Marc (Bowen Boys, #4)(41)

“Not all of it, just the basic outline. Dad will have a shit when she does it to him. I can’t wait.” Walker nodded and left them alone. She looked up at him.

“You ready?” He nodded. “Good, because I’m not. Do you think that meeting him on his own turf is a good idea?”

“I don’t just think so, but so do the experts. Caitlynne and Jack seem to think this is the best way to get him out of your life.” He took her hand into his. “And I’m all for us getting on with our lives.”

She nodded. She would be too. And to be able to live in one house would be nice instead of moving from one to the other all the time. They’d been bouncing between their house and Khan’s for nearly the entire time she’d known him. Then there was Walker’s house. They were going to go there for Memorial Day. She just wanted some quiet time.

“Where would you like to go?” His question startled her. “On our honeymoon. Where would you like to go? France, London, or we could take a long cruise.”

“I don’t know. I don’t even have a passport or anything.” She didn’t have clothes nice enough to go to the picnic either, and when he lifted her chin up, she blurted that out to him.

When he stood up, he pulled her along with him. They were out the door and into his car before she could ask where they were going. When she asked him if maybe they ought to have said something to someone, he took out his cell and handed it to her.

“I don’t know how to use this thing.” She shoved it back at him, panicky, but he wouldn’t take it. “I’ve had one before, but all it would do was ring and I answered. This one has more icons on it than I’ve ever seen.”

“Just slide your finger across to the right. There at the bottom is a little thing that looks like a telephone. Press it.” She glared at him, and he grinned. “I’m showing you how. Now slide you finger upward until you find Khan’s picture. Once you do, press it and he’ll hopefully answer.”

“I really hate you right now.” He laughed as the phone rang. Khan answered. “It’s Jonny Thomas. I have your brother’s phone and he’s left your house. So have I, but we’ve left your…I’m so stupid.”

Khan’s laughter made her smile. “Take a deep breath and let’s start again. I get that you’re both not here. Should we hold dinner?”

She asked Marc. “He said no. I don’t know where we’re going. Perhaps you could have me ask him so he’ll tell you and I’ll know too.”

“Yes, since I may have to go and bail you out of jail for murdering him—that might be helpful. Also, I can avoid that place if I decide to go out tonight. That way I can honestly say I wasn’t there.”

She turned to Marc. “Are all of you Bowens smart asses? Because I have to tell you, it grates on the nerves after a while.”

Both men laughed, and Marc took the phone. “I’m taking her to Sables, then to dinner. You need me to get anything for you while I’m out?”

Apparently not. After the phone was handed back to her, she put it on the console and decided she wasn’t going to ask who Sable was or where they were going for dinner. She was pissed. Again. She realized she spent a great deal of her time mad at him for one thing or another.

They pulled into the drive of a lovely looking home. It wasn’t until they were nearly to the deck that wrapped all the way around it that she realized it was a shop. She turned to look at him when he turned off the car. He leaned against the door and watched her.

“I suppose you think that whatever is inside is going to make up for you dragging me away from helping with dinner and reading a bedtime story to little George.” He nodded. “Fat chance. We were just getting to the part in the book where Wilber sees the web.”

He got out and came to open her door for her. She got out and he pressed her against the car and nipped at her lobe. She got all melty inside and tried really hard not to let him see it.

“You be a good girl in here and let me do what I want. I’ll make it worth your while.” She looked at him suspiciously. “I swear to you nothing in here is going to hurt you.”

“I’ve heard that from you before. You seem to think that anything you want me to do is not going to hurt me. Maybe I liked being hurt.” The words were out before she could censor them. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded, I swear.”

Marc licked along her throat to her mark he’d put on her again that morning. She couldn’t stop the moan any more than she could curl her hands into his hair. This man was lethal. And she was pretty sure he knew it.

“Are you sure? Because instead of taking you in here and buying you clothes, we could go back to our house and find out if you like to be hurt or not. We could even stop at a couple of much more fun shops to buy some toys if you’d like.” She looked at the house and then back at him.

“I do need clothes really badly. You keep tearing them off me.” He nodded. “But toys? What sort of toys were you thinking?”

He growled low and stepped back. “You are a very bad girl. And so you know, you’re going to pay. Come on. If we don’t go in now, we won’t be.”

She followed him in, stopped in the doorway, and simply fell in love. “Oh my. Oh my, oh my, this is beautiful.”