Accepting Eva [Slick Rock 8] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read Free

she had left home, she feared seeing him at all. Ever since her mom and Jack had left home to travel to Australia to see some of Jack’s distant relatives, Tim had become a little too aggressive in his pursuit of her and she had become decidedly uncomfortable. As far as she was concerned, their friendship was no more, and in fact she had begun to fear Tim. So she had packed, locked up the house, and here she was.
    She looked at the three Badon brothers, who still watched her intently. She wasn’t going to burden these near strangers with her fears about Tim, not when those fears were probably unfounded anyway. She still had no proof it was him sneaking into her room at night while she was sleeping. A shiver raced up her spine, but Quin nudged her arm gently, pulling her mind from such distasteful thoughts.
    Quin seemed to be scrutinizing her closely. “Can I ask you a question, Evana?”
    Though she felt like she’d talked too much already, she said, “Sure.”
    “What happened to your leg?”

Chapter Two
     
    Quin was aware that Pierson and Gray were giving him dirty looks, but he didn’t see any problem with his question. Ignoring his brothers, he studied the petite, good-looking woman sipping her coffee. He wanted to know everything about her. When he had met her earlier that afternoon, he hadn’t wanted to be too forward and scare her off, but now that she was in his office, he wanted to ask her everything. He was attracted to her and knew by the way his brothers were looking at her that they were drawn to her, too.
    She wasn’t very tall, standing at around five foot four, but she had a nicely rounded body. Her hips were voluptuous and she had a great chest. Her long hair shimmered even under the fluorescent office light, and he could see gold strands amongst the red. Her skin was a creamy white with a healthy tint of pink on her cheeks. There was a light dusting of freckles across her small, straight nose, which made her look younger than he imagined she was. Her eyes were a light shade of green, but he could see a few gold flecks in her irises.
    As beautiful as her eyes were, it was her mouth that kept drawing Quin’s gaze. Her lips were full and had a natural red tint, and all Quin wanted was to see her smile.
    Right now she looked hesitant. It dawned on Quin that his question had been a little blunt and that was why Pierson and Grayson were still scowling at him. He tried to rephrase the question a little more tactfully.
    “Were you in a car accident, Evana?” Quin questioned.
    “No,” she replied and hesitated as she leaned forward and rubbed her calf. “It’s not a very interesting story, though. I don’t want to bore you.”
    Quin looked at his brothers and back to her. Why does she think she’s boring?
    Before he could say something that would probably be tactless, Pierson said gently, “Quin didn’t ask because we want an exciting story, Evana. We want to make sure you’re okay.”
    Evana’s first response was to blush furiously. Quin wondered about that, too. “Well, to cut a long story short, I was born with congenital hip dysplasia.” She gestured down her leg. “My lower leg is bowed more than normal. It’s also about a centimeter shorter than the left, though that’s better than the two and a half centimeters’ difference when I was a kid. The brace and bars help correct that, and the boot gives it some support. Sometimes I wonder if it’s helped, though. I’ve still had a lot of surgery.”
    “How many operations have you had?” Gray asked.
    “Um.” She paused and looked like she was searching her memory. “About ten. I spent nearly five months in plaster from just below my ribs to my ankles with my legs out wide like a frog’s. My mom said the cast was called a hip spica. And the second lot of plaster was from the top of my thighs to my ankles with a stick between my thighs just above my knees to keep them apart. Apparently that was so my hip socket had a chance to grow