Almost Two Months Later

“Why are you breaking into your own house?” I laugh at Black as he opens up the door at the back of our home.

I can’t really call it a house, after all there’s a restaurant below us. A very successful restaurant that I love. We’ve been open almost two months now and since our opening, the Lucas Family Bistro has had a steady stream of customers. The best news is that those only seem to be increasing with time. I have a cook and wait-staff in place that I adore and every day seems to be a new adventure. Dad always eats there and we’re both in agreement that my mother would be in the kitchen with me and be on cloud nine for me.

Life is about as near perfect as it can get. We managed to open on time with everyone’s help and the only hiccup we had was Linda’s court hearing. Luckily she pleaded guilty and in a court plea deal is receiving treatment in a medical facility in Maine. I figure that’s far enough away she might not try to come back to Texas. On my days when I remember the hell she put us through, I might wish a small case of frostbite on her—because I hear the winters in Maine can be rough.

“It’s not breaking in, if you have a key, Princess. Give your man a kiss,” Black grumbles, that vibrating voice sending electricity through me, just like it always does.

His lips connect with mine and I open for his kiss, swallowing down a groan as I taste him. Kissing Black is always so erotic. It’s like I can taste sex with just his mouth on mine.

“God I’ve missed you,” I breathe as I curl deeper into his arms.

“I’ve only been gone since this morning, sweetheart,” he murmurs.

“I don’t like being without you at all,” I tell him and it might be pitiful, but it’s true.

“That mean you aren’t going to hyperventilate because I’m seeing the bride the night before our wedding?” he grins, picking me up and carrying me over to the sofa.

“Not in the least, it wasn’t my idea that you leave this morning, remember?”

“I remember. When my mother gets a bee in her bonnet you have to let her have her way.”

“This is true. Ida Sue is a force to be reckoned with when she gets an idea in her head.”

“You’ve got too many clothes on,” he complains, pulling my t-shirt up and over my head.

“I wasn’t exactly expecting you. How did you get away anyway? I would have thought your mother was watching you like a hawk.”

“I’m supposed to be staying the night with Blue. He’s covering for me,” Black groans as he unlatches my bra. “God, you have the prettiest tits in the world.”

“Have you seen them all?” I laugh, helping him get my bra untangled from my arms.

“I can’t remember any but yours,” he says, working on my pants next.

“That’s a good answer, Black,” I giggle and now I’m the one taking his shirt off.

“See, I’m the perfect husband. You’re very lucky to marry me tomorrow,” he brags, pulling his shirt over his head.

“Don’t I know it. Now take your pants off,” I order.

“Is this what we’ve become, sweetheart? Am I to spend the rest of my life being your sex object?” he asks, yanking the rest of his clothes off—including those jeans—which means he’s naked in front of me and with that look in his eyes, I just want to stretch and purr.

“You have any complaints?” I ask him, licking my lips as I watch him palm his cock.

“Only that you still have your pants on,” he says, watching me.

I’m about to take my pants off when there’s a thud coming from our bathroom.

“What was that?”

“I’m not sure,” I lie. “It was probably a bird hitting the window or something. Now where were we?”

The noise happens again and I sigh. This is not the way it was supposed to happen.

“That was not a bird, Addie. You stay here and I’ll go look,” he says already turning to leave the room.

“Wait!” I cry and he turns around.

“What?” he asks.

“Maybe it was just Little Kong. You know how he gets bored being alone.”

“I’ll go and check just the same,” he says and I sigh.

“Shouldn’t you at least put some pants on first? You’re kind of vulnerable like that… Don’t you think?”

He rolls his eyes heavenward like he doesn’t know what to do with me.

“Please?” I ask.

He doesn’t answer. He lets out a sound like a bear foraging for food and finding none. In other words, he is not happy. He does however, put his pants on, or half on, he doesn’t bother buttoning them, just uses the zipper to hold them in place. I figure that’s good enough.

Since I know what he’s going to find, I hurry and take off my jeans and throw on his shirt, rolling the sleeves up as I quietly make my way into the bedroom. I get there just as he opens the bedroom door.

I climb on the bed and Little Kong immediately jumps up in my lap. He’s still my dog, but at least he doesn’t try to bite Black any time he gets around him now.

“I thought I told you to stay in there,” Black hisses.

I just grin at him.

“Stay there!” he orders so sternly my nipples go hard.

I watch as Black opens the bathroom door, anticipation filling me. There’s some quiet noise and I think I hear an awe filled “Fuck!” in there too. The best sound is the deep sound of a bark… a happy bark.

“Addie…” Black says and there’s shock all over his face when he comes out holding a huge, and very fat—but very happy English bulldog.

“Please, please, please don’t tell me that it’s the wrong dog. Blue swore it was Kong and he answers to the name! Don’t you big guy?” I croon, making kissy faces at Kong—to which he barks.

“I… he’s my dog… how did you….”

Black sits down on the bed with his dog and Little Kong immediately jumps off and goes and hides.

I let out a sigh.

“It’s going to take a little bit of work getting Little Kong so he’s not terrified of his big brother,” I tell Black, thinking in my head of the best way to make this work.

“Brother?” Black asks me and when I look at him, I swear there are tears in his eyes and my heart constricts.

“Well, the four of us really are a family. They’ll have to learn to get along. Do you like your wedding present?” I ask him, when he doesn’t say anything for a few minutes. He’s just petting Kong and holding him. The big guy is soaking it in and even rolls over onto his stomach. I reach out and scratch him just like Black is doing.

“How did you find him?” Black asks, quietly—not looking at me, just looking at his dog.

“Whack-a-doo Linda let it slip that she drove Kong to Oklahoma to a shelter to have him put down…” I stop when I see the shudder that rolls through Black. I reach out and touch his face gently and Kong flops over and licks his arm, demanding more petting. Black happily gives that to him and even bends down and kisses the top of Kong’s head. I watch for a minute because in that moment I think I do the impossible.

I fall even more in love with Black. I would have thought I was already as in love as a person could get—apparently I was wrong.

“But he’s still here,” Black answers, saying it more to himself than to me.

“I had to search through a shit ton of shelters and talk to them directly, but I finally found a small one and the owner knew right away what I was talking about. She said the woman was adamant the dog be put down, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. So, she sent Linda on her way and told her to come back in an hour and when she came back she gave her ashes—just not of Kong.”

“I can’t believe it. I’m staring at him and I still can’t believe it,” Black says.

“When I explained what had gone on, she told me to come and get Kong. She kept him at the shelter running free as the facility’s mascot.”

“I can’t believe it.”

“Does that mean you like my wedding gift, Mr. Lucas?”

“That means I love my wedding gift… but…”

“But?” I ask, confused.

“I love you so much, Addie. I put you through hell in the beginning until I—”

“Stopped dragging your dick in the dirt?” I supply helpfully.

“Yeah,” he says bashfully. “The point is, I don’t deserve you, but I swear I’m going to do everything in my power to make you happy for the rest of our lives. I love you with everything inside of me, Adelle Harrington—soon to be Lucas.”

“I love you even more than that, Black Lucas,” I tell him lying down. Kong lays his head on my stomach and I scratch his ears, hoping my dog doesn’t get too jealous.

“Not possible, woman.”

“Is too, possible,” I reply.

Black picks Kong up and puts him on a rug by the bed. He whimpers, but scratches around until he gets comfortable.

“I didn’t get you a wedding present, Addie.”

“You’ll have to remedy that,” I tell him, pulling his t-shirt off. Black is still standing, but he slips his jeans off and climbs on the bed.

“I guess I will,” he says, lying over me and taking me into his arms.

We hear Little Kong padding across the floor and I tense, sure we’re about to see a doggie murder and my little guy being the victim. He sniffs around Kong and Kong barely raises a doggie-eyebrow before he puts his head back down to sleep. Little Kong moves in and Black and I both look down at them as Little Kong finally decides to jump on Kong’s back and lay there.

It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen, but Big Kong doesn’t even move. It looks like they’re both just going to go to sleep.

“See,” I grin up at Black. “We’re just a happy family.”

“That we are, Addie, and all because of you,” he says, those blue eyes full of love and promise.

In the beginning I wasn’t planning on staying over a couple of days in Mason. One chance meeting with a grumpy cop with eyes bluer than the Caribbean waters changed that. He changed everything. Now I never plan on leaving Mason. I may have been mad at my father for taking away my home, because even without my mother it was the only home I’d known. What I could have never guessed is that he didn’t.

He just helped me find an even better one—and I know my Mom would agree.