“You’re not going anywhere until I say you are. You seem to forget I’m in charge of the household.”
“So possessive. And you’re wrong.”
“You bet I’m possessive, Dog Doctor, but I am never wrong.” He cupped my jaw as he usually did twice a day, wanting to keep me in his sight, as he’d told me more than once. Maybe he hadn’t realized I’d done the same with him.
“Such a difficult man to deal with.”
“I’ll show you difficult, sweetheart.” As he did several times a day, he captured my mouth, holding our lips in place.
I could swear the way he kissed me just got better and better.
His tongue swept in my mouth and I was on cloud nine, swooning as usual around him. I could easily just spend a couple of hours in the truck doing very naughty things.
But as luck would have it, somebody pounded on the window.
“Don’t you two have a house together?”
Seeing Axe’s grinning face alongside Kenzie wasn’t even remotely embarrassing. They’d been over at the house twice. They knew how we were. Heck, they were the same way, all lovey-dovey and you’d never think of two rough men being that way.
But they were.
Still, Viper shot him a finger anyway. That’s how they were. Almost dying together on a mountain could do that to a person.
“Let’s go, lover boy.” I rubbed my thumb across his lips, removing the lipstick, and jumping out before he could stop me.
The man wasn’t a hand holder but given the possessive hand on the small of my back, there was no one who wouldn’t know I belonged to him.
I did so adore his dominating personality.
We walked in together and immediately there were cheers, people I didn’t know holding their drinks in a salute.
As we tried to push our way through the crowd, Darlene and Cassie offered hugs.
Why? I had no clue since I hadn’t done anything but survive. And I’d seen them how many times since? Dozens? Granted, the celebration brought out everyone’s emotions. For good reason.
A drink was placed in my hand and we were given carte blanche, a table even saved for us.
There was such joy in being around people you cared about. We chatted, we laughed, the band hired was playing some of my favorite songs, which was weird, but I loved it.
“You look beautiful, sweetheart,” Landen said as he pulled me into a hug.
“Thank you. You look mighty handsome yourself.”
“Mr. Weaver,” Viper said. “Can I talk to you for just a minute about training? That special program we’re still working on.”
“First of all, you’re supposed to call me Landen and this is a celebration, but maybe Grace will be okay with two minutes.”
I held up my fingers. “Two. That’s it.”
“What’s that about?” Darlene asked.
“Oh, a training session that was pushed off for weeks. You know the boys.” We swayed to the music.
She laughed. “Yes, I do, but you seem happy.”
“I am very happy.” I took a sip of my drink. “There are some hot men here tonight.”
“I might have my eye on a smokejumper or two. Or three,” she said, laughing. “I can’t count but who needs to.”
