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We really didn’t think this through.
Thankfully he doesn’t and I expect Conor and Liam have also thought of that and are distracting him while guiding him to the dining room where we’re all waiting in the dark.
“Why would they be in here?” I hear him ask as the door opens and the light is switched on.
“Surprise!” we all yell and he stands there, blinking in shock as he scans the room. When his eyes land on mine, he narrows them for a second before he is ushered through the door by Conor and Liam, then he’s distracted by everyone rushing forward to greet him and wish him a happy birthday.
I hang back with Mikey, wondering just how pissed he is at us for this. It takes him a few minutes to work his way through the small group because they haven’t seen him for a long time and they all want to talk to him. While we’re waiting, Liam and Conor make their way over to us.
“What the fuck was that, asshole?” Conor says to Mikey with a shake of his head but a smile on his face.
“You couldn’t think of another reason to get us back here?” Liam adds. “He’s gonna be so pissed that he’s shaking hands and making small talk right now instead of fucking Jessie.”
“Liam!” I blush at his words even though I thought exactly the same thing.
“It’s true, baby.” He flashes his eyebrows at me before he wraps his arms around my waist and kisses me softly. “He’ll blame Mikey though, don’t worry,” he adds with a laugh.
“You told me he was being kinda slow getting back here, jackass. Everyone was here waiting. What was I supposed to do?” Mikey punches his twin playfully on the shoulder.
“Stop fighting, children,” Conor says with a roll of his eyes before he leans in and kisses me softly. “You okay, Angel? You look kinda scared.”
“What if he’s really mad?” I whisper.
Conor shrugs. “He’s always mad about something.”
Shane walks up behind him as he’s finishing his sentence. “That’s because the four of you constantly give me shit to be mad about,” he says, but there is no anger in his voice at all and there is a smile on his lips.
Mikey wraps his arms around him. “Happy birthday, old man!”
“You know my birthday is next month, right?” Shane says as he slaps Mikey on the back.
“Yeah, but there’s no way we could have pulled this off too close to your birthday. You’d have been too suspicious,” Mikey replies.
Shane hugs each of his brothers in turn and they joke good-naturedly. Then he reaches me, his eyes narrowed as he looks at me. “I have a hunch that you were the mastermind behind this, Jessie Ryan!”
I stare at him as wet heat pools in my core. His brothers drift away to speak to the other guests, who are their friends and family too, leaving Shane and me alone.
“So?”
“Yeah,” I whisper. “Surprise.” I still don’t know if he’s annoyed with me or not. I mean, he seemed okay with his brothers. “Are you mad?”
“Damn right I am.” He nods as he takes a step closer to me and wraps his arms around my waist. Bending his head low until his mouth is close to my ear, his breath skitters over my skin, making me tremble. “I thought I was coming home to fuck you into tomorrow, sweetheart,” he whispers before he presses a soft kiss on my throat that makes my knees buckle.
“But you can do that any time you want,” I remind him. “How often do you get to spend time with your closest friends and family all together like this?”
“I’ve never done anything like this,” he says as he glances around the room.
“It will be fun. And I like that we get to see your friends from LA again,” I smile. I met them at a wedding earlier this year and got along so well with them all, especially Alana and her adopted daughter, Lucia, who is only eight years younger than her mom and five years younger than me. I couldn’t wait for an opportunity to see them again.
That was how this whole thing came about. Alana and I were talking about how it would be great to have another occasion to get together because the boys are so busy with work. Then she talked about how much she missed New York and Shane’s upcoming birthday seemed like the perfect excuse.
“Hmm.” He pulls me closer to him. “Did you and Alana come up with this? Because Alejandro doesn’t do birthday parties either. Well, not unless they involve a bouncy house these days.”
“Well, I think his wife is a good influence on him that way too,” I purr as I run my hands over the lapels of his suit jacket. “It’s good to have fun in between all that working, you know?”
“I have plenty of fun.” He grins before he starts to kiss my neck again and warmth spreads through me.
“Not that kind of fun, you deviant,” I giggle.
