Brothers in Blue: Marc Read online

  Once he heard the gym’s door close quietly behind him, he let out a searing curse.

  It was bad enough when he hadn’t touched her. But now…

  He was so screwed.

  And he was risking both of their careers. Like the dumbass he was.

  Marc let himself in his parents’ front door, his ten-month old puppy, Menace, squeezing past him in a rush.

  “Jeez, asshole, you almost knocked me over,” he scolded the dog, not that the gangly mastiff was listening. He was already bee-lining to the kitchen where he knew there would be food. After all, he was a growing dog, now wasn’t he.

  Marc was beat. After doing the double-back from the three to eleven shift last night to working the seven to three shift this morning, he was freaking exhausted. And he wasn’t even including the wrestling he and Leah had gotten into on the mat. That had taken a toll also, as well as their stilted conversations throughout the rest of the day.

  He didn’t seem to be the only one relieved at three when their shift ended. He bet Leah had gone home and collapsed. If he hadn’t already committed to dinner at his parents’, he’d be snoozing on the couch with the TV on, a cold beer next to him, and a farting mastiff doubling as a blanket.

  But family obligations and all that. And anyway, his mother was a better cook than him. So no complaints there.

  He followed the direction Menace had gone and ended up in the kitchen. The oversized puppy sat at his mother’s feet, his tail thumping heavily against the floor, as she stirred something on the stove.

  “Smells good, Ma.” He walked over and peered into the pot before landing a loud, sloppy kiss on her cheek.

  Mary Ann Bryson pushed him away with a laugh. “Stop it. You’re as bad as Dennis with sloppy kisses. You’re never going to find a woman if you kiss like that.”

  Ew. He’d never kiss her the same way as he would a woman. Not his mother.

  And, obviously, one of his mother’s immediate goals in life was to get him hitched and to start producing offspring like he was a prized farm animal.

  “Ma, his name is Menace.”

  She wiped her hands on the dish towel tucked into her waist band. “You know I refuse to call him that.”

  “You don’t have any problem with Chaos’ name.”

  Marc could see no difference between his puppy’s name and Max and Amanda’s border collie Chaos. It was probably only because Max was her first born. Being the middle child always sucked.

  His mother just waved her hand at him like he was a gnat buzzing near her ear.

  “Who names their dog Menace?”

  Marc spun toward the female voice. The rookie stood in the doorway to the kitchen, leaning against the jamb, her arms crossed at her chest.

  What in the holy fuck was she doing here?

  “Someone cool, that’s who,” he answered her with a frown. He lifted his hands up in question wanting to know what the hell was happening here.

  Leah ignored the gesture and gave him an exaggerated eye roll. “Someone cool, huh?” If the eye roll was any bigger, she would’ve sprained them.

  She wore form-fitting blue jeans and a maroon, snug—Yes!—long-sleeved T-shirt. Her feet were bare against the wood floor, and—Sweet baby Jesus—her hair was down. It draped around her shoulders like a silk curtain. Straight as an ironing board. Not one curl to be seen.

  An image of him running his fingers through all that length flashed through him, but he pushed it away when he noticed the dark smudges under both of her eyes. She was just as exhausted as he was.

  Menace got off his lanky ass and barreled toward her like a galloping giraffe. Leah moved to brace herself before the impact. Marc rushed forward and snagged his collar just in time as the dog launched himself at her.

  “Settle, you fool,” he told the excited puppy.

  Ignoring the near disaster, his mother asked in her booming voice, “Oh Leah! How was your shower?”

  “Hot and deliciously wonderful.”

  Like the woman in front of him.

  “I’m sure it felt good after that stupid quick turnaround shift. Those ridiculous things. I don’t know why the department does that. I’ve never agreed with it, even when your father did them way back when.” She shook the wooden spoon at Marc before turning back to the stove.

  It was Marc’s turn to roll his eyes. Like he had any control over double-back shifts. She needed to talk to her eldest son, the one that was actually in charge. “Where’s Pop?”

  “I don’t know. But you know he won’t miss dinner. That man never misses a meal. Honey, why don’t you go into the living room and cuddle up with a blanket until dinner is done.”

  Great idea! He could use a little nap.

  “That sounds like a plan,” Leah murmured and she disappeared into the next room. Menace followed on her heels.

  Apparently, his mother hadn’t been talking to him, her own son. Leah had usurped the “honey” title in the house. That was just wrong. But never mind that, why was his mother acting as though she was family? Was Leah related somehow and Max never said anything? He thought back in horror at the episode in the wrestling gym earlier.

  No way.

  Marc brought this voice down to a rough whisper. “What’s she doing here? She’s not related to us, right?”

  Oh say no. Please say no.

  “No, silly! When Max hired her, she had no place to stay, so we offered to put her up until she finds a place of her own.”

  Fucking Max. “So Max suggested this?”

  “Yes. He actually encouraged it.”

  He was going to kill his brother. It was bad enough that he not only hired a woman, but he was making Marc coach her, and now… Now his pupil, recruit, rookie—fuck—his sexual fantasy was living in his parent’s home. Right. Next. Door.

  Pork roll. Pig cheeks. Pork belly.

  Shit.

  “Don’t you think it’s a noble gesture that she wanted to become a police officer like her father?”

  When his mother spoke, he realized he’d been staring blindly at the empty doorway since Leah had left. He shook his head to clear it. “What? What are you talking about?”

  “Her wanting to be a cop after her dad died in the line of duty.”

  Now he’d have to resurrect Max’s dead body and kill him all over again. “Yeah, that’s great,” he said absently, thinking about all the ways he could murder his older brother and dispose of the body.

  His mother stopped what she was doing and glanced at him. “You did know, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, Ma. Of course I did. She’s my rookie.”

  His mother’s eyebrows pinned together as she clicked her tongue. “Silly, she’s the department’s rookie… Or…is she your rookie, Marc?”

  Well if that wasn’t a loaded question then he didn’t know what was. And he certainly was not falling into his mother’s trap. One slip and she’d have the rings picked out and the venue booked. No matter that he’d only known Grant for three days. She’s a female and to his mother a potential candidate for popping out grandchildren. She probably already inspected Leah’s womb, just to check her potential.

  He wanted to ask his mother a million questions about the bombshell she just dropped, but couldn’t, so he bit his tongue. He would ask his rookie himself. Though he was a bit disturbed on why she hadn’t mentioned this to him herself in the twenty-four hours they’d spent together in close quarters.

  With the excuse that he was looking for Menace, he wandered casually into the living room to find—

  His father sat at one end of the couch, while Leah reclined with her feet in his lap.

  What the fuck!

  His father was actually rubbing her feet. He was tempted to call his mother into the room to stop the shit he was seeing.

  Leah’s eyes were closed as she laid her head back on the arm of the couch, a crocheted blanket tossed haphazardly over her, clearly not covering her breasts or her long legs.

  Totally unacceptable.

 
; His father was talking in a low voice, telling her about how he remembered doing those quick turnaround shifts and how they sucked. And when he got home, Mary Ann would always massage his feet and draw him a nice hot bath.

  He was playing the sympathetic flirt.

  Oh, today was just full of fucking surprises.

  His father looked up at him, a teasing smile on his face. “Did you just growl?”

  Marc cleared his throat. “No, I had a tickle.”

  Leah’s eyes popped open as his mother bustled into the room, shoving Marc out of her way. Now things were going to get ugly. No one messed with his mother’s man. She’d put an end to it. Any moment now. Just wait.

  Mary Ann approached the couch, straightening out the blanket over Leah and tucking it around her. “Well, aren’t you sweet, Ron, rubbing her feet after an exhausting day. You should take some lessons, son. Your father knows how to take care of a woman.”

  But Leah wasn’t his Pop’s woman, she was his…rookie.

  Marc wanted to pull his hair and run out of the room. But instead, he stood there like a dumbass in stunned silence, watching the bizarre display before him. His parents must have been abducted by aliens. No other explanation for it.

  “I crocheted that blanket for Ron twenty years ago. Didn’t I, hon?”

  His father’s, “Yep,” and nod of his head didn’t slow his fingers from pushing on the soles of Leah’s feet.

  A long, loud fart filled the room and all eyes turned toward Marc. His eyebrows shot to his hairline and heat flooded his cheeks. “That wasn’t me! That was Menace!”

  The half-grown puppy lifted his head for a second when he heard his name, then went back to licking his balls.

  On her way back to the kitchen, his mother patted Marc on the cheek as she passed him. “Sure it was, honey, sure it was.”

  He heard a noise from the direction of the couch and when he glanced over, Leah was almost purple as she smothered her laughter.

  That was it. Time to break up the cozy massage. He’d have to do it since his mother failed to. “Ma, how long before supper?” he yelled over his shoulder.

  She peeked back into the room. “Maybe a half hour?”

  “Okay, I’m going to take Grant on a short ATV ride. Show her the property some.” To Leah he said, “You’ll need to get your boots on.” And your feet out of another man’s hands, even if he is my father.

  “Her name is Leah, Son. No reason to call her anything but her given name outside of work,” his pop said in his typical gruff voice, offering a hand up to the woman whose feet he had just been touching. Intimately.

  Marc frowned. “Fine. I’m taking Leah for a ride before it gets dark.”

  Ron asked Leah, “Do you want to go?”

  Seriously? His father was cock-blocking him?

  “Sure. Sounds fun.”

  See? Obviously she wanted to go.

  “Should your mother hold supper for you if you’re late?”

  “We won’t be late.”

  Hopefully, he wouldn’t be eating his words later.

  Marc’s four-wheeler was parked in front of the house. More accurately, on the grass right in front of the porch steps. Wouldn’t want to walk too far to stuff your pie hole. He must live close enough to be able to ride it to his parents’ property, because it clearly didn’t look street legal.

  Leah eyeballed the ATV. She had never ridden one before and, naturally, it had a single seat like on a motorcycle, so they’d be riding in tandem.

  “Helmet?” she asked when he mounted the ATV and shimmied up toward the handlebars so she could climb on behind him. And straddle his hips. And tuck his ass in between her thighs.

  Not that she was giving all that intimate contact much thought. Right.

  “None needed. We’re taking a leisurely ride, not racing around.” He nodded at Menace who sat crookedly, his pink, slobby tongue hanging out the side of his mouth while he panted. “Plus, dufus here will want to keep up, and I don’t want him running too hard on growing bones.”

  He gave her a hand to help steady her as she lifted her leg up and over, settling in behind him. The heat from his body warmed her inner thighs and…other places.

  “You’re going to have to hold on tight. I don’t want to dump you in the dirt.”

  Leah tentatively placed her hands on his waist, trying to avoid the sticky situation they had been in earlier in the day. Maybe today wasn’t the best day for such close contact.

  “Tighter.” He grabbed her wrists and pulled them around his body until her hands almost reached his belly button. She ended up smashed against his back. She wished both of them had worn thicker shirts since her nipples were hard and there was no way he wasn’t noticing them poking him from behind. She cursed silently.

  “Pulled pork!” The words escaped him in a burst.

  “What?”

  Marc shook his head and groaned. “I hope Ma is making pulled pork for dinner.”

  “Oh.”

  “Hold on,” he commanded as he started the machine between their legs and hit the accelerator.

  The ATV jumped forward, whipping her back. She scrambled to get a better hold onto the man in front of her. Menace galloped awkwardly alongside the four-wheeler, barking in excitement. At least the puppy was smart enough to stay away from the front.

  Like the first day of work, Marc went smoothly into his tour guide persona. “My parents own two hundred acres. Right before my pop retired from the force, he started planting trees. Lots and lots of Christmas trees. It’s been a great venture for him since he retired to keep busy and out of my mother’s hair.”

  He drove slowly between a barn and a newer looking pole building. The sign above the door said Boneyard Bakery.

  “That’s Max’s wife’s new place. Dad and Max built it for Amanda so she could start her own business.”

  Sounded like a loving family to her. It was nice to see a wife and in-laws getting along so well. “What does she bake?”

  “Dog biscuits. Natural, or organic, or some such shit. Tree-hugger bones for dogs.”

  Leah coughed to cover up her laugh at his description. She’d have to keep her own tree-hugging ideas to herself, since he apparently had such an ill opinion of them. “I’m sure Menace enjoys them.”

  He turned his head to look at the clumsy dog still keeping up. “Yeah. Don’t ever make the mistake of letting him in there. I don’t want to have to replace her ingredients again.”

  Leah chuckled. She could see a dog named Menace creating havoc in a building full of dog treats.

  “You’re laughing, but I’m serious. I took a financial hit on that one.”

  Once they cleared the buildings, he gave the ATV more gas and she found them riding along a dirt path between rows of pruned Christmas trees. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of them. The acreage was divided by smooth trails into squares of trees of different sizes and types as far as her eyes could see.

  The trees were healthy and beautiful, and she bet during a fresh snow they look magical. Christmassy. Fantastical. But her attention kept returning to the man in front of her. The one settled between her legs.

  His military short hair wasn’t even getting messed up, unlike hers. It would take forever and a miracle to get the knots out later. She regretted not taking the time to put her hair up into bun, or at least a pony tail.

  “You live close?” she asked the back of his neck. Staring at his skin, she wanted to reach out and taste him with the tip of her tongue to see if he was salty. She sighed as she imagined pressing her lips to the top of his spine. The vibration of the engine and his denim-clad ass pressing against her made her pussy twinge. Heat was building at her core and she felt wet with longing.

  “I recently bought the farm that butts up against this one.”

  Leah swallowed hard, trying to concentrate on what he was saying. “You wanted to be close to your parents?”

  “Yeah sort of, since they’re getting older, but the major reason was it went chea
p and had fifty acres they can use to expand the tree farm.”

  Wow. Fifty acres. The biggest piece of land she’d ever lived on was a small lot in the suburbs growing up. One where it only took twenty minutes to mow. With an old rotary mower.

  “Pop already started some seedlings on it.”

  She wiggled against him trying to relieve some of the numbness in her rear from sitting on the hard seat, as well as the growing hunger between her legs. The scooching pushed her pussy tighter against his ass, the sensitive peaks of her nipples brushing across his back. The intensity of the heat and tightness in her lower body made her close her eyes and bite her lower lip for a moment. Her breath puffed against the base of his neck.

  “Pig ears!”

  “What?”

  Marc scrubbed the top of his head with his palm. “Uh, Menace’s favorite chew toy.”

  While she was having a meltdown being pressed against him, he’s spouting off about his dog’s toy. “And what does that have to do with planting trees?”

  “Nothing. I got…distracted.”

  So, their bodies being mashed together while he putted through the rows of trees was affecting him as much as her. Good to know, but it didn’t do anything to solve her sticky situation. Simply, only two solutions came to mind. Get off the ATV and walk back to the house. Or…

  She rested her face next to his neck, her breath warm and moist against his skin. Goosebumps appeared on his arms and he tightened his grip on the handlebars until his knuckles were white.

  She flattened her fingers on his stomach and slid them up until she found his tight nipples…and hard rings? He had piercings in both nipples. She hadn’t noticed them under his shirt until she felt them. Interesting. She traced both of them with her fingers before heading south. Slowly, though. Oh so slowly. His stomach was ripped, she discovered as she felt the bulges of his muscles on her way down. She wanted to count each firm muscle to see if he truly had a six-pack, but she was on a mission. Both of her hands landed on his hips, squeezing for a moment before meeting in the middle.

  The ATV suddenly swerved, causing her to rock against him. The denim under her fingers was stretched to almost the breaking point. His length hard and thick under his jeans.