The Job (Auctioned) by Cara Dee (highly illogical behavior txt) 📕

I swallowed again, then pressed my lips to his and shifted my hands up to his neck. “I’m, uh—I’m good with that. Hella good.”

“Yeah?” He smiled into the kiss and gripped my hips.

“Yeah. I told you, I like it when we’re on the same page.” It was crazy how easy it was to tune out the popcorn popping on the stove once I inched back and got trapped in his affectionate gaze. “You want me to say it, don’t you?”

“Damn right.” He grazed his teeth along my jaw until he reached my ear. “Let me hear the words, baby.”

I shuddered. “I love you. All right? I love you.”

He groaned under his breath and kissed me hard, his hands coming up to my neck. He controlled every movement and demanded every bit of my attention with that kiss.

It wasn’t until I heard little feet padding closer—too close, too fast—that I broke away. Boone wrenched himself away too, but it was too late. When Ace appeared in the doorway, she came to a screeching halt, and her eyes went wide.

Fuck.

I coughed and scrubbed a hand over my mouth, and Boone backed off as much as he could in the tiny space. Jesus Christ, my ears hadn’t felt this hot since I was thirteen and Ma caught me smoking weed in the garage.

“I-I j-just,” Ace stammered and pointed to the stove.

Right. The stove. The popcorn was done. I cleared my throat and turned off the heat.

“Sweetie, are you okay?” Boone asked carefully.

She turned her gobsmacked stare to him instead and blinked. Slowly but surely, her cheeks flushed pink, and she went rigid. As if her mind was done confirming what she’d actually seen.

“Yes,” she managed to get out. “No. I don’t—I-I don’t know.”

Her breathing picked up quickly. Sensing that she was gonna get upset, I opened my mouth to suggest we sit down and talk, but before I could get a single word out, she bolted down the hall and closed herself into her room.

I suppressed a sigh and hurried after her, Boone close behind me. I’d heard the door slam shut but not the lock being turned. Not that it mattered. We’d raised Ace to respect a closed door, partly because her father and I took on jobs where we didn’t respect closed doors, and there might be things—evidence, equipment—that we didn’t want her to see.

She’d always been equally mindful and curious, and she knew when to stop prodding. We couldn’t thank her for that by plowing down the door now.

I knocked instead. “Sweet pea, can you let us in? We’d like to talk to you. It’s nothing bad whatsoever. This is a good thing.”

“It’s a wonderful thing,” Boone tacked on. “I think you’ll be happy once the surprise settles.”

I pinched my lips together and waited for her response, and all I heard was her muffled crying. It shot a ton of worry through me, but I wanted to believe Boone was right. She was just surprised.

“I can’t talk right now!” she sobbed. “I’m busy bawling my eyes out!”

I winced and glanced at Boone. “She’ll be going through puberty in a few years.”

“Don’t remind me,” he muttered. Then he addressed Ace again. “Can you tell us why you’re crying?”

“I don’t know why,” she wailed. “Are you dying? Am I dying?” Her cries got louder, and now she could forget about us staying on this side of the door.

I had fucking limits.

Boone and I entered her room and found her on the bed, crying into her pillow.

“No one’s dying, Paisley. Why on earth would you think so?” I carefully sat down on the edge of her bed and placed a hand on her back.

Boone squatted down by her nightstand.

She sniffled around a sob, refusing to come up for air. “When Elliott’s parents got divorced, they changed their minds and got back together, and then his mom died of cancer.”

Oh Christ.

“Elliott?” Boone mouthed.

“From school,” I murmured. “But that’s not what’s happening here, Ace. Daddy and I were just stupid. We fought so much because we didn’t understand that we really liked each other.” He owed me a blow job or something for this. In reality, he’d been stupid. I’d been a genius all along—a genius who knew his feelings. “Plus, we grew up as brothers. It made us confused, and it was easier to lash out than talk about it.”

Ace whimpered into her pillow. “That sounds so dumb.”

That was one way of putting it.

“It can’t come as a surprise that we’re dumb sometimes,” he reasoned.

She sniffled some more, and she finally reemerged from her pillow. Her adorable face was streaked with tears, and her cheeks were red.

I leaned toward her and brushed some hair away from her face. “We’ve got our shit together now, I promise. All we want is to be a family.”

She chewed on her lip and wiped her eyes. “You’ll be like boyfriends instead of brothers?”

I looked to Boone and found no support there. He was staring back at me with hesitation and question etched in his forehead, meaning it was up to me to decide how much we divulged to Ace.

This was the girl who’d shoplifted her first candy bar at six, the girl who’d looked at Ma weirdly the time she’d spoken baby talk to Ace—we’d never fucking done that—the girl who called her teachers morons for asking stupid questions, and the girl who loved to tag along when her daddies worked. Last family reunion, she’d taught her uncle Darius that it was okay to steal from Big Corp and the government but never from the “little guy.” She’d also asked her uncle Ethan—another cousin of ours, who happened to run a gym—if he could teach her how to throat punch.

She was a chip off the old block, which both terrified me and caused my chest to swell with pride. One day, Boone and I were going to get what was coming to us. The shit we’d pulled on Ma over the years was gonna come back