Page 51 of Triple Protection
"Everything's going to be fine. We'll stay as long as you want. The minute you're done, we'll leave. No big deal." I take a deep breath in before a long breath out. "Or I could relax you in other ways..." he growls in my ear before running his hand up my thigh underneath my skirt.
"Walking into a family dinner all hot and bothered would NOT help things," I growl back. The darkness inside the car, the random slivers of light from streetlights and the background noise of low music makes it intimate, as if it were only he and I in the car.
"Alright, alright," he concedes, putting up his hands in feigned innocence.
"Thank you, though," I add, running my hand up and down his muscular thigh. "I don't know how I would do tonight without you. Well, actually I do, but it usually ends in tears."
"Hey, you're not alone anymore. We got you." Brick's hand slides between the seats to run up and down my calf while I catch Alex's eyes in the review mirror.
"I'm not sure I'll ever know what I did to get so lucky," I whisper, suddenly overcome with emotions.We got you.Those three little words embed themselves in my chest and grow. In a few short months, these men have become my best friends, my lovers, and now I realize so much more. I've never had someone in my corner. I've never had anyone have my back like these men do. I know there's nothing they wouldn't do for me and a sob catches in my throat. I swallow it down, focusing on preparing to go into battle, knowing I have an army (alright, an army of three) behind me.
We pull up to the mansion and Liam helps me out of the tall SUV after a round of sweet goodbyes from the other two. I gather my dress in one hand and place my other in Liam's hand so he can guide me up the steps.
Mike and Claire are already inside in the sitting room, each looking bored and on their phones when we walk in. I make polite introductions. Claire glares at Liam as if his presence offends her while Mike eyes him up and down suspiciously.
"Swimming?" Mike asks after accessing Liam's body. It's kind of creepy, actually.
"Track," Liam answers in his typical easy going fashion.
Mike grunts before looking back at his phone, scrolling through stats, I'm sure. An awkward silence settles into the room and Liam looks at me with one eyebrow quirked.Is this how it usually is?that eyebrow asks. I give a humorless smile and shrug a single shoulder.
The difference between Liam's family and mine could not be more pronounced. A part of me wonders what it would have been like to grow up with a family like Liam's. With siblings who loved me and each other, who talked, laughed, teased, like whatI suspect normal families do. I get more uncomfortable by the minute, but Liam pulls my hand into his and squeezes it.We got you.
"So, Mike, Angela tells me you're a sports agent. Represent anyone I would know?"
I'm grateful for the lifeline. Mike loves talking about himself and bragging about his successes so he easily slides into a conversation with Liam. Liam, with the uncanny skill most men possess, pulls sports stories and names and stats out of thin air, keeping the conversation flowing easily.
Claire finally looks up from her phone and gives me an assessing once-over. "You're tan." She says. I never really know if she says things like this as a compliment or an accusation, but I swallow my nerves and reply. "Yep, luckily it never gets too cold here that I can't at least spend some time by the pool. How're things in New York? Busy, I'm sure?"
Her eyes narrow at my deflection and attempt at making small talk, but like my brother, she loves talking about herself. She goes into the last case she won and how it was her brilliant manipulation of the defendant's testimony that won her the case. I pour praise over her because I know it's what she wants to hear.
My father's booming voice enters the room before he does.
"Sorry about that, dear, had to work out some last-minute things with the caterers." He says, coming over and brushing a kiss against my cheek.
"That's alright, Admiral. We were just chit chatting. Daddy, this is Liam. Liam, this is Admiral Bazzaratti. Liam was in the Marine Corps for 10 years or so before he was medically discharged." I say, nervous and trying to make connections so I can move the spotlight off of me and onto Liam.
Just then a uniformed waiter interrupts and ushers us to the dining room. Thank God. That's one more step to the night finally being over.
Liam holds out my chair for me to help me sit before pulling his closer to me and sitting in a single move. I notice it, but I don't think anyone else at the table does. We're silent as the servers place tiny plates of a mixed green salad with pomegranate and goat cheese in front of us. My father begins his yearly inquisition.
Mike, as the oldest, always goes first, bragging about the deals he negotiated in the past year, how big the sign on-bonuses were, how so-and-so with what’s-it-called team tried to hard ball him but he won, anyway. He goes on about handling "needy" athletes with kid gloves and kissing their asses to their face even though he doesn't respect them. I wrinkle my nose. Not having respect for your clients is a bad look, no matter what industry you're in.
Liam tucks into his salad with his right hand, while rubbing his hand up and down the outside of my thigh with his left. The motion is small enough no one else at the table notices.
The salad plates are replaced with soup bowls.
"A butternut squash-poblano bisque." The head caterer says. I smile at him thankfully before he turns and retreats back to the kitchen. I can only imagine what he must think of my family and wonder what Christmas dinner is like at his family's. Except, he's here, working, during Christmas. A pang of guilt flies through me.
Claire is up next and does the same as Mike - bragging all about her latest achievements. I zone out because I heard most of them in the sitting room earlier.
I steal a peak at Liam's handsome profile as he eats. He has an easy, gorgeous grin on his face as he listens attentively to my sister. God, I wish I had his confidence. He nods and makesunderstanding noises at the right times, and I watch as my sister softens to him. She may not like his presence here at family dinner, but she's accepted it.
Liam catches me staring and gives me a panty-melting wink.
"And Angela? How's your little side-gig going? Nathaniel at the country club is looking for a secretary. Should I send him your phone number?" My father asks. I wince. Just like that, I'm a lonely little girl again. I'm Mike and Claire's pathetic sister. The daughter the Admiral never talks about because there's never anything interesting to say.
Liam shifts ever so slightly closer to me, and presses the side of his dress loafer against my heels.He's got me.