EPILOGUE
GRACE
TEN MONTHS LATER

 

I looked out over the expanse of D.C. as my hand rested on the final copy of my children’s book. It was the fourth one in my first series, and with Ryan’s support it had become my full-time job. He was illustrating the pictures in his spare time at night while I brainstormed stories and morals with him, and as my stomach grew, so did our love for one another.

Jason ended up placing out of high school as planned and obtained a full scholarship to attend Boston University’s Forensic Science program. He started college at the ripe old age of seventeen and the university was lucky to have him. Ryan was the proudest brother I’d ever seen in my life the day Jason got that acceptance letter. We threw him a massive party at Ryan’s new office with the FBI and his colleagues bought Jason things he could take with him to college.

Just like a true family would have.

“Mommy, is that your new book?”

I turned to face Harper as I picked up the book under my arm.

“It is. Do you wanna see it?” I asked.

“Could you read it to me tonight?” Harper asked.

“Of course. You wanna climb up here? We can read it while the sun sets.”

Harper climbed into my lap and snuggled into my chest. I cracked open the book for the first time, smelling the new pages. It was my favorite scent in the entire world. A book fresh off the press and ready for me to analyze. But I knew there wouldn’t be anything wrong with it. I knew it would be perfect.

“This is the story of Mr. Lion and Mr. Bear, and how they figured out they were related,” I said.

“A lion and a bear?” Harper asked. “That’s funny.”

“It is, isn’t it? But I promise you, by the end of the book you will figure out how they really are related,” I said.

I recounted the story Ryan had helped me refine over the past few weeks. The story of Mr. Lion and Mr. Bear and how they came to be related through their love for one another. Two separate species of animal who led their lives in different fashions bonded together over their love of warm grass, funny jokes, and sun rises. It was a story about how relations weren’t always blood and how some relations weren’t always good. Just because Mr. Bear enjoyed the presence of other bears didn’t mean those other bears were good for him. And just because Mr. Lion had a family didn’t mean his family was always kind to him. Sometimes, being related to someone had nothing to do with blood.

Sometimes, being related to someone had to do with how two parties felt towards one another.

It was a wonderful way to describe adoption, or blended families. Or even those struggling with loving their own families. What was important in the end was that Mr. Lion and Mr. Bear loved each other and respected one another, not in spite of their differences, but because of them.

“So, what do you think?” I asked.

“I think that was an awesome story. Can you read it again?” Harper asked.

“What if I read it to you?”

I turned my head and saw Ryan stepping out onto the porch.

“Henry not going down?” I asked.

“Sometimes it just takes a mother’s touch,” Ryan said, breathlessly. “Come on, kiddo. We’ll go read it one last time.”

Ryan took Harper in his arms and picked up the book from my lap. He bent forward to kiss me on the cheek, then took her back inside. I picked myself up and headed for Henry’s nursery, hearing the little boy grunt and pitch a fit while lying in his crib.

For a three-month old, he really knew how to fight his sleep.

“Come here, sweet boy. I’ve got you.”

After two hours of feeding him, burping him, changing him, and rocking him, he finally fell asleep in my arms. It took me three different tries to put Henry down in his crib without waking him, but I finally succeeded. Henry was a different beast altogether. Harper never had a care in the world about sleeping through the night when she was a newborn.

But with Henry, I had to snag the sleep while I could, because in two hours, like clockwork, he’d be wide awake and ready to go.

“How did Harper go down?” I asked.

“Been asleep for almost an hour,” Ryan said.

“Ah, so she fought you tonight.”

“She fights me every night. I think she’s learning from her brother. Isn’t that supposed to be the other way around?”

“You’d think so,” I said with a grin.

I slid into bed beside Ryan and snuggled deeply into his side.

“How did work go today?”

“Please don’t ask. It was long and arduous and full of way too many incapable minds.”

“Hard being the smartest one in the room, is it?” I asked.

“I mean, come on. The FBI found me. What gives?” he asked.

“Ah, the plight of a genius.”

I pushed myself up to kiss Ryan on the cheek, but he turned his head and captured my lips. What had begun as a nighttime ritual between us to settle down, quickly turned into a passionate session as I straddled his hips. His hands ran over my curves and I ground into his hips, raking my hands through his hair and muffling my sounds.

His hands traveled underneath my shirt, pulling it off my body as my tits swung against his chest. He massaged them, ignoring the milk that spilled from them as my lips kissed down his neck. I sucked on his bare shoulder, feeling his throbbing muscles twitching at my warmth.

Ryan rolled us over and our eyes connected, and I watched as a smile crossed his face.

“What?” I asked.

“What? Can’t I smile at my beautiful fiance?”

“Oh, yeah. In my milk-stained t-shirt and my two-day old leggings.”

“You’ve never looked sexier,” he said.

Our hands slid across each other’s bodies until we were clad in nothing but our skin. His arm wrapped underneath the small of my back, angling my hips towards his throbbing cock. I could feel his dripping precum coating my legs as he positioned himself at my pussy. And as he slid into my body, I shivered at his girth.

Our foreheads fell together and I clung to his back. To the sculpted muscles he kept up for his job. I pressed kiss after kiss into his lips as he rolled into me, his strength coating my body and his cock throbbing against my walls.

My pussy throbbed around him as he slid against my clit. It had been so long since I’d felt this close to him and I couldn't contain myself. I came around his cock, burying my face into his neck so I wouldn’t wake the kids.

But he kept moving, kept thrusting, until his hips were snapping against mine.

I suckled at his shoulder as his arms held me close. His cock stroked against spots that made me shiver with delight. I wrapped my legs around him and tipped us over, straddling his hips as I planted my hands into his chest. I rode his cock as the bed began to rock, and I threw my head back as pleasure coursed through my veins.

I bit down onto my lower lip, but my sounds were growing louder. Ryan was grunting and groaning as my pussy clamped down around his cock. I collapsed into his body and he rolled us back over, taking control as he pinned my hands above my head.

Our noses nuzzled together and it caused me to giggle. But then he rose up onto his knees.

“Ryan. You know I can’t—keep—you can’t—”

“I want to hear you,” he said, grunting. “I haven’t heard you in so long.”

He slammed into me and I arched my back off the bed. He tossed my legs over his shoulders, settling a fire in the pit of my gut. My hands sank into his chiseled thighs as my head lolled with pleasure, and he pounded into me until my eyes were rolling into the back of my head.

“Ryan. Ryan. Shit. Oh, fuck. I love this. I love you. I love you so much. So much. Oh, shit. Keep going.”

My hands grabbed his ass and rolled him deeper into my body. He collapsed onto the backs of my thighs, folding me in half as the bed rocked on its frame. His hands clung to the headboard so it wouldn't bash into the wall and my fingernails dug into his beautifully-strong ass.

I could feel his cock pulsing wildly against the walls of my pussy.

His lips fell to mine as his dick slammed into me. He held himself there, desperate to feel as much of me as he could. We were panting and shaking, our bodies covered in a light sheen of sweat. I could feel his cock pumping, filling me with his cum as my juices dripped onto the bed below us.

“I love you,” Ryan said into my lips.

“So much,” I said breathlessly.

My legs slid from his shoulders and his body collapsed on top of me. I wrapped my arms around him, feeling his cock still buried between my legs. This was my favorite moment. That moment just after making love to him where he was too weak to handle himself. And he always trusted me enough to fall into me. To hold him so he could recuperate without a care in the world as to my safety.

Every time he fell into me, I fell in love with him all over again.

I pressed open-mouthed kisses along his shoulder until he slid out of my pussy. He rolled off to the side, bringing me with him as he wrapped his arms around me. My head fell to his chest and I could hear his heart pounding, drumming out a beautiful song for me that I had come to associate with him.

His fingers ran through my hair as my fingertips danced along the fuzz around his belly button, and I sighed as my body finally relaxed.

“Do you have a date in mind yet?” Ryan asked.

“No, but I have a season,” I said.

“Well, that’s something. What season?”

“I was thinking a beautiful fall wedding. Outside somewhere when the trees are turning colors.”

“That would fit in with your desire to have a red and yellow wedding,” he said.

“You still don’t like those colors, do you?” I asked.

“Well, for a fall wedding, those colors are perfect.”

“Now you're just telling me what I want to hear,” I said.

“Isn’t that part of my job as your future husband?”

I playfully slapped his chest as a chuckle fell from his lips.

“I’m being serious. I want you to enjoy our special day, too.”

“I will,” Ryan said. “Because I’m marrying you.”

Smiling, I pressed a kiss onto his skin before he crooked his finger underneath my chin. My head tilted upwards and our lips connected before he rolled our bodies back over. He was hovering over me, raking his eyes up and down my body. There was never a moment where I felt anything less than beautiful with him. Even with leaking breasts, loose skin, stretch marks, and thicker thighs than I’d ever had in my life, Ryan worshipped me. Cherished me. Never ceased to whisper all of the devious things he wanted to do to my body.

His lips fell to my neck, and I sighed as my hands tangled in his hair.

Then, Henry began to cry.

Ryan shook his head against me and I giggled. I lifted his head with my hands and brought his lips down to mine. He relinquished me to the darkness as I slid off the bed, my hands picking up the first pieces of clothing I could find on the floor.

“How do I look?” I asked.

I held out my hands as Ryan’s pajama pants I’d tried to put on fell to the floor.

“Like you’re in the mood for a quickie,” he said, as he stared at my bare legs.

“Is that all that’s ever on your mind?”

“Yes.”

I shook my head and giggled as I went over to the door. I pulled my robe from the hook as Ryan’s eyes watched me. It had been a long three months to recover from Henry’s delivery, and I had missed him.

Missed his body against mine, just like he had with me.

I slung the robe around my body and made my way for Henry’s room. He was grunting and whimpering, tossing his legs around and kicking the blanket clenched tightly in his hand. I picked the small boy up in my arms, watching as his eyes opened to meet mine. Then I sat down with him in the rocking chair and put him up to my breast.

“You must be growing,” I said, mindlessly. “It’ll make my nights even more fun.”

I gazed into his beautiful eyes before I felt a presence in the doorway. I looked up and saw Ryan, staring at us with nothing but love and adoration in his eyes. He did that a lot. Watching me as I fed Henry. He had told me once that he was fascinated with what my body could do, but I knew him better than that.

He was still trying to convince himself that all of this was real.

He didn’t have to worry.

Because all of it was.

“How about this?” Ryan asked. “Come fall of next year, Henry will be almost one and a half. We can have our wedding then, and then maybe your mother could take the kids for a week while we do a legitimate honeymoon.”

“Mmmm, an entire week for just us?” I asked.

“Just us. I’ll put in for vacation, we’ll leave your books behind for a bit. The kids will be with grandma and we can be alone for a few days.”

“Whatever shall we do?”

“Whatever we wanted,” he said. “And we could go wherever you wanted to go.”

“What if I wanted to go to Hawaii?”

“Done,” he said.

“Paris?”

“I’ll figure it out.”

“Australia?”

“With your fear of spiders?”

I giggled as he pushed himself off the door frame of Henry’s nursery.

“Does sleeping until lunchtime come with this deal?” I asked.

“Sleeping anytime we want comes with this deal.”

“Then I don’t care if we come back here and spend two weeks curled up in bed.”

“As long as you’re with me?”

I craned my neck up and puckered my lips as Ryan smiled down at me.

His lips came closer, pressing against me as I giggled. His nose nuzzled into mine before he looked down, his hand cupping the back of Henry’s head. I watched him look down at his son with all the love in the world. They twinkled with Henry’s reflection as he unlatched from my breast, taking the time to smile up at his father. Milk dribbled down his chin as he giggled and Ryan took him from my arms, then placed him on his shoulder so he could burp the little guy.

“I have a question,” Ryan said. “But I’m not sure how you’re going to take it.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve known you to be anxious when asking me something. What is it?”

“Well, we gave Henry my last name. And when we get married, I’m assuming you’ll take my last name.”

“Probably so, yeah.”

“What about Harper?”

“What about her?”

“What if she had my last name, too?” he asked.

“I guess we could change her name. If you wanted,” I said.

“I was thinking more along the lines of adopting her.”

I felt my heart slam against my chest as my eyes filled with tears.

“How would you feel about me adopting Harper?”

“Like be my daddy?”

We all turned towards the small voice and found Harper standing in the doorway. She was rubbing her eyes and carrying around her yellow stuffed bunny rabbit Ryan had gotten her the day Henry was born. It was his reassurance to her that he would never love Henry any more or any less than he loved her.

And she carried it around with her everywhere she went.

“Would you like that?” Ryan asked. “If I was your Daddy?”

Harper walked into the room and climbed up into my lap. Ryan was patting Henry’s back as he bounced his son in his arms. I wrapped my arms around Harper as her head fell against my cheek, and I could tell she was thinking very hard about his question.

“Would I be able to call you Daddy?” Harper asked.

“You could call me whatever you wanted,” Ryan said.

“Would we go on lots of adventures together?” she asked.

“Just like we already do.”

“Would I be your little girl?” she asked.

Ryan knelt down in front of her as I gathered Henry off his shoulder.

“You will always be my little girl,” Ryan said. “This would only be a formality. As far as I’m concerned, you're my princess already. Always.”

I felt my lip beginning to quiver as Harper threw her arms around Ryan’s neck. He gathered Harper up in his arms as she laid her head on his shoulder. I could see tears glistening in his own eyes as I put Henry up to my other breast, my hand rhythmically patting his behind so he could settle down in my arms.

“So? What do you say?” Ryan asked. “Will you do me the honor of letting me be your Daddy?”

“Yes,” Harper said, with a smile. “I would really like it if you were my Daddy.”

I stood up with Henry against my body as Ryan offered his arm to us. I walked over and pressed myself into his side as tears ran down my cheeks. He wrapped us up close as I fed Henry from my chest, his eyes falling closed the more he filled up his stomach. I reached my lips up and placed a kiss to Ryan’s cheek. A long, warm kiss that made Harper giggle.

Then Harper placed a kiss to Ryan’s other cheek.

“I love you, Daddy,” Harper said.

Ryan’s eyes misted over as he looked down at me.

“We both love you,” I said.

“I am the luckiest man alive,” he said.

“Then take your lucky behind and go lay your daughter down.”

“With pleasure,” he said. “Come on, princess. Time for you to go to sleep.”

 

The End

 

It’s not over! I love my readers so much that I’ve included a brand new, never before published steamy romance: Family Night.

 

Check it out on the next page…

 

 

Shane was my high school love...

But we each had big dreams that pulled us apart...

Since then, we've each suffered great hardships...

We now have kids who count on us to do the right thing.

Can we finally have our happily ever after together?

Or are we better off leaving the past where it belongs?