LITMIR.BIZ

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wanted to drag her close, to stake a claim.

      And the guys knew it. With their presence alone, they taunted him.

      Jackson swallowed hard, tried to loosen up, and asked, “Everybody all talked out? We can drive a stake through the clandestine crap? Good. I’ll show you to the door.”

      Not fooled at all, Dare snorted. “We still need to work out the setup.”

      Moving to Jackson’s side, Alani took charge. “You should be sitting down.” She put her arm around him as if for support. Ignoring the fact that he outweighed her by more than a hundred pounds and stood damn near a foot taller, she tried to urge him back toward the couch.

      Unmanned by her mollycoddling, he stiffened. “I don’t need you to—”

      Trace pushed past them. “If he can’t walk on his own steam, then leave him outside.”

      “Wanna hold my hand?” Dare asked him.

      “Ignore them,” Alani told Jackson. “I plan to.”

      Provoked beyond reason, Jackson rubbed the back of his neck.

      “Are you okay?” She cupped the side of his face gently. “Does your head hurt?”

      This mothering tendency of hers made him really uncomfortable. He hadn’t blushed since his early teens, but damned if he didn’t feel his ears getting hot.

      “You’re warm,” she fussed. “Do you think you have a fever?”

      “Poor baby,” Dare muttered, then snorted.

      Jackson’s restraint broke. He wanted to take care of her, not the other way around. To prove to her that he wasn’t handicapped in any way, Jackson scooped her up into his arms.

      “Jackson!”

      He kissed her hard, and when she would have pulled away, he kept on kissing her, hugging her close, tilting his head for a better fit. He kissed her until she stopped fighting him.

      Against her lips, he said, “Unless you want further proof that I’m fine, stop babying me.” And then he headed inside.

      Dare snorted again, but he closed the door behind them.

      Back in the living room, Jackson stood her on her feet. “Now, we need—oof.”

      Her pointy elbow landed with unerring precision. He hadn’t braced for it because he hadn’t expected it. After being so sick that morning, his innards still felt sore, and she’d gotten him good.

      A hand to his midsection, he straightened and stared at her. Her angelic expression lacked remorse.

      As he stared down at her, incredulous, she smiled like a sinner. “Unless you want further proof that I object to manhandling, stop pushing me.”

      By slow degrees, Jackson’s frown faded into a grin. “You want to play, darlin’?” More than a little aware of Dare and Trace standing back, giving him the opportunity to spar with her, Jackson said, “Oh, I love to play. Just know that paybacks are hell.”

      Her eyes widened. “But you’re the one who started it by—”

      “Children, please,” Trace said. “Recess is over.”

      Wanting them gone, Jackson announced without preamble, “I’m taking her to my place.”

      Dare rejected that idea. “Your place is where this all started.”

      “No, not my apartment. My house.” To Alani, he said, “It’s not done yet, but it’s livable. It’ll give you a chance to think about designs and stuff. The plumbing is operational, and the security is already in place.”

      Alani shook her head. “You’re taking a lot for granted.”

      Ignoring that, Jackson added to the men, “It’s plenty private, too. We won’t have to worry about passersby or visitors.”

      Dare considered it. “You used a different name when hiring the builders?”

      “Alternate identity down the line.” In an aside to Alani, he explained, “I always use an alias. Safer that way.”

      “Get real, Jackson. Trace is my brother, so I’m already aware of the need for secrecy.”

      “Oh, yeah? That’s why you didn’t give old Marc my last name the day I met him?”

      “Of course.”

      “Brains are so damn sexy.” And while she sputtered over that, he said to Dare, “Everything was paid for in cash. No one can track the location to me.”

      Trace chewed on the idea. “You’re what? An hour or so from where I live?”

      “’Bout that.” Close enough to appease Trace, but far enough away that he’d have plenty of alone time with Alani. It’d just be the two of them, sunshine, water, nature…a perfect setup for romance.

      Alani shook her head again. “No.”

      “It’s isolated enough,” Dare said. “You have a boat?”

      Jackson put a hand to the small of Alani’s back. He wanted her aware of the necessities, but he also wanted her to trust him to take care of everything. “One obvious, one hidden.”

      “I’m not going.” Alani crossed her arms.

      Figuring he’d get her there one way or another, Jackson hugged her—while also guarding against another blow. So far she’d waffled between treating him like an invalid and inflicting pain upon his body. “Everything will be fine, honey, you’ll see. This is just a preventative measure, so don’t get worked up about it, okay?”

      “I am not worked up.”

      “Great. Just give me another minute here, and then I’ll help you get packed.” He addressed Trace again. “No one can get on the property without me knowing. We can hang out while you two do a little digging.”

      “I’m not—”

      “I already have the basics on Tobin,” Trace mused aloud, speaking over Alani’s attempted protests. “Should be easy enough to see what he’s been up to lately. If he had anything to do with drugging you, I’ll know it by the end of the week.”

      Alani gasped. “You were spying on him?”

      Jackson gave her a “duh” look. “You thought Trace wouldn’t?” She thought he wouldn’t?

      Slowly but surely, her ire gathered. “Have you spied on every guy I’ve dated?”

      Trace and Jackson said together, almost as one, “Who else is there?”

      She glared at them both, then deflated. “No one.”

      Redirecting everyone’s attention again, Dare said, “I’ll go by your apartment to see if I can unearth anything. I know you said you did that, but it can’t hurt to have fresh eyes.”

      “Especially since my brains were numbed,” Jackson agreed. Beneath the hand he had at Alani’s waist, her muscles tensed. He liked the feel of her, the supple strength, the dip of her waist and the slight flair of her hip, the warmth of her sweet little body.

      The sight of her naked would be forever emblazoned on his brain, but he wanted to see her again. He wanted to visually explore her to his heart’s content.

      “Need us to grab anything for you while we’re there?” Trace asked.

      “I’ll text you a list if I think of anything.” He didn’t want to drag out their visit any longer than necessary. By the second, Alani got more rigid. That wasn’t what any of them wanted, so the sooner he got rid of the guys, the quicker they could settle down and she could relax. “Molly’s more reasonable than Priss, so maybe Dare could talk to the single women in the apartment complex and see if any of them know anything.”

      “Any

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