Page 37 of If Only In Our Dreams

And I could hardly get hard most days, let alone get off.

So yeah.

Even though Ben Montgomery probably had the dick to end all days, that was not the reason I liked him.

Not at all.

It was the juxtaposition between his grumpy facade and a hidden sort of gentleness that attracted me. Like he knew how big he was but didn’t want to use his size to intimidate.

“Why don’t you ask Ben if you can ride with him?” Miles asked, eyes twinkling with mirth as he watched me stare down the illusive doctor man, while wearing the ridiculous getup he’d forced me into.

“Eat shit, little brother,” I gruffed at him, cheeks bright red because he’d seen right through me. And then, before he could tease me some more—because apparently that’s what he’d been doing—I stomped my way toward Ben and his munchkins.

Tried to stomp.

Waddled, more like.

The girls watched me approach, twin sets of eyes narrowed like they weren’t sure what to make of me. Which was fair. If this was the wild, I’d be the hyena panting after their hot lion dad. Wasn’t that howThe Lion Kingwent?

Either way.

I was a predator.

A stupid-looking predator, but a predator nonetheless.

Trying to look cool, and failing, I picked up the pace.

Only…it quickly became clearthathad been a mistake, because my boot hit a rock—or ice?—or some other winter, mountainy shit, and I went plummeting to the snow in slow motion.

“Goddammit—”

Boom, hit the ground as quick as that, snow in my mouth and everything.

The snowsuit broke my fall so it didn’t hurt.

Not the way falling earlier had.

But still?—

It was humiliating as fu?—

Laughter, crystalline and hysterical broke out in front of me. I lifted my head, surprised, and elated when I saw the two cherubic little girls grinning at me. Their giggles bounced around the bowl of the hill, all the way down to where Bubba was slowly but surely picking his way to the top.

Ben grinned at me, side-stepping the littles and holding a gloved hand out toward me. He yanked me to my feet as soon as I took it, pulling me in close and brushing the snow off my shoulders, expression amused.

The little shits kept giggling, and weirdly enough, rather than feel embarrassed—I kinda felt like I had won something.

“You okay?” Ben asked, voice tender.

“Just peachy.”

“Good,” his eyes crinkled at the corners the way I liked before he twisted me around to face his daughters.

They sobered the second I turned to face them, eyeing me critically, their arms stuck out at the sides like starfish because of the bulk of their snow outfits.

“You owe me monies,” Rosie, the mob boss told me. She was the twin on the left and easy enough to distinguish. The other twin didn’t have freckles on her nose.

“A dollar, right?” I laughed, cheeks hot.

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