Chapter 1

Jamison

Iroll my neck as I pull onto the drive, spotting the cabin. It's not a bad place to take a little vacation. Working vacation that is.

Not that I necessarily consider what I do work all the time. Not when it's something I want to do or create.

Yeah, sometimes when we're doing custom builds for clients of my family's construction company, it feels exactly like work. Especially with some of the clients that come to us for their large, fully custom-built homes. They want to use the places to one-up their friends or co-workers, and those people, are the ones I try to avoid as much as possible.

Just because my family has money, doesn't mean I enjoy rubbing shoulders with the richie-rich types. I'd much rather spend my time with people like Nick, whose cabin I'm staying in for the next week or so, while I put together some new cabinetry for his kitchen.

He's slowly been remodeling this place, mostly by himself, refusing to accept any help from me or any of the company's crews that he can't pay for. I get it. That he doesn't want to be beholden to anyone, so I'm happy to accept the use of the cabin in return for doing the work.

Nick bought all the wood and supplies I'll need, so it's just my labor to cover. Since I don't need the cash, I told hm to just let me stay while doing the work and we'll call it good. He argued that it wasn't a fair trade, but I reminded him that it was an hour and a half drive both ways, which would be three hours less of work I could get done each day having to come and go.

There'd also be three hours' worth of gas to cover each day, so it was either, stay in the cabin, or find a hotel nearby. Considering the cabin is in the middle of nowhere in effort to get away, the closest hotel is at least an hour away still.

I have plenty of easy to make food with me, some goodies from Mom and Jackie that I can simply toss in the microwave or oven. Nick assured me they both worked, as did the sink and fridge even though he's already demoed most of the kitchen area himself to prep for the new cabinets.

I figured as long as there was running water, a stove, and a fridge, I'd be good for the week. And that was before Jackie stopped by with the goodies for me, while Mom went over to drop off some meals for Jasmine.

Little Faye is two month's old now, Jasmine and Adam's second little girl. Well, third counting Cleo who is now thirteen. She might not be blood, but she's definitely Jasmine's and has been since they met three years ago.

Knowing my twin sister is safe with Adam makes it easier to get out of town for a week or two as well. Adam's as obsessed with her as my older brothers are with their wives.

I honestly don't know which of them is worst.

Jesse's always been intense, but add in Maddie and their kids, and it's taken on a whole new level. Their youngest is one, another little boy making that three boys, and just one little girl. Which I think will be a good thing because he's going to be the papa bear of all papa bears. Particularly with little Tessa since she is a total people person. Not to mention looks just like Maddie.

They're not close to closing in on Jude or Eden, with their six babies. Their oldest four aren't Cartwrights, are Eden's half-siblings, but just like Cleo, they're entirely part of our family.

My older brother fell instantly for Eden. So much so that he forgot to get Eden's name, and she disappeared before he could reassure her what happened between them wasn't a one-time thing. Jude's tune changed instantly about not wanting kids, not wanting to get married, when he found Eden back. Hell, it'd changed before that even since he already had a ring for her while he didn't even know where she was.

Now, they have the six kids, and god forbid people say anything nasty about having so many little ones under five. Especially since the quadruplets' mom died due to a car accident before she could even meet the babies.

Johnnie's no better. Not considering he and Carly have been together almost eight years and they'll soon have six kids as well. Carly's pregnant for the fifth time—their first were twins, identical boys that get into everything. Add in the danger Carly was under when they first met, and he's all about making sure they're safe.

They get it from our dad for sure. He's been the same for all of us kids growing up, as well as Mom. Heck, he's still that way if someone tries to get out of line, even if he did just turn eighty-one, while our youngest sister just turned twenty-one.

He's nineteen years older than Mom is, so she was only forty when Jillian was born. Something that raised a lot of brows when people first saw them together. Most of them claimed that Mom was a gold-digger, but the only thing Mom really wanted was a family—a real one, not one like she had growing up, with just her, her mother that brought home man after man, and a brother that barely acknowledged her.

True, he was sixteen when she was born, but he wanted away from their mother almost as much as mom did. So he wasn't around after he turned eighteen and graduated.

She and Uncle Aaron aren't like that now. He's a true brother to both Mom and Dad. Especially since he's the reason Mom met Dad and Julie—our oldest sister who is forty-three.

Mom and Dad's story is a bit like Jasmine and Adam's. Mom fell for Dad when she met him, along with baby Julie who was just one at the time. Was jealous that she finally met a man she could see herself with, only to think there was someone special in his life, a mother to his child.

Julie's bio-mom wasn't anywhere near her and Dad's life though. She was in a mental institution after trying to smother Julie while in the hospital, so Dad had full custody of her, and was trying to do it all by himself. He took one look at Mom and wanted her, was jealous thinking she was out with Uncle Aaron who worked for him, and when it was all cleared up, he wasted no time claiming her as his, or getting her pregnant with our second oldest sister Jennie.

Three years ago, Adam took Cleo to Jasmine's shop, to have her plan Cleo's tenth birthday party. Similar to Mom, Jasmine felt she'd finally met a man she could love, want to have a family with, which would include Cleo, but she thought he already was married.

Thankfully, he wasn't. Wasn't actually Cleo's father, although he was doing his best to be her dad. Cleo's mom died two years prior, leaving her with her Uncle Adam, who took her to Jasmine's shop that day. Within weeks, they were engaged, married two months later, and had baby Daisy a year, plus a week and a half, after they first met.

I was a bit reluctant to like him at first, thinking he was trying to play Jasmine to get a manufacturing contract with us, but it turned out it really was a coincidence that his company was bidding out the new production line, at the same time he met Jasmine. He'd simply been trying to do something nice for his niece who'd been through a lot in the last few years.

Now, I think maybe it was a bit of fate's way of putting him into our world to find Jasmine, but they found each other first. Knowing he's there for her, lets me relax while I'm at my house far better than when she was still at Mom and Dad's.

They wouldn't let anything physically hurt her, but guys could still hurt her emotionally. So while I might have been a few miles away, I was always prepared to rush back to the house for her if needed.

I pull my truck up alongside the cabin and park, grabbing the cooler with the food to take inside first, and head towards the door. The door clicks open as I turn the key in the knob, surprising me since Nick said the deadbolt should be locked.

I shrug, figuring he just forgot to lock it when he left last time, and push it open further to get the cooler inside to put away the cold stuff. I'm almost to the kitchen when a door along the short hall opens, and my feet stop the second I spot long, bare legs step out of the room.

They're attached to the sexiest little blonde as she comes out from what I know has to be the bathroom. Her skin is wet, glistening with droplets of water, the end of her hair damp, sticking to her neck, while every inch of her body is entirely bare.

"Fucking hell," falls from my mouth as her head whips up, dazzling me with the sweetest green gaze as her eyes meet mine. Color attacks her cheeks as she lets out a little yelp, diving back into the bathroom, while my cock solidifies inside my pants, turning as hard as the wood I work with in a heartbeat.

I am so fucking screwed.

It'd be bad enough if I just met the woman of my dreams and she was Nick's girl, but this… could be so much worse. That sweet little thing in there, is Nick's little sister, and I'm praying she's legal. If not, I might as well go hang myself now, because I don't know if I'll be able to wait until she is to claim her.

Because make no mistake, little Natalie is mine.

I take the cooler to the kitchen, setting it on the small table there, finding other bits of food on it already. Mostly instant type items, ramen, cups of noodles, mac 'n cheese, rice…nothing that would satisfy a person for long. Not even on an overnight trip to the cabin. An unexpected one for certain because if Nick knew she was coming, he'd have told me, warned her I was headed up here for the week.

Sure as hell he wouldn't want any man near his sexy ass little sister.

My ears keep waiting for the bathroom door to open again, but it doesn't, and I take a deep breath, getting my shit together before moving over to it with a knock. "Natalie…"

"Uhhgk," she splutters from just behind it, making me smile a hint at how close she is to it. "How do you know my name?" she adds, surprise filling her tone.

"You're Nick's little sister. I'm Jamison, we met in college," I tell her, waiting for her to respond or open the door. "Last time I saw a picture of you, you had to be about twelve or thirteen in it, but you look pretty much the same other than…well, you've grown up," I finish, cursing myself for bringing up her nakedness. No matter how much I enjoyed seeing her sweet body, probably not the thing she needs to hear right now.

"What are you doing here?" she asks after a moment of silence, and I calm myself down enough to answer her.

"Nick asked me to come build and install the cabinets for the kitchen. I had some down time at work and could easily get away, so I told him I could do it this week."

"So you're staying here?" she asks, her voice sounding even closer to the edge of the door now.

"That was the plan. He didn't say you'd be here," I add, wanting to know if he has a clue she's out here with me, because I can pretty much guarantee, the answer's likely no. Seriously, no sane brother would send a full-grown man to the same place a sweet little thing like Natalie was staying.

I hear a little sigh before the door opens, revealing an almost naked Natalie once more. This time she has a towel wrapped around her, and I'd kill to drop it to the floor and feast on her body. She'd satisfy a hunger I've never felt for damn sure.

Her eyes come up to meet mine, a flush in her cheeks that's adorable and sexy at the same time. "He doesn't know I'm here. It felt safer not to tell him," she adds and that single world, sends my body rigid.

"Safer? Safer from what?" I question, my hands balling into fists to keep from reaching for her.

"My ex finding out where I am if he overhears Nick talking to any of his friends at the bar," Natalie answers me, and my brow lifts needing more—needing it all. "We broke up three months ago, but he won't leave me alone. I barely made it through finals the week before last, because he just wouldn't stop bothering me. Everywhere I go, he shows up. I stop by Nick's and he's down the street. I go to the grocery store and he's at the end of aisle. Everyone at Presley's had to be out of the dorms by Saturday night. So Friday morning, around three a.m., I loaded the rest of my stuff in my car and came out here instead of going back to Johnsonville to stay with my sister for the summer."

"Your brother hasn't set him straight?" I ask, amazed that Nick would let someone upset his sister, while also saying a million thanks that she's in college.

"My brother's way of setting him straight would be a fist to the face or gut, and well…"

"What? You don't want him hurt even though he's scaring you, so much that you disappear to the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night?" I ask, not wanting her to even think of the man, let alone feel sorry for him for what he's bringing upon himself.

"No, I'd love to let Nick take him to task," Natalie says with a sigh, hints of tears forming in her eyes I hate. "I just…his dad's a cop—some bigshot at their headquarters. When I went in to file a restraining order against him, they laughed in my face, saying I should be lucky that Craig was interested in some white-trash like me."

"I see," I state, stopping her when she looks like she's about to argue. "No, baby girl, I really see," I promise her, enjoying the way the flush deepens when I call her that, which is good, because from now on, that's what she is. My girl, my baby, to protect and keep safe, and her brother can fuck off if he's not happy about it.

"You believe me?" she asks, her eyes wider still and I nod, making her chin quiver a bit. "Why?"

"Because I know what some of the cops in town are like, especially the ones connected to the old family names, which I'm guessing he has," I state, and she nods. "Lucky for you, I have my own in with the police in town, more specifically, the Chief of Police, who doesn't like jackasses abusing their powers, and is trying to weed them all out."

"And you're willing to call him for me so I get out of your hair?" she asks, her tone saying she doesn't want to leave, and I'm not about to push her out, not even close to it.

"No, I'm more than willing to share the cabin for as long as it takes me to get the cabinets built and put in," I tell her, rubbing the cleft in her chin that looks adorable on her, compared to resembling a butt-crack on her brother. "When you're ready to leave, I'll make sure you're safe from that asshole, but I'm in no hurry for you to go."

"Why's that?" she asks, her eyes no longer cloudy with tears thank god, and a hint of a smile on her lips.

"Because I'd have to follow you, to make sure nothing happens to you. That no one hurts my baby girl," I state, enjoying the little breathy sigh that leaves her lips, as her eyes flutter shut.

"What are you going to do with me if I stay?" she asks, her fingers playing with the edge of the towel and fuck, my cock wants nothing more than for her to drop it—or drop to her knees and take me in her sweet mouth.

"Something your brother will probably try to kill me for doing," I warn, my hand sliding along her neck, back up into her loosely gathered hair, holding her head. "I'd let him try if I didn't already know."

Natalie's brow lifts at me, a little smile crossing her lips as she asks, "Didn't already know what?"

"That you're mine. Mine to touch. Mine to taste. Mine to hold. Mine to keep safe," I add, putting a deeper smile on her lips. "Mine for always—when you're ready."

"You can't possibly be for real," she says, shaking her head a bit, and I lower mine to hers, stealing her lips in a kiss showing her just how real I am.