23 MONTHS LATER

 

Dear Mari,

 

I can’t believe the time has passed so quickly. I’ve been waiting for this day for so long it doesn’t seem possible that it’s really here. But I know reality will hit the moment I walk out of these doors in regular clothes and see you waiting for me outside the open gates. Six days, and I’m a free man. Not just freed from this cage but free of the trouble and fear and danger of the Valves.

 

I have you to thank, for everything. I fell in love with you so quickly and so easily it was hard to hold back the truth, and you were a force to be reckoned with when it came to honesty. I appreciate that. It opened my eyes. Now, I only hope we can rebuild our relationship into something even better than it was before.

 

I know things haven’t been easy for you, and I promise, when I get home, I’m going to pamper you and make sure you get to relax and enjoy being a family the way you should.

 

I can’t wait to see you and hold you again, baby. It’s your strength that got me through this, and I’ll make sure it’s my strength that takes care of you for the rest of your life, if you’ll let me.

 

Love,

 

Dawson

 

I read the letter twice before folding it and putting it back in my purse while I waited for Dawson to emerge from the bleak building where he’d been captive for the last two years. Time had passed faster than I’d ever imagined, and yet it still felt like a lifetime since I’d seen him. I couldn’t wait to get him home to the life that awaited him there.

 

Ginger had wanted to come with me, but we still hadn’t explained to her exactly where he’d been. She was seven and could have understood better, but we’d mutually decided it was best to wait. I’d had enough trouble getting her to remain silent about the surprises we had for her father, and I’d bribed her with a trip to the zoo if she would stay home with Auntie Georgie and wait.

 

The door opened, and my breath caught. I held it as two figures came out, the first in a guard’s uniform and the second in a pair of jeans with a polo shirt and a pair of boots, as he’d requested. He carried a box, and I guessed it was full of letters and pictures and whatever else he’d collected while he tried to turn a prison cell into a temporary home. I wanted to run to him, but there was still a tall chain link fence with barbed wire across the top between us.

 

I watched the smile spread over his face as he came closer, and I had to hug myself to keep from jumping up and down for joy. Georgie had been right – he came out even more cut than he’d been when he went in, and all I could think of was taking him to bed and never letting him out from under the covers.

 

At long last, the gate opened, and his stride quickened. He dropped the box beside me and gathered me in his arms, squeezing until I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t mind, clinging to him like if I let go, he’d disappear. He turned his face into my hair and inhaled deeply. “God, I missed you,” he whispered, the overwhelming emotion clear in the way he trembled.

 

Or maybe it was me shaking. Or both. I took his face in my hands and kissed him soundly, blinking against tears of joy. “Then let’s go home and never do this again.”

 

***

 

I let him drive, and we didn’t talk much, just held hands as he cracked the window and breathed in the cool, fresh air. We’d gotten lucky – Thanksgiving was three days away. He would be with us for the holidays.

 

He pulled into my driveway with his jaw slack and his eyes watery, seeing Ginger on the stoop, waiting for him as she bounced and clapped her hands. He barely put the car in park before he was out the door and racing to meet her halfway. They collided with such force it was a wonder neither of them got hurt, and I watched with delight, trying not to cry as Ginger shouted and cheered. “Daddy! Daddy! You’re home! I missed you so much!”

 

“Oh, baby, you have no idea how much I missed you!” Dawson told her, standing with the girl in his arms. “Look how much you’ve grown! I hold you in my arms and your feet still almost touch the ground.”

 

She giggled. “I’m not that tall, Daddy. Mommy measured, and I’ve grown five inches. That’s all.”

 

“Five is a lot!” he laughed, reaching for my hand. I took it and gulped against the anxious feeling that made my stomach churn as we made our way toward the door and into the house.

 

“Daddy, we have a big surprise for you,” Ginger told him, pressing her hands to his cheeks and looking at him as if she’d never seen anything so beautiful. I think she might have been right.

 

“Yeah? I can’t imagine what it might be. Don’t tell me you learned to make pancakes all by yourself.” He looked at me in question.

 

“It’s a little bigger than that. Georgie!” I called, and my sister came out of her room, walking slowly and looking down.

 

Dawson nearly dropped Ginger as his eyes landed on the small boy standing next to her, his tiny hand curled around her finger. He was in a pair of footie pajamas with red and white stripes, and he had a thick mop of white blond hair on his head. Georgie looked up with a big grin and said, “We just finished a big jar of apple and cinnamon oatmeal.”

 

He came running to me, and I crouched to catch him in a hug. “Hey, sweetheart! I wasn’t gone that long, was I?” As I stood with the boy in my arms, I looked at Dawson, who was dumbfounded, and the glistening tears in his eyes were about to brim over. “Dawson, meet Dalton. Dalton Gregory Holt.” I’d given him Dawson’s last name on the birth certificate because it only seemed right.

 

He swallowed hard, and Ginger broke him out of his trance by planting a big kiss on his cheek. “He’s my brother, Daddy.” She slid from his arms and came to kiss Dalton the same way, making the boy shake his head and giggle before hiding his face in my shoulder.

 

“Mari…” The hoarse whisper spoke volumes, and I just nodded at him. I tickled Dalton’s foot, and he giggled, lifting his head and looking at me.

 

“Dalton, you remember the pictures of Daddy?” I asked. He turned his head to look at Dawson, and I was so proud in that moment I got a little choked up. He may not have had a big vocabulary yet, but he knew what I meant. “This is Daddy. Can you go see him?”

 

Dawson held out his arms, and Dalton hesitated. But then, he pointed and said, “Da-da.”

 

I smiled. “That’s right.” He leaned toward Dawson, who took him with gentle hands and brought him in so their faces were an inch apart. They looked so much alike it was eerie, and I said quietly, “He was born August 14th last year. And thanks to Georgie, we have video of everything.”

 

“The sonograms, the birth, his first feeding, his first time sitting up, smiling, his first steps. Everything,” Georgie assured him.

 

For the first time, Dawson stepped forward and hugged Georgie. I knew he hadn’t meant to ignore her. He was just overwhelmed. “I get to push the stroller through the park sometimes,” Ginger said, all smiles.

 

“Da-da.” Dalton smacked his hands against Dawson’s face, laughing, and Dawson shed a single tear as he kissed the boy.

 

“Hello, son,” he said, his voice cracking. “We have a lot of time to make up for. All of us.” He reached down and put a hand on Ginger’s head, pulling her in for a hug. He looked at me in expectation, and I joined.

 

“Oh, for the love of everything holy,” Georgie said, teary-eyed, and she came into the group hug. We were a family now, whole again, and there was nothing more I could have asked for.

 

***

 

That wasn’t exactly a fair statement, since Dawson and I spent some time with the family and, as soon as both children were napping, we snuck off to his house. It had been nearly impossible to keep our hands off each other to get through breakfast and filling him in on everything to do with Dalton, most of which was headed up by his big sister.

 

Now, though, we needed time alone, and we walked hand in hand to his bedroom. I felt a little nervous, and as I kissed him and felt the familiar tingle of anticipation, I told him, “It’s funny. It almost feels like the first time.”

 

“I know what you mean,” he said, brushing my hair back behind my ears. “You look amazing.”

 

I pulled off his polo shirt and ran my fingers over the hard muscle that was more pronounced than ever. “So do you.” He reached for the zipper of my dress, and I let him draw it from my shoulders so it fell to the floor. I stepped out of it, nude, not having worn any underwear in anticipation of this moment. He inhaled sharply, and his hands fell on my breasts, hot and searing. I sighed, and reached for his jeans, fumbling with the fly until I could yank them down over his hips. I hadn’t realized how hard and eager he was already, and I gasped at the sight of his swollen erection, pulsing with need before I even touched it.

 

Up to that point, he’d manifested patience, but as I leaned into him, skin to skin, he devoured me in a desperate kiss and gave me a violent shove onto the bed, coming down on me with his full weight. I laughed seductively, and his lips heated my skin, from my throat and shoulder to the taut peaks of my nipples. I arched my back as I flooded, having waited far too long to feel him like this again, and he reached under me, cupping my ass and massaging it as he drove my hips forward into his.

 

I moaned as his cock dug into my thigh, and I couldn’t let him have all the fun. I fisted my hands in his hair and pulled his lips back to mine, wriggling beneath him to tease at the hard length pushed into me. He grunted, and I wondered if he would be able to last as long as I wanted.

 

I shouldn’t have been concerned. After all, Dawson was the master in the bedroom, and he could rein in his excitement in a way that seemed impossible. He reached down and lifted one of my legs with his hand wrapped behind my knee, and he drew it up over his shoulder, settling between my thighs. I pushed the heel of my other foot into the back of his thigh, urging him on. He stroked his length along my flesh, and as his head brushed over my clit, I struggled for breath against the orgasm that seemed to come out of nowhere.

 

He laughed with a sinister tone, and as I writhed in ecstasy, he steadied me with a hand on each shoulder and thrust deep into me with one long, smooth forward drive of his hips. I cried out, tighter than before from having waited so long, and Dawson made a strangled sound, stilling and squeezing his eyes shut. “Fuck, you feel good!” he breathed.

 

So did he, but I couldn’t speak as my inner walls throbbed from the sensation. I didn’t think I was ever going to stop coming, whether he moved or not, and I could have laid here, filled with passion, until I died and not cared. But then he drew out, inch by slow inch, and pierced my flesh again. I screamed louder, the orgasm stronger and more insistent, and I clawed at his back.

 

He rolled his hips, filling me over and over again and stroking every single inch of my core with his length and girth. I gasped and shuddered and whimpered, unable to control my reaction. It had been far too long, and it felt like heaven as my limbs went numb with pleasure and my head spun, all thought crushed into a tiny corner of my brain as physical sensation filled the space.

 

“More,” I managed to whisper, and his eyes were like flames I’d just poured lighter fluid on, raging with heat and fire that shot up fifteen feet in the air. He ducked down and took my mouth fiercely, his tongue flicking and thrusting and tasting. My heart raced out of control, knowing what was coming, and when he released my lips, Dawson braced his hands on either side of my head and drove himself hard and fast, hitting the end of me.

 

My vision went black for a moment, and then starbursts surrounded me in bright colors. He scooted his knees forward, forcing me to lift my hips from the bed, and he started pounding into me fast and hard, our bodies coming together with a smacking sound that only heightened my arousal and took my breath away. There was no time to breathe, no time to think, and my body seized and battled with the confusion of a pleasure so great it almost hurt. I poured, and he moved faster, thrust harder and deeper, making my orgasms indecipherable from one another so they just stacked two and three and four on top of each other.

 

His release took him by surprise, coming with no warning and making him convulse as his cock jumped and sputtered while spilling inside me. I felt the pulses inside as my body reacted, and I thought I might die right then and there. But slowly, I found earth again, felt the cushioning of the bed beneath me, and my heart slowed enough to keep from exploding. I reached up and pulled Dawson down on top of me, his arms tremoring with the effort to hold himself up.

 

I had missed this, the weight of him on top of me in the afterglow of a round of intense, sweaty sex. And when he slid half to the side so his weight rested on the bed but half of him was still draped over me, I welcomed the feel of his hot breath in the crook of my neck. He buried his face in my hair, but he didn’t quite settle down. I could feel a tension in his body that was different than he felt when we were in the heat of passion, and I wondered what that was about.

 

“Mari?” he asked, his voice deep with satisfaction.

 

“Hmm?” I asked, my eyes hooded as I let the electrical aftershocks flow through my body.

 

“Why didn’t you tell me? About Dalton?”

 

I’d expected the question, and I’d imagined it asked in anger or with hurt. But when Dawson asked now, all I heard was awe and curiosity. I smiled lazily to myself. “You told me you didn’t want to worry about us. You said you needed to keep your head down and get out on good behavior. If I’d told you I was pregnant, or that you had a son waiting for you, it would have made you anxious and put you on edge. You might have overreacted and ended up in trouble.” I sighed. “I’m sorry I hid it from you, but it was for the best.”

 

He lifted his head and gazed into my eyes. “You did the right thing.” Then, his lips twisted into a crooked smile. “I can’t believe I have a son. And that Ginger kept quiet about it.”

 

I snorted. “I bribed her several times. By the way, we have to go to the zoo sometime this week.”

 

He laughed. “I’m okay with that. Animals in cages don’t bother me, as long as I’m not in one of them. Ever again.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “Dalton. I like the name.”

 

“I thought you might. I don’t do ‘Junior’ well, but I thought I’d get close.” I turned my head so I neither of us had to strain to see each other. “Are you happy?”

 

“I’m elated. I can’t believe how good things are.” He sighed. “We’re going to need a bigger house, you know. And we’re going to see if we can hire Georgie as a permanent nanny.”

 

“I’ve already picked one out, baby. We just need to put these two on the market and put in a bid. You’re going to love it.” I’d been looking for a while but wanted his approval.

 

He grunted, scowling. “One step at a time. There are a couple of things to take care of first.” I gave him a questioning look. “I think we need a new family SUV, and I need to buy you a ring.”

 

“A ring?” I asked, not daring to believe what I was hearing.

 

He nodded. “We can get married any time, but I want everyone to know that you’re my woman. Including you.” He pushed up on his elbow and said, “I love you, Mari, and you are the mother of my children. Both of them. I never want to lose you, and I never want to leave you again.”

 

My heart filled with love and pride, and I knew that, while the road ahead twisted and turned so I had no idea what was coming, we would take it together, with our children. Our family. I smiled up at Dawson, content and excited to face whatever came our way.

 

THE END

 

 

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