He’d even missed the actual proposal last night, since Patrick had done it after tying Lexie up and suspending her on stage as part of one of the ‘acts’ celebrating the opening of his new club, Marquis. Sharon could understand why Jake didn’t want to see his sister naked. Maybe that would be enough to keep him away from Stronghold for a while. And if it wasn’t, maybe she could see more of what Marquis had to offer.

She’d already bought a membership there... But she didn’t want to go alone all the time, and the rest of their friends preferred Stronghold.

Whatever. She’d figure it out.

The awkwardness had to wear off after a few weeks anyway, right?

Reaching out, Jake opened his eyes when he realized the soft curves that should have been snuggled up against him were missing.

He frowned.

Yeah, he had definitely not come home alone last night. With a slight groan, he rolled onto his back, covering his eyes with his hands as a headache started to pulse behind his eyes in response to the sunlight. He’d had way too much to drink.

Enough that he’d thought indulging in his inexplicable attraction to Sharon was a good idea.

Let’s just get it out of our systems. That’s what he’d said to her. It had made sense at the time. And she’d agreed. Pretty enthusiastically. Although she had also reiterated multiple times that it was a fucking terrible idea, from the moment she’d gotten into his apartment right through her first orgasm on his tongue and until he’d finally gotten his cock in her.

Then she had stopped thinking it was such a bad idea.

He smirked, but it faded quickly.

It hadn’t been the great idea he’d thought it was last night.

Whether or not it was a bad one remained to be seen.

Before he could really start thinking through the ramifications, his phone started buzzing and loudly beeping. Not his alarm.

With a groan, he rolled towards it and grabbed it up, blinking at the screen through bleary eyes. Five new text messages from Lexie? All at once?

Adrenaline shot through him, the stimulant clearing his system of any sleepiness. Time in the army had taught him how to go from groggy to fully awake and battle ready in a matter of seconds. Not that he needed to be battle ready for whatever his sister wanted - at least, he’d better not be.

He relaxed slightly as soon as he saw the first message - a photo of her new engagement ring sparkling from her dainty finger. She wouldn’t be sending that if something were wrong.

Following the ring picture was a series of messages from Lexie -

ENGAGED! You rat, you didn’t stick around last night to see!

AND GUESS WHAT?!