I leave the woman chuckling and head out in search of my hiding husband, finding him in his study, his usual hiding spot.
“You’re such a girl.”
He turns in his chair and grins at me, his blue eyes twinkling when I scowl and narrow my eyes.
“How the heck have you gotten through three years without once touching that shit?”
“Ah, determination, love. Determination. We still on for tonight?”
“Hell yeah! If those idiots aren’t smart enough to say no to babysitting those monsters, I’m not giving them the chance to back out. Cammy is taking Ben and Mad.”
It’s been a hell of a ride these last three years raising two kids and three devil’s spawn, while keeping my family and friends together and trying to orchestrate a peace treaty between the Jasper men.
Eddie has not only given up the company to Luc, stating that he’s too old to care and too in love with his grandchildren to waste time on business, and has moved here to be closer.
He’s the reason Ben finally opened up about Wesley, and he’s so good with the two bigger ones that I hardly get a minute with them anymore. Everything in their lives is Gramps-related, and while I miss that connection, I’m just grateful that they have one old-timer to depend on.
The Terribles, as you know, are the most horrid little angels ever born, and they keep me on my toes—sometimes I dream about selling them to the circus just to get a break, but then I know they’d just give them back, possibly pay me to take them.
The Goldens are incorrigible and still going strong, hence my current luck in free, unsuspecting babysitting so that I can have one full night to bang my husband without puke, poop, or drool coating my body.
Cammy and Brody aren’t together anymore because, according to her, if a guy can’t handle her brand of nutso, he can kiss her arse, or something like that. I’m not too worried, since I’ve seen the way he looks at her, all super possessive and fierce.
He’ll chase her down and tie her to his bed one of these days, something I’ve sworn to help him with—it’s a secret on pain of death, since the Goldens will scalp me if they think I’ve gone Vader on them and joined the dark side.
Wesley, after almost two years of hiding, came back to the States—he’d spent all the money he made from my stolen ring and looked worse than shit.
Lucian refuses to tell me what happened to him, and I accept it because, as much as I love him, I still have to sleep next to the guy, and I don’t need to know everything he’s capable of.
And now, now I’m just happy after years of not really living and being a step away from total apathy.
There’s not much more to say, other than I’m blissfully happy with my crazy husband and crazier kids.
Turns out that when I made a deal with the devil, it was the smartest thing I ever did.
# End #
ONE WEEK
Chapter One
Becky
“Stupid freaking idiots. I hope they all get the clap and crab crotch,” I mutter under my breath as the hags that work in my office continue to titter and cast sly glances my way, as if by some chance I don’t know that they’re talking about me or taking the mickey.
Goddamned simpletons haven’t stopped giving me hell since my boss, Abigail Cox, chewed my ass out in front of the entire office and their mothers, for something I didn’t even do!
“Hey Becky? Is it true Abi’s got you on probation?”
I snarl silently and force my lips to smile, even though I’d like nothing better than to walk up to Trish and her coven and start swinging haymakers their way.
But my parents and four brothers had been adamant that I use my self-defense skills only in matters of self-defense. A lady does not beat the crud out of other people just because they’re spiteful.
Or so they all have been telling me since the fourth grade, when I’d given Duffy Simon a shiner and broken one of his teeth. They’d made me pay for the cap on his tooth for six months with my pocket money and made me promise not to use the skills my brothers had taught me unless I have to.
So instead of answering I keep the smile pasted on my face and shrug, something I’ve been doing so much it’s a wonder my shoulders aren’t lopsided by now.
It’s an attitude I’ve had to adopt for the last three months, after Peter Gunther, one of the top lawyers in the firm, had started sexually harassing me and spread the rumor that I’d slept with his disgusting carcass.
It’s the reason my boss is being such a crone—Peter is her secret crush, though from the looks of her, the secret is so out—and the reason I’m trying to ignore the ‘friendship’ offers from half the secretarial pool.