Page 38

REED

When I leftGia in bed this morning, it took everything in me not to slide between her legs and pump her full of my cum again, but given we barely slept all night, I figured she wouldn’t appreciate me disturbing her again.

Knowing Tyson has fucked my girl makes me feel more possessive and wilder with rage than ever before. He’s had a part of her, one I thought was solely for me, and the bastard who took her hand in marriage.

But I’ll fucking show him. I can be everything Gia and my family need and so much more.

Instead, I’m stuck at work listening to my best friends’ so-called advice.

“So let me get this straight. You want to borrow my daughter so you can show your new family that you like kids.” Shaw’s lip curls into a sneer.

“I need to prove I like kids.” I shrug a shoulder.

“You don’t like kids,” Tate tacks on.

“I can like them for a day.” How difficult can it be?

“Hate to break it to you, but you’re going to have to like them for more than a day if you expect Gia to move in with you,” Owen adds.

“Kids are cute,” Mase says, and I shoot him a glare. Why the fuck does he always get so sappy around babies and kids? “They like me.” He grins like the cat that got the cream. They like him because he’s nothing more than a kid inside a grown-ass man’s body.

“Kids can like me,” I grumble back.

Tate leans forward, and his eyes bore into mine. “Dude. You told Eleanor that Santa wasn’t real.”

“Who?”

He groans, then slaps a hand over his face, dragging it down dramatically. “Eleanor, the kid you’re trying to borrow.” Tate throws his arm out toward Shaw, the father of the kid in question.

All I know is, he’s the one with the oldest child. So surely, that’s the safest option, and I have a point to make to Gia and Bryce, but also the prick who won’t go away. I need them all to know I’m a family man. The only man they need.

“I need a dog too,” I admit with a grimace.

The guys look at each other with wide eyes, then back to me. It would be comical how shocked they are if I wasn’t so irritated by their lack of enthusiasm for my situation.

How hard can it be to take a dog and child to the park to meet Gia and Bryce? To prove to them I’m everything they need, and more importantly, everything they want.

“Aren’t you allergic to dogs?” Mase asks.

“Apparently, not all dogs.” I lift a shoulder. I don’t have a rash, so it appears Tyson’s dog is a viable option to be around. I just need something with a little more character to it.

When Gia explained that the wolf dog wasn’t theirs, but instead Tyson, the cockhead’s, she suggested taking my dog to the park this weekend. When she added for me to bring my friends’ kids too for a picnic, I don’t know what I was more surprised at, the fact I felt like this was some sort of test or the fact I’d have to sit outside and eat in an open space, where it’s common knowledge bugs are every-fucking-where.

Why would anyone choose to eat outside in a park? Around animals and kids and bugs and dirt. Ew… A shudder ripples through me.

“Oh, and she has another man living with her. Tyson.” I spit his name out like poison on my tongue. “All beefed up, and the kids fucking love him.” I sneer. “He’s just waiting in the wings for me to fuck up.”

“How do you know?” Shaw asks.

“Huh?”

“How do you know he’s waiting for you to fuck up? He could be her brother, like in Tate’s situation when he punched the kid.” He’s referring to the time Tate unleashed hell on a guy in Ava’s apartment and it turned out to be her brother. I wince at the memory.

“He’s not her brother. She said he’s her husband’s best friend.”

“There you go.” He nods, as if that clarifies things. It doesn’t, not for me anyway. They look like a family unit, and I’m the one intruding, the one on the outskirts looking in. Not needed. I have to make a stand in this dynamic, make sure this shithead knows his place.

“You’re jealous?” Owen’s eyebrows rise.