Becca’s heart did a little flip as she offered him a hand and he rose. “You know,” she said, “if I hadn’t already agreed to marry you, I would say yes just based on how good you are at that.”
Nick threw his head back and laughed, the kind of free, joyful laughter she’d only heard from him a handful of times. His smile was freaking gorgeous, his dimple a mile deep, and his face so ruggedly beautiful that it made her whole chest ache with how much she loved him. “Good to know,” he managed.
Grinning, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Seriously. A man who can make the best Sloppy Joes on earth, helps total strangers, sings bad eighties anthems, loves his family fiercely, can kill in fifty-two ways if he has to, is smoking hot, and eats pussy like he’s starved for it is a keeper.” She tried to keep a straight face, but laughter was already bubbling up inside her.
“I . . . am really freaking aroused now. Keep talking,” he said, his eyebrow arched, that smug smile returning.
She reached for his jeans and tugged the button open. “About what? Should I talk about how much I love your cock? How amazing it feels inside me?”
Nick licked his lips, a kind of amused disbelief filling his gaze. “Yes, definitely talk about that. Like, a lot.”
Grinning, Becca bit her lip and pushed off the desk. Walking backward, she hooked her fingers in the waistband of his jeans and pulled him along with her toward the bedroom. With her other hand, she grasped his hard length, squeezing just enough to wring a grunt out of him. “Come put this inside me, Nick, and I’ll say absolutely anything you want.”
NICK FELT LIKE he hadn’t seen Becca in forever, despite the fact that they’d woken up together this morning. But that had been fifteen hours ago—before he’d spent all day working with the guys to install the carpet in their new offices. As much as possible, they were trying to do the work on the business suite to allow the contractor to stay focused on the much bigger project of the building. Given Jeremy’s ability to figure out pretty much any home improvement project, Beckett’s electrical know-how, and Marz and Charlie’s expertise with all the wiring and secure computer hookups they needed done, they were in pretty good shape.
In the meantime, all of them had been working their contacts to get word out about the new security consulting services they’d be offering. Beckett, Marz, and Shane had already been working in various aspects of the field and had ready clients to reach out to. Having worked for years as a computer security consultant hacking into corporations’ systems to find their weaknesses, Charlie turned out to be an amazing asset in making new contacts. All of which was keeping them on track for a targeted post–Labor Day opening date, which would give Nick and Becca two weeks for their honeymoon in Italy and another two for Nick to be back and helping with all the last-minute prep.
Nick’s and Beckett’s cell phones dinged an incoming message at about the same time, and both of them paused where they knelt on the floor to check their phones. Since Becca and Kat had gone shopping together after Becca’s half-day shift, Nick didn’t have to guess at who it was.
On the way home. Be there in about twenty! xo
“Aw, look at you two,” Shane said, his tone full of sarcasm. “Stop chitchatting with the ladies and let’s get this shit finished.”
“You are as pussy-whipped as any of us, McCallan, so shut the fuck up,” Beckett said as he shoved his phone in his back pocket. Ah, it was so nice that they were all getting along so good again. Just like old times. In all the best ways.
From the next room where Marz and Charlie were working on some wiring, Charlie called, “For the record, I am not as pussy-whipped as the rest of you.”
Silence rang out for a moment, and then they all lost their shit. Just flat-out, tear-inducing laughter that had every one of them clutching their guts. Charlie fucking Merritt was coming out of his shell, that was for goddamn sure.
Wiping the tears from his eyes, Nick managed to get to two feet and make it to the doorway, where he found Marz red in the face with hilarity and Jeremy pressing a big kiss to his boyfriend’s mouth. The affection his brother and soon-to-be brother-in-law bore for each other made Nick happy, it really did. Because Nick had never seen Jeremy settle down like this before—with a man or a woman, and he’d dated both. And no matter how much Nick admired so many other things about Becca and Charlie’s father—the team’s former commander—Nick would never understand the homophobic bullshit Frank Merritt had apparently rained down on Charlie from the moment he’d come out. So Charlie deserved this chance to be happy and loved and accepted. By all of them. And, amazingly, they all fit together like clockwork—even Jeremy and Charlie, who hadn’t been part of their team.
They were now.
Beckett joined Nick in the doorway, his bright blue eyes gleaming. “Tou-fucking-che, Charlie.”
Because he had his hair pulled back in some sort of a bun thing, the red covering Charlie’s face was crystal clear, but the guy was smiling as Marz slapped him on the knee.
Everyone got back to work, shooting the shit as they finished up the last of the carpeting.
From where he knelt in the corner, Easy ran his dark hand over his short-trimmed hair and looked around the nearly finished space. “This is all really coming together.”
“Yes, it is,” Nick said. Right now, it was all plain white walls and industrial gray carpeting, but they’d come a helluva long way from the cement floor, exposed ceilings, and cinder-block walls that had stood there just a few weeks before. “Thanks to the hard work you all have been putting in.”
“I’m glad to do it,” Easy said. “It’s good to be busy. And it’s really fucking good to feel like I’m part of something again.”
Nick, Easy, Beckett, and Shane all traded looks and nodded. Every one of them felt the same way after the ambush, the other-than-honorable discharge, having their reputations tarnished, and being scattered to the four winds once they’d returned stateside.
“Amen, brother,” Shane said, clapping Easy on the shoulder.
When the other three men cleared out, Nick went into the next room to see how the wiring job was coming. “Almost done?” he asked Marz.
“Yeah, hoss. Maybe just another half hour,” Marz said. Charlie nodded.
“Anything I can do to help?’ Nick asked.
“Nope, we’re good. If you see Em, just let her know I’ll be up in a bit.” Kneeling in front of some cables sticking out of the wall, Marz kneaded absentmindedly at his thigh.
Nick frowned. “You okay?” Sometimes you could almost forget about Marz’s amputation because the guy never let it slow him down, even when he should.
“Hmm?” Marz looked up from the complicated jack he was working on. “Oh, yeah. No worries. Damn leg just gets cranky if I spend much time on the floor.”
“I told you I’d do that.” Charlie paused what he’d been coding on his laptop to look at Marz.