Read More from Calle J. Brookes

“Pssst. Caine!” 

Dr. Caine Alvaro smiled at the irritation in the whispered words. His wife was getting impatient for his attention. But he was in conversation with a noted surgeon he really wanted to lure away from Carrington’s hospital in Dallas to Barratt County. Stealing him from right under his own father-in-law’s nose was just part of the fun.

He’d make it up to Nikkie Jean when he could.

“Psst. Caine! Murdoch Lake is trying to seduce your baby sister! Can you tune in here, please?” She tugged on his tuxedo. He ended his conversation quickly.

And looked at the woman next to him. 

He promptly lost all train of thought. Nikkie Jean was made for deep green dresses that were cut that low at the top, and cut that high on the bottom. His wife and green silk and a hotel full of rooms above them right now…And five kids tucked in bed at the Barratts’ home in Barrattville ten minutes south from the city.

He had his wife all to himself, in a hotel. To himself.

Why in the hell were they still down here? “You look good enough to eat.” He ran his fingers over her shoulder, ghosting across her skin lightly. She always liked it when he touched her gently. Then it would turn to fire. But…they had five kids and two demanding careers as physicians—at two hospitals forty minutes apart. Finding time to just be with her was harder than he wanted to think about. 

“Focus, man. Focus. You have a bigger problem.”

“What kind of problem again?” He dropped his hand to his lap, beneath the table. It was just a short distance to the woman he adored. He slipped the green silk up, up, just enough…

“Quit groping me, big guy. I want to go spy on your sister!”

“Which one?”

“Were you not paying attention?” She stood, then got right in his face. Well, her chest did. Nikkie Jean had been smaller there before the twins. She’d gained weight during her pregnancy and managed to keep…three pounds…of it. 

Caine suspected those three pounds were up top. 

He didn’t mind at all.

He adored this woman from the top of her head all the way down to her ridiculously small feet. And every one of the fifty-nine inches in between. “No. Honestly, I wasn’t. How can I? I have you. And you are very distracting. Let’s get a room and…take a nap.”

“Sure you want to take a nap. Come on. Up. On your feet. We are going to go…well, it looks like we’re walking in the moonlight.”

She was definitely intent on whatever Nikkie Jean mission she had in her head. Caine just bit back a sigh. He would get her outside, then he was going to get her back inside, and call in a favor with the dork Houghton Barratt. The man owned the damned hotel, he could get Caine exactly what he wanted. And when they were done, they’d order room service. Have real food and not this fancy rubber chicken with rice.

And he would just enjoy the woman he loved more than breath itself. 

He wove his fingers through hers. “All right. Lead on, wife. I am all yours.”

Wife. That word held power. 

Just like this woman held his heart in her small, feminine hands. She and their five kids were his entire world. And always would be.

But…he had to admit, having baby sisters mattered, too. 

He hadn’t always had them. He’d only reunited with his birth siblings in the last handful of years. But Paige, Zoey, Ariella, and Pen meant a great deal to him, too. And if one of them needed him, well…Caine would be there. No matter what.

“What’s going on with…” He checked the corners of the ballroom—Paige and her husband were right there with their friends from St. Louis. Ariella and the governor were dancing in a far too risqué manner. Good thing Marc wasn’t running for office again after tonight. The little old lady voters would be scandalized seeing what Marc was trying to do with Ariella now. And Pen…was dancing with a big blond man, chattering at him a mile a minute. The guy seemed seriously charmed—or overwhelmed. Caine couldn’t tell from where they were now. The guy looked familiar, but he was too far away to place him fully. “Who is Pen dancing with?”

“Oh, that’s Dr. Lake. The new guy in the ED.”

“I recommended him. Known him for a few years.” Caine trailed his fingers up her back. She shivered. Just like he’d known she would. 

“Nice guy, a little on the quiet side. Izzie and Annie like him, too. It’s not him that’s the problem. It’s his brother.”

“How so?” 

“Murdoch Lake just took Zoey out into the gardens. And I am not stupid. I know when a man is wanting a little hanky-panky in the garden.” She shot him a look that told him she knew exactly what he was thinking, too. He wouldn’t mind some hanky-panky in the garden himself.

“Sweetheart, the last one of my sisters I would ever try to interfere with when it comes to a man would be Zoey. She has enough fangs of her own.” But he was going to set eyes on his sister, make sure she didn’t need rescued. Then get his own wife upstairs so he could have some hanky-panky without a devil child or five interrupting.

“I don’t want to interfere, I want to make sure she’s ok. It’s Murdoch.”

“I know who it is. I saw them dancing.”

“But it’s Murdoch.”

“Ok, I’m not following. What’s so special about Murdoch Lake?”

“Sweet cheeks, I am so going to have to educate you. There comes a time in every girl’s life, when they finally meet that special someone who makes their eyes burn fire. Makes their soul actually start living again, makes their heart beat again, makes—“

“I get it. Like you did me.” He got her outside to the garden, then spun her lightly. Until her back rested against the nearest stone column. 

Her hands snaked around his neck. “Exactly like that.”

“And you think Murdoch is Zoey’s…whatever?”

“Yep. I do. She gets so heated when she talks about him, and I saw him in the hospital with her. But he’s here tonight. I want to see what happens.”

“You realize this is spying? A good sister-in-law doesn’t spy.”

“But a good brother stays close in case his little sister needs him. That’s one reason I lured you out here. Shhh—there they are.”

Caine looked over his wife’s shoulder. To the couple next to the fountain. He studied his sister carefully. It was a bit hard to do, considering she seemed fused to Lake at the moment. As he watched, his sister pulled back and said something—probably snappy—at the big blond guy near Caine’s own size. 

Caine had seen enough. His sister could figure out whatever this was with Lake herself. 

He looked at his wife, the woman who would always be his heart. He just acted. Caine bent down and scooped her into his arms, like he had so many times before. 

And carried her inside.

He passed that dork Houghton Barratt wrapped up around his own wife in a corner near the door. Barratt looked up at him, fingers tangled in his wife’s red hair, and nodded. “Family wing. Top floor. Code to the private elevator is 6-22-46. It goes straight to the family floor. Third suite on the left will be empty tonight. Enjoy.”

Then Barratt went right back to kissing his wife. 

Caine took the man’s words as the favor they were—but he took the back way to the private elevator.

And carried Nikkie Jean away.

She put her head on his shoulder, in the elevator. “I love it when you do your dragon sweeping me away routine. It brings back memories of the night you first seduced me.”

“I think it was the other way around.” She’d captured him that night forever. They both knew that. 

“Was it? I think you need to refresh my memory. Carry me away, my love. I am all yours.”

“There will be a far better ending tonight. I promise.”

“I always knew you had it in you.”