Page 50 of Nauti Intentions (Nauti 4)

need to loose the pent-up violence raging through him.

“Keep pushing me. ”

There was no “or else. ” They both knew the “or else. ” They could fight it out, but it wouldn’t change a damned thing.

“Hell,” Natches muttered.

They heard Dawg and Rowdy coming with Janey and that wailing cat. Hadn’t Alex fed that little monster earlier?

Janey stepped into the apartment, ignoring the tension between her brother and Alex as Fat Cat jumped out of her arms and ran to his missing bowl.

“Bowl’s on the porch. ” Alex looked at Dawg.

Dawg stepped outside, retrieved the empty dish, and set it down. Fat Cat smacked him, claws bared.

“Little bastard,” Dawg growled. Then he snarled at the cat.

Janey picked up the bowl and moved to the fridge, where she filled it with the fresh hamburger she kept on hand for the cat.

She stayed silent. Fed the cat and filled his water bowl before turning and moving through the kitchen.

She turned the corner and headed for her bedroom.

“Janey. ” Natches followed her to the hall. “We need to talk a minute. ”

“I have to change clothes. ” She shook her head, keeping her back to him. “I’ll be out in a little while. ”

She closed the bedroom door and leaned her back against it, drawing in a shuddering breath. She could feel the sobs building in her chest and she hated it. Hated it. She hated crying, she hated the sense of helplessness it filled her with, and she hated trying, trying so hard to play the perfect little girl and never succeeding.

Shaking her head, she pushed Alex’s coat from her shoulders and tossed it over the bottom of her bed.

The heels and stockings came off next. Then the skirt and top. She only distantly realized she had forgotten to put her panties back on.

In the bathroom she showered, scrubbed the makeup from her face, and lathered her hair. She had to go shopping tomorrow, she decided. If being the good girl didn’t work, then screw them all, she’d be who she wanted to be. She was tired of hiding. Sick to her back teeth of being protected.

Drying off, she moved back into her bedroom, and drew on the long cotton pants she used to sleep in.

She hated those, too. The T-shirt. Tomorrow, she was buying gowns. Silky gowns. Sexy gowns. It didn’t matter if anyone else saw them. She would see them.

Running her fingers through her hair, she left her bedroom, rather expecting her apartment to be cleared of Mackays. It wasn’t. Ray and Maria were there as well now, Kelly, Chaya, Crista, and a concerned Faisal.

Faisal had moved into an apartment in town with a few other boys that the Mackays had taken under their wings over the years. The other boys were preparing Faisal for college. The incredibly bright, energetic young boy Natches and Crista had arranged to have brought out of the Iraq desert didn’t look any happier than the Mackays did.

“Aren’t you guys sick yet of dragging your pregnant wives out over nothing?” She threw Dawg and Natches a disgusted look.

“You’re something to us, Janey,” Chaya spoke up, her hand resting on the small mound of her belly as she sat on Natches’s lap in one of the kitchen chairs.

“You’re family,” Crista finished for her.

She, too, was pregnant, about a month further along than Chaya was.

“Besides, we can’t let the boys have all the fun. ” Kelly, Rowdy’s wife, grinned from where she sat on his lap. “Otherwise, they might get spoiled. ”

Janey bit back a retort. Opening the fridge, she pulled out the wine, poured herself a glass, and pushed the cork back into the bottle. She left it sitting out as she turned and faced the crowd.

She wasn’t used to this. It was too much. And there was Alex, doing nothing, not a damned thing, to hide that bite on his neck as he leaned against the wall and watched her.

“It’s after eleven,” she told all of them. “Nearly my bedtime. ” She gave them a false, bright smile. “I’m

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