Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 142976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 477(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 477(@300wpm)
Lennox lifted his head and made abrupt, unnerving eye contact with her. His brows lowered, and his head tilted as if he wasn’t sure what to make of her, but he released her gaze as abruptly as he’d snagged it and his eyes drifted over to Beth. Something painful convulsed in his face, and he removed himself from the tight huddle with his brothers and sister, to step toward Fern and Beth.
“Elizabeth Anne Finch!” he boomed, making both women jump.
“Nox,” Gideon began a little uneasily. But Lennox ignored him and swooped toward the two women standing on the outskirts of all that familial affection. He wrapped his big, brawny arms around the tiny Beth and lifted her off her feet. Beth gave a muffled squeak against his chest, which morphed into a giggle.
“Fuck,” Gideon muttered in exasperation, stepping toward them to extricate his wife from the bear hug. “Back off, you numpty, you’re smothering her.”
“Gideon, it’s okay,” Beth assured him with a laugh, patting her hair back in place.
“You and me, we’ve got some talking to do, lass,” Nox told her, and she smiled and nodded.
“Later, okay? I’m just really happy you came today. Your brothers and sister have missed you.”
Something unspoken passed between them, leaving Fern mystified, but the full force of Nox’s gaze swung back to Fern a moment later.
His eyes narrowed as they swept over her face and body.
“You’re the Lambert girl?”
Fern gulped and nodded wordlessly.
“Hawthorne,” Cade said, the first time he’d spoken in nearly five minutes and all eyes immediately went to him.
“What?” Lennox asked.
“She’s a Hawthorne now.”
“Saying a thing doesn’t automatically make it so,” the other man corrected mildly and Fern found herself nodding in agreement—that’s exactly what she’d been thinking this entire morning so far—until Cade’s censorious gaze latched onto her.
“For all intents and purposes, Fern is a Hawthorne for the next three years, and she’ll be treated accordingly.”
Lennox’s eyebrows elevated nearly to his hairline and he lifted his hands, palms up, in surrender.
“If you say s—”
“I do,” Cade’s unequivocal assertion cut his brother off.
Lennox stared at Cade’s face for a long moment, something flashing between the two men that snagged Fern’s breath and created a strange tension within the entire group.
That tension was broken when Lennox lowered his still upraised hands and dipped his chin in brief acknowledgment.
“Then so it shall be. Welcome to the family uh—”
“Fern,” Cade interjected and Lennox’s beard twitched, while the smallest of smiles lifted the corners of his lip.
“Welcome to the family, Fern.”
Fern nodded.
“Welcome back to the family, Lennox.” Her pointed retort, quiet, yet tart seemed to startle the man. Nox’s head canted as his eyes took on an assessing gleam while they once again scanned her face for God knew what.
He broke out in a full-on grin and nodded appreciatively, before bursting into waves of appreciative laughter.
“Not quite the tentative little mouse you appear to be, are you?” He hooted, dropping a heavy arm around her shoulder and reeling her in for a tight one-armed hug, after which he held her tucked into his side.
“Call me Nox. Y’know that if I’d been here, I would probably have been the one you wound up trapped within unholy matrimony?”
The comment deeply unsettled Fern, and she jerked her head up at him in shock. The thought of marrying anyone other than Cade had never occurred to her and—attractive though he was—she found the thought of a union with this man slightly repugnant.
Solely because he wasn’t Cade.
“I don’t… I doubt…” Her helpless gaze fluttered to Cade and she was startled to find him staring at his brother with something close to animosity roiling behind that placid gaze. Nobody else seemed to notice it. They were all laughing at Nox’s off-color comment.
When he realized that she was watching him, Cade slammed the brakes on his emotions… hard. His face and eyes went blank in an instant and he stepped forward, to close his hand around Fern’s bicep and gently tugged her toward him.
“You’re making my wife uncomfortable, Nox.” His voice was mild, but there was an undertone of frost lurking just beneath it.
Nox immediately dropped his arm, and put some space between him and Fern.
“Fuck, I’m sorry, little mouse,” he sounded sincerely contrite. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“Uh… you didn’t,” the people-pleaser in Fern immediately appeased, even though she hadn’t liked his assertion that the brothers were interchangeable in this marriage deal. She wouldn’t have wanted Nox, not even if she’d met him first that night at the gala.
Cade was the one who made her feel safe and protected. She wasn’t sure how she felt about his brother, who was a little too loud, too brash, too much.
Cade’s hand was still loosely wrapped around her upper arm, so big his fingers could encircle her bicep and meet with room to spare. She inched her way closer to her husband, liking the shelter he provided, but he noticed the movement and dropped his hand, leaving her feeling a little woebegone at the loss of his impersonal touch.