Page 8 of Too Lethal to Love

Chris strode into the kitchen. “Whoa! That’s a lot of Christmas creatures.” He reached for a cracker with his steel hand.

Linc slapped his arm away. “Don’t touch that. The party-planning elf upstairs made Kane her bitch. He’ll have a hissy fit if you touch the spread.”

Chris flipped up his middle finger. “Where’s your Christmas spirit?”

“Left it back home in Alaska with the rest of Santa’s Eskimos.”

“Santa has elves, not Eskimos, you bah humbug.”

“Whatever.” Linc headed for the living room. “Let me know when we can eat.”

Nic followed. “Fucking moody pilots.”

Kane watched his two brothers sit on the couch and stretch out their super legs. Two on Linc and one on Nic. Four deadly limbs in total when you counted Nic’s arm. While Kane didn’t like that the cake stealer knew where Beth lived, the asshole wasn’t getting past those two.

Or any of them.

He may have one super leg, and Chris only had one super arm, but they were plenty deadly, even when their weaponry wasn’t activated. He’d only need the enhanced strength engineered into his body to neutralize a threat in an instant.

A smile tugged at Kane’s mouth as he rubbed the seam on his hip where steel met flesh. He knew it sounded childish to refer to their cybernetically engineered appendages as super. Scarlett usually rolled her wide green eyes when they said it, but the weapons seamlessly melded into their bodies were scientific miracles. They had every right to call themselves and their awesome-as-fuck appendages whatever they wanted and to use humor as a coping mechanism, considering the trauma that preceded their arrival at Project VIPER.

Their wounded warrior status also came in handy when they went out for a drink after a long day at VIPER headquarters, at least for him and Nic. Now that Chris wasengaged, he went home to Scarlett. Since meeting Beth, Kane had ditched the bar scene too, but for a very different reason. And when Linc decided to join them for a drink, he typically sat in the corner with a scowl on his face.

Kane turned to Chris. “Linc’s moodier than usual.”

Chris stared into his bottle of water. “Can’t say that I blame him.”

Neither could Kane. He knew what happened to Linc in the Middle East during the holidays. The Alaskan with the spiky platinum hair and glacial blue eyes that matched his bristly, cold demeanor had every right to want to ride out the season piss drunk on his cousin’s moonshine, but he abstained for Beth because he considered her family.

The reminder that Kane should consider her family too should stop visions of sugarplums from dancing naked in his head. So should the glares she’d been sending his way each time they’d been in the same space since their not-quite-date.

As if on cue, the sugarplum floated into the living room. This vision didn’t look like a sweet fairy though. She looked more like a lush strawberry with decadent whipped cream on top in her red, sparkly miniskirt and white fluffy sweater. Wondering how sweet she’d taste hardened his cock quicker than it took Santa to get down a chimney.

The security system beeped as guests approached the house. Kane glanced at the video feed on his phone.

Chris eyed the device. “Dare I ask why you have access to Beth’s security system?”

“Nope.” He wasn’t even sure of the answer himself other than the fierce need he felt to protect a woman he didn’t want a future with from a threat he knew nothing about.

“She’s vulnerable, you know.”

“I know.” But vulnerable wasn’t a word he’d use to describe Dr. Beth Parker. Contagious energy, like a burst of positive, glittery vibes, detonated when she walked into aroom. Whatever scars she had, she hid them well, but he’d endured enough trauma in his life, the worst of it before his leg had been blown from his body, to recognize the signs in someone else. And tonight, he’d seen the gun in her hand when he’d tapped on her window. “Are you ever going to tell me who she’s afraid of?”

“I’ve already told you; it’s her story to tell. And don’t go turning on the wounded warrior country boy charm you wield like a superpower. She’s off-limits.”

“Got it.” As much as his body wanted to argue the point, he couldn’t. He’d witnessed the pain and fear that clouded Beth’s eyes. She needed someone stable in her life. Not a human weapon made to kill or die trying.

Scarlett breezed into the kitchen, a plate of crumbs in each hand. “Beth, this cake tastes as divine as it looks. Thanks for throwing me an amazing party.”

“Anything for you.” Beth beamed the maid of honor worthy smile glued to her face. Her lips hurt from forcing it to stay there.

Linc sidled up next to her. “How about some ibuprofen for me? All this festive shit is giving me a headache.”

“Sure.” She could use some herself. “It’s upstairs. Be right back.”

She weaved through the living room and waved to the few remaining guests. At her front door, she said goodbye to Hudson, VIPER’s trauma surgeon, and his pregnant wife, Tessa. She smiled at Dr. Patience Fairbanks, the orthopedic surgeon responsible for attaching the prosthetics to the VIPER boys.

The brunette with the glossy brown hair and eyes to match had her head bent to Sergeant Gage McAllister’s. Unlike the VIPER team he supported, Gage possessed all the limbs he’d been born with. If the hard gleam in his gray eyesand those muscles that nearly tore the stitching on his long-sleeve polo shirt were any indication, the lack of a super limb didn’t make him any less dangerous. If tonight’s events hadn’t left Beth so shaken, she’d engineer more than a conversation between the two. Just because post-party sex wasn’t in Beth’s cards didn’t mean she couldn’t help others enjoy holiday cheer.

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