“The dumb rules like no sleeping over? Or the good rules like you’d never stay with anyone who harmed you?”

She rolled her eyes. As close as she was with Brody, she’d never revealed why she never slept over to anyone but Jonah.

No one else was close enough to hear. “Well, he does like to use a paddle on me. He also ties me up. But that’s not really harm. At least not in a bad sense. And the only man who has slept over at my place is a nearly four-year-old who likes frozen pudding cups and pees all over the seat.”

Brody laughed. “Rough sex is one thing. Harming is another. He seems protective of you. I like that part. I like that you’re letting him in. You seem calmer lately. Must be all that spanking.”

She burst out laughing. “Could be. I certainly feel so very mellow when he’s done. Who knew? I used to think all that stuff was just role-play. But it’s more than that with us. He takes over and . . .”

“And you don’t have to be in charge. For once in your life, someone else makes the decisions and choices.”

She blew out a breath. “Yeah. I think that’s part of it. If you want to get all psychological about it and all. Anyway, he’s good. We’re good. His family? Well. We’ll see about that. But who am I to talk?”

“I heard part of what happened over the weekend with the mother and sister-in-law. Wasn’t really happy about it. Did like his reaction though.”

“If I mean to do this relationship thing, I’m going to have to find a way to deal with her. The mother anyway. The sister-in-law can eat a bag of dicks. She may never know how close she came to eating my fist.”

Brody laughed. “Maybe she needed that.”

“Not at a charity event, for f**k’s sake. The evening was about raising money for the arts, not for some stupid play for attention by a sister-in-law who wants to bang the brother she couldn’t marry, if you know what I mean.”

“Ah. You think that’s the issue?”

“I don’t know for sure. All I can say is she seems unnaturally interested in where Levi puts his dick.”

“Some people can’t be happy with anything.”

“Don’t I know it. But I’m good. Jonah is good. What it is more than that I don’t know. But for now, I’m happy.”

“How much have you shared with him?”

“More than I intended to. He’s got . . . I don’t know, this way about him. I find myself sharing stuff I haven’t talked about in a long time. If ever. But he never looks at me with disgust or pity.”

He put a hand on her shoulder. “Sweetheart, there’s nothing to be disgusted over. Not with you. Everything you survived was about you overcoming other people’s shitty behavior. None of it was your fault.”

“I’m no angel, Brody. I was not very nice to Elise when she first came around. I tried to break you up. I broke your heart before that. And you’re still my friend. Thank you.”

He smiled. “You did break my heart. And that sucked. But if I’m being honest—and since I’m an old family man now and all I guess I have to—my heart got broken because I didn’t listen to what you told me. You never made me promises. I just wanted them to be there. And you made your peace with Elise. You went to her and apologized and whatever you said—she won’t tell me—was enough to make her not only forgive you, but be fond of you. You have flaws, no lie. But you own your shit and a hell of a lot of people don’t. Just let this guy love you. Understand you’re worth loving. Because you are. What I have with Elise makes everything different. Better. You deserve that too.”

It couldn’t be avoided any longer. Jonah had ducked his mother’s calls until Wednesday morning when she simply waltzed into his office, dragging his father and his brother Eli.

“As you have deigned to ignore the woman who gave you your very existence, I had to hunt you down. Your father and Eli as well.”

“If you want to count a coy call for lunch that she then sprung on us as ‘let’s all talk about Mal and Gwen,’ yes.”

“You stop that.” Their mother gave Eli a look and he sighed, dropping into a chair at the conference table in the room.

“I’ve been busy. I called you back.”

“You called me back at midnight when your call would go straight to voice mail. Honestly, I don’t know why you boys think I’m so stupid.”

Levi poked his head in and then froze when he saw what was going on.

“Don’t you try to scamper off, Levi. Come and sit.” Liesl pointed at a chair and he obeyed.

“You get conned with a lunch date too?”

Levi nodded. “It was a call from Jonah’s assistant.”

“Mother, leave my staff out of it. She’s already petrified every time you come into view.” Jonah put his phone on Do Not Disturb and headed to the table.

Their father would never say anything to disagree with their mother, especially not at a time like this.

Toby, another brother and Eli’s twin, popped in and then groaned.

“Now, we’re all here. Food will arrive shortly. I did not lie. We will be eating. I figured you were all busy enough that you’d need to eat while we discussed this mess.”

True to her word, Jonah’s assistant brought food in just two minutes later. She gave him a look full of apology and he waved it away. He knew how his mother was; he couldn’t blame his assistant for getting caught up in her whirlwind.