fun!” Stacy says and kisses her husband’s cheek.

“Do I have to dress up?” Mark asks with a frown.

“No, come as you are,” Meg replies. “Will and I aren’t fancy.”

“Thank God.” Mark sighs. “Will there be single chicks there?”

“No!” Everyone yells in unison and then dissolves in laughter.

***

I’m still out of sorts about her diabetic episode when we arrive back at her apartment for the night. It’s been a hell of a roller coaster of a day. I’ve been semihard just because she’s been in that tiny string bikini all day, her skin against mine in the warm sunshine, and if my family hadn’t been around, I would have had her naked and under me in roughly three seconds.

But then to watch her episode, the sheer fear of not knowing what was happening to her, has had me in knots the rest of the afternoon.

“You’re quiet,” she murmurs after I close the door behind us. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking,” I reply and take her hand in mine, leading her to her bedroom, “about how I’m going to punish you for keeping such a big secret from me and scaring ten years off my life today.”

Her eyes go wide, and every muscle in her tiny body tightens.

“If you think you’re going to spank me like that poor girl at the club, you can just think again,” she replies. Her cheeks have gone pink, and her breathing has increased.

I pull her tank over her head and tug on the strings of her bikini, letting it drop into my hands.

“I’m not going to spank you,” I reply and kiss her forehead.

“What are you going to do?” she asks breathlessly.

“You’ll see. Sit in the chair by the window.”

She complies and watches me as I kneel before her, grip her shorts and pull them over her hips and down her legs, then tug the strings on the bikini bottom, pulling it out from under her.

Her vanity sits on one side of the chair, and the bed frame is on the other. I guide her legs up, spread them wide and rest her knees over the armrests of the overstuffed chair, then take the top of her bikini, loop it under one knee and tie it to the vanity. Then I do the same on the other side, securing it to the bed frame. She’s spread wide for me now, and she can’t move.

And she’s fucking gorgeous.

“You’re already wet,” I murmur and glide one fingertip down through her slick folds.

“I like it when you tie me up,” she reminds me breathlessly. “If this is my punishment, you’re doing a really bad job of it, babe.”

I grin humorlessly and settle in to prove her wrong.

I press open-mouthed kisses down her thighs then lick the crease between her leg and her center, making her moan and bury those amazing hands of hers in my hair. Her skin is so soft and smells like coconut and sunshine from her day in the sun.

I lick at her pussy, pushing my tongue up through her lips to her clit and back down again, and she lets out a long moan.

“You like that, don’t you.”

“You know I do.” Her hips pulse a bit, but she can’t move far with her legs secured.

“Do you like keeping secrets from me, too?” I ask and then pull her clit into my mouth, sucking firmly.

“No,” she breathes and tosses her head back and forth on the chair. She grips my hair again when I push two fingers inside her.

Just when I feel her begin to contract around my fingers, I pull out and duck out of her reach, not touching her at all.

“What the…?”

“It’s going to be awhile before I let you come, baby.”

Her eyes narrow on my face as she pants and glares daggers at me. Her lips are swollen from her own teeth biting on them, and her core is sopping wet, from my mouth and her own juices.

She’s fucking delicious.

She reaches down to touch herself, but I grip her wrist in my hand, kiss her palm and place her hand over her head.

“If you try to finish the job yourself again, I will spank you.”

I lean down and press a kiss to her freshly shaved pubis, then nibble my way up to her sexy-as-hell piercing, all the while barely touching her wet pussy with my fingertips.