BRING IT HOME (Nashville Assassins: Next Generation Book 3) Read online

  BRING IT HOME

  Nashville Assassins: Next Generation Novella

  Toni Aleo

  Copyright © 2020 by Toni Aleo

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  For Cameron and Katherine,

  I hope this book brings joy to my readers the way you two bring joy to my life.

  I love you.

  Contents

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  ALLY IS HERE!!!!

  Also by Toni Aleo

  Acknowledgments

  About Toni Aleo

  Introduction

  Before you get started!

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  Chapter One

  Posey

  I move my finger along the deep valley between the pecs of Boon’s chest. Our apartment is quiet, all the lights are off, and our naked bodies are still vibrating against each other. The last twelve hours have been absolutely insane and perfectly awesome, all wrapped into one. One thing is for sure, I’ve never felt such a powerful love in my life. I knew Boon Hoenes was special when I met him on the ice. I even knew he could rock my world, but I couldn’t truly prepare myself for how he has become the one true partner I didn’t even know I needed. I always wanted that partner, but I never saw him coming. In our very short love story, so much has happened, and so much more is to come. Especially now that he’s asked me to marry him. In the middle of pure mayhem, our worlds have collided, and now they’ll become one.

  I close my eyes as I nuzzle my nose into his pec. He moves the fingers of one of his hands along my hair, while he rests his other on my belly. My cheek is pressed against his side, and I can feel his heart still beating hard from the adrenaline in his body. I don’t think his heart has slowed since the final moments of game five. We won our conference final; now it’s time for the last leg of the battle.

  The Cup final.

  We’re taking on a team we’ve already beaten. The Carolina IceCats. Unlike the team from last year, though, this one didn’t rise from the bottom of the standings. No. They are Presidents’ Trophy winners. They smoked everyone with 124 points. They have a power play that is lethal and a goalie who can be in seven places at once. Their penalty kill is a little weak, and that will be what I focus on. I’ll need my boys to draw penalties since the only way to score on Nico Merryweather is to take out one of his defensemen and drive traffic to the net.

  My boys can do that. We can win this. Shit—we will win this.

  But none of that matters right now. We have six days until the series starts. We’ve got the next two days off, and I want nothing more than to lie right here with the man who was designed in the stars just for me.

  He presses his lips to the top of my head, and then his voice fills the darkness. “Crazy night, eh?”

  My lips curve slowly. “So damn crazy.” I move my thumb along the finger he adorned with a ring.

  “I love you, Posey.”

  My heart soars. “I love you,” I say, tipping up my head just in time to meet his lips.

  He draws the kisses out of me, taking my breath away. He pinches my jaw before kissing my top lip. “How far along are you?”

  I feel his heart rate pick up more than it already was. He’s been wanting to ask this very question, but maybe he needed the darkness to help him get it out. I know he’s still a bit traumatized from the last, ectopic pregnancy. Me too. I can still see the blood on the floor, and the pain was unbearable. If it weren’t for Boon, I don’t know if I would have made it through. Not only because he is the most amazing man on this earth, but because whenever my mind would tell me that losing that baby was my fault, he reassured me it wasn’t. It just wasn’t the time for that baby, he’d tell me. But still, I blame it all on my fucked-up thyroid.

  Funny how now that I’m on good meds and I’m feeling the best I’ve ever felt, I’ve been able to carry this baby as long as I have without any trouble. If I said that though, Boon would probably announce it’s the fact that he’s taken away gluten and sugar that’s the cure.

  I refuse to think that.

  “About nine weeks.”

  He goes still under my touch. “How long have you known?”

  “For a month.”

  “Posey?”

  I kiss his chest. “I didn’t want to tell you so soon. What if I had lost it again?”

  “So, if you had lost it, you were going to handle it yourself?”

  I shrug. “With the play-offs and all, I really did ignore it. I didn’t want to distract you or myself with it. I wanted us to control what we could.”

  “You are a distraction, Posey. All of you.” I smile, my lips getting caught on his skin. “But that doesn’t let you off the hook from the fact that you hid it from me.”

  “I didn’t hide it per s—”

  “You didn’t tell me.”

  “So, you’re mad?”

  “Not mad. Annoyed. How can I keep you good and healthy if I don’t know the facts?”

  “Boon, I’m good.”

  “I still want to be in the know.”

  I roll my eyes, even though he can’t see me. “I had planned on telling you today, no matter what happened. But then you proposed and we won, so it added to the greatness of the day.”

  He moves his lips along my temple. “Don’t hide things from me, even if you think it’s for the best. You don’t have to be strong all the time, Posey. I got you. I want to be there for you.”

  I turn my face to prop my chin on his chest. “I just wanted to make sure I was okay before I opened up that can of worms again. I feel we still aren’t really over the first one.”

  He doesn’t answer me at first. “I’m not over seeing you in pain. It still keeps me awake at night a lot of the time, but I think, together, we’re okay.”

  “We are,” I agree. “Which is why I didn’t want to put the pressure on this one. The worry. I don’t know. You’re still the only person who knows.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, no one but my doctor knows.”

  “You didn’t tell Shelli?”

  I laugh. “With the way she lost her mind when Amelia told us she was pregnant? I refuse to be on the other end of that. I’ll wait till after the wedding.”

  He laughs. “I’m ready for this circus to be over.”

  “You and me both, hot stuff.”

  He gathers me tighter in his arms, and I hate that I upset him. While I think it was for the best and I was pretty sure he would be upset with me for hiding the pregnancy, I still feel a little bad. Just a little.

  “I’m sorry, Hoenes.”

  He kisses the top of my head. “You’re lucky you’re hot.”

  I laugh out loud, turning to my side so I can be close to his face. “Hot, huh?”

  He grabs a chunk of my ass. “And this… You’re lucky I get all this.” He then clutches my face in his hand, squeezing my jaw. “But mostly, you’re lucky I’m completely in lo
ve with you.”

  I lean in, kissing his lips. It was only supposed to be a sweet, small kiss, but it’s Boon. Kissing him isn’t ever just small or sweet; it’s a rock-your-world, crazy kind of kiss. He holds me in place with his hand as our tongues dance together. I fall deep into the kiss, almost as if it’s the first time I’ve ever felt his mouth against mine. He pulls back first, kissing my top lip and then the tip of my nose before rubbing my jaw with his thumb. “So, when are we telling people?”

  “After their wedding,” I say, leaning my face into his hand. “I won’t be showing too much, and if someone asks why I’m fat—”

  He growls. “I wish they would,” he warns, and I grin. I move my face into his palm, kissing it. “No one will say anything to you, but I want to tell people.”

  I grin against his palm. “Of course you do, but—”

  “We hid us. I don’t want to hide this. Especially after the last pregnancy, this is a miracle, Posey.”

  I hear him, I do, but I want to wait. “Everything is so great right now, though,” I insist. “With the Assassins, Shelli’s wedding—”

  “I’m sorry, but Shelli and her wedding aren’t even on my radar,” he says matter-of-factly. “Yes, the Assassins are making one hell of a run, and that’s that. But this is about us, about our miracle.”

  Man, he has the feels flowing through me. “I don’t know, Boon. Maybe after the Cup final.”

  “But my mom is here,” he reminds me. “We can have a nice dinner and announce it.”

  “You do remember a certain Shea Adler, correct?”

  He chuckles. “I’m not scared…of him hitting me. It’s already happened once.”

  I snort. “I don’t want it to happen again,” I urge. “Let him get through Shelli’s wedding, and then we’ll tell him.” When the moonlight moves across Boon’s face, my breath catches. There are tears in his eyes. “Oh, Boon, don’t be upset.”

  “I don’t want our life to be dictated by what’s going on with everyone else. You’ve been doing that your whole fucking life, and I think you’re better than that.”

  I swallow hard. His words are true, but I don’t want to give them light. “It’s not—”

  “I want to tell everyone,” he demands, and my heart stops in my chest. “I want to marry you too.”

  I grin. “I said yes, Boon. That means we’re getting married.”

  “I know, but I want to marry you. Tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  He sits up, bringing me with him. I’m unable to catch my breath as I meet his gaze, falling into his lap. “Yes, marry me tomorrow.”

  “Boon! We can’t get married tomorrow! What about our parents?”

  “We’ll go to the courthouse and have everyone meet us.”

  “Boon Zachariah! Are you crazy?”

  “For you? Absolutely. Marry me tomorrow, Posey.”

  I just blink at him, unsure how to even process this. “You want to marry me tomorrow?”

  “Or even now. Think we can find a preacher?”

  “Boon!” I squeal, and he grins. I love how happy he is. I love how happy he makes me feel.

  “Marry me tomorrow, Posey. Come on, what are we waiting for?”

  He’s right. What the hell are we waiting for? But I have to act logically. “Be real, Boon.”

  Boon takes me by my face, his smile so wide, I feel his happiness in my soul. “I am being real. I want to marry you now. I don’t want a long engagement. For what? A small wedding? Right? You don’t want a huge wedding.”

  I shake my head, moving his hands with it. “I don’t. I just want us and my family and your mom.”

  “Exactly. So, what’s stopping us from doing it tomorrow?”

  I’m breathless; my body is firing off like mad as I get lost in his eyes.

  “We can have a wedding, tell everyone that we’re pregnant, and just celebrate us before attention goes back to the Assassins and then Shelli and Aiden.”

  “This is crazy. Who gets engaged and then married the next day?”

  “Us. We do.”

  I’m unable to make sense of this. He can’t be serious, but when I look closer, his eyes are pleading with mine. He wants this. Shit, I want this. I want to be married to him. I want to be with him for the rest of my whole life. As his wife. All of a sudden, I don’t want to wait.

  “What’s holding us back?” he asks.

  “Nothing.”

  “Nothing,” he agrees, his hands shaking against my face. “Marry me tomorrow, Posey. Don’t make me wait to call you my wife.”

  A tear spills down over my cheek and not because of his request or even his words. It’s from the simple fact that I never thought a man could love me, Posey Rose Adler, the way Boon does. “Will you not be mad about me hiding the baby?”

  He grins. “Yes, this is the only way.”

  I grin back. “Good. I’ll marry you tomorrow, then.”

  Our laughter, along with a sob—not sure from whom, probably both of us—crashes together as we sink into the bed.

  The same bed I’ll be sharing with my husband after tomorrow.

  Oh man. My dad is gonna freak.

  Chapter Two

  Boon

  I bring my heel up on the toilet seat as I send a text back to the minister I’ve hired for today. I lean on my knee while I look up, watching as Posey showers. She’s so fucking gorgeous. So perfect. And she’s carrying my baby. My baby. Our miracle.

  “I hired a minister who comes highly recommended. He knows nothing about us, so I told him to Google me and know you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I’m sure he’ll use that during the wedding.”

  I’m marrying her today. I take in a deep breath as her laughter floats toward me. “Google me? Think highly of yourself, don’t you, Hoenes?”

  “Sure do, future Mrs. Hoenes.”

  She peeks her face out the shower door. “Right? Like, within hours.”

  “Scared?” I ask, waggling my brows at her, but she just grins. She grins so big, her face looks as if it hurts. Her eyes are full of such excitement and, to be honest, a little bit of fear. I know she’s worried about what her parents will say. Especially her dad. I thought about wearing a mouthguard at dinner, but I don’t want to show weakness. My new plan is to hide behind his pregnant daughter. Surely she can distract him.

  “You’re the one who looks scared,” she teases before stepping back to wash her hair.

  The shower door is clear glass, so watching the suds move along that hot body of hers makes it really tight in my slacks. I would jump in there with her, but I’m ready to go get married. I’m wearing my burgundy slacks with a short-sleeve, light-blue button-up shirt that I’ve left open at the neck, showing my chest a bit. I asked if she wanted me to wear a tie or a bow tie, but she didn’t. She wanted me to look relaxed, as if it’s just a night of us enjoying dinner in. I reminded her that meant she had to be naked, but she didn’t go along with it.

  So rude.

  Instead, she’s going to wear this incredible navy-blue strapless dress that flows over her body like a picturesque wave. It hugs her breasts perfectly before draping down to the floor. She wore it to a benefit we had, and I promptly rid her of it the moment we got into our place. I inhale hard when she moves her loofah between her legs to wash. That should be my hand. A groan leaves my lips as I say, “I’m not scared of anything.”

  She laughs freely. “Yes, you are. Me.”

  “Losing you, yes, that terrifies me.”

  She grins. “Smooth.”

  “I know,” I agree, unable to watch her or I’ll go in there. “So, remind me again why we aren’t telling everyone about the baby tonight?”

  “Boon, think this through. We can’t take everyone to dinner and end it with a marriage ceremony, and then boom! By the way, I’m pregnant. That’s too much information.” She peeks her head out, meeting my gaze. “Remember, my dad has the angina?”

  I give her a dry look. “That angina was nowhere to
be found when he popped me one.”

  She holds back her laughter. “We’ll tell them after the Cup run.” I snarl my lip at her, but she just laughs as she goes back to showering. “I’ll make it worth your while.”

  That perks my brow. “Will you now?”

  “Yup. Loads of blow jobs are in your future.”

  “A lifetime, if you will, since you’re mine forever.”

  “Forever, ever?”

  “Forever, ever,” I sing back to her, and I love how she laughs.

  Her head falls back, and her shoulders move with the motion. I’m unsure if it’s because I now know about our baby, but I notice how much her body has changed. She’s put on a little bit of weight, but I blamed that on stress-eating with Wes since this Cup run has been no joke. He, too, has put on weight, but he says it’s muscle. It’s not. It’s the gluten-free Oreos and milk they consume and don’t share. Or the Red Hots he supplies her with. I don’t know when they became friends, but he needs to stop feeding her bad stuff. I refuse to let her get sick again; she is doing so well. But damn if she doesn’t look good enough to eat with the extra weight in her breasts and her thighs.

  Mouthwatering. Just mouthwatering.

  I’m not going to make it.

  I try to distract myself by asking, “Have you thought of any names?”

  I watch her pull her brows together. “I wouldn’t let myself. I wanted to wait for you.”

  I swallow around the emotion in my throat. “Well, I’m here.”

  Her brows relax, and a small grin pulls at her lips. “I love Lilly for a girl.” I nod as she puts her leg up and starts to shave. “Boon Shea for a boy.”

  I make a face. “Lovely, his initials would be B.S. I’m not doing that to our kid.”