Epilogue
Morgan
2 Years Later
“Argh, why is this bed always so full?” I groaned playfully as yet another leg kicked into my side. “It almost feels like there are three people in here.” Cue a whole round of giggles. “Hey, who was that?”
I snapped my eyes open to see my daughter’s sweet round face looking right back at me. Her circular cheeks were filled with the beautiful bright grin that I mostly now associated with her. It was my smile really, she’d definitely inherited it from me, but I spent much more time looking at her than at myself.
“What are you up to, Arianna?” I asked, while taking her chin in my hand. “Are you being cheeky again?”
“Dada let me in,” she insisted, always convinced that she was right, even when maybe she wasn’t. That came from her father, along with those sparkling green eyes I could never resist.
“Oh, did he now?”
Terrance turned his body over as he noticed us talking about him, or maybe he felt my stare prickling on the nape of his neck. “What am I being accused of now?” he grumbled sleepily, rubbing the tiredness from his eyes.
“Nothing, it doesn’t matter. Just get up and make me breakfast, or are you both forgetting that it’s Mother’s Day?”
As Terrance’s eyes widened in mock surprise, which didn’t fool me one bit since I’d been reminding him for weeks, Arianna burst into giggles all over again. She tried to stuff her fist into her mouth to hide it, but there was no escaping the laughter.
“Uh oh, we better get in the kitchen, Arianna,” he whispered to her, as if I couldn’t hear. “See what we can pull together last minute.”
As they scurried from the room, I glanced at the collage of photographs we had sitting on the wall, documenting the past two years perfectly. There was me with a massive bump, with my arm around Nickie; me and Terrance in the hospital room the day Arianna was born; my mom doting on the little pink, newborn baby; Auntie Nickie caressing her gently; all of us at Braxton and Emily’s wedding.
It really was a blessed life. I was the luckiest person alive. My heart was filled with all the love in the world, and I really didn’t feel like I needed anything else.
When I tried to remember the difficult times, the times when I didn’t think that Terrance would step up, or that horrible period that Braxton spent in hospital, or when Mom and I didn’t exactly see eye to eye, it all felt like it had gone on in another lifetime, or to someone else entirely. It was strange to recall that things hadn’t always been this smooth sailing.
“Here we are!” Terrance presented a plate of food as if it was golden, which considering what his cooking used to be like, it practically was. “A continental breakfast, just for you.”
“And flowers!” Arianna yelled in glee. “For you, Mommy.”
“And of course that isn’t all, we didn’t forget at all, did we, Ari?” Arianna shook her head, barely paying any attention because she was so busy picking things off of my plate to eat. “So we have a whole day of awesome stuff planned for you. Breakfast, then out to a movie – sorry about that one, Ari picked out that new animated movie that she’s utterly certain you want to see.”
“Sounds good to me.” I ruffled Arianna’s hair, glad to have the day with us all as a family. Although I only worked part time now, to fit around Terrance’s hours at his own company, these precious family moments were to be treasured. “Whatever this little angel wants.”
“Then a walk in the park because we all know how you love the park, and afterwards Auntie Nickie is taking Ari for a sleepover, and I’m going to cook you dinner.”
“Ooh, two meals in one day, I am spoiled!” I laughed as I shoved a piece of crispy bacon into my mouth. “But seriously, all of that sounds incredible. Thank you so much for planning it you two, especially you, Ari. I know you must have done all the hard jobs.”
She nodded, accepting the praise willingly, prompting me to kiss her on the head once more.
“I’m just going to clean the kitchen,” Terrance smirked as Arianna and I ate. “Having help is wonderful, but sometimes a little messy. Once you’re ready – and take as long as you want the movie doesn’t start for a while yet – we’ll get going.”
He left us behind to snuggle and watch some morning television, both picking at the breakfast alternately. To think that this was the baby I was so scared to have, to think that I would fear not knowing what to do, or making a mess of things... Motherhood had come naturally to me.
Maybe that made me one of the lucky ones, or maybe everyone got the same instincts once that beautiful bundle of joy in their arms. Either way, having Ari had changed my life for the better in every single way. Without her, I had no idea where I would be now, and I truly didn’t want to find out.
***
“What’s this?” I gasped loudly at the floaty red material, draped across our bed. “It looks like...” I picked it up to examine the item closer. “Yep, it’s a dress. What is this for? I thought that we were staying in for dinner?”
“We are,” Terrance called from the kitchen, the room I’d been instructed to stay out of for at least the next hour. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t look nice.”
I didn’t bother to argue. I’d been thoroughly spoiled all day long, so there was no point in resisting now. Instead, I grabbed the dress and held it up against me. I was a little rounder now after having Ari, my body slightly more curvaceous, but Terrance seemed to like that, so I did, too. I knew my body wouldn’t snap back to exactly how it was before, so what was the point in worrying about it? My body had given life, it no longer mattered how it looked.
Still, I got the sense that this dress would actually look very flattering on me.
In sheer excitement, I tore my jeans and tee shirt off and tried it on. As I pulled it over my head, the expensive material glided softly over me, reminding me for a second that not everything I wore had to be practical and easy.
As it fell to the floor, and I got a good look at myself, I was taken aback by how good I looked. I didn’t get a lot of time to fuss over my hair and make up usually, my priorities were on my little girl, but now I had a whole hour to kill and a strong desire to make myself look presentable.
I grabbed all the beauty products I could get my hands on and I got to work making myself look like the princess I felt like I looked. Terrance was right – it did feel good to get dressed up for once. Maybe I would even pull some of my best underwear on, too...
I’d had the loveliest day of my life, and I was excited to see what tonight would bring. Terrance seemed to have some big plans; he wanted to make this Mother’s Day as special as possible, and it would be silly of me to ignore that.
***
“Wow, you look... I’m speechless,” Terrance gasped as I finally joined him in the kitchen. “I knew that dress was going to look amazing on you, but wow. I had no idea how much. It looks fantastic.”
He pulled me close to him, and I fell against his suit clad body with absolutely no resistance. “You know, you don’t look too bad yourself. I like you in a suit.”
“Me, too.” He pressed his lips gently against mine. “Even more so now that I feel like I deserve it.”
“What on Earth do you mean?” I whispered against his lips.
“Well, now I work for my suits. I have my own business. I’ve earned them.”
We kissed for a little while longer, just enjoying one another. Having Ari was wonderful, but it did mean we didn’t get enough time to just be us. Luckily, Nickie adored our daughter, and she was always happy to babysit.
“You know, since we’ve had Ari, I think we’ve gotten a little wrapped up in her, haven’t we?” Terrance asked, clearly thinking along the same lines as me. “It’s been busy; these last two years have simply flown by.”
“I can’t even recall year one,” I laughed happily. “It was all crying and milk and diapers on an endless circle. Totally worth it, though.”
“Oh, of course. That isn’t what I meant at all.” Terrance stepped back and flicked his eyes up and down my body appreciatively. “What I meant was I haven’t had enough time to pay attention to you and your needs.”
“My needs are met just fine.” I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively at him. “But right now my needs are more geared towards food. I’m starving.”
“Will you just wait a minute? I have something I want to say to you?” I watched in awe as Terrance fell to one knee, his eyes sparkling at me with love and desire. “I love you, Morgan, you know I do. I’ve loved you for a very long time now. You crashed into my life and very unexpectedly turned it all around.”
Tears welled at my eyes. I felt the need to interrupt, to say something, but I managed to clamp my lips together to keep it all inside. If I knew Terrance, which I did very well, then he’d been planning the moment for ages. The last thing he needed was for me to jump in and wreck it for him.
“You were my angel in the beginning, and then you quickly became someone that I couldn’t go a day without thinking about. I never wanted to get to know anyone and I never wanted anyone to know me, except for you. You changed everything. And not only that, you’ve given me my daughter, the girl who makes everything seem that little bit brighter. You’ve given me the family that I never had before, and now I want to finally make that official and complete.”
He pulled a box out of his pocket and clicked it open to reveal the most beautiful red ruby ring that I’d ever seen in my life. The gem sat on a gold, thin, elegant band, the sort I just knew would look incredible on my finger. Everything became more real in that moment, I knew then that we really were going to become the family that I’d always desired.
“So, will you do me the honor of making me the happiest man alive? Will you agree to marry me and become my wife?”
“Of... of course I will,” I stammered as emotion filled my throat. “I would love nothing more.”
Terrance slid the ring onto my finger, solidifying our love further, and he jumped up to wrap his arms tightly around me. He embraced me hard and kissed me gently, protecting me and loving me with everything that he had. Never before had I felt so loved by him, and it was honestly the best sensation in the whole wide world.
I belonged to Terrance, and him to me. It was all that I’d ever wanted.
“Oh, and I definitely think it’s time for baby number two...” He cocked his head to one side, trying to gauge my opinion on that one. It was what I wanted, too, but I had to have the wedding first. I didn’t want to be swollen in my dress.
“One step at a time,” I giggled, pushing him playfully. “One step at a time.”
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LAW OF SEDUCTION
THE COMPLETE SERIES
By Alexa Davis
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 Alexa Davis
PART ONE
Chapter One
ALICIA
Never in my twenty-seven years on this earth have I met anyone so infuriating. I was standing in the alcove of the ballroom at the annual Thanksgiving ball the partners of my firm put on and wondering what the hell was wrong with me. I’d let Adam drag me here when I should have known better. I had no idea why we had to hide our relationship. We didn’t start seeing each other until his wife had already moved out. I don’t understand why she still has so much control over his life. He and I had begun to fight about it almost constantly.
“What is wrong with you?” Adam asked me, mirroring my very thought, “You were rubbing yourself all over Nico on the dance floor. You made a spectacle out of yourself. Is this what you meant last night when you said you refused to play the other woman?”
His green eyes were cold and unforgiving. It’s hard sometimes to believe they are the very same eyes that I had melted into the first time I looked into them. I found it funny how Adam had the ability to morph in the blink of an eye from a sweet, handsome, charming man that I could barely resist into this arrogant, condescending person standing in front of me now. What I really couldn’t understand was why I was unable to just walk away. Instead, I reduced myself to playing stupid games like dancing with Nico and even letting him kiss me when I knew for sure Adam was looking. Of course, there was no “rubbing.” I was raised by a Lord and a Lady in the U.K. and taught how to be a lady from the age of two on up. “Rubbing,” as Adam had implied, was not even in my public repertoire.
“I’m not doing anything wrong,” I told Adam, trying to feel as strong and determined as I hoped I sounded. “I’m a single young woman. I have every right to dance with a single young man.”
Adam’s dark green eyes smoldered, “Single? That’s funny. I had assumed that since you’ve spent the better part of the last six months in my bed, we were in somewhat of a relationship.”
I sighed. This conversation was already giving me a headache. Forcing myself to keep my chin up and look him in the eye, I said, “Maybe you should tell Marjorie that,” I knew full well that if he wasn’t already angry, he would be now. I didn’t care. I was sick of being the peacemaker.
“I have told you over and over that sharing our…intimate life with Marjorie will only cause her to fight that much harder to destroy me. She’ll want to take you down in the process of ruining me. I told you last night, I am doing my best to finalize this divorce so that she can be out of our lives once and for all. You know that I want nothing to do with her. The sight of her makes me sick. I don’t know what you want from me, Alicia.”
I could feel the tears forming in my eyes. I blinked them back. I refused to cry in front of him. My cheeks burned hot as I said, “If you don’t know what I want, then maybe we’ve been wasting our time all of these months.” I stared at him for a moment, and when he said nothing I went on.
I was angry now. I shouldn’t have to explain myself, but then again, I shouldn’t have put myself in this situation in the first place. “What I want, Adam, is you. I want your time and your attention. I want the Adam that you were when we first met, not the Adam who is constantly exhausted and angry from fighting all day with his soon to be ex-wife. I want a man whose arm I can be on in public. One that I can be dancing with at our own ball, instead of pretending like we’re only business associates in order to keep up appearances until your divorce is final. Imagine how it feels for me to have to watch you dancing with other women all night.”
Adam’s eyes softened and he said, “Maybe the same as it felt to watch you with Nico.” I felt a stab of guilt, but I wasn’t quite ready to give in. He reached for my hand. I let him take it and he said, “Alicia, I want all of those things, too. I am trying so hard to get Marjorie to agree to this latest settlement offer that we’ve drawn up. It’s that damn lawyer of hers. He keeps telling her to fight for more, that bastard, David Rogers. He won’t be happy until he’s goaded her into breaking me completely. He seems to have more than a professional stake in this. Maybe she's sleeping with him.”
I felt my anger ebbing away already. I’m a sap where Adam is concerned. “I know you’re trying. It’s just so damned hard feeling like we’re sneaking around all the time when we’re not even doing anything wrong. You’ve been separated for almost a year. You should be free to see whoever you want. My parents are visiting from England next month. I wanted so much for you to meet them as my boyfriend, instead of the head partner of the firm I work for.”
He pulled me in close to his chest. I felt him nuzzle his face into my hair and breathe it in. “I’ll work harder on it, I promise. Just stop going around kissing my associates, okay? I’d hate to have to beat him up after I fire him.”
Adam’s voice hadn’t changed from its somber tone, and when I stepped back to look up at him, I was a little worried that he was serious. I honestly hadn’t meant to goad him into fighting with Nico, or firing him. I’d feel so awful if I were to blame for Nico losing his job. When I saw Adam’s face, though, I knew I needn’t have worried. He had a handsome smile forming at the edges of his mouth. I knew then that he’d only been joking. I punched him in the arm lightly and with a smile of my own I said,
“You infuriate me sometimes, do you know that?”
“Yes, I know,” he said, still smiling. He caught me off-guard then as his sexy lips came crashing down on mine. My head was chaotically telling me to walk away and make him wait until he’d finished with his divorce, but as usual, my body told me differently. I rose up on my tiptoes and leaned my body into his. Against my better judgement I returned his kiss with the fervor welling up inside of me. Just about the time I was ready to consent to getting naked in the alcove and making love right there on the floor he pulled back and said,
“We better get back before someone notices us missing,”
“Maddening, maddening, maddening,” I whispered, mostly to myself as he straightened his tie and I smoothed down my rumpled gown.
“What was that?” Adam asked, pretending not to hear me.
“I said yes of course.” My voice had a sarcastic edge to it that I’m certain he didn’t miss.
“Fantastic,” Adam said, as if settling a business deal in his favor, “We’ll talk more about this later, but thank you for being so understanding.”
I rolled my eyes and as I left the room first, I turned back to him and said, “You can bet we’ll discuss this later.”
********
I ended up going home alone that evening. Before the night was over, Adam received a call from the CEO of the large petroleum company our firm had begun representing recently. There was a large oil spill in the gulf, and Hanson and Partners were the attorneys for the defendants, a large and very rich company that was being sued for hundreds of millions by the EPA and others who had smelled money and jumped in on the bandwagon. Adam normally sent an associate or a junior partner when something came up late in the evening, but this new liaison with the Petroleum Company was sure to prove to be a lucrative one. Adam felt that while we were still in the courting stages at least, he should give them VIP service.
I had been disappointed at first, but once home and in my comfy yoga pants and cotton t-shirt, I decided that a night alone to think might be just what I needed to figure this all out. I made myself a cup of hot cocoa and called Kyla, my best friend. I knew she would be up because she’d been at the party I just left.
“Hi.” She always sounded like she had a smile in her voice. It was one of the many things I loved about her. “Missed me already?”
“Of course, I did,” I told her. I took a breath then and said, “I need some advice.”
“About Nico?” Kyla asked, playfully. She knew good and well that wasn’t the advice I was looking for.
With a groan, I said, “No! Did everyone see me make a fool of myself with Nico tonight?”
Kyla laughed. “Calm down, silly. I was only giving you a hard time. I saw Adam watching you and Nico dance, and I swear he had storm clouds in his eyes. Then you two disappeared for a while, and you both looked happier and a little flush when you came back. I suppose though that since I am the only one at the firm that knows the truth, I was paying much closer attention than anyone else.”
“Thank you, Kyla,” I trusted her with my and Adam’s secret because I knew she was too loyal to ever say anything to anyone. “I hope Nico didn’t get the wrong idea, though.”
“I think Nico indulged a bit much in the champagne fountain tonight. Odds are he won’t remember all that much in the morning.”
“Good. The last thing I need is another man at work angry with me.”
“Is Adam angry with you?”
“No, not anymore, anyways,” I told her. “I just don’t know what to do, though. I’m so tired of all this drama with Marjorie affecting his moods. I’m tired of pretending to everyone at work that I’m just another colleague of his. But every time I think of calling it quits, I look at him and I melt all over again. What’s wrong with me, Kyla?”
“Absolutely nothing at all,” my friend said, “You’re in love, that’s all. It can be the most wonderful, amazing, titillating, frustrating, maddening feeling you’ve ever had. It’s just confusing sometimes. I know it’s hard for you having to hide it.”
“Well, thank you for saying nothing is wrong with me, but you’ve told me what I already know. Don’t you have any special advice that will relieve this ache in my soul? It wants to reach out to him, but I feel like I have to keep it in a cage.”
“My advice to you is that if your soul is already involved, aching or not, you’re in too deep to get out now. Follow your heart, honey. You have a great head on your shoulders, but sometimes you get too analytical with that attorney brain of yours. Try not to overthink it, just do what your heart tells you to do. Hearts always know best in the end.”
“Thank you, Kyla. My heart loves you, too. Get some rest.”
“I will, you, too. I will see you bright and early Monday morning in court.”
“I can’t wait,” I said sarcastically with my lip curled. The case we had to be in court for on Monday had consumed every one of our waking hours for months now. I wasn’t looking forward to facing the sleazy D.A., but I was looking forward to the surprise we had for him. “The NYPD and our tacky little D.A. are going to be dumbfounded when we present the motion to suppress the confession.”
“Yep, I can’t wait to see Dawson’s face,” Kyla said.
“Me, too!” I heartily agreed. Dawson was Robert Dawson. He was the D.A. for the Manhattan borough of New York, and he was also a short, balding, and pudgy little man with beady eyes and hairy arms that thought his position of prosecutor gave him some kind of clout with the ladies. He has hit on both Kyla and me more than once. He’s a pig, and I couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when I offered up the evidence that his police detectives had coerced a confession out of my client after he had asked for a lawyer.
Our client in this case is the son of a very wealthy contractor who was already a client of the firm. The kid’s name is Nelson, and he is not very likeable at all, which makes my work even harder. It’s not really his fault. He was the product of uber rich parents who had little time to help him develop his social skills and instead gave him every material thing he could ever want. I knew, though, that the kid hadn’t done what they were accusing him of. It was all part of a political game and I had no use for people who would play games with a young man’s life, whether he’s likeable or not.
After hanging up with Kyla, I headed for bed. Just before snuggling down underneath the soft down comforter that my mother had helped me pick out just before my move to New York, my phone rang. It was Adam.
“Hi, baby. Did I wake you?” he asked.
“No, I was just lying down. I’m glad you called.”
“I wanted to say goodnight. I hope you’re not mad at me still.”
I didn’t want to get into it again right then, so I said, “No, I understand. How did the meeting go?”
Adam sighed. “This isn’t going to be pretty. A reporter from the Times has zoned in on the story and is acting as if she has taken up the Cross. She’s hounding the CEO of Brigham Mobile, no matter how many walls the company puts up to protect him. This reporter, Rose Dugan is her name; I hear she's like a dog with a bone when she gets ahold of a story. She's digging into his personal life and personal finances. She has also started beating a drum about his connection to the presidential campaign.”
“Can you get a judge to issue a gag order?” I asked.
“I wish,” he said, “Unfortunately, this was an international incident, and apparently the ‘people’ have a right to know. I’ve scheduled a meeting with Ms. Dugan in the morning. Hopefully, I can convince her to ease up…”
“Be careful. Hanson doesn’t need a reporter snapping at our heels with everything else that’s going on.”
“I will. I just wanted to say goodnight and I am thinking about you.”
“Goodnight, Adam, sweet dreams.”
“I will be dreaming about you,” he told me.