You Only Love Twice (Masters and Mercenaries #8)(31)

“Get off me, you little pervert,” Erin said, elbowing Theo. “Do you always get a hard-on when you attack a woman?”

“Only you,” Theo admitted as he tried to offer Erin a hand.

She took the proffered hand and used it to toss Theo on his back and begin a fight of her own.

Jesse stepped back, shrinking away as if he was dirty or something. She couldn’t handle that. She would have to leave him soon, but she wasn’t going to leave him like that.

Ian threw the first punch, but Ten was way meaner than he looked. He ducked hard and kicked Taggart right in the balls.

Charlotte groaned and put a hand over her belly. “I am really glad I already got that man’s sperm. It looks like this baby might be an only. Oh, jeez. I hope Ten froze his swimmers. Ian did not take that well. I think he just punched Ten’s balls back inside his body. That was a good uppercut. You get him, baby.” She sighed. “Who wants cake?”

Mike Malone looked away from the fights going on around him. “Cake?”

Charlotte’s eyes narrowed. “Fine, but I’m going to poison yours. I’m joking. It looks like my party is f*cked. We should eat what we can. Sean, are you all right?”

Sean had joined his brother, leaping into the fray.

“And there go the appetizers.” Charlotte was surprisingly calm for a woman whose husband and employees were currently engaged in battle. “Jesse, come on. We need to get you cleaned up.”

“I’ll take care of it.” She wanted to be the one who made sure he was all right. It was all she could give him at this point.

Jesse pulled away, stepping around her. “I have a clean shirt in my office. I’ll be back.”

She watched as he walked away, his every movement stiff.

Charlotte eyed her as the room got worse. Jake Dean was getting into it with Deke and Alex and Adam walked in, carrying bags of groceries. They both stared at the chaos around them. Alex looked around and the minute his eyes lit on Ten, he was working his way toward the middle of the massive fight.

Adam sighed and joined Charlotte. “I’ll finish the bruschetta. It looks like Sean is having fun. Give me a couple of minutes. Simon, any way I can get you to help?”

“Well, I’m not getting involved in that. I just had this suit pressed,” Simon said, taking the bag from Adam.

“That’s my cousin,” Malone interjected, following the men. “What are you making? Because I skipped lunch.”

“At least we don’t have to worry about you getting away now,” Charlotte said and then winced again as her husband took a hard uppercut. “Or maybe you should run. I might go with you.”

She followed Charlotte to the back room, her thoughts on how lost Jesse had looked. And on how he’d pulled away. No matter what, her time was almost up.





CHAPTER SIX





Jesse sat down at the conference table, a fresh shirt on his chest and all cleaned up. How many times was he going to have to clean up blood and pretend he hadn’t gone f*ck all insane because someone put him on his back or said the wrong words?

“Hey, I think your boss killed my boss,” Michael Malone said as he sat down across from Jesse. He had a plate in one hand and settled a glass of punch on the table. “Are there any openings here? Because I had that bruschetta and it was amazing. No one cooks like that on our team. All we ever get are donuts and coffee.”

Apparently, the shower had gone on, just with a wider guest list. While Ten and Ian had continued to beat on one another, the rest of the group had settled their differences over cake and punch.

Where had Phoebe gone? She’d disappeared with Charlotte and he hadn’t seen her for thirty minutes. She swore she had no reason to run, but Jesse couldn’t trust her.

“What’s bruschetta?” A massive dude with a knot on his head the size of Cleveland walked in. Boomer. He was ex-Special Forces, now Ten’s man. He wasn’t the brightest bulb in the bunch, but Jesse sympathized. Apparently every team needed one.

“It’s like toast except they put lots of good tasting crap on it.” He hadn’t known what it was either before he’d spent time with Sean.

Boomer nodded. “The thing with the steak on it. Yeah, that was really great. Does anyone have some aspirin?”

The dude had taken a chair to his skull according to Jake.

“Hey, I think this one pooped.” Deke walked in carrying Tristan with the ease of a dude who didn’t mind a little poop. He was grinning as he strode through the door with the baby in his arms. Li and Avery walked in behind him with Aidan in Avery’s arms. “He smells like hell. This place is full of kids. I like it. Now I know why Ten invaded. The kids are so damn cute.”

Serena stepped in, holding her hands out for Tristan. “I’ll take him. Oh, gosh, baby boy. You do smell bad. I’m going to change him and then we’re going to head home with Grace and Sean. Sean’s got a bag of peas on his eye, so I’m going to drive his car while Grace takes Avery home. But I’m going to require an update ASAP. The last time I looked, Ian was dragging Ten back into his office. I want to make sure he doesn’t cook and eat the bastard.”

Jesse had caught a glimpse of that, too. Tag had dragged Ten back by his shirt, like a lion dragging a carcass back for a nice private meal, though this particular carcass had still been talking. He’d heard Ten talking about protecting the country and making sure valuable assets didn’t get tainted by suspicious persons.