Shane’s cell rang with Bulldog’s tone.
He answered it.
His grandfather said, “I need you to go to the rental car center at SFO. A client just came in. Her name is Madison York. Pick her up and bring her to the office.”
Shane pocketed the phone, relieved at having an escape.
“I’m gone,” he said.
He left the chips. Cole would cash him out and hold the funds.
His exit forced Cole and Renata to break the lip lock—not that they wouldn’t be right back at it when the poker game ended and their company was ejected.
Once the love shining in their eyes would have had him shaking his head and saying not for me. Even thinking about being tied down like that would have had him pulling an imaginary choke-chain off his neck and landing the next gorgeous babe, doing her right there on the beach if he was out surfing or, if not, doing her on some other surface.
But now…
Driving toward the rental center, he admitted to himself that now he wanted what big brother had. Not in the same one-on-one way Cole had it, but he wanted the connection that came with permanent.
The fun of nailing a conquest, or being someone else’s easy lay, had turned into an empty kind of pleasure. It’d probably been creeping up on him even before that night in Vegas.
He caught himself playing with the nipple ring and forced his hand down, his thoughts forward. A new client was just the thing to keep him occupied, and he’d rather work close to home than go back out on the road.
There wasn’t any point in speculating about the case. Bulldog took whatever interested him, or whatever he thought would interest them, though occasionally favors got called in or he lost a bet.
That’s how Cole and Renata had ended up working together, though in that case, Grandma Maguire was the one who’d ended up winning a little side bet at the poker table that included promises from Bulldog and Renata’s employer, Orrin.
Lately there’d been a shitload of cases that had led to hooking up and falling in love.
Lyric and Kieran. Cady and Kix. Cole and Renata.
Calista with Dante and Benito.
Erin with Dasan, though that one hadn’t finished playing out yet. When it did, someone was going to win big money.
Grace with Cade and Mace—good thing for all of them that big brother Michael was on the other side of the country when Grace’s first solo case led to that hook-up.
Shane laughed, almost wishing Grandma M would turn her sight on Michael—and then his pulse skittered at catching sight of the blonde waiting in a passenger pick-up zone. His heart tripped into to a hard I’ve got to have you beat.
He was royally fucked if this was the client, because here was one more example of someone it’d be better not to want.
He pulled over, rolled the window on her side down.
His mouth went dry. His freaking mouth went dry, like it hadn’t done over someone of the opposite sex since maybe seventh grade.
Truth, probably sixth. The Maguire brothers had all stopped thinking of girls as gross early on.
“Madison?”
“That’s me.”
“I’m—”
“Shane. I Googled and saw a picture of you with your grandfather.”
She might as well have shoved her hand down his pants and curled it around his dick. Heat and pleasure, that’s the effect her voice had on him.
She’s a client.
His dick didn’t care.
His dick knew the big head was capable of rationalizing so the little one could get what it wanted.
Except for Tyler.
Shane got out of the Jeep, helped her load the guitar, their arms brushing, heating him up on the inside, her scent as seductive as the rest of her.
First sight and she’d become the other half of his personal coin toss. Heads, he wanted her. Tails he wanted Tyler.
Scrub the earlier thought about not leaving town. He should tell Bulldog he’d gotten a last-minute invite to a high-stakes game.
Only—didn’t that sound like a guy trying to outrun fate?
Shane’s heart did a freaky fluttering, as if Lyric and Braden weren’t the only ones who had glimpses of sight. Maybe he should swing by Grandma’s place, see if she wanted to lay a prophecy on him.
He dropped back into the driver’s seat. Grinned. Hell no, it’d be more fun riding this out.