Blake, Abby - Suddenly Bear (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) by Abby Blake Read Free Book Online

year?
    “Okay, um…Who’s the oldest?”
    “Declan. He’s twenty-nine. He manages the ski resort. I’m in the middle at twenty-eight. And of course then there’s Jayden at twenty-four. When he’s finished studying, he plans to return to the resort and set up a general practice.”
    “Wow, I think that’s more information than I’ve been able to drag out of Jayden since he moved in.”
    Brandon laughed, a deep, sexy sound that had her toes curling in her boots. “Anything you want to know about our family, baby girl, I’m your man.”
    She stopped the car at a traffic light and glanced over at Brandon. The sun shone through the window, catching the lighter brown and gold colors in his hair and somehow making it look luminous.
    “How big is the resort?” She groaned quietly and hurriedly corrected when she realized that question could be interpreted poorly. “I mean, will there be enough patients for Jayden to run a general practice?”
    Brandon grinned as if he understood her reason for the quick rephrase, but he gave her the information a gold-digging tramp would be looking for. “The resort has room for nearly four hundred guests. We’re well known for our mixture of cross-country tracks and quality ski runs, and a lot of our clientele have been coming back year after year.”
    He grinned at her soft sound of dismay. Finding out she was sleeping with the youngest son of a very rich family didn’t make her feel any better about being an ambitionless waitress.
    “During peak season we can have nearly five hundred guests and staff living at the resort. It doesn’t take much for the roads to be blocked, and we can be isolated by bad weather pretty easily. Having a doctor nearby has always been a priority. Doc Jackson has been with us for more years than I remember, but he plans to retire around the same time Jayden will be ready to come home. So it should work out well for both of them.”
    She nodded and turned the car into a parking space close to the park.
    “We’re here,” she said in a voice that felt tight with anxiety. She should be thrilled for Jayden that his future was well planned, but all she could think of was how his brothers would see her relationship with him. She’d known for a long time that it wasn’t right to get involved with him. They should have remained friends and nothing more.
    She climbed out of the car, pulled her coat tighter around her, and tried to plaster on a smile. Brandon glanced around the park before his gaze settled back on her. “Which way should we go?”
    There were few people around this time of year, but it was one of Violet’s favorite places. Yet today, with so many worries and the lingering confusion over the lust she felt for her boyfriend’s brother swirling in her head, she barely noticed the brilliant colors or stark beauty of the trees stripped of their leaves waiting for the first snow.
    “Did I say something to upset you?”
    She glanced at the man beside her and felt hard pressed not to cry. He seemed like a really nice guy, and he wasn’t to blame for the mess she herself had made of her life.
    “No. I’m sorry. I just…um…have a lot on my mind.” Geez, talk about lame.
    “I know what happened with your ex the other night. Are you okay?” She nodded but couldn’t stop the tear that rolled down her cheek. She wiped it away quickly, horribly embarrassed that she would be so emotional in front of a man who was mostly a stranger. Brandon turned her to face him, holding her shoulders as he gazed into her eyes. He grinned widely and then winked. “Want me to go beat him up?”
    She made a noise that was half laugh, half sob and suddenly found herself wrapped in his arms. The man was huge, built like a gladiator, yet instead of flashing back to her moments of helplessness as Bruce had used his superior strength against her, Violet felt nothing but safe. She held on tight and wished she could shut up that little voice in her head that screamed