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It was funny how I melded the men and their call signs together so seamlessly after so many months in the house.
“It’s fine,” I laughed and gave Joker a playful shove and I waddled past.
He acted out the blow, leaning heavily on King, who pushed him away with a grunt.
My mouth opened to tease them further, but a second knock put our antics to bed.
“Salesperson?” King asked, turning to Joker with a speculative gleam in his eye.
“Insurance?” Joker shot back, their hissy fit already forgotten.
“Mormon?” Their bickering turned into banter.
I shook my head as I pushed between them. “I got it.” I headed up the hall as King waved me away.
A tall person stood on the other side of the wood and stained-glass door. Maybe it was phone sales, or solar panels? There always seemed to be a new grant for that and salespeople were rife in our suburban area.
Shaking my head, I straightened my top, flicking my hair back and pasted a winning smile on my face. My boys taught me presence and facade conquered all, and I would take that part of their secrets to my grave.
My cheeks already aching, I pulled the door open, and was greeted with a pair of green eyes, sliced through with shots of yellow. Eyes I’d last seen looking at me with a sense of betrayal and defeat.
“Ruski?” I blinked, my facade and all Queen’s training forgotten until I was the same, seventeen-year-old girl who last tried to defend herself against the rumor mill that broke two hearts.
“Abby.” He extended one hand that held a single, yellow rose.
I took it, emotion swirling in my head.
Fake it ‘til you make them believe in you.
Queen’s advice was in there too, but the moment I tried to smile, my lips refused to cooperate.
Ruski looked the same as he always had: the disarming grin, the spiked hair with black roots. But he was less the twins who had worked out for fun, and more the hardened man he filled into. Lean muscle corded his arms with bumps in all the right places, and as he flashed an ID card over my head to whichever of the boys had followed me to the door, I saw why.
“You’re an ordinance specialist,” I said softly, reading his rank as my gaze flashed back to him.
And that was the thing that caught my attention most: the weathered hurt and grief concealed behind some lighter facade. I recognized it because every man in the house had that same concealed pain.
I saw it when I looked in the mirror.
“I’m here to replace a Queen,” he said with a soft smile directed at me.
Ace’s snort behind me drew me back to the present. “You’ll have to start at a lower rank than that, princess.”
“I can do that.” Omitting thesirthat should have accompanied his address, my ex-boyfriend stepped over the threshold, and in front of the men who had become my family and accepted me and my bump, Ruski kissed me.
CHAPTER TWO
RUSKI
The man behind Abbygrowled, but I didn’t give a fuck. I’d spent years dreaming of seeing Abby again, and now she was right in front of me... well. There was only one thing a soldier can do when presented with an opportunity like the one before me in the field.
She gasped, her balled fists pressing into my belly to protect her bump.
I ignored the gesture—not because I was an asshole but because she wasn’t pushing me away, per se, and it wasn’t like we didn’t know exactly what each other felt like, our bodies pressed together on a sweltering summer night in Bangkok.
Abby drew back with a gasp. “You shouldn’t have done that,” she whispered.
“But I wanted to.” I grinned, holding her close, my fingers curved around the angle of her jaw, grazing over the soft skin of her throat. Her pulse fluttered frantically beneath my fingers where I cradled her against me.
