Sharp Change(4)

Unfortunately, she wasn’t interested.

Her disinterest was like a slap in the face. He struggled against the impulse to get near her and wrestled his lust for dominance in order to stay away.

Turning toward his brother, he realized River had been saying something while he’d been mentally stripping Sophia and doing all kinds of dirty, probably illegal-in-some-states things to her.

The barrage of sexual thoughts overran his brain like a virus on a hard drive. Whenever her name popped into his head, he got so hard he felt the denim tighten around his cock into a painful unyielding fist.

“So?” River’s brows lifted as he waited for a response.

“So, what?” He winced at his brother’s disgustingly happy smirk. God, just shoot him now. He was going to have to put up with this for how long?

“You weren’t even listening to me were you? I said Sunday Julia and I are having a barbecue, and we want you to come over. It’s not a party, so there’s no need to freak out thinking you’re going to be dodging panties. It’s just the four of us.”

River’s strong features resembled his own—dark hair cut to the nape of his neck and brown eyes that they got from their mother, and the fierce, angular planes of their faces they got from their father.

His brother was a little shorter than Chase’s six foot three. Both were muscular and got a lot of female attention. Of course now his brother was oblivious to any woman but his wife.

“The four of us?” Chase put his empty beer bottle down.

Julia came over, put down a napkin, and plunked down a fresh bottle. She leaned over the counter and gave her husband a quick kiss. Great, so he was going to have to watch them play footsie while Sophia pretended he didn’t exist.

“Did you ask him?” She smiled at River, then turned to Chase.

“I just did, sweetheart. He still hasn’t said if he’s coming.” He grabbed her hand and lifted it to his lips. She stared at him, the heat in their eyes clearly visible for anyone to see.

Julia gave Chase a small frown. “Well? Can you come? I really want you there, Chase.” She gave her husband a small pleasure-filled smile. “We’ve got something we need to tell you guys, but we only want to do it once, so you have to be there.” She grinned. Her eyes sparkled when she spoke.

He’d never seen River as happy as he was since meeting his mate. It made Chase feel uncomfortable to be a voyeur to their love-fest.

“Ah shit, come on Julia, do you honestly think I’d ever say no to you? I’d never hear the end of it from Don Juan over here.” He curled his lip in his trademark smile and winked at his sister-in-law.

Julia was family now, and he did anything in his power to make the females in his family happy. Even if that meant torturing himself to be near the woman of his every dirty fantasy.

She laughed, grabbed Chase’s face, and kissed him loudly on the cheek, which shocked a blush out of him. Fuck, now she was trying to turn him into a domestic animal.

No way, he was alpha and still the dominant leader of his pack.

“Great!” she said. “Just make sure you come, or I’ll have to hunt you down and make a wolf rug out of you.” Without waiting for a reply she went back to serving drinks, her happiness radiating warmth all around.

“So, are you going to be OK with Sophia joining us?”

Chase’s gaze landed on his brother and his shrewd stare. He didn’t want to know what River meant by his probing, but he could only think that his sibling had noticed Sophia’s obvious dislike of him. For fuck’s sake, the woman acted like he had rabies. Whenever he walked in, she walked out.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?”

“Hmm. No reason. Then I’ll call you Sunday. Don’t forget.” River gave him the look that he’d given him before his wedding, the one that said if you try to get out of this, I’ll bitch and moan so much you’ll visualize killing me multiple times.

Fan-fucking-tastic.



* * *



Sophia woke up to a loud ringing next to her bed. She groaned, turned over, and tried to ignore the cell phone on her bedside table. But the loud sound of Cindy Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” wouldn’t shut up.

Why the hell had she let Julia pick her own ringtone?

She reached blindly until her hand grasped the phone and pressed the button on the side to stop the annoying sound. She put the device to her ear under the pillow, her voice muffled when she spoke. “The house better be burning down around me or you are so dead.”

Her sister’s tinkling laughter on the other end made her wince. God, when did she start laughing so loud?

“Get your ass up, you lazy bum. Did you forget our barbecue? You’ve got exactly two hours to get up, get ready, and get some chocolate cake at the bakery.” Julia’s voice turned a little rough. “Do not forget the chocolate cake, or I’ll make you go back and get it.”