Perfect Picture [The ShadowDance Club 7] (Siren Publishing Classic) (17 page)

This time it was Lainy who giggled. “Thanks for the heads up. Now, can you show me where the other ladies are?” She found herself quickly whisked through a door and into another large room filled with padded mats and lot of women warming up. After Noah’s quick kiss good bye and warning to not leave the building without an escort he turned her toward the others and with a quick swat to her backside sent her moving toward the group.

“Hey, what was that for?” She smiled back over her shoulder and let her eyes go wide in mock indignation.

“Just because I can, baby.” Noah’s grin was devilish and reminded her of all the times she’d seen that same gleam in his eye when they’d been kids. Moments like this reminded her of how devastatingly handsome he was and the catcalls from the women in the room let her know she wasn’t the only one that thought so. Shaking her head and laughing, Lainy turned to join the other women on the mat.

* * * *

Kat couldn’t help the knot that had quickly formed in her stomach when her husbands had all but drug her into a small office at one end of the gym. They hadn’t said a word the whole time they’d been marching her through the main room and the sound of the door snicking closed behind them when they’d entered the small room echoed in the uncomfortable silence. Deciding that proactive was better than reactive, Kat postured herself with her feet planted a bit apart and her arms crossed under her now very sensitive breasts.
Damn. Surely they don’t know already? How could they? Hell, I only found out this morning.
“Well, bossy husbands-mine...would you like to explain what this is about? I was going to work out with my friends as I’m sure you already knew. Now they’re going to give me shi…um, trash for skipping the warm-ups.”

Just for an instant she saw Zach’s eyes twinkle with humor before his eyes tracked to her chest and they quickly changed to undisguised lust. Oh yeah, lust was good, she could cope with lust.
Fracking pregnancy hormones make me so horny. They’ll probably be begging me to get out of here in an hour…or three.
In that instant Kat felt her sex flood with moisture…damn her traitorous body anyway. Couldn’t it at least pretend to be blasé for a few minutes?

When she chanced a glance at Alex he was smiling at her like a cat that had cornered a mouse. “Katarina, my love, do you have anything you’d like to share with us?” He paused for that brief moment like he always did and she swore it was for dramatic effect.
Damn, you’d think the man had been a freaking Broadway actor instead of a SEAL.
“I want to caution you sweet wife that lying by omission is still lying. And we have plenty of paper to keep score.”

And there it was—the proof that they knew because during her last pregnancy they’d teased her unmercifully about keeping score of each and every infraction so they could deliver all the punishments she had coming once the babies had been born. Never mind that after carrying triplets for all those months she’d then had an epic battle with post-partum depression. Do you think they’d gone easy and given her amnesty on all those damned punishments?
Oh hell no.

Now, here she stood facing them knowing that they knew and she was still battling her desire to play innocent and deny her understanding. But in the end his intense expression and the shimmer of approval she saw in his eyes won her over and she let the tears that had suddenly come upon her trail down her cheeks. “How did you know? Damn, I wanted to surprise you this weekend. I had something special all planned too. Damn and double damn.”

Zach stepped up behind her and pulled her against his length and she had to fight the urge to grind her ass against the erection she could feel pressing against her back. Her husbands were both so tall and she was so…
not
. Smiling to herself as she placed her hand over the one that Zach had placed protectively over her still-flat belly. Zach’s words against her ear melted her heart. “Kitten we know your body better than you do and we have known for a couple of weeks that you were pregnant. And just for the record, we are thrilled with this news and can’t wait to share it with the rest of the family.”

Alex stepped up so that she could feel the heat from his body moving over her skin in comforting waves just as Zach’s was doing at her back. When he tilted her head back so that she was looking up into his eyes the love that she saw made her hiccup a sob before she turned and laid her face against his broad chest. For several minutes they just held her while she cried softly.

When Alex finally broke the silence she felt his words vibrating through his chest. “My love, let’s go back to the house. As much as I want to strip you and sink into your warmth this very minute, I want you to be comfortable even more. We’ve already arranged for the children to spend the evening with their grandparents in Colt and Jenna’s wing, so we’ll have our suite to ourselves. We’d like to celebrate our news before we share it.”

Kat hadn’t been able to get any words past the lump in her throat, so she’d just nodded her head. She’d been feeling queasy for almost a week and when she had gone to see Dr. Bree early this morning she’d been surprised to learn not only was she pregnant but that she had lost several pounds and was anemic. She was feeling the consequences of both of those conditions now and suddenly making a stand to work out with her friends didn’t sound very appealing at all, whereas the idea of a couple rounds of swinging-from-the-chandelier wild monkey sex that would leave her blissfully sated, sounded divine.

As if he’d heard her thoughts, Alex leaned down and scooped her into his arms and kissed her on the forehead as they made their way out of the gym. She was relieved to see they’d driven down through the gardens in one of the side-by-side electric carts the security staff usually used. Alex settled her on his lap and Zach drove them quickly back up to their home. “We really are so very pleased, love. You’re giving us another child to love…another piece of yourself and that is a gift no one else can give.” She’d started to cry again and he’d just smiled at her indulgently. “Let us love you, baby.”

Jenna and Mia had proven themselves to be tough teachers. They’d worked all the women’s asses off and Lainy was relieved to see she wasn’t the only one dragging ass. It was easy to see why the Lamonts had nicknamed their younger sister “The Warrior Fairy,” because even though Jenna was extremely petite, she had become an expert in several types of personal self-defense. Lainy remembered hearing Cash talk about all the team members who had foolishly agreed to spar with the tiny young woman when they would visit the Lamonts’ home on leave. She had rarely ever lost a match and had made plenty of money on bets until word had spread fast and furious through the ranks.

Leaning back against the wall in the showers, Lainy listened to the other women chatter about children and husbands, and for the first time she wondered if those things might be in her future. For so long she had put her life on hold so she could build a career that was only ever intended to fund her education. And now that she’d accomplished both goals, she felt a bit lost.

Realizing how out of shape she’d become had certainly been humbling. She could see that she needed to start utilizing the gym her brothers had put in at home. She also vaguely recalled Noah mentioning he had a home gym as well. So perhaps while she was staying with him, he’d let her use those facilities. She’d been lost in thought and suddenly realized that the locker room had fallen silent. Finishing up quickly she got dressed and moved out into the gym’s main room and noticed it was nearly empty. She saw the two former FBI agents she had been introduced to the other evening, a couple of the guys she knew from Red Clouds Dancing and then there was another man she didn’t think she’d ever seen before, even though there was something strangely familiar about him.

Noah had told her that the two FBI agents were former SEAL team members with Cash and the Lamonts. They were currently living in Texas and were visiting ShadowDance Mountain because they were both considering going to work for the Lamonts full-time. When Alex had joined in their conversation, he’d added that the ShadowDance team had been getting more and more requests for domestic security details so that part of their business was expanding rapidly.

When the men in the gym looked up at her, she smiled and watched as the tall, blond man stepped forward and spoke to her. “You’re Ilaina, right? I’m not sure you’ll remember, but we met you the other evening up at the house. I’m Derek Lake and that is my partner in crime, Joe Rivera. We didn’t get to mention it to you when we met, but we worked a lot of missions with your brother. And, well, don’t go telling him I said this, but he was one hell of a SEAL and we were proud to serve with him.”

By this time, Joe Rivera had stepped forward and nodded his head in agreement. “For the longest time, he’d tell us that you were his kid sister and no one believed him.” Both men chuckled and Lainy couldn’t help but laugh, too. She remembered her brother telling her how his team hadn’t believed they were siblings so she had signed pictures for each of them and then written a personal note on the back of each picture asking the man receiving the picture to take good care of her big brother.

“Please call me Lainy and I am pleased to meet you again. Have you by any chance seen Noah? He asked me to wait for him to return, but all my friends have already gone.” Just as they had started to answer, her phone beeped with an incoming message. She gave her phone a quick glance before returning her gaze to the men standing in front of her.

Derek smiled and said, “The last I knew he was up in the Crow’s Nest with Mitch and Collin. They were plotting some kind of mayhem and since we are both still technically FBI field agents, we wanted to be able to plead ignorance so we opted for a quick workout instead.”

Lainy smiled. “That sounds about right. Well, if you see him, please tell him I’ve headed up to the house. That message was from my mom and she’s up visiting Selita and asked me to stop by before heading back down the mountain. And since I didn’t even realize my parents were back, I’d like to visit with her a bit.” She turned to walk away and ran into Drake Foster’s sweat-dampened chest. “Oh damn, I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you come up behind me like a freakin’ cat, Drake.” All the men standing near her chuckled.

“Lainy, if you’ll hang on for a few minutes, Jesse or I will walk with you. We won’t be too long. I’m pretty sure Noah didn’t want you leaving without an escort.” Lainy knew he was right, but her mom had said she wasn’t going to be up at the house much longer and had asked Lainy to come up as quickly as she could, so she didn’t want to wait for Noah’s friends to finish their workouts and shower.

Glancing over at Jesse Hunt she smiled at him when he nodded his head at her and continued bench pressing all the damned weights in the machine’s stack…
good Lord
. It was obvious to Lainy that none of the men were finished with their workouts and she didn’t want to be the reason they cut their sessions short. Looking back at Drake, she said, “I’ll make you a deal, I’ll text Noah and tell him I’m on my way so he’ll be able to meet me halfway.” When Drake didn’t look comfortable with her plan, she waved her wrist at him and added, “Look, I’m wearing the bracelet Mitch gave me the other night, so if I have trouble all I have to do is press the alarm. And then God and every Dom within a fifty mile radius will get a memo detailing every personal secret I’ve ever had
and
that I’m in trouble.” Smiling to let him know she wasn’t really being snide, she added in a calmer tone, “Besides, this compound is probably more secure than Fort Knox. Who in their right mind would try to come after me here?”

Even as she spoke the words the hair on the back of Lainy’s neck stood up on end. A small part of her mind took note that each time she ignored her internal warning voice she regretted it. But, knowing one of her dads had recently had some health concerns only added to her feeling of urgency and her need to find out why her mom was so adamant about speaking to her was pushing all thoughts of her own personal safety aside.

She quickly typed a text to Noah and her mom letting them know she was on her way. As soon as she’d hit the send button Lainy said good-bye to the men she’d been speaking with and headed out the door. Before she stuffed her phone back in her backpack she silenced it and didn’t bother to check for incoming messages. She knew Noah and her brothers were going to have a fit about her leaving the gym. And the men she’d just
misled
weren’t likely to be her biggest fans once they talked with Noah or Cash either. Lainy was so caught up in her concerns about her mom, dads, and the Dom patrol she didn’t notice she was being followed until the man she’d seen in the gym caught up with her.

Turning to face the man she was surprised to see he was dressed in hiking shoes and jeans rather than the workout clothes he’d been in just a few minutes ago. When he moved to step in front of her, blocking her path, Lainy looked up into his face and frowned. “Excuse me, but I need to get to the house. My mom is expecting me so I need to get going.” Something in his expression was so familiar that she paused a few seconds longer and just looked at him. “I’m Ilaina Red Cloud. Have we met? You look familiar to me, but I can’t figure out why?”

In an instant the man’s expression went from bland to feral and Lainy took an unconscious step back. “Why yes, Ilaina, we have met. In a hotel bar and you were quite friendly until I offered to buy you a drink and tried to kiss you. And you have continued to ignore me since you walked away from me that night. You have held steadfast in your refusal to get to know me—something I plan to remedy now.” The empty look in his eyes caused a shiver to race through her. His gaze was so lacking in any kind of emotion it was as if he wasn’t even human.