Epilogue

When confronting a woman, you should always make sure her man isn’t around the corner.

-Fact of Life

Verity

7 months later

Verity (9:34 A.M.): That’s it. I’m selling this kid on eBay.

Truth (9:39 A.M.): What’d he do now?

Verity (9:40 A.M.): He shit on my shirt. And my pants. I’m pretty sure I have it in my hair.

Truth (9:54 A.M.): Take a shower and wash your clothes.

Verity (10:03 A.M.): He shit on your latest sword, too.

Truth (10:31 A.M.): Don’t be silly. You made him. You should sell him on Etsy.

I burst into peals of laughter, rolling over onto my stomach as I did.

The man I loved was a funny one, I’d give him that.

A cry of anger and pissed off ‘you woke me up laughing’ came from the baby’s playpen that was set up in the corner of my office, and I sighed.

I should’ve known better, but it wasn’t my fault.

It was all Truth’s fault. Every last, single bit of it.

“Do you have a minute?”

I looked up to find the manager, Brian Staganoff, standing in the doorway of my open office.

“Sure,” I said carefully. “What’s up?”

I was about to fire him. In fact, I’d planned on doing that after lunch when Truth had time to come and get his son.

And yes, I say his son, because he definitely wasn’t my son. There was no evidence beside him coming out of my vagina…and even then I could play that off due to me being delirious and high on the good medications.

“I need to apologize for my behavior a few nights ago.”

My brows went up.

“Oh, yeah?” I asked, leaning back in my chair.

This should be good.

Hearing him explain why he called another waitress a cunt in front of the entire fucking bar should entertain me greatly. And yes, I did say another waitress.

Apparently, he’d done it before, quite a few times. This had been the only time I’d been present to hear it.

“Yes, Ma’am,” he said through clenched teeth.

He really, really didn’t want to be here apologizing to me.

In fact, he likely wouldn’t have bothered had my husband not been present as well.

I’d been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, at first, but after getting the fourth complaint about his behavior and deplorable attitude today, I knew that something else had to give.

He had to go.

Though, I was willing to admit I hated firing people, even if they were douche canoes like this one.

“Okay,” I said, ready to hear him explain why in the world he thought it was okay to tell a woman that the only thing she was good for was her warm cunt.

Though, that had been after he’d called her an actual cunt.

I listened to him apologize, and barely contained the laughter in my eyes when Truth showed up a few minutes into his explanation and subsequent apology. He listened, rolled his eyes, and made jacking off motions when the sweetness of Brian’s voice made both of us wince.

“I’m sorry, Brian,” I said. “I was going to do this later, after lunch, but since you’re already in here and you know what this is about, I’m going to have to let you go. I can’t have any employees working at this pub who don’t respect the patrons and their coworkers. Truth’s grandfather cared for his waitresses, and he would never be okay with the way you treated Bonita two nights ago.”

Brian’s entire body locked. “You can’t fire me.”

My brows rose, and Truth started to vibrate with laughter as he tried to keep it quiet and not alert the man that he was standing behind him.

“Yes,” I pushed back from my chair and stood up. My pants, which had been digging into my belly, finally loosened, allowing me to breathe again. I’d gained a ton of weight (over seventy pounds) during my pregnancy, and still, months after having our son, I was trying to lose the weight. Slowly but surely. In the meantime, all of my clothes still fit like shit, and my pants were tight as hell and digging into my belly when I sat down for longer than three seconds. “I can. I’m sorry to have to do this, and I hate that I have to do it, but as of now, you no longer are employed by Breaker Pub.”

“You’re a fucking bitch,” he said, ripping off his name tag and tossing it.

The problem was that he tossed it in the direction of our son, who I could hear moving around in the pack and play.

The moment the name badge hit the wall beside his head, Ernest Junior, better known as EJ, started to really scream.

I closed my eyes for the next bit.

That was because I had shit in my hair. I had shit on my shirt and pants. I also had vomit down my back that I was trying really hard not to overthink. And Truth, being the overprotective man he was over his wife and child, struck.

He grabbed Brian by the coat collar, yanked him to face him, and then decked him.

“Mother. Fucker.”

***

Four hours later, I was fairly sure that I’d talked Brian out of pressing charges.

Though, to do that I had to offer him a severance check that was quite substantial.

And did Truth care one single bit that he’d cost the pub over four thousand dollars? Hell no.

He was sitting there, EJ in his arms, staring at the game on the TV with Sean sitting next to him.

A recently broken up Sean, who was less Seanshine and more Seanstorm.

Though, I didn’t call him that to his face.

“Would you stop pacing?” Truth growled without breaking away from the stupid fucking game that he was watching.

I narrowed my eyes.

“The quarterback gets hurt, and they lose the game in the fifth.”

Truth froze, then calmly leaned over, handed EJ to Sean who was trying not to laugh, and stood up.

Carefully, he turned around, rounded the couch, and then started in my direction.

Me, being me, never knew when to shut up.

Had I known, I wouldn’t have continued to bait him.

“And they also lose a wide receiver because he tore his ACL. They lost in overtime,” I sneered at him.

Truth didn’t even stop.

He bent low once he reached me, snaked his arm around the backs of my thighs, and stood.

“Ommph,” I grunted, trying to push up.

Truth wouldn’t allow it. The moment I started to push against his shoulders to alleviate the pressure on my belly, he smacked me on the ass. Hard.

I shrieked.

Sean grinned at me the entire way into our shared bedroom, and right before the door slammed on his laughing face, I flipped him off. Because I was mature and shit like that.

Sean’s laughter was shut off the moment the door slammed shut, and I gasped because I was then flying through the air and landing on the bed.

The moment my back hit the comforter, I gasped and started to roll away.

Truth followed me down, though, refusing to let me move away from him.

“You wanted my attention, baby,” he growled, getting so close to my face that his beard tickled my chin. “And you have it.”

I gasped, instinctively opening my thighs to the man, and licked my lips when Truth’s hard cock immediately ground into me.

I was wearing a pair of leggings which seemed to be the only thing that fit my ass and belly well enough for me to wear them for long periods of time without wanting to slice my belly fat off with a paper cutter.

The look in Truth’s eyes, the one that showed me that I was sexy no matter what I looked at, was my undoing, though.

“I’m mad,” I said breathlessly.

He grinned, his mouth dropping down to my lips.

“I can tell,” he said. “What are you mad about?”

His hand was on the move, starting at my side and moving down until he was at the top of my leggings, his hand delving under my shirt.

I sucked my belly in when he plunged his hand inside my pants and widened my legs, allowing him complete access.

He grinned as he pulled away from me, watching my eyes as he let his fingers play along the folds of my sex.

“I’m mad,” I swallowed thickly, trying to concentrate. It was nearly impossible with the way his finger was circling my clit, though. “Because you just cost us four grand.”

“Four grand well spent,” he said, bending down to bite my nipple through the tunic I was wearing.

I squeezed my eyes shut and moaned.

“I…I…”

“You what?” he rasped.

I couldn’t think.

“It was uncalled for,” I told him bluntly, trying to gather my thoughts and finding myself unable to.

He growled against my breast, causing my entire body to tingle. Then he was up and moving, yanking my leggings down just far enough to expose my ass.

Then he started working on his belt—which didn’t take too long.

Thank God.

And when he was plunging that hard cock inside of me, pressing my legs forward to my chest, I really didn’t care about much of anything any longer.

“It was totally called for,” he told me as he buried himself inside of me. “Any time I feel that you or my son are being disrespected, you can expect the same results.”

Then he pulled out and thrust back inside. Hard. And I lost all ability to care about anything else but him.

That’s, of course, when the baby started to cry from the living room, and I started to laugh. EJ reminded me that there were other people in the house other than us.

“He’s going to be pissed,” I informed him breathily. “If I don’t come get him and feed him ASAP.”

I’d found that EJ was a whole lot like me, in that when he wanted to be fed, it’d better happen on his time schedule or I’d regret it.

Truth grunted, not stopping.

I ran my hands up his sides, causing him to shiver. Then his eyes moved to mine.

Seconds later, he started to come, and I watched him give me everything he had to give.

My eyes fell closed, and I gasped, trying to catch my breath.

Something that was much easier when Truth’s heavy weight removed itself from my body.

“Stay,” Truth murmured as he got up. “I’ll go get him.”

I rolled onto my belly, feeling the hardness in my breasts that signaled a feeding was imminent.

I got up anyway. I had to go clean myself up.

EJ was a grazer. He took his time eating, and since we had a party to go to tonight at the club, I didn’t have time to waste.

Not to mention that I’d just had sex with my man and had to clean up before I held my kid. That was just gross.

I hurried to the bathroom, grabbing a towel off the rack above the toilet. My eyes caught on the decorative metal, and I smiled. That’d been the newest addition to Truth’s effort to fix up my old home.

And I had to admit, over the last seven months that he’d really been working on it, it looked a zillion times better.

“You gonna sit there all day with that towel between your legs, or are you going to feed my son?”

I tossed Truth a glare, wiped myself while he watched, and tossed the dirty towel into the hamper beside the door.

“He’s not crying right now,” I pointed out.

Truth turned.

“He’s sucking on my neck. I’d say that he is hungry, whether he’s crying or not.”

I sighed and reached for a new nursing tank that was hanging on the back of the door. Once in place, I reached for a pair of panties, slipped both feet into them, and settled them on over my hips.

“Give him,” I ordered. “And go get in the shower. We have to leave in half an hour.”

Truth handed him over, but chose to watch as I settled down in our bed and deftly situated pillows around my body for support.

“You have that down to an art,” Truth observed.

I did. That was what happened when you had a child chained to your breast for half the day.

I pulled my shirt down, and moved EJ so that he was in a comfortable position with his head resting on the pillow.

Before I could offer my breast to EJ, though, Truth did the honors for me, and I raised a brow at him.

“Such a turn on,” he murmured, running his hand down EJ’s cheek. “Watching you care for our son feels like a dream come true.”

Happiness filled my heart.

“I like watching you with him, too. It makes me feel warm and gooey inside.”

Truth grinned.

“Feed our son. I’ll go get Sean up and off the couch. Get him to help load the car. Anything else you need us to do besides take the groceries off the table?” he inquired.

I shook my head, then felt my heart leap when he dropped his mouth to mine.

“Verity?”

“Yes?” I breathed against his mouth.

“I love you.”

Tears filled my eyes.

I was an emotional mess.

“I love you, too.”

With one last kiss on the lips, he was gone, and I was left alone with my child, thanking the Lord that I got drunk in Vegas.

***

Ghost

I flipped the liter open and closed.

Open.

Closed.

Open.

Closed.

A cat hissed.

I threw the liter at it, and the cat hissed again, this time directly at me.

Fucking cat.

“Here, kitty kitty!”

I looked up to see her pushing the screen door open, and my heart started to pound.

“What’s that?”

I froze when she started walking toward me, unaware that I was deep in the shadows less than five feet in front of her.

Her breath hitched when she bent to pick up the liter, and a small moan fell from her perfect, bowtie lips.

“No.”