Too Fast (Boys of Lake Chapel #2)

by Abby Millsaps

To the readers who read Too Safe, considered three hot-as-hell football players, then decided they wanted the Stats Daddy instead: This one is for you.

“Is she your girl?” Locke’s eyes widen, and he shoots a look at Kylian, then me. “Well, she…” “She’s my girl,” Kylian declares as his phone alarm blares. He holds it up for emphasis before silencing it. The hour’s up. “She’s his girl, too,” he adds, jutting his chin toward Locke. He doesn’t bother looking my way. I can’t make any sort of claim on her. At least not yet. “Well, you’re my boys,” Kendrick reasons, nodding at me. “All of you. We’re a family. And family protects their own. Let’s go get our girl.”

It’s a lesson I learned years ago: at our core, we’re all just animals. Not even smart animals. We’re reptiles, compelled by our baser needs and survival instincts.

“Now you have a choice. You can let me be—let me cope with the fallout of this ordeal and do what I need to do to convince myself she’s okay, too—or you can try to control the situation. ‘Try’ is the operative word in that sentence, because I’m done doing things your way when it comes to my girl.”

“Haven’t you ever heard the phrase ‘put your own oxygen mask on first’?” Brow furrowed, he assesses me. “Those instructions are for people traveling on aircraft with children, Jo.” “Fair point. If I call you Daddy, will you go upstairs and sleep?” I tease. “If you call me Daddy, neither one of us is going to sleep anytime soon, and you know it.”

“It was easier to hate you than to admit I wanted you, too. You’ve been in my head since the moment we met, Jojo. I’m done fighting it. I know the deal. I don’t know the details yet, but I want in, too.”

Shit on a crumbly cracker.Of course it’d be the grumpiest among them to also be the most emotionally intelligent.

“Don’t forgive me yet, Mama. I’m going to fucking earn it. You deserve to be fought for, not fought over. You deserve to be vindicated—which is exactly what I’m gonna do. The motherfucking South Chapel Sharks need to know what happens when they try to take what’s ours.” “Ours?” I ask, hypnotized by his closeness, his presence, the intensity of his gaze. “Ours. We were a mess without you, Jojo. When I saw how the boys all responded, saw how they need you… I couldn’t keep denying that I need you, too.”

“You can’t leave, because the sixty-one hours we suffered without you were torture. Pure, unrelenting torture. That’s how long it was, Siren. Sixty-one hours. I counted each and every one of them. It was all I could do—all I could control. I didn’t eat. I didn’t sleep. I searched and I counted. That’s it. For sixty-one hours, I didn’t stop looking for you.” He pauses, just long enough to glare down at me. He’s staring at me so intensely I’m afraid I’ll catch on fire. “I would have searched for a thousand more. I wouldn’t have stopped until I found you. For them. For me. “We can’t go through that again. You can’t leave, because we need you. You belong with us. I won’t let anyone come between us now that we have you back, Josephine—not even you.”

“I won’t hold you captive, Josephine. But I’ll do everything in my power to make you stay.”

“Sorry, Hot Girl,” Locke mumbles, placing a soft kiss on my shoulder. “Your boyfriend’s worried my dick’s too big for you to handle.” Tipping my head back to look up at Kylian, I lick my lips. “Trust me, Daddy. It’ll fit.” “Daddy?” Locke gibes. “You’re a philosophy major, Nicky. Don’t tell me you’re not familiar with the teachings of Pascal. Daddy is a state of mind.”

I want Hunter to know. I trust Greedy enough. I need to give Kylian the facts. I crave Locke’s comfort. I hope Kendrick doesn’t overreact. I pray Decker understands.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Kylian grits out, hands planted on the tabletop. “And I’d do it again, if given the chance. You knowing about her past wasn’t going to change your decision about keeping her here.” Leaning forward, he squints behind his glasses. “You just can’t handle knowing you weren’t as in control of this situation as you let yourself believe.” Yikes. Shots fired. But also… Kylian’s got a point.

My coquettish grin was enough to tell her exactly what happened the night before. Waggling her brows, she whispered, “Good for you, girl. But you’re out of your pretty little head if you think I’m about to crawl into your love nest and bask in those sex sheets.”

“I see you, baby. Always. You’re safe by my side. Nothing and no one is getting to you ever again.”

“I do not whine,” Kylian counters in a huff. “What’s there to like about sand, anyway? It gets everywhere. It clings to all the wrong places. You find it for days after leaving the beach, even after multiple showers. Sand is the glitter of the sea.”

K smirks and presses into me until I’m sandwiched between him and Nicky. “You said you wanted teamwork. Took us less than five minutes to make you squirt, Mama. My boy deserves a little praise too, ya know?”

“You requested a private audience, your highness?” she mocks. My teeth are clenched so tight my jaw aches as I hover closer. The boys didn’t fuck her well enough if she’s still this brazen afterward. There isn’t enough patience in my body—maybe in the world—to deal with her haughty, bratty attitude right now.

“I just want to be with you tonight. Enjoy your company. Lay beside you and forget the world for a few hours. Can you give me that, Siren?” Shit on a crumbly cracker. I thought I was cruising the lake with Decker Crusade, control freak, QB1, asshole extraordinaire. I had no idea I was getting on this boat with a top-tier groveler and hopeless romantic.