Page 89 of Undeniably Corrupt

I’m blushing like crazy. Especially when everyone looks at me and smiles.

“I’m going to cut out your liver and kidneys and sell them on the black market,” I hiss under my breath.

He doesn’t get the chance to respond as a giant man with reddish-brown hair and green eyes comes over to me. “Hey, Liora. I’m Mason. You might not?—”

“I remember you. Hi. I’m Liora.” Then I cover my face because he already knows who I am. He just said my name.

Mason chuckles and tosses his arm around me like we’ve been best friends forever. “Aw, don’t do that. Come in and meet everyone.”

“Hi. I’m Hazel.”

“Hi, Hazel. I’m Mason. I’m a friend of Vander’s and your mommy’s.” Mason gives her a megawatt smile. “Do you want to come see the playroom? That’s where Willow, Fen, and Rory are.”

“Playroom!”

Hazel squirms out of Vander’s arms and immediately takesMason’s hand so he can show her where the playroom is, and I have a bad feeling about all of this.

“Wow,” Vander muses as we go in to greet everyone else, and I’m blinking at Loomis Powell like a deer in headlights. “I never thought I’d see the day when Liora James is starstruck.”

“Shut up,” I snap under my breath. “I’m not starstruck. Just… off-kilter. You ambushed me.”

“No. I mean it. It’s cute. Mason is married to Sorel, and Loomis is in love with Keegan. Plus I’m the possessive-of-you type, so you’re stuck with me. Now I might have to kill my friends, but it’s still cute.”

I glare daggers at him.

“In addition to your kidneys and liver, you’re going to lose your testicles by the end of this.”

“Then how will I fill you with all my cum?”

I choke on my tongue. “I hate you.”

“Nah. You love me.” He winks at me, and before I can make good on my threat, Katy intercepts us.

“Hi! You’re here. I’m so happy to see you.” She gives me an epic hug. “Come in. We’re having wine and eating a lot of yummy things. Oh, and Wren baked these amazing…” She trails off as she takes my hand and walks me toward the dining room I hadn’t noticed—because I was too busy staring at freaking Loomis Powell—filled with women. “Wren, what do you call those things? Everyone, this is Liora. Liora, this is everyone.”

I awkwardly wave, but that’s not good enough for them. These women, with the exception of the blonde nursing the newborn, get up and hug me and introduce themselves to me one by one. I’m not a hugger, but that doesn’t seem to matter. Some of them I vaguely remember. Like Keegan and Kenna. The others are new to me, and I’m not sure who they belong to or how they work in the group, but it doesn’t seem to matter. They all do. They’re family.

“They’re sugar-free raspberry oatmeal bars,” Wren tells her. “Hi. I’m Wren. You work with my boyfriend, Jack.”

She points across the room, and I turn and see him talking to Vander along with Bennett. I hadn’t noticed them there before either. Great. I work with them. More awkward.

“They’re sugar-free because I’m a type 1 diabetic,” Katy informs me. “But they’re still delicious, and you’d never know they didn’t have real sugar in them.”

“Here. You look like you could use this.” Kenna pours me a large glass of red wine that I gratefully accept. I haven’t had alcohol in a million years but screw it. She’s right. I could use it.

“Thank you.”

“Sorry,” Tinsley apologizes with a sheepish grin. “We’re just excited. You’re the only woman Vander’s ever brought to meet us.”

“Probably because he keeps the others locked in his basement,” I quip as I take a sip. “But it’s not like that. I work for him, and he saw us in the park.”

“If I weren’t married to Mason and didn’t have a baby sucking on my nipples, I would have let Vander lock me in his basement.”

I snort into my wine, and Sorel smiles at me.

“I remember those days. The new baby nursing all the time and lack of sleep thing.”

“Right?” Katy agrees. “Why I want to do it again is a mystery.”