Page 35 of Burning for Him

Before anyone could say a word, she continued. “Number two—how dare you confront him like that, as if he’s an enemy or a traitor or something. And threatening to fire him over me?” She snapped her pointer finger through the air. “Yeah, that’s not happening. If you had a problem with his performance at work, which I know for a fact you don’t, it would be a different matter. But firing him because of our relationship? You do that, and I’ll move out of the compound so fast it’ll make your heads spin, and I’ll never speak to you again.”

Pivoting, she paced back and forth several times, trying to get her anger and imminent tears under control. She didn’t want to cry in front of them and look like the child they seemed to think she still was. However, the betrayal she felt got the best of her, and a few drops fell. She angrily swiped them away.

“Jenn—”

“No! I’m not done, Uncle Jake.”

Chastised, he let out a heavy breath. “Okay.”

She stopped pacing and resumed her earlier stance. “Look, I love y’all more than I can ever express. You’ve been there for me my whole life and took me in after my parents’ deaths, and I could never repay you for everything you’ve done for me. Not that you’d let me, I know. But it’s time you accept that I’m an adult now. You can’t keep me in bubble wrap, and you sure as hell can’t keep me isolated from the rest of the world. You haveto let me live my life the way I want to and make my own decisions, whether you agree with them or not. I deserve to have someone love me in a way nobody else can—the way Doug loves me. Will I always look to you for guidance and support? Yes. That’s a given. But in the end, I will make the final decisions that affect me. You also have to accept that I’ve fallen in love with the most wonderful man I’ve ever known, other than the six of you and my dad. He’s smart, funny, protective, gentle, caring, giving, and so much more, and I would think...” She fought her quivering chin and swallowed a thick lump developing in her throat. “I wouldhopethat’s the kind of man you’d want to love me in return.”

When she paused, her godfather started, “Baby-girl?—”

“Nope! No!” She threw up her hands in frustration. “Arrrghhhh.Please, no more Baby-girl. It’s time to stop calling me that.”

His expression softened. “Jenn, please sit for a minute.”

Since it was a polite request, and her earlier adrenaline was slowly seeping from her body, she sat in the closest chair. She was still pissed, but her mind was now a jumble of thoughts and emotions, and she forgot the rest of her practiced rant to them.

Ian leaned forward and rested his arms on the table. “First, I’ll try to curb the use of your nickname and encourage the rest of these twats to do the same, but you’ll always be my Baby-girl, so I may slip at times.”

A pang of guilt squeezed her heart. “I know, Uncle Ian. I honestly never minded it before, but now that I’m twenty-three and in love, it feels childish. It’s time to pass the nickname on to Peyton or Mara.”

His smile didn’t reach his eyes, which were full of understanding with a touch of sadness. “Nope. They may get their own nicknames someday, but there’s only one Baby-girl inthis family. However, now that I know your feelings about it, I’ll do my best to use your given name.”

“Thank you.”

“Now, the second thing—me and your uncles confronting Doug.” He shook his head. “Did you honestly think we’d let it slide after you both hid your relationship from us? It took balls for him not to come to us—or at the very least me—and say, ‘Hey, I’d like permission to date your niece.’”

Her ire rose again, and she smacked the conference table with her uninjured hand, the loudslapechoing off the walls. “We’re both adults. He doesn’tneedyour permission, and neither do I.”

“Fair enough. But hiding it from us wasn’t very adult-like, was it?”

Okay, he did have a point there. “Maybe not, but that was my decision, not his. We were going to tell you at Peyton’s birthday party?—

“Where we couldn’t kill him because there would be too many witnesses,” Brody interrupted.

His words were almost exactly what Doug had said on the boat, and she grimaced. “Something like that. Look, I just...I didn’t want y’all putting us under a microscope and waiting for us to...I don’t know. For us to screw up or have a fight.” She glared at the men. “Or for you to do something insane like threaten to fire him or kill him.”

“I’m not saying any of us were thrilled to find out you and he are...are dating.” Ian ran a hand down his face. “As far as I’m concerned,datingis the only word we’ll use to describe whatever you two are doing. I don’t want to know any details, and I’ll die on a hill thinking you're still a virgin. And don’t give me shit about that because it’s the same hill I’ll die on when Peyton grows up.”

“Seriously, Ian?” Angie retorted. “Were you still a virgin at twenty-three?” She didn’t give him a chance to say a single syllable. “I know for a fact you weren’t unless you lied to me. Even if you were, it wouldn’t be anybody’s business but yours once you hit eighteen. And you’re one to talk about not keeping secrets, especially after everything that happened with Jace.”

He winced—his wife would never let him live that down—but it had nothing to do with the current situation, so he didn’t respond to Angie’s accusation. Instead, he studied the five women standing behind Jenn, his eyes narrowing. “Why are you all here?”

Jenn jumped in before any of them could answer the question. “Because I asked them to be here. They’re my tribe.”

Marco cocked his head. “Tribe?”

“Yes, Uncle Marco,my tribe.The women who will support me no matter what, even if that means going up against their big, bad Doms. And if I hear that any of them were punished for being here today, there will be more hell to pay with me.”

If she wasn’t mistaken, she saw surprise and respect in her uncles’ gazes as they stared at her—she hadn’t expected the latter but liked how it made her feel. Maybe they were finally getting it through their thick skulls that she was no longer a kid. Regardless, she got to her feet. “Now, this conversation is over. Youwillleave Doug alone. Youwon’tfire or harass him. Youwon’tpunish your wives either. Youwillstay out of my love life unless I come to you for advice, which I probably won’t do because—ick.” At least that brought a smile to the men’s faces and a chuckle from a few.

She pointed at them. “I’m still pissed at all of you, and it’s going to take some time for me to forgive you for what you did. But I do know that you did it because you love me. And in some weird way, I love that you cared enough to try to intervene, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it.” She paused when athought occurred to her. “By the way, how did you find out about Doug and me?”

“Nope,” Boomer immediately blurted. “I’m invoking the man-code and not throwing anyone under the bus.”

Brody shook his head. “Same.”

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