Page 111 of Down & Dirty: Reaper

“Excuse us for a second.” Reaper grabbed Vi’s arm and yanked her from the kitchen.

“Hear that? He has manners. Unlike you,” he heard Jewel tell her husband as Reaper pulled their daughter into the hallway.

But once out of Diesel’s eyesight, he hesitated, not knowing where they could go for some privacy. Before he could ask, Vi was dragging him into the bathroom down the hallway.

She closed the door behind them, then turned. “Did you want to do a quickie?”

“No, Vi, I don’t want to do a goddamn quickie with your beast of a father just yards away. Do you hate me or something?”

Her lips twitched. “No.”

“Then, why the hell would you and your mother purposely say shit to get me killed?”

“He’s not going to kill you. He’s only going to try to intimidate you. If you ignore it, it’ll take the wind out of his sails.”

He pulled in a deep breath. “I knew you were crazy, but I didn’t know just how much.”

She grinned.

“I don’t think that’s something you should find amusing.”

Her brown eyes twinkled. “You act like you’re stuck with me.”

He dropped his head back and whispered to the ceiling, “Thank fuck I’m not.”

She whacked him in the gut, making him oof. “He won’t do anything stupid in front of my mother. Or me. Promise.”

“What you’re saying is, I’ll have a target on my back when you and your mother aren’t around.”

“I think the point of my mother’s invite was to make sure that didn’t happen. It’s better for him to find out that we’ve been knocking boots in this environment than one she can’t control.”

That almost sort of made sense. “But you already told him.”

“Obviously he didn’t believe it since I tend to say shit to rile him up a lot.”

“No shit,” Reaper grumbled.

She pressed a fingertip to her lips. “Maybe you should’ve worn a bulletproof vest.”

“That’s not funny, either.”

“Then, good thing I don’t do stand-up.”

“Good thing,” he muttered as he followed her back down the hallway. He lifted his eyes from watching her ass before he got back into Diesel’s view.

Because, of course, those watchful, dark eyes were following his every move.

“Your father used to have a thing for bathrooms.”

“For fuck’s sake, Jewelee,” Diesel growled.

“Well, it’s true.”

“Woman!”

Jewel shoved a platter of steaks at him. “The grill is outside and that’s where you need to go.”

Chapter Twenty-One