6 MONTHS LATER
“Mom,” Ivy said into the phone pressed to her ear. “Did you know about this?” she asked and looked at me from across the living room inside the beach house I’d rented out for us for the week.
“You guys are so evil!” she said.
I had no idea what her mom said on the other end of the line, but I had a feeling whatever it was, it let Ivy know I’d had this plan in place for months now. Not to mention, her parents had helped.
This was about to be the best day of my life.
Today, I would officially make Ivy Stone my wife.
And thanks to her parents for watching the girls with Baylor’s and Hampton’s presence to assure their safety, we’d have seven days to enjoy our honeymoon. Alone. Without any distractions. On the most private, secluded, gorgeous fucking island I could find.
And when I say secluded, I mean, besides two of our other security guys and a few staff members inside the rented home, we’d have to take a thirty-minute boat ride before we’d see another soul.
I’d kept everything top secret. Only a handful of people even knew we were here.
Which meant there was no risk for paparazzi or any other unwelcome visitors.
It was fucking perfect.
“Are the girls doing okay?” Ivy asked her mom as I moved our suitcases into the master suite.
The house was open and airy, and with the patio doors open, a soft breeze filled with the scents of salt water and sun flowed throughout.
“What about Cami?” Ivy’s voice echoed down the hall. “She’s been a little fussy since I stopped breastfeeding. I just hope she doesn’t give you a hard time this week. I mean, seven days is a long time to be away from her momma.”
I knew Ivy had some anxiety about leaving the girls, but I also knew she needed this getaway. She needed some time to herself. We needed some time to ourselves. We needed to recharge and relax and just enjoy one another.
And fuck, I needed to marry her more than I needed to goddamn breathe.
“I know, Mom. You’re right. And I’m so thankful you’re watching them so Levi and I could get away,” Ivy said, and I smiled.
Her mom was a saint, and I was just as thankful as Ivy that she and Dave would be caring for the girls this week.
No doubt, they were in good hands.
Surely, I wouldn’t have been able to get Ivy on the private plane I’d chartered to get here if she hadn’t felt like her daughters would be okay.
When it came to our girls, Ivy was full-on momma bear.
But that was exactly why she was the best fucking mom in the world.
“Please, just call me if you need anything, okay?” Ivy said. “Oh, and thanks a lot for not telling me that Levi was stealing me away to get married, you little devious liar. I can’t believe you kept that from me!”
I grinned and walked into the master bathroom to take a quick shower.
I knew her phone conversation would most likely last another twenty minutes, and I needed to wash the hours and hours’ worth of travel off of me.
By the time I was out of the shower and had thrown on a pair of black boxer briefs, Ivy was off the phone and outside.
Surrounded by sunshine and palm trees and white sand and clear blue water that went on for days, Ivy stood out on the balcony of the home and just stared at the beauty that lay at her feet.
Eyes wide and lips parted, she was completely awestruck.
I smiled as I stepped behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her back against my chest. This was the exact reaction I’d hoped for.
“I can’t believe you did this,” she whispered and leaned her head against my chest, her big green eyes staring up at me. “Like, I knew you were up to something, but I had no idea it was this.”
“I wanted it to be perfect.”
“It’s way fucking more than perfect, Levi Fox. It’s just… Yeah…it’s everything.”
“You gonna marry me, baby?” I asked, smirking down at her. “Because if you’re going to say no, then that’s really going to put a damper on this week’s plans.”
“I’m gonna marry you so hard. You have no idea.”
“Well, thank fuck for that,” I teased. “It only took like a year for you to finally say yes.”
“Pretty sure I’m worth the wait,” she retorted, all sass.
“All good things come to those who wait?” I teased and pinched her ass.
She giggled. “Something like that.”
I pinched her ass again, but then I kissed her nose. “I would have waited ten lifetimes to marry you,” I said, and I meant every fucking word.
“Love you,” she said and turned on her heels. She wrapped her arms around my waist and leaned up on her tippy-toes to place a soft kiss to my lips. “Thank you for being the most amazing man I’ve ever known.”
“Love you too, baby,” I whispered against her lips. “Now, go inside and get dressed because we only have about an hour until a minister is going to meet us out on that beach so I can officially make you mine.”
“An hour?” she squeaked out, and her eyes narrowed. “Are you serious?”
“One hundred percent,” I said over my shoulder as I walked back inside the house. “With how long it took for you to finally say yes, I sure as shit wasn’t leaving anything to chance. I’m marrying you today, Ivy. And that’s a fucking fact.”
“You’re such a caveman sometimes!” she yelled back to me, but her voice was more playful than anything else.
“Oh, just you wait, soon-to-be Mrs. Fox. Tonight is our wedding night, and I’m about to go full-on caveman when I’m devouring and claiming what’s mine.”
“Goddamn,” Levi said as he slowly slipped off the little white cotton dress I’d worn for our ceremony. “I’m the luckiest fucking man that’s ever lived.”
I smiled. And then, well, I shivered.
Because, holy hell, Levi Fox was my husband.
He was mine.
All fucking mine.
And now, this sexy, handsome man was slowly slipping off my white lace panties and staring down at me like a man starved to devour the buffet that was me.
“You’re so beautiful, Ivy,” he whispered. He stood behind me now, and his lips trailed a delicious path of hot kisses down my neck, my shoulders, my back. And when he reached the flesh of my ass, he nipped at the sensitive skin with his teeth. I squealed out from the sting of it, but he smoothed it better with his lips and tongue.
Hot damn.
His kisses swept up my back again, and when he reached my shoulders, he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me tight against his chest.
The hardness of his arousal pressed against my ass, and I moaned.
“I’ve never been so fucking turned on in my life,” he whispered into my ear. “Tonight, I get to kiss and lick and suck and fuck every inch of my beautiful wife. And I’m going to, baby. I’m going to devour every inch of you. And I’m not stopping until neither of us can move.”
Oh my and yes please were the first and only thoughts to enter my head.
He glided his fingers down my belly until they reached the apex of my thighs. One lone devious finger moved through my arousal, and I moaned.
“So wet. So beautiful. So fucking mine,” he whispered into my ear. “I’m going to spend hours upon hours kissing you here, and you’re going to come on my tongue.”
He slid that provocative finger inside of me. “And I’m going to spend hours in here too. I’m going to slide my cock so deep inside of you, we won’t know where you end and I start. Fuck, I’ll probably sleep with my cock inside of you, baby.”
“God, Levi,” I moaned, and I felt his lips crest into a smile against my neck.
“Lie on the bed, baby,” he whispered. “I’ve been waiting what feels like my entire life for this moment, and I can’t wait any longer. I need you. All of you. Right fucking now.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice.
I climbed onto the bed and the instant I was on my back, staring up at Levi, I felt like his hot gaze had the power to ignite my skin into flames.
He slid off his boxer briefs, and I couldn’t stop my gaze from moving to his already hard cock. It was big, thick, and jutting out from between his hips, and I licked my damn lips, my mouth craving a taste of him.
He crawled over me, his big, muscular body hovering over mine, and he pressed the head of his arousal just barely against me.
Fuck. I needed more.
I wiggled and moved my hips, but he didn’t budge an inch.
“Now, Levi,” I begged, but he shook his head.
“Not yet,” he whispered. “There’s something I need to do first.”
Do first? What?
I needed him inside of me.
Anything else could wait.
Fuck, everything else could wait.
Armageddon could occur right now, and I still wouldn’t want to leave this bed.
“Ivy, you are the light to my dark. The beauty within my soul,” he whispered, repeating his vows to me. “Because of you, I’m a better man. You are my lover, my best friend, my perfect match. Every day, for the rest of forever, I want and need your fire and your sass and those big green eyes of yours smiling at me. I want and need your words and your thoughts and quick wit and smart mouth. I want and need every little amazing thing that makes you the strongest, most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.”
He paused to press a kiss to my lips, and my eyes sparkled with emotion.
“Ivy, I promise you, that for the rest of my days, I will love you, care for you, support you, and be the man you deserve. I love you, Ivy. I will never stop loving you.”
“God, Levi,” I whispered, and a few tears slipped down my cheeks. “I love you so much.”
Slowly, oh so slowly, he slid himself inside me until I was filled to the hilt.
I moaned, and he leaned forward to press a slow, deliciously deep kiss against my mouth.
“My wife,” he whispered against my lips. “Mine.”
“Yours.”
“Forever,” he rasped and slid his cock deeper.
“Always.”
I’d never known what it was like to give someone your whole heart and receive theirs in return.
I’d never known love until Levi.
My husband.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
9 MONTHS LATER
Hollywood’s elite and a stage covered in what looked like diamonds surrounded us from all sides.
Inside the Dolby Theater, applause rang out as Meryl Streep stepped onto the stage. Her hand gripped the golden envelope that named this year’s Oscar winner for best actress.
Ivy sat beside me, four rows from the main stage, and I reached out to grip her hand for support as Meryl Streep smiled at the crowd and started to read from the teleprompter.
I looked at my wife, a little ball of nerves and anxiety and dressed to the nines in a beautiful floor-length black silk gown, and smiled.
She’d spent four hours this morning surrounded by stylists fixing her hair and makeup, and the end result was downright stunning.
Now, I’d still take a just-woken-up Ivy any day of the week, but I could definitely appreciate the mesmerizing vision that was an Oscar-ready Ivy.
Which I hoped was the case in the literal sense.
Because of her amazing performance in Cold, she was on the list of five Oscar nominees for Best Actress.
And in mere moments, we were about to find out if she’d go home with a golden Oscar in tow.
“Here are your nominees for Best Actress,” Meryl announced into the microphone, and the large screen behind her filled with movie clips highlighting the nominees’ award-worthy roles.
“Ivy Stone in Cold,” rang out from the speakers, and Ivy inhaled a sharp intake of breath.
And then a clip of Ivy in a Cold Police Uniform filled the screen.
She stood inside the Cold police station, and it was a difficult scene where Grace finds out her friend Bethany Johnson had gone missing.
The movie version wasn’t quite the same as the real-life version, but it was close, and from the little bit I’d seen of the movie, I knew Ivy had more than done the role of Grace Murphy justice.
For the longest time, Ivy had tried to fight the movie being released, but there was a large part of me that was glad neither of us was successful in that task.
Because, as a result, Grace’s story, the victims of Walter Gaskins’s story got to be told.
When Ivy and I had gone to the movie premiere for Cold, it had been absolute chaos.
It had been a struggle just to get through the red-carpet version of it.
And once we’d stepped inside and the movie started playing, we’d both looked at each other and decided we didn’t need to see the final version.
It just didn’t matter to us.
We had each other, and in the end, that was all that mattered. Pretty ironic, really, that the only two people in that theater who could have verified how accurate, how fulfilling it was hadn’t even stayed to watch it.
“And the Oscar for best actress goes to,” Meryl said, and she opened the envelope. The instant she spotted the name, she looked up and smiled toward the crowd. “Ivy Stone in Cold.”
The room filled with raucous applause, and my jaw damn near hit the floor, and Ivy stayed frozen in her seat for a few seconds, her hands shaking in her lap.
“I won?” she whispered to me, and I stood up.
“You won, baby,” I said, and the biggest, proudest smile covered my face. I reached down with both hands and helped my wife to her feet, and then I wrapped her up in a big hug. “You did it, Ivy. You fucking did it. I’m so incredibly proud of you.”
She leaned back and met my eyes. “I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” I said and nodded toward the stage. “Now, go get your Oscar, baby.”
A nervous laugh escaped her lips, and I watched her gorgeous little figure slowly make her way up to the stage, fellow actors and actresses stopping her in the aisle to shake her hand and give her hugs as she went.
The entire room was filled with people who felt she deserved this.
I watched in awe as the crowd celebrated my wife.
And, fuck, it was the best feeling in the entire world.
She stepped behind the microphone, and Meryl handed her the Oscar and wrapped her up in a congratulatory hug.
And then Ivy looked at out the crowd, and an emotional smile crested her beautiful lips. She touched the microphone with a shaky hand and took a big, deep breath. “Wow, I’m just…I’m speechless right now,” she said. “And a whole lot nervous,” she added with a giggle. “So, bear with me here because I’m about to free flow this speech. My husband told me last night I needed to prepare something in case I won, but I just didn’t think it was possible. There are so many amazing actresses on that list, and I felt completely humbled just to have been nominated with them, much less actually win. Holy moly,” she said, and her eyes went wide. “What is happening right now?”
The crowd chuckled and clapped in response.
God, she was beautiful and so damn adorable it made my chest ache.
“Okay, okay, get it together, Ivy, you’re on live television, and now isn’t the time to ramble,” she muttered more to herself than anyone else, and I grinned.
“This has been a long road for me,” she addressed the crowd. “Probably the hardest journey I’ve ever been on, and to win this award is so bittersweet. I’d like to dedicate this to my beloved sister, Camilla Stone. I miss you every day, Cami. You were the brightest star in the whole sky. The strongest woman I’ve ever known. And to Grace Murphy. The two of you, both robbed of the beautiful lives you were destined to lead. And if it weren’t for you both, I wouldn’t be standing here right now.
“I’d also like to thank my husband,” she said, and her voice shook with emotion. “Levi, baby, I love you more than should be humanly possible. Thank you for sharing your life with me. And thank you for being the best father to our girls.
“I’d like to thank my parents. Mom and Dad, we did it!” she exclaimed and held the Oscar up. “They couldn’t be here tonight because they stayed back to watch our girls, but I know they’re watching this at home. Well, unless our one-year-old twins are, like, tearing their wallpaper down or something. Which, if that’s the case, I’m so sorry, Mom and Dad!”
The crowd laughed again.
“I know there are more names, but I’m just too stunned to process what is even happening right now. So, thank you to everyone who made this possible. Just…thank you…I’m so humbled and honored,” she said and waved toward the crowd, and everyone stood to their feet, giving her a standing ovation as she slowly made her way off the stage.
A few moments later, an attendant came to my row and gestured for me to follow them backstage during one of the commercial breaks, and the instant my eyes locked with that familiar gorgeous emerald gaze, my mouth broke out into a huge grin.
Ivy ran toward me, and I wrapped her up in my arms and hugged her so damn tight that her feet left the ground.
“I can’t believe it,” she whispered into my ear.
“God, baby, I’m so fucking proud of you.”
“I love you,” she said and pressed a soft kiss to my lips.
“I love you too, baby,” I responded against her lips. We stayed locked tight in an embrace for a long moment. Eventually, I leaned back and met her eyes.
“So, now where do we go?” I asked. “After parties?”
She shook her head. “I want to go home, Levi. I want to go home and see the girls and hug my parents and just be with the people who mean the most to me.”
God, I loved her.
And I felt the exact same way.
“But we are definitely picking up some Taco Bell on the way home because I’m starved,” she added, and I burst into laughter.
“What?” she questioned and slapped a playful hand against my chest. “I’ve barely had anything all day so I could fit into this dress. And now, I’m ready put on some sweats and gorge myself on fucking tacos.”
Happy wife, happy life.
I smiled. “Let’s go get you some fucking tacos, then.”
She giggled, and my heart expanded inside my chest.
To the world, she was Ivy Stone, famous celebrity and, now, Oscar-winning actress, but to me, she was my beautiful, feisty, funny wife who was the best damn mother to our little girls. Ivy Fox.
Our life wasn’t perfect, but we were blessed. We’d been through hell, and we’d come out the other side more than just intact.
We came out alive and thriving and together.
THE END
THANK YOU so much for taking the journey through this trilogy with us. It was different and scary, but in the end, one of our favorite things we’ve ever done.
We hope we’ve left your mood right and your heart fulfilled, but if you need some laughs to recover, head on over to our Mavericks Tackle Love Series and start with book one!
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