10.

What's the difference between the Black Eyed Peas and chickpeas?

One of them can sing you a tune, and the other can only hummus one.

Text from Tama'i to Amethyst

A METHYST

"Now that we're all sober, should we rationally discuss the decisions we made last night?"

"I was perfectly rational," Bella insisted.

"That's why you made a phone call that required you to go off alone into a bedroom so you could channel your inner skank and have phone sex?" Cydney asked.

"Or better yet, is that why you booked an impromptu flight to Vegas that leaves in less than four hours?"

"Shit!" Bella yelled as she sat straight up in bed. Since she was between us, her sudden movement yanked the covers off of Cydney's face, and she whimpered as if the sunlight streaming through my window was painful. "I've only got three hours?"

Bella jumped out of bed and took the covers with her. I tried to move as little as possible as I reached down to grab the blanket and pull it back up.

"She's nuts," Cydney said as she rolled over and put her face in the pillow.

"Why aren't you freaking out?" Zoey asked without opening her eyes.

"Why should I be?"

"You're on the same flight, Squid," I reminded her.

The bed shook as Cydney tensed, and I felt her gaze on me as she asked, "What did you say?"

"You don't remember that part?"

"Remind me."

Zoey's voice was barely more than a whisper when she said, "You made her a pinky promise that you'd go along to make sure she wasn't wowed by the bright lights of Sin City and the hot man with the dimples and more money than God."

"I did?" When I nodded, Cydney's face dropped back onto the pillow, and luckily, it muffled her scream. When she ran out of breath, she lifted her head again and stared at me before she asked, "Y'all are going, too, right?"

"I can't. I start the day shift tomorrow," Zoey explained.

"Nope. I have a date tonight."

"Oh, yeah," Cydney mumbled as she rolled to her side so she could look at me. "What the fuck?"

"The heart wants what it wants."

"I'm not sure it's her heart that's making the decisions right now," Zoey mumbled.

"All the more reason for her to have supervision so she doesn't do something stupid."

"Bella isn't exactly the type to do irrational things."

Zoey agreed, "She's right. Bella's got her head on straight. She's not the irrational type."

"The impromptu Vegas trip doesn't seem irrational to you?"

"I can hear you talking about me, hags!" Bella yelled from the bathroom. "It's not irrational, it's impulsive. We made a pact to try new things!"

"When I said I wanted to do that, I was talking about changing my hairstyle and maybe . . . just maybe . . . considering a new color."

"What did I agree to?" I asked in confusion.

"You agreed that you wouldn't let your family run this guy off and you'd give him a chance to impress you with his personality and sense of humor before you wrote him off and never called him again," Zoey reminded me.

"Oh.That."

"I also believe that you sent him a text telling him your intentions," Cydney said happily. "I, on the other hand, didn't do anything but agree to a trip to Vegas where I can eat crab legs that are as big as my forearm, visit the Neon Museum, and then lay by the pool and get waited on hand and foot by a hot cabana guy."

"You're only going to be there for a day, Squid," Zoey reminded her.

"Then I guess I'll have a full belly while I work on my tan."

"You're not going to do any of that if you don't get your ass in gear and go home to pack!" Bella said as she hopped into the bedroom while trying to pull on her shoe. "You're dropping us off, right, Amy?"

"Sure. It's the least I can do." I laughed as both women stared daggers at me, and then what they had said struck me. In a horrified voice, I yelled, "What do you mean I sent him a text?"

"What'cha doin'?"

"The girls are on the plane."

"That sounds like code for something illegal."

"Trying to get two grown women packed and ready for a weekend trip in less than two hours should be an Olympic event."

"It's Saturday afternoon, and they're only going for the weekend?"

"I'm supposed to pick them up tomorrow evening around nine."

"For a thirty-six hour trip, I would need one set of clothes, deodorant, and my toothbrush."

"I should have let you help them pack."

"Absolutely not."

I blew out a breath and then steeled myself to start the conversation about the text I had sent last night. I'd been avoiding the subject throughout the messages we'd exchanged today in the hopes that he'd forget.

I realized in the next few seconds that he had not forgotten and was not going to just let it slide.

The subject of packing reminds me of a question I have. Should I bring enough clothes for one night or two?

"Amethyst Hamilton, you're a grown woman who makes life and death decisions every day. It shouldn't be this difficult to tell the man what you want," I said out loud as I bumped my head against the headrest of my seat. "Of course, you had to be drunk to open your mouth the first time, so that's the problem, isn't it?"

Suddenly, my phone rang in my hand, and it scared me so badly that I screamed and tossed it onto the passenger floorboard. It kept ringing, and I luckily had the presence of mind to hit the button on the dashboard display to answer the call as I crawled over the console to retrieve my phone.

"Hello!" I said in a rush right before my hand slipped and my shoulder slammed into the passenger seat, coming alarmingly close to dropping me on top of my head. "Explain that injury to the ER nurse, why don't you?"

"What injury? Are you okay?"

I realized it was Tama'i calling, probably wondering why I hadn't answered his question yet, so I lied and said, "I'm fine."

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, just a quick upper . . ." I couldn't help the grunt that escaped when I tried to push myself up with one arm, gravity and my substantial boobs fighting me every inch of the way. "Upper body workout."

"Is that so?"

"It's a . . . Yeah. . . There's a little mix of . . . labradoodle trucking . . . Holy guacamole!"

"Amethyst? Are you there? I think you're cutting out."

"Tama'i, I'm going to have to call you back."

"Why?"

"My day has gone completely upside down. Yeah. That's it. Let me get this . . . thing I've got going on . . . Ugh. Let me take care of this, and I'll . . ."

"As much as I love the view, sweetheart, I'm going to have to ask you to reach up and open the passenger door before all the blood rushes to your head and you pass out."

"How did you . . ." I stopped talking when I realized that the laughter I could hear in the background of the call was outside my vehicle and couldn't bite back the groan of mortification I felt when I realized I had an audience.

"Open the door, Amethyst."

I quit trying to pull myself up and sighed before I let go of the small amount of leverage I'd worked so hard for and blindly felt around the door until I found the lever. The second I had the door unlatched, it flew open. In the next instant, strong arms slid under my shoulders and hooked beneath my arms. I let out a yelp when I was lifted up so my body was parallel with the seat before I was pulled out of the passenger door. The front of my body hit a hard surface just as my eyes focused, and I saw Tama'i's smiling face even with mine.

I realized that I wasn't touching the ground, and he was holding me up by my arms like an adult would a child. Without thinking, I lifted my legs and wrapped them around his waist as I put my hands on his shoulders.

"Fancy meeting you here," I quipped as Tama'i's hands slid down my sides and around my waist.

"Hi."

"He plucked your ass out of there like you were a toddler," I heard my cousin say through his laughter.

"Oh, shit," another cousin said before a third asked, "Did you get that on video?"

"Why are you with the birdbrains?" I asked.

"The birdbrains?"

"My aunt named all of her children after birds, and as far as her male offspring goes, that seems to have been very fortuitous because their brains are the size of walnuts, maybe even pecans." I turned and glared at Hawk, Crow, and Phoenix and then realized that even more of the men I grudgingly considered family were nearby, also watching the impromptu show. I didn't say anything to my cousins before I looked back at Tama'i, whose face was just inches from mine and asked, "Why are you hanging out with the riffraff?"

"Hawk invited me over to play a pick-up game and introduce Tameka to his cousin. Cousins. Hold on. I'm confused about the . . ."

"Technically, they're both our cousins because . . . Wow. Our cousins are getting married and having a baby. That kid's gonna be . . . What would you call that?"

Without looking at him, I ordered, "Phoenix, go ask one of the children to draw a diagram to help you figure out the connection."

"You little shit," Phoenix muttered.

"I know things about all of you that would make your mother cry. Go away. Now."

"We know things about you too," Crow argued. "How's life in that glass house, Amy?"

"How is that rash, Crow?"

Phoenix and Hawk, who had been standing next to their brother, both took a step away as Crow's mouth dropped open in shock. "That's doctor-patient confidentiality!"

"I'm not your doctor, birdbrain."

"That was low even for you, Amy," Hawk chided. When I tilted my head in question and smiled, his eyes got wide and he shook his head as he put his hands up in defeat. "Don't aim that mouth at me, woman. I didn't do shit."

"Go.Away."

"I'm not poking the bear. Nope. You know how the gems get when they're cornered."

As my cousins walked off, I looked back at Tama'i and smiled. "You can put me down now."

"I kind of like having you here. Besides, if I put you down, I'll just get embarrassed, so let's hang out like this for a while." I could feel the length of his "embarrassment" against me and wiggled a little bit to test it. Tama'i groaned and said, "Stop moving around and talk to me to take my mind off of it."

"Most people don't realize that ejaculation has nothing to do with the brain. It's actually controlled through the spine, although thinking of something else to focus your mind can often hinder the spine's commands to ejaculate and . . ."

Tama'i groaned again and interrupted, "Your cousin referred to you as a gem. Is that because your name is Amethyst?"

"My aunt named her children after birds, but my mom and dad went with gemstones for their children. My sisters are named Emerald and Diamond. The only one of us that doesn't follow the theme is my brother Lazlo who was named after my father."

"And that was when you realized your dad's name wasn't Lout?"

"Exactly. It's Lazarus. Apparently, the first time they talked about having children, my mom said she'd name their first son after Dad and call him Lazlo, so that's what they did."

"I've met Opal and Pearl. Oh, and Jett. What's the other one called?"

"Two others. Onyx and Flint."

"Okay," Tama'i said as he slid his hands back to my sides and gripped my hips. He held them tight and pulled me away from his body, so I let my legs slide down as he set me on the ground. He cleared his throat and said, "I think I'm decent now."

I still had my hands on his shoulders and threw caution to the wind as I molded myself against him and said, "That's unfortunate."

"I convinced myself that I should wait to do this, but you're making it very hard."

"I am? That is fortunate," I said with a grin.

"Fuck it," Tama'i grumbled before he squatted down, wrapped his arms around my hips, and picked me up. Suddenly, we were eye to eye again, and I realized why he'd picked me up when his mouth touched mine.

I felt him turning a split-second before he pressed my back against the window of my SUV. I wrapped my arms around his neck and deepened the kiss as my legs went back around his waist. He held me with one hand as his other roamed up my side before he hooked his thumb under my jaw and tilted my head the way he wanted it, holding me still as his mouth devoured mine.

I was lost in everything Tama'i - his scent, his heat, his large hand gripping my ass, and the growling coming from deep in his chest. Time seemed to stand still as the tentative kiss turned into a whirlwind of passion, and I lost the ability to think of anything but how he was making me feel until I heard a sweet voice ask, "How can they breathe like that?"

Tama'i pulled his lips from mine and sucked in a long breath through his nose as he rested his forehead against mine.

"Dad said we should interrupt them," my cousin's cheerful voice announced. "Uncle Crow said we need a water hose, but I'm not sure why."

"Are they sleeping now?" the first voice asked.

"They're kissing like Mom and Dad do. It's icky." I recognized another voice and sighed when I realized we had even more of an audience than I'd first thought.

"Lyric, sweetheart, take Juni and your friend over to your dad and ask him to explain why he doesn't drink water."

"Huh?"

"Just go ask him."

"Okay!" my young cousin said cheerfully before she urged the girls, "Come on. I want to know because he makes me drink water."

The girl's voices got further away, and I finally opened my eyes to see Tama'i staring at me, just inches away.

"Why doesn't your cousin drink water?"

"Because fish fornicate in it."

Tama'i sputtered out a laugh as he looked over his shoulder at my cousins. "And you sent that little girl to ask him about that?"

"He sent them over here to interrupt us, so I thought it was the least I could do."

"You've got me all worked up again, Amethyst."

"I can feel it," I said as I squeezed my legs tighter to get him even closer to me. "You picked me up like I don't weigh anything. You know that's weird, right?"

"You're short. I don't want to get a crick in my neck."

"I'm five-foot-ten, Tama'i. According to the CDC, that's almost seven inches taller than the average American woman."

"I'm six-foot-seven, sweetheart. That's still nine inches shorter than me, so that makes you short in my book."

"You lifted me up like I was light as a feather. I'm not going to tell you how much I weigh, but let's just say that's impressive."

"Once I get you alone and naked, I'm going to lift you up for an entirely different reason and then let you work those strong thighs I appreciate so much to . . . Nope. Nope. Not gonna go there yet."

"We're within walking distance of my bedroom. It would take about ten seconds for you to carry me into my house where we could make use of my kitchen table. Go there," I urged without thinking. Suddenly, I realized what I'd just said. "Shiitake mushrooms. I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't usually invite men I barely know into my house to . . . do things."

"I wonder if you keep your vocabulary G-rated while you orgasm."

"It's been so long since I had one with anyone else involved that I wouldn't know."

"And now I have a new mission in life."

"Are we playing ball or what?" Crow yelled from somewhere behind Tama'i.

"The Darwin in those boys is strong," I said with a sigh. "I need you to do something."

"What's that?"

"Go play football with your little friends, and every time one of them is carrying the ball, I want you to remember that they're the reason we're not naked and screaming inside my house right now. I'll give you a kiss for every time you flatten them like a pancake."

"I might hurt them."

"That would bring me great joy."

Tama'i started laughing as he reached back to unhook my legs from around his waist. "I can't hurt your family, Amethyst. I want them to like me."

"That's too bad," I said as my feet touched the ground again. As Tama'i took a step back, I said, "Go play your game. I'm going to go upstairs and finish what you started before I get ready for my date tonight."

"You're . . . Are you really going to . . ."

"Absolutely. I can't think when I'm this worked up, so I need to take the edge off."

I smiled as I hooked my arm around his neck to pull him down for a kiss. "Go out there and trample my big mouth, orgasm-blocking, irritating cousins while you imagine me upstairs moaning your name while I use my waterproof toy in the tub. I'll see you this evening when you pick me up for our date."

"But . . . I just . . ."

As I walked through my open garage door, I said, "Oh! I almost forgot to answer your question."

"I don't even know my own name right now, let alone what question I asked you," Tama'i said in a choked voice.

"I've decided you should pack for two nights, not just one."