Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
“I can stay home.” The thought of watching a long run of Empire or Grey’s Anatomy kind of made him want to vomit, but he could handle it. Somehow. Maybe he could sneak some Scotch in.
Charlie laughed as she picked up the coffee mug. “Oh, you’re the worst to watch TV with. Never, mister. You only ever want to watch sports or war movies, and you criticize the shit out of the latter.”
Kenzie looked up at him, her blue eyes gleaming. “Shit.”
He sighed. “No, baby. That’s a Mommy and Daddy word.”
“Daddy shit,” Kala said with one of her infrequent grins.
He glared at his wife. “I’m not taking the blame for this one. This one is all you. You know that, right?”
“Because I’m the only one with a potty mouth? They’re fixated on Daddy, not Mommy.” Charlie was sending him a righteous smile. She took a sip of her coffee and sat back, her food untouched.
She was so stunning. He leaned over the bar, reaching for her hand. “You’re the one with bad taste in lovers. You decided to toss out that birth control. I think those two hooligans are your fault. After all, I’m the clean-cut former Green Beret and you’re the Russian mobster.”
She flushed a delicate pink. “You know how to hit a girl where it hurts, Taggart.”
He moved around the island. “Hey, I happen to find bad girls incredibly sexy.”
She glanced up at him. “I don’t feel like a bad girl right now. I feel like a bloated whale.”
He slid a hand over her belly. “You look good enough to eat.” He leaned over because the last thing he needed was his baby girls learning how to dirty talk. “You want me to eat you up? Because I can be late.”
Work could wait. He would spend the whole day worried about her if he went into the office. He wouldn’t get a thing done. Liam could handle the office. It was quiet right now anyway. Simon and Jesse were on an assignment in New York. Alex was on paternity leave of his own. He and Eve had recently adopted their second child. Jake and Adam were working up the nerve to tell him they would be leaving soon.
Like he hadn’t figured that out already.
Charlie winced and set her mug down. “Help me up. I swear this kid weighs more than his sisters. If I give birth to a twelve-pound baby, we’re having such a talk. Hey, Bud. Has Daddy already taken you out this morning?”
He sighed at the massive mutt currently occupying his hallway. He wasn’t sure what it was. Part St. Bernard and part horse, maybe. It had been hoisted off on him six months before when Charlie had insisted that a sweet puppy would be good for the girls. They’d toured a shelter and Charlie had been given the sob story about a poor puppy who would have to be put down soon if no one wanted him. He was such a tiny guy. The runt of the litter. She’d come home with the tiny guy cradled in one hand.
Six months later the fucker weighed sixty-five pounds and the girls could ride him. And he wasn’t finished growing.
He fit his name. Big Ugly Dog.
The trouble was he was a sweet mutt and the girls adored him.
“Bud!” Kala grinned as the dog approached.
Kenzie held out a hand. A grubby, food-caked hand.
Yeah, that was when Bud started to lick her. Kenzie giggled, and he barely managed to catch her before she put that hand right back in her mouth.
There weren’t enough wipes in the world to clean that mutt’s bacteria.
“I promise I’ll take the hell hound out before I leave.” He stared down at the dog, whose tongue lolled out as he watched with completely worshipful, vacant eyes. “If you piss on my shoes again, dog, we’re going to have a serious problem. And we have to talk about why you vomit in front of my damn chair.”
Charlie moved to Bud’s side. “You know that’s actually a way of showing his affection.”
“It doesn’t feel affectionate, Charlie. That damn dog doesn’t know when to stop.”
Bud’s tail thumped.
Kala looked up and said, “Piss.”
Ian closed his eyes, seeking out something he’d never had to before. Patience. In the past, if something annoyed him, he tended to murder it. Oh, maybe not in a literal sense, but he certainly could make said annoyance’s life hell. Now he loved the people who annoyed him.
Except for the dog.
“Baby, stop mimicking your daddy,” Charlie said with a smile. “You’re going to end up scaring off all the boys. Ian, he really needs to go.”
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea. He definitely liked the idea of scaring off all the dudes who couldn’t handle a strong female presence.
Ian went to grab the dog’s leash. Bud started up his pee-pee dance, his massive body twisting and turning as he ran after Ian. His big paws thudded against the brand new hardwood he would never have spent that godawful amount of money on had he realized a dog would pee on it.