“Uh…fuck no,” he denied, after years of waiting to put it in action, not about to let anything delay him further in carrying out his plan. “About now I’m in the mood to tussle with you and see who comes out on top.”

She didn’t say anything.

“You gonna text me a room number?” he asked

“Yes, Sebring,” she answered in that voice that was almost goddamned delicate.

Which was annoying.

Because it was not annoying.

It was beautiful.

And a fucking turn on.

Shit.

“See you in a couple of hours,” he replied.

“Okay,” she said.

She might have said more but he disconnected before he heard it.

He turned to rejoin his family to see Knight leaning against the doorway.

“You in over your head?” his brother asked the second he caught his eyes.

“Absolutely,” he answered without hesitation.

“Worried as fuck about you,” Knight told him.

“Don’t be,” he replied.

Knight shook his head, pushed from the door and looked down the hall before he entered the room.

“I do not know this woman and since before you even started this shit, I’ve been askin’ around. No one knows her. She’s unknowable. Mysterious pussy can be good. But mostly, mysterious pussy is just a trap,” Knight shared.

“Not me caught in a trap, brother,” he reminded him.

His words did not reassure Knight.

“You gotta control this situation completely, Nick. You gotta be one hundred percent on the ball. I don’t need to tell you that father of hers is a fuckin’ lunatic. You know that better than anyone. And this has not changed in four and a half years except it’s gotten worse as the man gets more desperate. I didn’t finally get my brother in a way I love havin’ him, givin’ him to my woman, my girls, to have some bitch outplay him and take him away from all of us.”

Again, Nick was pissed off.

“I won’t get outplayed.”

Knight opened his mouth but didn’t get anything out.

“Don’t say more,” Nick warned. “I wanna eat a steak with my two princesses, my brother and his woman. You broil a fucking good steak and I love my princesses. I do not need to be in a shit mood while doing it ’cause that’d spoil everything.”

Knight gave him an intense look that melted into his lips quirking.

“I got my brother the way I want him too, Knight,” Nick continued. “I fucked it up with you. With Anya. I worked to earn that back. I got it. Do you think I got what I spent the afternoon with out there, then my niece is throwin’ attitude to keep her uncle close for dinner, and I’d do shit to lose that or anything I earned the last four years?”

During his speech, his brother lost the lip quirk and the intensity came back.

“No,” he answered.

“Trust me,” Nick urged.