“Fuck,” Malachi muttered as he threw back the duvet and quickly got out of bed.
It took a sleepy Lara several seconds to realize why, and then it was only because she heard the doorbell to her apartment ringing, probably for the second or third time if Malachi’s impatience was anything to go by.
She sat up to look across the room at him. “Where are you going?”
Malachi turned in the bedroom doorway. “To answer the doorbell.”
Of course, he was. “You don’t have any clothes on.”
He glanced down at his completely naked body before giving a dismissive shrug. “They’ve seen it all before.”
“Who has?”
“My brothers and cousin.”
Lara’s lethargy instantly dissipated to be replaced by alarm. “Your brothers and cousin are here, outside my apartment?”
He glanced at his wristwatch. “Yep.”
“The family meeting you mentioned having ‘to discuss the problem’ is happening here?” She knew she was repeating herself, but she was seriously having difficulty imaging having another six Kingston men invade her home. Men, who she knew from seeing the photographs on the website for Kingston Security, were all as big and imposing as Malachi.
“At four o’clock, yes. But, as some or all of their wives are probably with them, I think I’ll take your advice and put some clothes on.” He sat on the side of the bed to pick his jeans up from the floor and pull them on. He stood to fasten the button and zip.
“There are possibly nine members of your family standing in the hallway outside my apartment?”
“Pretty sure there are, yes,” he confirmed. “Join us when you’re ready,” he added as he grabbed his T-shirt from the floor, pulling it on over his tousled head before leaving the room.
Lara fell back against the pillows as she tried to deal with the idea that the whole of the Kingston family—minus the parents, who lived in Florida, thank goodness—were about to invade her home.
* * *
“Man, you reek of sex,” Felix complained as he walked in after Malachi had unlocked and opened the door of Lara’s apartment so that his family could enter.
As he’d thought, they were all here, including the three wives.
“He’s not wrong.” Adam’s deep voice rumbled in his chest as he walked past next.
“Leave him alone.” Cara gave her husband a reproving slap on the chest.
“Don’t even,” her sister Rosie, his brother Max’s wife, warned her husband before he had an opportunity to speak.
“Yes, leave Mal alone,” Remy, Sinclair’s four-months-pregnant wife cautioned the rest of the Kingston men before planting an affectionate kiss on Malachi’s cheek. “I’m so pleased for you,” she told him warmly.
“Me too.” A relaxed and happy Sinclair slapped him on the back.
“Yeah.” Casper nodded his approval.
“Did you get it?” Malachi prompted abruptly.
Casper patted the side of his laptop bag. “Got it.”
“Have you looked at it?”
“Not yet.” Casper shrugged. “I didn’t think I should until we were all together.”
Malachi grinned his gratitude. “Thanks.”
“What I want to know is how the hell did the two of you go from Lara walking away from your sorry arse this morning to you now being in her apartment and having a distinct smell of eau de sex?” Darius eyed him incredulously.
Malachi obviously hadn’t thought the situation through when he came to answer the door. Probably because he liked the idea of smelling of Lara’s and his own sexual release. Of Lara smelling of him. Even if that did confirm his role as caveman where Lara was concerned.
He grinned. “Probably my natural charm.”
“More like his having battered my resistance into submission,” Lara announced dryly as she entered the room from the hallway.
Malachi’s attention instantly turned to her.
She’d obviously taken the time to have a quick—very quick—shower before dressing in a thin blue sweater the same color as her eyes and black figure-hugging jeans. She wore rainbow-colored socks on her feet. Her riotous curls were once again confined in a hairband, blue this time, her freckled face bare of makeup.
Malachi briefly lamented the fact she would no longer smell like him. Although he cheered up a little when he saw the slight redness to her chin and throat caused by the overnight growth of stubble on his jaw.
“I had no idea Malachi was into domination.” Casper eyed them both curiously as he sat in one of the armchairs. “Or was it the other way round and Mal was the one submitting?”
“Mind your own fucking business.” Malachi cuffed his youngest brother up the side of his head. “And while you’re at it, keep your flirtatious eyes off my woman,” he growled.
“Me?” Casper feigned innocence as he placed a hand dramatically against his chest.
“Yes, you.” Malachi glared at him before turning that glare on the rest of the room. “And that goes for all of you too.”
Remy gave a giggled from where she was now seated in Sinclair’s lap. “I’m sure Lara is a lovely lady, and she’s certainly beautiful, but she really isn’t my type.”
“And I’m more than happy with my own woman,” Sinclair drawled, his arm about Remy’s waist, his hand resting possessively on her small baby bump.
Malachi scowled. “You know damn well I meant the single men.”
Lara smiled. “I think your family is playing with you.”
“They know I don’t understand that shit.” Malachi gave them all another glower.
“Which is what makes it so much more fun,” Casper chuckled unrepentantly.
“Which means that when your turn comes,” Malachi bit out threateningly, “I am going to give you the same hell you’re giving me.”
“I doubt that will ever happen,” Casper assured.
Malachi’s gaze softened as he glanced at Lara. “I was saying the same thing until three days ago.”
* * *
It was still a surprise to Lara that it had only been three days since she first met Malachi. It felt as if she had always known him. That he had always been a part of her life.
Which was yet another sign she was falling for him?
That she’d already fallen for him?
Lara was almost certain that was the case.
There had been no hesitation on her part earlier when she and Malachi made love. He’d been the one setting the rules. If he hadn’t, she knew they would have made love fully.
She had no doubt Malachi would be a wonderful lover, that he would give it the same intensity of concentration he did to everything else.
Lara hadn’t expected, only hours after sharing a bed with Malachi, to be confronted with the majority of his family!
She’d already met Darius, of course, but she recognized the rest of the family from those photographs she’d seen on the company website.
She knew the handsome and distinguished-looking man with gray at his temples was the eldest brother, Sinclair. The woman sitting on his lap was his wife, Remy.
Adam Kingston was Malachi’s cousin. Dark and dangerous, his complexion swarthy, he occupied the second armchair, his short-sleeved T-shirt revealing tattoos on his arms and neck. The beautiful auburn-haired woman sitting on his thighs was his artist wife, Cara, previously CaraFlora Ferrari-Smythe.
Seated at the other end of the sofa from Darius was Max Kingston, his dark hair shaved close to his head, pale eyes piercing. Seated with him was his fiery-haired wife, Rosie, previously BellaRosa Ferrari-Smythe and Cara’s younger sister.
The two men standing over by the windows were Casper, who had long dark hair, and Felix, Darius’s fraternal twin.
In other words, as Malachi had said was going to happen, Lara’s home was now filled with a plethora of alpha male Kingstons and three of their beautiful wives.
Despite Malachi’s warning, it was still…overwhelming.
Something that Malachi, despite his inability to recognize social cues, helped dissipate when he moved to stand next to her and place one of his hands firmly against her spine. It was obviously a possessive gesture on his part, but it also helped to reassure and settle Lara’s nerves.
Being the focus of so many pairs of eyes prevented her from relaxing completely.
Sinclair turned his pale blue gaze on his brother. “So, why did you invite us all here?”
Of the seven Kingston men, Lara decided Sinclair was the most imposing. He might not be as tall as Malachi, or as muscular as Adam, or as pretty as Casper, but when his features weren’t softened as he looked lovingly at his wife, his whole bearing spoke of power and control.
Right now, he had that laser focus fixed fully on Malachi and Lara.
“It seems this past two weeks we’ve— I’ve been protecting the perpetrator of a crime rather than his victim, possibly victims,” Malachi told them flatly.
“You’re referring to Gerard Taylor?” Max’s eyes were narrowed.
A nerve pulsed in Malachi’s clenched jaw as he nodded abruptly. “He’s hurt and is now blackmailing someone Lara cares about.”
“As a consequence, that means he’s also hurting you,” Adam stated.
Sinclair grimaced. “I admit to not being sure about him at our first meeting, but Casper couldn’t find anything negative about him online. He’s obviously an entitled bastard whose trust fund from his paternal grandfather means he’s never had to work a day in his life, but it’s difficult to justify turning down a client just because he’s an arrogant snob.”
“Casper needs to dig deeper,” Malachi bit out. “To do that he also needs to look at the information that’s on the memory stick that’s a copy of the one Taylor keeps locked in his safe.”
Lara’s eyes widened. “Casper has a copy of it?”
“I do,” Casper confirmed cheerfully. “On Malachi’s instructions, I went to Taylor’s house an hour ago on the pretext of needing to check the new security he’s had installed in the house. He grew bored about halfway through and wandered off for a swim in the pool in his basement. I took advantage of his absence to open the safe, with the code Malachi gave me, to copy the memory stick before replacing the original.” He crossed the room to sit on one of the stools and place his laptop on top the breakfast bar before turning it on and plugging in the memory stick. “As I expected, the damn thing’s encrypted,” he muttered. “Just talk amongst yourselves for a few minutes while I hack into it.”
Lara’s legs felt weak at the thought of what information Casper was going to unearth. She leaned against Malachi as his arm moved reassuringly about her waist. “I should tell you all what I’ve already confided to Malachi, and you can make up your own minds as to whether or not you want to help me.” She could see absolutely no point in not telling these intensely focused people what she’d told Malachi. Especially when it seemed that Casper Kingston was currently hacking into the memory stick containing visual proof of Taylor’s abuse.
No one said a word as she described the events of three weeks ago. She concluded with how and why she and Malachi had met three evenings ago, and the reason she’d needed to get into Gerard Taylor’s safe and remove that damning memory stick.
When she’d finished, Remy immediately stood and hugged her. “I know I speak for all of us when I say you can trust this family to make sure you aren’t forced into stealing drugs for your sister in order to stop that recording being released onto the internet,” she promised as she pulled back.
Lara’s eyes stung with unshed tears, her heart aching with the guilty knowledge that once again, she hadn’t revealed the whole truth. It really wasn’t her story to tell—
“Um, Lara, I think you and I both know there’s a problem with at least part of that statement,” Casper said.
She turned sharply to look at him. “You can’t have hacked into those files yet?”
“I don’t need to have done that to know you’re being economical with the truth.”
“How…?”
“I heard what you didn’t say.” The compassion in Casper’s gaze told her he had somehow guessed what her omission had been.
Lara had been as careful when she explained the situation to the Kingston family as she had when she told Malachi. And yet Casper’s unwavering gaze said he had somehow guessed the truth of the situation.
“Lara?” Malachi prompted softly. “We need to know everything if we’re going to be able to help you.”
“It’ll be okay, Lara,” Casper encouraged softly.
She closed her eyes before opening them again, inwardly pleading for forgiveness for breaking a confidence she could no longer keep if she wanted the help of the Kingston family. “The person who Gerard Taylor drugged and violated wasn’t my sister. It was my brother, Thomas.”
* * *
“The doctor?” Malachi questioned.
“Yes,” Lara confirmed tensely.
This explanation made a lot more sense than the one Lara had given him previously. “So, Taylor isn’t blackmailing you into supplying him with the drugs, he’s blackmailing your brother?”
She moistened her lips. “Thom’s gay. Gerard Taylor gave the impression he was too when he invited him out to dinner.” She grimaced. “I’m thinking that was a lie, after you told me he’d been out with several women since you started protecting him.”
“He’s bisexual,” Malachi grated.
“There are a few of us about.” Casper happily revealed his own sexuality before giving Lara a reassuring smile. “It’s the reason I picked up on you saying ‘they’ or ‘them’ during your explanation rather than he or she.”
“He’s going down,” Max rasped uncompromisingly.
“Yes, he is,” Sinclair confirmed in a hard voice.
Malachi had known he could rely on his family. Now he needed to persuade Lara into believing that she could too.