Three Strikes (Meant to Be Book 3), page 1
THREE STRIKES
MEANT TO BE
DANI WYATT
Copyright © 2022
by Dani Wyatt
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places,
events and incidents are either the products
of the author’s imagination
or used in a fictitious manner.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,
is purely coincidental.
www.daniwyatt.com
Editing Nicci Haydon
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NEWSLETTER
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Dani’s Other Books
Let’s Stay Connected!
About Dani
CHAPTER 1
Cyrus
I never believed there was some great tipping point in life where you find your center. Where you start to feel content.
It’s more a long series of bumpy roads that eventually wear out your emotional shock absorbers.
That’s what I believed down into my soul until last night, when I saw the angel that has me questioning whether maybe I’ve had it wrong all along.
Whether maybe… Just maybe…
It’s all still running through my head as I arrive at my weekly Saturday morning pancake breakfast at my brother Tor and his wife Natalie’s place. I’m early because I headed straight here after an all-night poker game. Being early won’t matter, because here everyone is up fucking at the crack ass of dawn because they’ve been popping out kids since they met four years ago, and apparently, kids do not believe in sleep.
That is one of the only things I have in common with kids. I don’t sleep. I do whatever possible to avoid it. I hate dreams. Ever since I took a line drive to the head playing college baseball, the dark claws of nightmares straight from hell have dug into me.
In the dreams, I’m usually fighting for my life against some black figure. Smothering and flailing at the air, screaming and kicking. When I came home from the hospital to recover from the injury, one night I punched my mother in the eye as she tried to wake me, thinking she was the shadowy demon from my dreams. I could have fucking killed her with that punch. She never got upset or shamed me for it, but I never forgave myself and have done everything in my power to avoid sleep ever since.
So, running on no sleep is nothing new. It’s that I can’t stop thinking about the glimpse of the blonde goddess from last night. My head is pounding along with my dick and I hate myself for not bailing out of the game last night to follow her.
“You take the table? Or,” My brother Tor sizes me up on a low chuckle, “looks more like the table took you.”
I growl into my palm, knowing there is no use faking it with him. He’s two years older nearly to the day, and we are more like twins to be honest.
It’s annoying as fuck he can practically read my mind and vice versa. I pull down my Ray-Bans and take what’s coming.
“What the fuck?” He laughs. “I sure hope to shit the other guy looks worse than you.”
“There was this distraction.” I shake my head, trying to get the image of the blonde’s spankable ass and life-changing tits from last night to leave me the fuck alone for just a few seconds. “Man, I’ve never been distracted by a girl before.”
I look at my watch. It’s been eight hours, thirty-six minutes and six seconds since I saw her walking out from the hallway at the penthouse where I was in a hundred grand buy in Texas Hold ‘Em game. I got maybe a three second look at her while she looked back, held my eyes, then turned and made her way out the front door.
Three fucking seconds that rocked my fucking world.
I don’t know what she was doing there. The group is always men. Not that a woman couldn’t join in but the guy who runs this particular game, Niko Farkas is a misogynist of the highest order so inviting a woman to play would be a huge no go for him.
She was so fucking gorgeous, with wavy ivory hair brushing her shoulders and pink lips that made me dream of spending a lifetime kissing her. I figured she was one of the other players’ mistresses or evening’s entertainment, which only fucked with my head more.
I should have thrown in all my fucking money and followed her. I tossed out a few questions about who she was, but none of the guys seemed to know and the host wasn’t giving anything up either. So now, I’m practically standing on my head wondering how a three second glance at a woman has me hard as lead and ready to burn down the fucking city to find her.
After that, I was in a foul fucking mood and one of the regulars, Dimitri, a douche in a silk suit and too much cologne, was busting my balls. That I could take, but when he snapped his tongue and dropped a comment about pounding out his frustrations on the juicy piece of ass that just disappeared out the front door, I nearly choked him out.
Took two security guards to pull me off him. Then, I took them on. One of them landed a hard right to my eye but I got mine in as well. I left one of them missing a tooth and the other puking out his Hawaiian pizza before I got my shit back in order. It wouldn’t have been much longer before they pulled out the hardware and I ended up with a bullet in my forehead.
These aren’t the kind of people that fuck around. No one would have found my body and no one would have talked. That’s the side of the street I play on sometimes.
Tor’s eyes go wide. “You? Distracted by a woman?”
He lets out a hoot as the sounds of his kids playing in the pool outside mix with what must be a soundtrack to some kids Disney movie on the surround sound. His wife Natalie is so fucking pregnant, it hurts me to look at her, but she is as happy as a clam while I wonder what she is doing with my ugly fucking brother. Tor’s voice draws my attention back to him.
“This distraction have three tits or something? Was she dipped in gold and drenched in diamonds? Only time I’ve seen you look twice at a female is when you’re sizing up a piece of their jewelry.”
“A few too many Stoli’s, maybe.”
“You fucking don’t drink too much when you play cards. In fact, you never drink too much,” he challenges, handing me a steaming cup of his own secret blend of coffee, which I need. “You’re a cheap bastard when it comes down to it. Winning is your only drug.”
“You should know.”
He shrugs. “True. Although, last few years the high I got from winning cases isn’t there anymore. I win every day I wake up next to my wife. I win looking at the evidence of my seed running all over my house.”
“Dude.” I scratch my cheek, then wave him off. “No fucking talk about your seed. Jesus.”
Another shrug from Tor. “Just ‘cause you want nothing to do with kids or procreation doesn’t mean you won’t someday dude. You’ll meet the right one and, bam. It’s breeding fantasies ‘til the cows come home. Yeah, speaking of cows...dude, the tits, the milk...”
“Fuck you Tor. Shut the fuck up, you are way over sharing.”
He shrugs, taking a sip of his coffee and looking out the window toward the pool then down at his mug. He turns to look out at Natalie who waves and blows him a kiss. “I usually get some nice fresh cream in my coffee in the morning…”
I groan. “You’re a dick, you know that?”
I’m not going to tell him I had my first flash of that sort of mating instinct last night. I’m not ready for that level of admission right now. I shake my head, trying to regroup because in two hours, I have to go play in some charity softball game because I was a fucking mess after the blonde disappeared and I lost a big fucking hand to the host.
Only, he added one little cherry on top of our bet. If I lost, I had to go play in his daughter’s charity softball game today. Fuck, I’m no sort of philanthropist at the best of times, and kids? The only ones I tolerate are my nieces and nephews.S
So today should be about as pleasant as a sandpaper handjob.
“Did I hear someone say seed?” I hear Natalie’s voice, and turn to see her walking in with her curvy, enormous belly leading the way. She’s wearing a red and white striped bikini and I wince at the thought of what women have to go through in order for our species to survive. She winks at Tor, who immediately walks to her side and kisses her like I’m not in the room.
I’m used to their level of affection by now, or I should be. I sip on my steaming coffee and for a second, allow myself to be swept away into a momentary fantasy of the gorgeous blonde, wondering what she would look like swollen and bred with my seed…
Fuck. Stop. They’re indoctrinating you.
“Anyway.” Natalie leans into Tor, who is looking at her like she just descended from heaven itself, and a spike of jealousy pokes in my gut at what they have. “You’re earl
I nod. “It’s a fucking Mardi Gras.”
“A disagreement over a girl maybe?” Natalie crinkles her nose on a hopeful shrug.
I grunt, releasing an exasperated breath. “What’s with you two? You have telekinesis?”
“I think you mean telepathy.” Natalie bobs her eyebrows and grabs Tor’s chin. “We have many things between us.” She licks her lips and Tor reaches down and takes a handful of her barely-covered ass.
“Please. Your kids can see you.”
“They see plenty.” Tor kisses Natalie on the top of the head, then smacks her behind as he talks low in her ear. “Dickhead here may have figured out what it’s like when you get your first look at the one.”
“Really?” Natalie’s voice rises with renewed hope.
“Don’t.” I point at them both. “Some girl I saw for a few seconds. It’s nothing. And do not tell mom or grandma. Or Sophia. Those three will be on me like the fucking CIA.”
“I make no promises.” Natalie turns toward the refrigerator. “I’ll get started on the pancakes. Can you guys go out and watch the kids? Megan is sleeping in the cabana but Tabitha and Chase are sitting at the patio table waiting to get back in the water.”
We both nod and head out into the early morning sun. I slip my sunglasses back on and look at my watch for the third time since I walked in the house.
“You got somewhere to be?” Tor asks as we get to the pool gate and both the kids jump up as Tor motions that they can get back in the shallow end of the pool.
“Yeah, that’s the other shit part of the evening. Took a bet from fucking Niko on my last hand. His brat daughter is in some charity softball deal today and he wanted to make sure his team won. So, he threw in a hundred grand, and all I had to do was agree to play on her team if I lost. My head was fucked and he took me with full house to my two pair. I gotta be there by ten.”
“Your athletic legacy lives on.”
“Unfortunately. He said she needed a ringer. Couldn’t stand for his little princess’s team to lose, so fuck me. I’m going to be up to my balls in brats.”
“Hi, Uncle Cyrus!” Chase shouts and dives into the water before I can wave back.
Tabitha comes running over as Tor walks through the door of the cabana to check on the baby.
“Hi, Uncle Cyrus.” Tabitha wipes a drop of water from her forehead, her bright eyes wide as she stand in front of me.
I crouch down, looking over my shoulder to make sure Tor isn’t within earshot, then say, “Good morning, your highness.”
I bow my head and do this little loop de loop thing with my hand toward her little toddler Buddha belly, as she puts her fists on her hips.
“You are invited to my tea party later. All my ladies in waiting will be there.”
“I’m honored, Princess, but this humble servant has another battle to wage away from the castle today. I will gladly accept your invitation another time.”
She giggles and holds my cheeks in her tiny damp hands. “You are silly, Uncle Cyrus.”
“As silly as you are beautiful, my lady.” I give her nose a quick pinch, then stand, slipping back into my mask of indifference as I see Tor coming back out from the cabana as Tabitha toddles off and jumps off the edge into the shallow end of the pool.
“You’re a grumpy fuck, but you can’t deny you love these kids.” He nods toward the pool.
It’s true, but somehow, I don’t know, admitting just how much I care about my nieces and nephews scares me. I never cared one piece of lint about anyone else’s kids before Tor’s, and letting down my grouchy façade feels like some slippery slope I’m not ready to face.
Well, I wasn’t, anyway.
Truth, since I saw that girl last night, every thought I have is about getting my hands on her, caging her curvy little body between my arms and pumping her so full of dick she’ll be screaming my name. I want to tug her hair and take her from behind. I want to see her mouth stretched wide around me.
And I want her to beg me to pump a baby inside her.
Fuck, the thought sends a throbbing into my balls as Sophia and Chance come wandering through, and I know I need to get myself under control but Jesus, I don’t know how. That girl, I’d ruin everything I have for her. I want to buy her gifts, I want to cook her dinner, I want to show her off.
As soon as I left the penthouse early this morning, sitting in my car, I fisted my dick in a beat off session that gave me zero relief. Where was she, what was she doing? Is she rubbing that hot little pussy thinking of me?
Shit, I know that’s not likely. I’m an ugly motherfucker and I don’t have anything to offer a girl like that. I’m fucking forty this year and she’s brushing up maybe on twenty. But that doesn’t stop me thinking about hiring every PI on the planet and spending every penny to my name trying to find her and look on her one last time.
“Cyrus, don’t you dare deny that you love my kids.” Tor is staring at me with a look of thunder on his face, and I realize I’ve been staring into space for God knows how long.
“I’m not denying anything,” I mutter, as Sophia heads for the house and Chance claps me on the back.
I also won’t deny, he’s like a brother to me and Tor now. We didn’t like him at first, but the guy grows on you.
We watch the kids and talk about work and whatever other bullshit brothers talk about as I finish my coffee and Natalie brings out the pancakes, as Tor calls the kids out of the pool.
“Come in and grab some plates with me.” Natalie nods toward the house and I follow, watching her waddle as she goes.
“So, what are the rest of your Saturday plans? Sleep?” she asks.
I open the door from the patio to the kitchen as she goes in ahead of me. Sophia is nowhere to be seen, but that’s no unusual. Probably had some inspiration strike her and had to go write down a recipe in Natalie’s home office before it went out of her head.
“No. I’m playing at the Reginald Park in some kid’s charity softball game at ten. Fuck knows how long that will take.”
What I want to be doing is going balls deep into my mystery girl. Giving her every inch of this stiffy I can’t seem to control. I think of the pouty smirk she tossed me before she headed out the door. The way her ass looked in her white jeans and her tits, fuck, filling out the lavender tank top like it was custom made to fit her.
I have to figure out how to find her. How to make her mine. Blonde, about five foot five, maybe twenty years old, maybe one forty, one fifty, curves to kill and blue fucking eyes like the summer sky. That’s all I got. Wonder how long it will take to track her down…
My other option is to go pound the shit out of every swinging dick at the game last night until someone gives me a morsel of information.
That’s plan A. Right after this fucking softball game.
“You? Charity? Kids?” She gives me a smirk and passes a stack of white plastic plates into my hands as she grabs the syrup and silverware in a metal carrier.
“I know, right?”
“Must have been some hit you took.”
I shrug. “I’m fine. Doesn’t hurt.”
“Well, that’s good and the charity game sounds like fun.”
Fun.
Sure.
As much as a pair of sunburned balls I bet.
CHAPTER 2
Anna
It’s the perfect summer day. White fluffy clouds glide aimlessly across the blue sky. It’s not too hot, no chance of rain and I’m excited for the game. Not so much for me, but for my kids. My team.
Everything is going to plan until the ‘ringer’ my father was supposed to secure for me shows up and I want to call the whole thing off.
