Honeymoon from Hell III (3 page)

Well, that wasn’t entirely
true since there was a very good chance that he might come
back…
different
. It
had happened before to several of the men that had married into the
family and to be honest, she really didn’t like to think about them
or what had happened during their “Welcoming.” She certainly
couldn’t allow herself to think about it now, because the thought
of Connor coming back
changed
like those other men before him terrified
her.

To this day she still cringed when she
thought about the first man that she’d seen “welcomed” into the
family. That was the first time that she’d ever seen a grown man
cry. It hadn’t been a pretty sight and it wasn’t something that she
liked to think of, especially now that poor Connor was going
through the same level of hell.

Maybe she shouldn’t have egged her brothers
on to do it, she thought as panic tried to take over and threatened
to send her running for her keys and her cellphone, praying that
she could find them before it was too late, but she knew that
nothing that she said or did at this point would make a difference
to the men in her family. They were doing whatever it was that they
did to ensure that the men that married into this family followed
their rules and they wouldn’t stop doing whatever it was to Connor
that they were doing until they were positive that he was never
going to hurt her.

There had only been one man in the history
of their family that she knew of who hadn’t made it through the
“initiation” and that was Trevor’s father. For whatever reason,
they’d decided to put his father through their initiation process
before he got a chance to propose to Trevor’s mother. As soon as
they’d found out that he’d got her pregnant they’d beat the shit
out of him before quietly taking him off to God only knows where
Bradfords went when they were making sure that a man was good
enough to join the family.

From what she’d heard from her father and
the rest of the older generation of Bradford men that had taken
part in the initiation, he’d quickly failed to meet their
standards. They’d decided that he wasn’t good enough to marry into
their family, but because of Trevor, they’d decided to put him
through a completely different initiation, letting him know exactly
what they expected of him and what would happen if he failed as a
father.

Apparently he’d completely forgotten that
warning several times over the years, forcing the men in their
family to pay him a visit and refresh his memory. The last time
that he’d failed Trevor had been the final straw. After Jason had
gotten a few swings in, the rest of the men stepped in and took
care of him. She’d only been a child at the time and she wasn’t
supposed to know, but when they’d heard Trevor’s father call him a
“stupid fucking retard,” they’d snapped. Trevor didn’t even know
this, but they’d dragged his father off and made sure that he
didn’t come back until he was ready to be a real father.

He’d decided never to come back.

Her stomach dropped at the thought of Connor
never coming back. She kept telling herself that Connor could take
whatever they dished out and more, but…

What if he couldn’t?

What if they’d finally
managed to break him? God, she couldn’t stomach the idea of him
coming back
changed
, which was the only way that she could describe how most of
the men came back after the initiation. She wasn’t sure that she
could handle seeing a strong man like Connor flinching anytime a
noise startled him or find him curled up in the corner, sobbing and
muttering to himself because the memories had become too much for
him to handle.

Once upon a time she may have willed that
kind of hell on him, but with time and really great sex, she’d been
able to get over their shared animosity. Sure, it would probably
entertain her to see him dive for cover whenever the doorbell went
off, but now that they were married it just seemed wrong to take
immense satisfaction out of seeing someone screwing with his
head.

Unless that someone was her of course.

Just because they were married didn’t mean
that she was going to give up something that brought her such joy.
She might take it down a notch or two, but she really just couldn’t
imagine going through life without screwing with her husband in
that way that always seemed to bring a smile to her face. It just
seemed wrong somehow to give up that side of their relationship
that had kept them together all these years, but she wouldn’t be
able to screw with his head if he didn’t survive the
initiation.

With that in mind, she climbed out of the
tub, after enjoying five more minutes simply because it felt wrong
to let all this decadent hot water go to waste, and reluctantly
climbed out of the tub. She wrapped a large pink towel around
herself and headed for the bathroom door, trying to decide which
brother would cave the quickest and tell her where they were
keeping Connor as she pulled her hair free from the loose bun she’d
made so that she could soak in the tub without getting her hair
wet. She stepped into the hallway and headed for the bedroom,
deciding that Bryce was her best bet when she saw him.

Lying passed out in the middle of their
bed.

Covered in varying stages of drying mud,
leaves, clumps of grass, and twigs was her husband, lying passed
out on his back. His clothes, the same clothes that he’d been
wearing a week ago when he was released from the emergency room
thanks to the beating her brothers had dished out to him, were
torn, stained and definitely ruined. His short hair was in the same
condition as his clothes, messy, full of bits of leaves, and small
clumps of mud, but that did nothing to take away from just how
truly handsome he was, even with his face covered in dirt, scrapes
and about a week’s worth of whiskers, her husband was still an
incredibly handsome man, she thought with a smile as she walked
over to the bed, dropping her towel as she went.

She climbed on the bed and threw her leg
over his lap in one smooth move so that she could straddle his lap
while she got a closer look at the damage. Considering that he’d
just spent the past week trapped somewhere with her brothers and
cousins, she had to admit that he didn’t look so bad. She’d seen
men come back worse from an “initiation,” a hell of a lot worse, so
maybe they’d lucked out and weren’t going to have to spend a
fortune on therapy to fix whatever her relatives had done to
him.

At least she hoped they didn’t, she thought
with a long drawn out sigh as she leaned over and gently ran her
fingers through his messy hair and felt her lips pull up into a
wobbly smile as she leaned down, unable to help herself, and softly
brushed her lips against his.

“
Missed me bad, huh?” he
asked, smiling against her lips as his arms came around her and
held her close so that he could kiss her back.

“
Maybe,” she mumbled,
theatrically squishing up her face with disgust when she caught his
scent.

It wasn’t bad, but it also
wasn’t something that she would want to wake up to every morning.
He smelled like mud, pond water, fresh cut grass and for some odd
reason…
Christmas trees
?

He chuckled with that bad boy smile that she
loved as he released his hold on her. “I guess I should probably go
take a shower, huh?”

“
Probably,” she murmured
teasingly, brushing her lips against his one last time before she
climbed off his lap, but he didn’t let her go far.

“
Join me,” he said, taking
her hand in his as he ran an appreciative eye over her.

Having absolutely no willpower when it came
to him and that wicked smile of his, she gave his hand a squeeze
and let him lead her out of their bedroom.

“
Do you want to tell me
where you’ve been?” she asked offhandedly, doing her best to hide
her curiosity, remembering all too well how much he enjoyed
screwing with her head whenever the opportunity presented
itself.

He turned around and walked backwards,
cocking his head to the side, studying her with a curious tilt of
his brow. “You really don’t know?”

“
Do you think if I did I
would have left you at the tender mercy of my brothers and
cousins?” she shot back, kind of hurt that he thought so little of
her.

Okay, granted there had been a time when she
might have sat back with a big cup of hot cocoa and savored the
moment, but things were different now. A year ago she would have
treated her brothers to dinner and a round at McKay’s Bar, but not
now. Now she was already planning her revenge, because Connor was
hers.

It was as simple as that.

He shook his head, his smile never wavering
as he said, “No, I know you wouldn’t.”

“
Good,” she said, immensely
pleased that he believed her. “Now tell me where they took you,”
she demanded, too curious to pretend otherwise now, especially
since the men were usually hogtied and left on the front step where
they usually stayed until someone stumbled across them sometime the
next morning after their release.

“
Hmm, I’m not sure that I
can tell you that,” he said, that devastatingly sexy smile of his
turning mischievous as he led her across the small hallway and back
into the bathroom of her dreams.

“
And why’s that?” she
asked, returning his smile as she released his hand, walked over to
the large stone shower stall, slid the glass door open and stepped
inside.

“
I’ve been sworn to
secrecy,” he said, shooting her a wink as he grabbed his
toothbrush.

She blinked at him. “You’re kidding me,
right?”

“
Wouldn’t you like to
know?” he asked, chuckling as he turned around and focused on
brushing his teeth while she stood there, hating to admit that yes,
yes she really would like to know.

Chapter 2

“
Are you planning on pouting all night?” he asked,
chuckling even as he somehow resisted the urge to grab her and make
a strategic retreat while they still had the chance, but after a
week of being away from her, he just couldn’t force himself to do
the right thing, not when she was standing naked in the shower, wet
and waiting for him.

God, she was so fucking beautiful, he
thought in a daze as he rinsed his mouth out, tossed his toothbrush
aside and headed towards her, pausing only long enough to toe off
his boots and tear off the clothes that he was going to have to
incinerate. But, that was a problem for later, because right now he
had the most beautiful woman in the world waiting for him.

“
Are you planning on
telling me what happened?” she asked, absently adjusting the
temperature of the water as she waited for him to join
her.

“
Depends,” he murmured
absently as he shoved his boxers off, finally stepped inside the
large shower stall and wrapped his arms around his wife, closed his
eyes and simply savored the feel of her in his arms.

“
Depends on what?” she
asked, smoothly turning in his arms even as she maneuvered him
beneath the spray of hot water and man, did that feel good after
spending a week stuck out in the woods.

“
Many things,” he whispered
as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her neck as he let his
hands glide over her body, reacquainting himself with her body as
she reached over and grabbed a bottle of shampoo.

When she moved to step back in his arms, he
allowed it and simply stood there, savoring her touch as she began
washing his hair, running her fingers through his hair as he simply
stood there, watching her. When she was done, he simply closed his
eyes and dropped his head back, allowing the hot water to rinse his
hair clean while she shifted her attention to the rest of his body
as he told himself that they would put an end to this in a few
minutes and go before it was too late.

He licked his lips hungrily as she ran her
soapy hands over his shoulders, down his arms, over his chest, his
back and down to his ass where she gave him an appreciative squeeze
and used her hold to bring him closer. The move caused his erection
to brush up against her flat stomach and had him instantly
forgetting that they needed to leave and soon. All thoughts of
self-preservation went flying out the door when she released a
hungry little moan.

“
Oh,
fuck
,” he groaned, leaning down and taking
her mouth in a hungry kiss that had all thoughts of leaving the
state for an extended period of time evaporating as he pulled her
tightly into his arms.

“
I missed you,” she
admitted on a needy little moan that had his heart racing and
reigniting the fire inside him that had him fucking over every
single one of her brothers and cousins so that he could return to
her.

He’d never been so fucking desperate in his
life than he’d been over this past week to get to her. He’d missed
her so damn much that sometimes it had been difficult taking his
next breath without feeling that sense of panic that came along
with not knowing that the person that you loved most in this world
was okay. A whole week without seeing her, talking to her or
knowing that she was safe had taken its toll on him.

It hadn’t mattered that he
knew that someone was always looking after her, making sure that
she was okay. The only thing that mattered was that it hadn’t
been
him
taking
care of her. It had killed him not to see her or hold her for the
past week, but it wasn’t like he’d had much of a choice in the
matter. He’d needed to teach the James boys and their cousins a
lesson about coming between him and Rory.