Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men #9)(64)

“Bo Bo,” Teagan screamed, jerking me back to the present, right before she launched herself at her cousin as soon as Ten set her on the ground. “Come play with me.”

She grabbed Beau’s hand, and the two scampered off down the hall, almost trampling Caroline who was entering the front room.

“Watch out,” she laughed, darting out of the way so the two ankle-biters could dash by her to their destination. Then she turned to her husband. “I’m going to grab my camera and laptop, and give you a moment to let loose and curse with Colton like I know you really want to, before I snag him away for Vine duty, okay?”

Ten snorted, pretending innocence. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, baby. I don’t feel the need to curse.”

She’d put up a rule that he had to watch his language around Teagan after the two-and-a-half-year-old ripped out an expletive in the middle of the grocery store about a month back. And since potty-mouth was Ten’s native language, he was probably itching to drop a couple f-bombs right about now.

Caroline smiled knowingly. “Yeah right. I’ll let you two to it now.” She lifted up onto her toes to press her lips briefly to his. They both ignored me when I pretended to gag. Ten went as far as to growl hungrily in his throat and wrap an arm around her waist, pulling her closer.

“I know what I do feel the need to do,” he answered against her mouth when she started to pull away and then reached for her when she stepped back.

Laughing, she danced out of his hold and sent him a suggestive smile, mouthing the word later before disappearing from the room.

He watched her go hungrily.

So I jabbed him in the gut. “Stop staring at my sister’s ass, you f*cking perv.”

He continued to stare long after she was gone and slapped back at me blindly. “Stop touching me, f*ck face. You make my dick limp like no one else.”

I cringed. “That’s sick. You’re such a sick motherf*cker. I don’t know what person in their right mind ever thought it was okay to let a sick psycho f*cker like you around me when I was little.”

He finally grinned my way. “Someone who thought you needed to grow up awesome, I’d say. Too bad it didn’t stick. You turned out to be a f*cking little f*cker, for f*ck’s sake.”

I rolled my eyes. “What the f*ck ever. You wouldn’t recognize awesome if it came up and licked you in the *.”

Ten snickered. “You really need to stop this obsession you have with my *, *. That belongs to your sister. And speaking of licking, who’s been licking yours? You’re f*cking glowing like you just got your cherry popped.”

When my mouth fell open and I could only gape at him, he lifted his eyebrows in surprise. “Really?” he said, sounding shocked. “Well, congratulations, buddy.” He slapped me companionably on the back. “I mean, it’s a little late for you to be losing your v-card because what are you, now, thirty-eight? But it was sweet of some chick to throw you a pity f*ck. She must’ve been a real trooper.”

“I wasn’t a virgin, you dick. And that was yesterday. How...?” I shook my head, completely flabbergasted over how he’d been able to figure out so much from just looking at me.

His brow quirked again with another bout of shock. “No shit? All this is from way back to yesterday, huh?” He circled his hand around my face. “And it wasn’t even your first time? Fuck, she must be the one.”

I blinked. “The what?”

“The one,” he repeated, stressing the word this time as if that explained everything. When I only shook my head, clueless, he sighed and rolled his eyes. “You know, the one. The f*cking one. Like Caroline is my one. Shakespeare is Gam’s one. Hot Wheels is Butthead’s one.”

I stared at him a moment before bursting out with, “You’re out of your f*cking mind.” While inside, something jumped, something a little panicked but also a little excited.

“And you’re f*cking sweating, kid, because you know I’m right.”

“Whatever. You can’t tell that kind of shit after one round of sex.” Okay, technically two rounds...or about six if you wanted to count how many orgasms I’d given her. Because, holy shit, those totally counted in my book.

Ten snorted. “The f*ck you can’t tell. Haven’t you heard those songs about it being in his kiss? That’s how you can tell if you love him, or whatever. Well, that’s the chick’s version. The dude’s version would be more like, it’s in her *. That’s how you tell.”

“You’re f*cking whack,” I told him with all seriousness. “I can’t believe someone actually let you have a kid.” Okay, I wasn’t so serious about that—he was a decent dad—but everything he was saying about sex...totally whack.

It had to be.

Ten only shrugged with a look that told me to go ahead and believe what I wanted; he was still right. “I’m just telling you, you can tell.” Caroline walked into the room and his gaze immediately found her. “Yeah, you can definitely f*cking tell,” he murmured appreciatively. “You’re just too chicken shit to admit it to yourself.”

“So...?” Caroline grinned, rubbing her hands together as she approached us. She had two bags—a camera bag and laptop satchel—looped over her shoulder. “Did you get it all out of your system yet?” she asked her husband.