by Amy Brent
I loved Gage Devlin. I didn’t want to live my life without him by my side.
“Yes,” I whispered, holding out a trembling hand for him. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Gage slipped the ring onto my finger with a happy grin. He stood up to gather me into his arms. Our lips met in a passionate kiss. An awkward and confused chorus of claps came, followed by a few cheers, but I paid little attention to it. We were together. That was all that counted in my eyes.
Christmas music started up suddenly. The crowd around us started to move again when I pulled back to smile happily down at the beautiful ring on my finger. It fit perfectly.
“I can’t believe you,” I said breathlessly. “You planned this whole entire thing tonight, didn’t you?”
“Not in this particular order,” Gage replied, shrugging with a grin. “I had planned it a bit differently, but I did have intentions of asking you to marry me tonight.”
“You’re sneaky.”
“Sneakier than I ever thought he was,” Beau said.
The sound of my father’s voice, tinged with confusion and anger, fell over the both of us. I turned to look at him, but I didn’t get a chance to say a word. He gestured stiffly for Gage and me to follow him out into the quiet and cold lobby, away from prying ears.
I grabbed Gage’s hand anxiously while a part of me squirmed happily knowing that I was free to do so now. We followed my father’s rigid shoulders through the crowd of people until the doors were closed behind us on the conference room. He turned to look Gage directly in the eye.
“This is my daughter,” he said, voice a deadly calm. “I asked you to look after her. To care for her as your own child. This is how you repay me?”
“Dad,” I started.
“It’s okay, Amber,” Gage said, not breaking eye contact with my father. “I understand where he is coming from. Just know, Beau, that I never meant to disrespect you. Amber and I never planned for this to happen. It happened without either one of us pushing it to happen. I love your daughter. I would never do anything to hurt her. You know who I am.”
My father couldn’t argue with that. I could see it on his face as he looked over at me. “And you, Amber? Do you love him?”
“More than anything in this world,” I said passionately. “He’s never mistreated me. He’s everything I’ve ever wanted. This relationship and marriage is going to happen, no matter what. I just hope that you can give us both your blessing.”
Gage squeezed my hand with a small smile. I tried to read the expression on my father’s face, but it was pointedly guarded. He chewed on his lower lip for a moment before letting out a sigh.
“I can’t say that I didn’t have my suspicions that something was going on,” he said slowly. “I was just praying that it wasn’t what I thought it was. I guess it wasn’t, in a way.” He looked back at me with a frown. “I can’t say that I am happy that the both of you lied to me, but you are my daughter. I will support you in whatever you want to do.”
“This is what I want.” I gazed up at Gage with a smile. “I’ve wanted Gage for a while. I’ll be happy with him. He has protected and cared for me every single day that I’ve been with him.”
“You’ll need that once news of this is leaked. Expect the press to be all over you two, so I suggest leaving here while you still can.”
I hesitated as Gage signaled for our coats. “What about you? I can’t just leave here, knowing that you’re going to get hounded with questions.”
“I’ll be fine,” my father said, nodding at me. “I’ve handled things in the past just fine. Just make sure that my daughter is safe, Gage.”
“You know that I will,” Gage replied, helping me into my coat. “Come on, Amber. Your father is right. If we don’t leave now, the press will be all over us.”
My father nodded encouragingly as he pulled out his phone. “Go on. Listen to what your fiancé is saying. I’ll be in touch with you two tomorrow.”
I embraced my father tightly, pouring all my relief and appreciation into the touch. He hugged me back just as tightly.
The cold night air rushed to greet us the second that Gage opened the City Hall doors. I didn’t feel cold, though, as we both hurried down the stone steps in the direction of our parking spot. I was giddy with excitement as Gage helped me up into the truck, with a grin that spread from ear to ear.
“Are you ready, Mrs. Soon-to-be Devlin?” Gage asked, turning the truck on to blast us both with warm air. “I have a hotel room booked for us on the other side of Bozeman.”
I leaned across the center console to kiss him on the lips. “I’m ready, Mr. Devlin. I can’t believe this is happening now.”
“Soon or later, it had to happen. Everyone will eventually move on to accept our future together.”
“I hope so,” I replied, sitting back down in the seat to buckle myself in. “Let’s get out of here before the media shows up. I’m sure people are in there contacting various papers.”
“We will be long gone before they are even here, baby.”
Chapter 29
Gage
The hotel suite was decorated the way I had requested the night before. Rose petals were scattered all over the hotel suite when I pushed the door open to let Amber step inside. She took in the rose petals with a stunned smile as she passed by me with her boots in hand.
I made sure to lock the door after placing the “do not disturb” sign on the door knob. Reaching up to loosen the tie at my neck, I tossed the garment off to the side while I shrugged out of my jacket.
Wife.
The title felt right in my heart as I followed Amber through the hotel suite as she explored with a giddy smile. We were both floating, free of having to protect our relationship from the spotlight. It was out there now. It was one hundred percent out there for the world to take it as they would. Neither one of us cared any longer.
I waited until Amber stopped next to the king-sized bed to run her fingers through the rose petals with a smile. She looked up at me, eyes blazing with love and desire. I took two steps forward to wrap my arms around her growing waist firmly. Her belly bumped against me while our bodies pushed to be close as possible. Our mouths collided together in a passionate kiss that sent every ounce of my blood pouring into my groin.
I swept a hand through Amber’s hair to work it free of its messy bun before clutching the back of her head to deepen the kiss. Her mouth opened without a protest to tangle her tongue against mine in a battle of dominance. She tasted of fresh winter air, along with her vanilla chapstick lingering on the inside of her lips.
Her fingers tugged my shirt free from my belt and pants while I worked on the zipper of her dress. Buttons from my shirt popped in the air when Amber tugged at the fabric of my shirt in a groan of aggravation. I paid the favor back by tugging until I heard the fabric of her dress around the zipper tear in response to my own insistent fingers. I wanted her naked, squirming beneath me. I wanted her for the first time without any guilt and worry that someone would walk by hearing our lovemaking. Or worrying that someone was pushing a camera lens in our direction. There was something liberating about it. I felt free to enjoy the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.
It didn’t take long for either one of us to shed our clothes into the abyss alongside the bed. My heart was threatening to burst from joy as I gazed down at her breasts, heavy from pregnancy, and the big belly that our daughter was growing in safely with each passing day. Her legs were fuzzy, unable to shave because of her stomach, and I chuckled in amusement when I ran my hands down her legs when she tried to jerk them back in embarrassment.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I don’t expect you to be perfectly smooth every single time. It doesn’t help that you can’t see your legs, or reach them, either.”
“It’s still embarrassing,” Amber said.
I took a couple of pillows from the bed to prop up behind Amber’s shoulders. She settled against them with a comfortable sigh. I took hold
of her swollen ankles to rub them tenderly before trailing kisses up the inside of her leg to the core of her. A moan escaped Amber’s lips as her hips rolled to match the movements of my fingers and tongue. I kept going until I felt spasms rock Amber’s body a few minutes later. I went to slide between her legs, but Amber pushed me back to stretch out on the mattress beneath of her.
I groaned at the slick sensation of hot and tight heat when she lowered herself down on me with a trembling gasp. She rocked against me in an excruciatingly slow fashion that had the both of us writhing against one another. The pressure in my lower back began to build as I gripped Amber’s hips to increase the rhythm. Her head tilted back to reveal her swollen breasts as they bounced. Our fevered moans filled the room. I reached up to grip her breasts firmly, mindful of their soreness. That tipped Amber back over again in a second orgasm that milked me into my own.
She collapsed down to the mattress with her pregnant belly pressed up against the side of me. The completion of our passion never felt more right as it did right then. We no longer had to hide it from anyone.
“I can’t believe everything that happened today.” Amber panted against me, wrapping a leg around my thigh. She pressed her sated flesh up against mine. “I couldn’t believe you walked in there with a ring in your pocket.”
I shrugged with a breathless laugh. “Well, I was waiting for the right time. I didn’t think it was going to be tonight in all fairness.”
“And declaring your love in a room full of my dad’s constituents was the right time?”
“Probably not,” I said, reaching over to place the palm of my hand on her belly. The gentle shift of our daughter brought tears to my eyes. “I couldn’t stand it anymore, Amber. I didn’t want to risk losing you, so I just went with it.”
Amber reached down to place her hand over my own. “You weren’t going to lose me, Gage. I don’t know why you were thinking that.”
We both laid there quietly while our bodies cooled down, feeling the baby move about in Amber’s stomach. Eventually, Amber sat up with an exhausted sigh as she turned to look back at me with a frown.
“What do you think is going to happen now?” she asked quietly. “I mean, now that it’s all out. Do you think it’ll affect you and your business?”
I reached up to trace circles on Amber’s lower back. Her eyes fluttered shut in bliss at the gentle and soothing touch. The thought hadn’t occurred to me. I doubted that anyone would put my business and name together since I mainly stuck behind a computer screen.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “My company could weather it. I don’t deal with the general public, so I don’t think it would affect it too much. Maybe my contracts with your father at the moment.”
“There’s going to be press chasing after the both of us and our kids.”
“Maybe. We aren’t sure of that.”
“Not at first,” Amber said, and she opened her eyes. “They wouldn’t come directly for us at first. All the cameras will be focused on my dad to see how he is going to handle it. Then, they’ll come looking for us.”
“You sound like the media is on a witch hunt,” I remarked wryly. “Politicians survive drug and sex scandals all the time. This doesn’t even involve your father.”
That didn’t ease the concern in Amber’s eyes. She slid off the bed to find a fluffy white bathrobe in one of the closets to cinch around the top of her belly. I got up from the bed reluctantly to follow Amber out into the living room where she checked her phone for any messages.
“Nothing so far,” Amber said. “No messages from Raychelle, either. The kids must’ve gone down without any issues tonight.”
“Hey,” I said, gently gathering her back up in my arms. “Don’t worry so much about everything. The truth is out there. The world is going to keep turning, no matter what people say to you, about you, or me, and our families. Your father gave us his blessing.”
“I know that,” she murmured, resting her head against my chest with a sigh. “I’m just worried about him, you know?”
“Your father is charismatic. He can get through any type of scandal that you throw at him. It’s a bit scary actually, when I think about it.”
Amber let out a snort of laughter. “It really is scary when you think about it. We always tell him that he got involved on the wrong side of the government, but he wanted to run for Congress. He’s probably impressed that we both hid this from him.”
“You are your father’s daughter, so it shouldn’t surprise him,” I said. “Try not to worry about it tonight, okay? We will deal with whatever is coming to us tomorrow.”
“Sounds fair.” She tilted her head back to look up at me with a smile. “We need to set a date, too. What’s your ideal wedding day?”
“Late Fall,” I replied, pecking her on the lips with a light kiss. “Something small. I don’t want hundreds of people there to make it awkward.”
“A late Fall and small wedding. Sounds good to me.”
Epilogue
Amber
A heavy snowfall came down early Christmas morning when Gage and I rose early to place presents from Santa under the tree for the kids to open up. While a fresh pot of coffee brewed, Gage and I snuck up to our bedroom for one more romp between the sheets. A Christmas present that had the both of us muffling our moans of pleasure. It was enough to have me thrashing against Gage in pleasure.
We dressed in the pale morning light and headed downstairs to enjoy a cup of coffee before the chaos started of kids ripping into presents. I watched from the top of my coffee cup as Gage double-checked the presents with an excited smile. I believed he was more excited about this Christmas than the kids were, judging from the presents he had spent the past two weeks picking out for Ethan, Lily, and Mollie.
My hand rested on the swell of my stomach with a smile. Any day now. I only had a week of pregnancy left before our little Mollie would join our family. We had already rehearsed several different scenarios over the past week. Lily and Ethan would go to Raychelle’s house, no matter what time of day or night it was. I’d let my parents know, too, so they could venture down to the hospital when they could from D.C.
And we set a secret password for family members.
True to Scott’s threat, he had released the photos to the press shortly after Gage’s proposal. A media firestorm followed shortly afterward, with cameras following my father’s every move. He handled it all with grace, though. There was nothing it seemed, that could rattle my father’s reputation despite the scandal the press twisted it out to be. I had also filed for divorce again, requesting the same settlement. My lawyer assured me that a settlement would be reached quickly before my marriage to Gage.
Scott’s threats were now empty. He had nothing left to hold over my head. I never felt freer than I did going to the mall, hand in hand with Gage to get Christmas presents for the kids.
A sharp pain shot through my lower back suddenly. I grimaced at the feeling as I set my coffee cup down on the kitchen counter. It lasted for thirty seconds before lifting up.
“Is everything okay?”
I looked up at Gage with a frown tugging at my lips. “I think so. I just didn’t feel well, all of a sudden.”
“You feel ill?” Gage appeared instantly at my side, rubbing his hands along my shoulders. “Is it passing now?”
“It is now.”
“Good,” he said, and took my hand in his. “I have something to show you up in the nursery that I brought in when you were sleeping last night.”
I rubbed at the soreness of my lower back while I followed Gage up the stairs to the nursey room. We had painted the walls a dusty pink color while Lily and Ethan both placed wall stickers throughout the room. He opened the bedroom door to click the light on.
My eyes watered instantly at the sight of a brand-new crib sitting in the corner where I had wanted to place it. A bright pink bow was stuck to the front crib bumper.
“Where did you get this crib?” I asked, voice tre
mbling with emotion. “Is this why you canceled the one I ordered earlier?”
“I made it,” Gage said proudly. He ran a hand over the smooth wood with a smile. “That’s exactly why I canceled the order. I wanted to surprise you with this.”
“It’s wonderful, Gage. I love it.”
That same sharp pain shot through my back again. I doubled over with a gasp, holding my stomach in pain. One. Two. Three. I counted the seconds that went by with clenched teeth, while Gage rubbed at my lower back in concern.
“It’s time,” I gritted out. “I can feel it, Gage. Contractions.”
Gage’s eyes widened as he helped me walk down to our bedroom. He set me down on the edge of the bed before grabbing the bag we had packed a few days ago.
“Stay here,” he said hurriedly. “I’m going to call Raychelle to come watch the kids.”
I nodded distantly as another stab of pain went through my back. Sucking in a deep breath, I tried to focus on making sure that the bag was packed properly. I had never felt more relieved to see Raychelle when she entered the house, still dressed in her sweats and bathrobe.
“I’ll watch the kids,” she said, pressing a kiss to my cheek. “I’ll bring them by the hospital later to see the baby.”
The next few hours passed by in a surreal blur of pain and pushing from the encouragements of the nurses and Gage. It wasn’t until the sharp and shrill sound of a baby crying that I sank back against the hospital pillows in relief.
Gage pressed a kiss against my sweaty forehead. Tears were visible in his eyes as he looked down at me with fierce pride.
“I’m so proud of you,” he whispered, pushing my hair back from my forehead. “You did wonderful.”
“Beautiful baby girl,” a nurse told us. “Seven pounds even. She’s got the prettiest green eyes I have ever seen.”
The nurse approached us with a smile. I sat up in the hospital bed to hold out my arms for my daughter. For our daughter. The beautiful weight of Mollie settled perfectly into the crook of my elbow. I adjusted the pink blanket around her tiny and squirming body with a smile before looking up at Gage who was wiping his eyes free of tears.