Page 21 of By His Vow
“What happens from here?” Kian asks curiously.
“We start dating. I pop the question. And then we say I do.”
“Just like that?”
“Yep,” I say, popping the p. “Just like that.”
“And you’ve got to pretend that you like each other for the next year?”
“Yeah. Shouldn’t be that hard. It’s not like she’s a bad person or anything. Just…infuriating.”
He laughs.
“Have you told Mom?”
I stare at him. He knows full well that I haven’t.
“Fuck, this is priceless,” he says before scrolling through his phone for a few seconds.
“Who the fuck are you calling?” I demand when his dial tone rings through the air.It’s not hard to imagine him smugly informing our mother about all this. She already has enough opinions about my life that I don’t want to listen to, I don’t need to give her more reason to disapprove of me.
“Who do you think?” he asks a beat before our youngest brother answers the call.
“Hey, asshole. What’s up?”
While our lives are firmly entwined with Callahan Enterprises, Kieran managed to break the mold, much to our father’s irritation. If we all think Tatum defied what was expected of her and broke all the rules, then Kieran fucking shattered them when he severed the chains holding him here and set his sights on playing pro football.
Dad humored him when he was younger, expecting it to be a fad that he’d forget about. He was wrong. Very, very wrong.
Kieran ended up being a first-round draft pick and has been playing for the Chicago Chiefs ever since. Fucking killing it too.
“Are you sitting down?” Kian asks.
“Yeah, hit me with it.”
“Kingston is getting married.”
6
TATUM
Iwake with a groan when my alarm begins blaring.
Why didn’t I turn that off?
Reaching out aimlessly, I smack the top of it as the irritating sound makes my head pound.
“Shut up. Shut up. Shut up,” I complain, hitting it harder and finally finding the sleep button. “Fuuuuck,” I groan as I pull my covers up over my head to hide.
I thought screaming orgasms were meant to be good for you...
I’m just drifting off to sleep when the buzzer starts going off in the hallway.
“Go away,” I cry, burying my head under the pillow and hoping for relief from all the noise.
But it doesn’t stop it.
Whoever is standing on the other side of the door isn’t giving up.