One Night Stand by Parker Kincade Read Free Book Online Page A

leaned back in his chair, casually popping M&M’s into his mouth while he glared daggers at Joe.
    Caleb towered over Brandon in a heartbeat. “Don’t you fucking tell me when it’s enough, Bran. She can’t just run off when things get hard, scaring us half to death in the process. It’s irresponsible and,” he turned back to look Amanda in the eye, “childish.”
    “We all want answers, Cay,” Brandon said gently. “But you know as well as I do browbeating her isn’t going to get us anywhere.”
    “And neither is talking about me like I’m not in the room. Get over yourself, Caleb. I’m not shutting you out or running away from you. You’re just pissed because you didn’t get a say. I made a decision without you, big deal. Can’t a girl take a fucking vacation if she wants to? If anyone here is acting childish , it’s you.” She ran her hands through her hair in frustration. “And he didn’t just dump me, as you so graciously put it.”
    She swallowed back tears. She really didn’t need this shit right now. “Just how the hell do you two know each other?” She felt Joe’s arm flex around her waist as she changed the subject.
    Alec was apparently done sitting on the sidelines. “Did he hurt you?” Pop went another M&M. Although he appeared casual, she noticed his hands were clenched into tight fists.
    “Who, Joe? No, of course not!”
    “Not Joe,” Alec murmured.
    Instantly the room went deadly still. God, this is a nightmare. It was bad enough to be humiliated by the cheating bastard who was supposed to care about her. Now she had to share her humiliation not only with her brothers but also with the man who’d just given her the best sex of her life.
    She couldn’t keep the defeat from her voice. “No, Alec. It wasn’t like that.” A collective breath from the males in the room eased the tension a bit.
    “Well then, why don’t you fill in the blanks for us. ’Cause all we know is we’ve been calling you for days and you didn’t feel the need to answer any of our messages. Did you not, for one minute, believe we’d be worried about you?” Caleb apparently had two volumes tonight: loud and louder.
    “I left you a message.” She took a deep, cleansing breath. “Jesus, I have my own shit to deal with. I’m sorry if calling you back wasn’t high on my list of priorities. You knew I was okay, whether you want to admit it or not. There’s just some stuff I’ve got to work out on my own. And I’d really appreciate it if you’d stop yelling at me, Cay.”
    Caleb snorted. “What I should really do is paddle your ass.”
    “I could take care of that for you,” Joe offered politely, drawing everyone’s attention.
    Amanda elbowed him in the ribs. “You’re so not helping right now.”
    Caleb’s eyes flashed. “Just what’ve you been doing with our little sister?”
    Amanda balked as Joe maneuvered her behind him, smiling a lazy smile. “You really want me to answer that?”
    Caleb growled and lunged as Alec and Brandon jumped up from the table. Joe ducked, grabbing and twisting Caleb’s arm behind his back. Once his hold was secure, he pushed Caleb’s face into the cabinets a little harder than necessary.
    He pinned Brandon and Alec with a lethal stare. “Give us a minute, boys. No harm done. Mandy, would you mind getting us some glasses and that bottle of whiskey I brought along with me? I think we could all use a drink.” She stood frozen, staring at him with a mixture of incredulity and arousal. “Amanda.” The command in Joe’s voice spurred her into action.
    He held onto Caleb for another minute before asking, “We good?”
    “We’re good.” Caleb jerked. “Get off me.”
    Caleb shoved Joe off his back and moved for the table. Offering Amanda his first real smile since he showed up tonight, Caleb quickly turned and crushed his right fist into Joe’s face.
    Joe’s head was thrown to the side by the punch, but his feet stayed planted. “I see where you got your