Loving the Wild Card (Kingdom Book 5)

Lux felt something slither over her foot. Without warning, she spun around and took a flying jump. Scared witless she didn’t stop to think, she just operated in mindless terror.

From below her, a rumble of laughter split the air. In her mad flight to escape from the snake, she’d somehow managed to climb Josh’s body. She was now sitting astride his shoulder with one leg resting against his chest and the other hanging down his back. To cap it all, she had a death grip on his hair. When she finally came to her senses, it was too late, her shame was complete.

Throughout her panic, Lux was unaware that Josh was still moving forward. The feel of his wet tongue running along her inner thigh finally caught her attention. With a hand against her back to balance her, she felt him ease her forward. In shock, she forgot to breathe as his mouth moved ever closer to her cooch.

Someone loudly clearing their throat distracted her from what he was about to do. Looking around, Lux realized they were standing in a clearing with two Jakes staring back at them in amusement.

“Lord help me, two of you!”

“That’s right, consider this your lucky day,” laughed one of the men.

“Still indulging in inappropriate behavior I see.”

Lux immediately knew this one was Jake.

“Still got a pole up your ass, I see,” she fired back.

“From what I could tell you were the one about to have something up–”

“That’s enough, Jake,” Josh cut him off before he could finish his sentence.

Swinging her off his shoulder, Josh lowered her to the ground. Then he turned her around to face his brothers.

“You already know Jake, so let me introduce you to my other brother. This is Jason; as you can tell he’s the one who picked us up. He’s also the tall, silent type. I would add handsome but as you can see, these two have nothing on me,” Josh laughed at his brother’s expense.

For the life of her, Lux couldn’t find anything funny about the situation. She had a really awful feeling her life was about to take a turn for the worse.





Chapter 9



Unable to get a further rise out of his brothers, they turned their backs to him and walked away. Looking at Lux, he shrugged his shoulders and spoke in a loud whisper. “Those guys have no sense of humor. I’ve done my best to change this sorry state of affairs, but it’s my lot in life to be the amusing Kingdom.”

Throughout his teasing of his brothers, Josh distracted her as he led her forward. He could see she was still in shock at discovering he had two brothers. That neither he nor Jason chose to enlighten her didn’t bother him in the slightest. All he cared about was getting off the island in the same way he’d arrived; quickly and inconspicuously.

About to bundle her into the waiting car, she balked. Not above pulling whatever dirty trick he thought necessary, he dropped his eyes and pointed at the ground.

“Snake!” He shouted. The second the word left his mouth, Josh regretted his tone. For some unknown reason, the single word was said in a raised pitch that sounded as though he were imitating a woman.

He needn’t have worried, as it seemed the mere mention of the word snake, around Lux, whatever his tone, was enough to see her springing into the car and slamming the door behind her.

Looking over at his brothers who stood by the doors at the front of the car, Josh gave them an irritated look at their raised eyebrows.

“What? It worked didn’t it!”

Without comment, the twins got into the car. When Josh was seated beside Lux, Jake took off driving at breakneck speed.

“Will you slow the hell down,” Josh demanded. “We’ve come this far and I for one want to arrive back home in one piece.”

“Well, good for you, and for the record, I couldn’t give a shit what you want!” Jake snapped.

“Jesus, who rattled his cage?” Josh asked, unfazed by his brother’s bad mood.

“Do not start with me, Joshua, I’m not in the mood!” Jake intoned through tight lips.

“Jason, could you shed some light on the mood of the uptight one?”

“Lovely isn’t very happy. She’s been blowing up his phone which resulted in him not answering it. That in itself was a bad move, believe me, I know what I’m talking about. Then she started calling me. Each time I spoke to her, I lied through my teeth. Told her he wasn’t with me at that moment, but I’d make sure he got all of her five million messages,” Jason finished on a dry note.

“How did that go down?”

Jason’s only response was a loud snort.

“Right, dumb question,” Josh laughed.

“What about, Vee, I can’t believe she had nothing to say?”

“Oh, she had lots to say, don’t you worry about that,” Jason replied, all traces of humor gone.

“I’m sorry, I hope you guys know if there had been any other way of getting out, without putting Lux in danger, I would have taken it.”

Jason twisted around and pinned him with his gaze. The quickness of his movement startled Lux and she gasped in reaction. Sparing a glance in her direction, Josh saw that she was staring at Jason as though he were an apparition.

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