"It came with the mansion. So yeah, technically the Bears paid for it."
"Of course they did." I exhale, ignoring that rattle of my mother's voice still circling my head.
I try to focus on the drive instead, watching as the Rover hums along the coastal road, our windows cracked just enough that the salt air sneaks in and tangles through my hair.
The town blurs past in streaks of neon lights, with Breakers shrinking behind us and the boardwalk lights fading.
Declan's hand rests on the gearshift, big and rough and warm, close enough that I could reach over and lace my fingers through his.
I don't.
But I think about it. God, I think about it.
I don't say much. I can't. My mother's voice is still rattling around in my skull like a coin in an empty jar, and every time I try to shake it loose, it just clatters louder.
Your father filled your head with so much nonsense.
I stare at him across the dim cabin of his stupidly expensive SUV, and I swear the man is carved from stone. He doesn't rattle. He never seems to second-guess himself.
How does he do that? How does he just... exist without a worry?
Is his life really that perfect?
The quiet stretches as we drive further down the darkening road. And my brain, desperate foranythingother than the echo of that cruel voice, latches onto the first thought that'll shut my mother up for sure.
His mouth.The way he'd groaned.
His cock.
My body heats, remembering how it felt to take him in my mouth for the first time. That heavy weight on my tongue, his fingers twisting in my hair, the shock of how muchIwantedit.
I'd never made a man lose control like that.
"Nearly there," Declan says, his deep voice catching my thoughts off guard.
The mansion appears at the end of the gated drive like something out of a glossy real estate ad, the big cream stone walls reflecting the moon as we approach. He pulls into the circular drive, next to Beck's primer-spotted Bronco and Mason's sleek Audi.
"Wait," I say as he looks across at me. "Are your brothers—"
"Still at the bar. Beck was challenging Finn to a drinking contest when we left, so they'll be a while." He kills the engine. "Diego is there too. He texted me a photo of himself doing a tequila shot off Mack's bar with the captiondon't wait up, mama's celebrating."
A laugh bursts out of me. "So we're—"
"Alone." His blue eyes find mine in the dark, and my stomach flips. "We've got hours."
Hours. Alone. In this house.
My pussy clenches like it's been waiting all night for permission.
I follow him to the front door, and he taps the smart lock, the huge wooden doors swinging open into a foyer drenched in moonlight. The whole house is hushed, and the endless windows frame the ocean like the most expensive painting I've ever seen.
Then I hear a soft scuffle of nails on hardwood, and then—
"Oh my God." Biscuit comes trotting around the corner, tail wagging, looking deeply unimpressed at being woken. I crouch down and scratch behind his ears. "Hi, baby."
"Oh yes," Declan murmurs, watching me. "There's the man of the house."
"You said you didn't want him."
