Page 79 of Alec’s Dream

“Good, baby. I won’t let you down.”

I didn’t think he would.

Alec leaned forward. His lips glided across mine, feather-soft. I wanted more—a lot more. I wanted him to take my mouth in one of his claiming kisses. I wanted to taste him. I wanted him to own me. I wanted him to know that I was on board and no longer going to fight our attraction.

“More of that tonight, too, baby,” Alec whispered.

Something to look forward to.

With a hard closed-mouth kiss to my forehead, he walked away.

24

Alec felt the change—it was significant.

Macy was coming into herself, and goddamn, it was a thing of beauty. She stood her ground with Jonny and had made an incredibly hard decision to put a stop to her ex seeing her kids. It was the right thing, but Alec knew it wasn’t something she ever wanted to do. But she did it to protect her kids, and in doing so, stood up for herself.

She’d also trusted him with her son. That hadn’t felt good, it felt fucking great knowing she’d believed in him to guide Caleb through his anger. And holy shit, was the kid furious—for all the right reasons—but Caleb was just that, a kid.

It both pissed Alec off and made him proud how protective and loyal Caleb was to the women in his life. However, he was twelve and shouldn’t have ever been put in the position to protect his mother and sister. The boy was sharp, seriously smart and wise beyond what Alec thought someone his age should be. Caleb understood what was going on and knew his father’s troubles had leached into their lives and his mother was eating shit and they were all in danger.

Alec had mostly listened while Caleb had ranted about what a jerk his father was. Which was something Alec could relate to. His own father had been a bastard. Not to the extreme the dickwad was, but Alec’s own childhood had not been roses. His mother had cowed to his father, allowing the man to come in and out of Alec’s life at will, never staying too long, gone more than he was around.

It was not lost on Alec the damage a father could do to his son. He’d long ago recognized the cost of having an absentee father and understood that was why he’d never committed to anything other than the military. Alec was not stupid and was cognizant of his shortcomings. He only hoped that some of his own personal experiences would help him navigate Caleb so he, too, didn’t grow into a man with the same issues.

“Becky wants Macy and the kids to come stay with us,” Rob said, pulling Alec from his thoughts.

“No,” Alec protested. “They’re staying here.”

Alec glanced into the den where Macy, Becky, McKenna, Kennedy, Silver, and Rory gathered. Becky was fawning over Macy, and by the look of it, Macy wasn’t happy.

Jocelyn had gone down for her nap and Caleb had happily taken the tablet Alec had offered him and was currently playing some game he’d asked to download.

“I agree they’d be safer here. But my wife is still going to push. She wants Macy and those kids within touching distance.”

“Respect, Rob, to both you and your wife, but that’s not gonna happen. I get Macy’s her girl and she loves Aurora and Caleb, but you might wanna have a word because if she pushes and it upsets Macy more than she already is, I’m gonna be pissed. And by the look on my woman’s face, she’s edging towards upset as we speak.”

Alec knew Rob was far from stupid, that he understood where Alec was with Macy. Rob also knew Alec was making headway with the kids and Alec would not let that be derailed by them going to stay with the Keenes, even if it was safe for them to do so. Which it was not. Rob and Becky lived across the street and two doors down from the dickhead and their house was not secure the way Alec’s was. On top of that, they had two young sons to think about.

“Shit,” Rob grumbled. But before he could make the decision to shut his wife’s attempts down, a commotion in the woman huddle caught their attention.

This being Rory screaming, “No!”

Then as fast as her little legs could carry her, Rory ran full-out toward Alec.

He didn’t wait for the girl to hit his legs, he simply swept her up into his arms, his eyes skidding to Macy’s. A myriad of emotions flitted over her features before she closed her eyes.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Alec whispered.

“I don’t want to leave.”

“You’re not going anywhere.”

Alec watched Macy make her way across the room, her movements stiff and tense. Her gaze went around the room and landed on Caleb for a moment before they settled on him and Aurora.

Oh yeah, the woman looked like a pissed-off lioness ready to annihilate anything threatening her cubs.

Macy stopped by Alec’s side. One of her hands went to his, the other gently brushed Rory’s cheek.