Heavenly dodged his question. Beck verbally thrust back, and they slung volleys back and forth. Every one of her evasions frustrated the hell out of Seth, but he gave Heavenly credit for moxie. She didn’t turn tail and run. She simply jerked from Beck’s grasp, lifted her chin, and took their fury in stride.
As much as he itched to mete out discipline that would make sure she never lied to him again, he couldn’t deny that he found her breath-stealingly gorgeous.
But he’d heard enough bullshit.
“Well, as the other guy who’s had his fingers—and his tongue—inside you, I think I’m entitled to know who supposedly popped your cherry.”
She tried more dodging and ducking. He played along for a minute to see if she’d cough up information. But admitting his first sexual encounter had been in the men’s room of a White Castle at fourteen hadn’t persuaded her to be equally forthcoming. His patience was running on fumes.
Apparently, so was Beck’s.
“Who did you fuck?” the doctor demanded. “We’re waiting for an answer.”
“No one you, um…know.”
When she tried to break free from them again, Beck grabbed both wrists and anchored himself in her face, inches from her flushing cheeks. Seth struggled not to devour her where she stood. The trembling of her lower lip and the way she swiped her tongue across it had him seething and starving for her. Didn’t she understand how fucking badly he needed her?
“Let’s try the truth.”
As Beck barked, Seth looped behind Heavenly so they surrounded her—so she couldn’t escape—and grabbed her hair in his fist. He tugged until he had her attention, then bent to her ear. “If you lie again, we’ll find a quiet corner and prove our threats to spank you weren’t empty.”
He glanced at the doctor. Yeah, he might be giving away too much, but a glance told him Beck was totally on board.
Heavenly’s pale cheeks flared rosier. The pulse at her neck jerked faster. And when Beck cupped her face, she gasped. Fuck, Seth could see how wide her eyes had gone, how dilated her pupils. No missing the poke of her nipples under that thin red T-shirt she wore. Then the musk of her arousal hit his nose, and he was fucking ready to tear down the house—hell, the world—to get her into his bed. To get her back into his life.
“Spank me? I’m not a misbehaving child.” Her voice sounded nervous and breathy.
“You’re not, but that won’t stop us from firing up your ass. Because let me tell you, little girl, no other man better be the one to make you a woman.”
“That’s for one of us,” Seth cut in.
Seth hated to concede that, but he’d damn well rather she surrendered herself to Beck, who’d also lost his heart to Heavenly, than to River or a stranger who would make him homicidal the instant they touched her.
His mind was going ninety miles a minute, but he saw the instant Beck’s anger gave way to hunger. The doctor lowered his lips toward her. Seth pulled back on his fistful of her silky blond hair until their eyes met. The moment unfolded in slow motion. She blinked up at him, pleading for mercy, though not a word spilled from her lush mouth. Holding her stare, he deliberately exposed her vulnerable throat to Beck. Her eyes darkened. Heavenly wasn’t trying to go anywhere now. She liked this. She wanted them. No missing the goose bumps breaking out all over her body or the harsh pants of her aroused breaths.
Yeah… The way he felt right now with the air thickening around all three of them…he wasn’t sure anyone would be singing happy birthday to her. He and Beck would be taking her to bed. And then getting some answers.
Holy fuck.
Suddenly, a god-awful air horn of racket pealed in his ears.
The sound was too close to a siren not to get his attention. He snapped upright and scanned the kitchen. “What the hell?”
Everything went downhill from there.
Like a wild thing, Heavenly struggled free from their firm grasp and wrestled to grab her phone from her back pocket. Her hands were shaking so badly she almost dropped it twice before answering it. “Dad, what’s wrong? Are you all right?”
A glance confirmed to Seth that Beck was equally clueless about the fact her father was in the picture.
Within seconds, Heavenly’s panic made it clear he was having some sort of medical emergency. Then Seth helped them scramble into his car and they sped to the hospital. It didn’t take long to pin down that the man had an autoimmune disease Heavenly had talked to Beck about in a strictly academic way. Clearly, she’d failed mentioning all her questions about the ailment had anything to do with the man who’d given her life and raised her.
By the time they reached the hospital, it became even clearer that her father’s secret illness was just the tip of his medical iceberg…