The Brothers Rule - Carolyn Faulkner Page 0,17

shorts and panties were in the family room, where he had relieved her of them so he could spank her.

"Jace!" she whispered urgently, not wanting to wake him but wanting the situation resolved with the least embarrassment possible, too, so she couldn't see any other way.

"Hmm?" he asked sleepily, leaning up on his elbow and reaching for her. "What? What is it, darlin'?"

She had to give him that he wasn't a bear when he awoke, and he was fully alert as soon as his eyes opened.

"Jace, my shorts and underwear, they're…they're—"

"In the family room," he finished for her, already completely understanding why she'd awakened him. "Give me a second, and I'll be right back."

Laurie buried her face in her hands. "Oh my effing God, what if one of them is up and has seen them? Or saw them on their way to his room last night? Oh, my God! I'm just gonna kill myself right now, 'kay?"

He was sympathetic to her plight but not to that extent.

Jace caught her hands and dragged her up into his arms where she knelt before him on the bed, giving her a very unhappy look. "I don't hold with that kind of talk from anyone, Laurie. That's one of the quickest ways to find yourself getting another round with the belt."

She did look abashed. "I'm sorry. I'm just freaking out."

He kissed her gently. "I'd tell you to relax, but I know it's just a waste of words. Sit down, and I'll be right back with your clothes."

He threw on a pair of pajama pants he hadn't used in years and left the room, only to see that someone had already found the objects in question and had folded them neatly and put them right outside his door.

Jace didn't want her to know that anyone had touched—or even seen—her stuff, so he headed into the family room anyway.

Of course, the both of them were in there.

"Good night last night, Dad?" Tanner asked, giving him shit for the pajama bottoms that no one in the house ever wore. They weren't nudists, but they all slept in the nude, and none of them ever covered themselves with more than underwear or shorts if they had to appear outside of their bedrooms in the morning.

Jace held his finger up to his lips and came to stand in front of the two of them, who were both wearing shit-eating grins. When he spoke, his voice was a very soft, low whisper. "I don't know whose idea it was to put them by my door—"

"That was me," Nick offered, holding up his hand.

"But I don't want her to know that either of you knew anything about this. She's already terribly embarrassed and very nearly in tears, which was entirely my fault. I should have taken care of her in that way and made damned sure I didn't forget them out here."

Both of them lost their cheeky looks immediately.

"We wouldn't want her to feel badly, either, bro. Our lips are sealed."

"Yeah, definitely," Tanner agreed.

When he returned, she was huddled in on herself on the bed, and he immediately curled himself around her, having decided to tell her the truth. He didn't like little white lies, even if they would save her from embarrassment.

Then she surprised him by saying, "They knew?"

Jace sighed and pulled her closer to him. "Yes, but try not to be too embarrassed. Nick found them and had folded them neatly and put them right outside the door to save you from being embarrassed as much as possible."

"Oh, that's kinda, mortifyingly, sweet."

He chuckled warmly at that.

"But I'm afraid I'm never going to be able to look either of them in the eye again."

Jace snorted. "Please, woman. They might tease you a little about it, but they really don't want you to be ashamed of it. They really like you—what they know about you, anyway."

"Lovely. That I'm a skank who gets half nude in their family room." She sat up a bit. "Holy crap, do you think they know you spanked me?"

"No, not at all." More to distract her from feeling bad than anything else, he intoned sternly, "And what did you call yourself, Laurie?"

"Nothing," she peeped, settling back down into his welcoming arms.

"Mmm-hmm. I heard that, young lady."

Ryan was the first of them to take her away for a weekend. She took an extra day off when she already had a three-day weekend, and they went to Knoxville, leaving early in the morning and hitting as many tourist spots