Nash Brothers Box Set - Carrie Aarons Page 0,159

you, we’re in trouble. He’s going to break all the hearts.”

“Nah, he’ll fall in love with one magnificent girl and be hooked on her forever.” Bowen nuzzles my cheek, his fingers working magic on the knots in my back.

“Mm, sounds familiar. Tell me more about this undying love,” I joke as we watch Molly running back toward us.

She crashes into my lap with a thud, jostling her brother in my belly, and begins to climb me to get to her daddy. When she does, she kisses Bowen on the lips, and then plants one on me, too.

This is our family, the one we’ve created out of the ashes of our storied past. And it might have hurt, it might have been incredibly hard, but I’d walk through it all again to get to this place.

The one where we’re in love, united, and raising our babies.

After all was forgiven, what’s left is love. And love with Bowen is all I’ve ever wanted.

Flutter

Book Three

Prologue

Penelope

The young, virile man slams my back against the wall opposite the hotel room door and lunges for my mouth.

Meeting him lash for lash with my tongue, I moan against his teeth as my fingers rip the buttons from their loopholes on his crisp white tuxedo shirt. They scatter, echoing through the room as they’re lost somewhere in the wake of our foreplay. It’s a rental, but he can afford to pay the replacement cost.

He returns the favor with a growl and a smile, tugging the zipper of my bridesmaid dress so hard that it catches on the fabric and shreds it. Oh well, as usual, I would have never worn this thing again … no offense to Presley.

Tearing my lips from his, I give him my best death glare. “If you tell anyone about this, I’ll cut your balls off.”

It’s bad enough I am about to screw the brains out of a man six years younger than I am. It’s another thing entirely that the man is Forrest Nash.

For years, I’ve despised this man-child. Everything about him, from his pompous, know-it-all attitude to the way his hair always seems to look sex-tousled. It’s not fair for a human to possess so much intelligence and attractiveness. The scales need to be tipped … the gods couldn’t have given him both.

Especially because Forrest is almost as obnoxious as I am. We fight like cats and dogs, but I usually get the last word in.

But … oh hell, I can’t argue, much less think, when he’s doing that with his tongue.

1

Forrest

It’s a bitch and a half getting to the Muller County Police Headquarters, which is why I typically never do it.

For one, you have to take a highway to get there. And while I may compute my way through cyberspace on a daily basis, my small-town ass doesn’t want to merge into traffic going eighty in a sixty-five. While I talk a big game about being above everyone in my hometown of Fawn Hill, I’m just as annoyed when I have to drive over the town line. Or maybe I’m just lazy.

Sitting in front of a screen all day will do that to a man.

But why move? I have the world at my fingertips. In a few key strokes, I can hack into a Chinese banking system, or gamble using cryptocurrency with some amateur coder in Berlin. I’m the most intelligent computer whiz my town, this state, and maybe even the country has seen in decades … just ask me and I’ll tell you.

“Shit, who let your bragging ass in here?” Detective Mack Robbins rolls his eyes sarcastically as I saunter into the station.

I fist bump him as I sit on the corner of his desk. “Your captain. Told me you failed to get another case closed, so he had to bring in the big guns to solve it.”

“Man, shut up with all that.” Mack’s deep chocolate skin crinkles around his eyes as he smiles. “The captain just knows I don’t have time to sit and diddle on my keyboard. I’m out saving lives in the real world.”

It’s our age-old argument, one we only half-joke about each time I get dragged down to headquarters. The station is an hour from my house, so there must be a good reason Captain Kline called me down because he also knows how much I hate coming in. If it can be said in an email, send me an email.

“Says the guy who had help from said diddler on his last three cases.” I raise