“Honey, from now on Sean will stay with us here. He’ll be with us every day.” Kayla began explaining.
I don’t know what the hell happened to me. I just sat there like a dummy, tongue-tied and unable to utter even a single word. I was speechless before my daughter.
“You’ll live here? With me?” Mia addressed me, her eyes glittering with joy. Oh, I could eat that girl.
“Y-yes, dear. I will. I… I’m your…” I mumbled.
“Dad!” Mia squealed, jumping in my embrace. Her small body was against my chest, as we breathed in sync. A father and his lovely daughter. I finally got what I’d always desired. A win for me! A huge, huge win!
Kayla sniffled from beside me, hugging the both of us.
“I’m your daddy, Mia. My sweet child! I love you more than anything, my dear!” I whispered in the girl’s ears, her soft hair tickling my face. I liked that. And I loved the three of us, cuddled like that on the bed.
“I love you, too, daddy! Daddy?” Mia slightly separated from me and I helped her sit on my knee. I was a real mess.
“Yes, dear?”
“Will you take me to the park and the movies like all other dads?” Mia asked me. She was full of questions. And that was completely understandable. After all, I had just appeared in her life and things must have seemed very strange to her little mind.
“I’ll take you everywhere, my princess. Anywhere you want!” I swallowed the tears again, planting a kiss on the top of Mia’s head. Kayla squeezed my upper arm in reassurance. Her presence meant to me more than she knew. My thoughtful girls. They were my all.
“We’re a family now, Mia. Look, your dad gave me your ring. And I accepted to marry him,” Kayla said and Mia clapped happily.
“Really, daddy? Yay!” she shouted and I hugged her.
“Really, really! We’re going to have the biggest wedding and dance all day and night, okay?” I was beyond excited. At this point everything ceased to exist. World? Other people? What was that? I cared about no one and nothing else.
“And wear the best dresses! I can’t wait!” Mia exclaimed and Kayla and I laughed. Oh, how little people needed in order to be happy.
I kissed the both of them and we remained sitting together and exchanging silly things with each other until night fell outside. We’d never separate again. I’d never let them go no matter what it cost me. It was the three of us against the world now.
Epilogue
Kayla
I was chopping the potatoes and putting them in the pan when I heard the front door open. I smiled. My husband was home.
Adding some spices as I had seen on the TV as well as other ingredients, the dinner was almost done.
“Honey, I’m home!” Sean’s voice came from the other room. I heard him taking off his shoes and hanging up his coat. As usual, he would go to kiss Mia hello and then he would come to me.
Today it was different.
As I started the stove, the door to the kitchen opened slowly. The hinges were a bit creaky, but my husband would fix that. He always did. I chuckled to myself at the thought.
His arms engulfed me. “How’s my wifey today, hmm?” His lips were close to my ears, making every hair on my body stand on end.
“Awesome. And how’s my hubby? Still playing football like a teenager,” I replied, laughing.
“It’s a part of the job, babe,” he replied, his lips still on my ear. I felt goosebumps all down my spine.
Then a bouquet of flowers appeared before my eyes.
“Oh!” I jumped in surprise and turned to look at him. His hair was dark and a bit wet from running. “What’s this for?”
“Shame on you, Mrs. Coleman. You forgot what today is!” he giggled.
I remembered and kissed him passionately on the lips. Just like I always did. “Babe, with work and everything I completely forgot. You proposed to me today! Of course I would never forget that moment,” I said and kissed him back. “Sorry for not buying you anything.”
“Even after a year, you apologize for everything. Don’t worry. I have everything. I have you and Mia.” He kissed me back with his hands bringing me towards him.
“Mia’s in the room. She might see us,” I replied, giggling.
That didn’t stop him from kissing me all over my face and my neck. “I love you like I did on the first day that I met you and more.”
“You can’t imagine how much I love you as well.” My hands wandered in his hair, ruffling it, playing with it as my lips didn’t disconnect from his.
“And what smells so good? Oh, you’re killing me,” Sean said through laughter.
“You’ll see. It’s a surprise. Go see Mia and then you can help me with setting up the table.”
“Done, Your Highness.” He kissed my hand and went out of the door.
“Babe?” I called after him.
His head returned and popped into the room again. His smile was from ear to ear.
“Thank you for this. For all of it.”
He winked at me and headed towards Mia’s room. I resumed cooking.
I still couldn’t believe it. One year had passed since he had proposed to me in that hospital corridor. Everything had seemed to go in the fast forward mode. Like when watching a movie. The engagement, the wedding preparations, the actual wedding, the honeymoon… Everything was carefully embedded into my memory. Never to disappear.
A tear trickled down my cheek. And yes. This past year I had gotten pretty emotional as a person. Anything could make me cry. Even a sad ending to a book or a movie which I knew was just fiction.
“Dinner’s ready,” I finally shouted.
Quickly after that, the three of us surrounded the dining table, each knowing where to sit.
“So how was your day at the law firm? Do they listen to their sexy boss?” Sean teased me. After I had quit working at the law firm, I had been desperately searching for a new place that would be a good fit for me. However, I couldn’t find one. But thanks to Sean’s encouragement I had started my own law firm and was now my own boss.
We ended up giving a call to that jerk James Clarke to let him know he wasn’t the father. I’m glad he’s out of our lives. We decided to let it go and not file any charges as we didn’t want to deal with him anymore.
“Everything’s going smoothly. We just finished the first phase of the domestic abuse project. So, yeah. I’m slowly establishing my name and making it a brand,” I replied.
“Perfect, babe. Glad to hear that,” Sean said through chewing. “What about my princess Mia?”
“Same as usual, daddy. Science gives me a little more trouble, but I’ll manage somehow.” I fondled Mia’s cheek. She was so modest and kind-hearted.
“Well, a football player can’t help you much, right?”
The three of us burst into a warm laughter, our voices mixing with each other.
“As a matter of fact, you didn’t say how your day went. It’s a new team. How are you coping with the transfer,” I told him, putting a small piece of beef into my mouth. After we had married, Sean decided to move to my city so that we would live together here. That was why he had to switch teams.
“We’re preparing for the championship. A little tough, I guess. But you must come. I won’t win without the two of you,” he said and grabbed our hands.
“Of course,” Mia and I spoke at the same time which made us giggle.
The rest of the dinner we chitchatted, talking about our everyday situations and problems, having a laugh and offering solutions. I was grateful for having this. For having a sanctuary that I could go to at the end of the day. For having two wonderful people to always hear me out and always be there for me. It was more than I could ever wish for. We were the happiest family in the whole wide world.
Then all three of us cleaned the table and washed the dishes. It became our custom to watch some TV after we had dinner. And this night like every other, we planned to stay true to it.
“What are we watching?” I asked.
“Well
, we have some romance, some action slash adventure slash thriller and some science fiction. Choose, girls,” Sean replied, looking at each of the DVDs in his hands.
In the end we went for the action type. We loved action movies, so it wasn’t actually hard to choose.
The three of us were cuddled on the couch, Mia in the middle holding the bowl of popcorn. Our eyes were glued to the screen. It was getting intense. Some serious shit. The guy was going to rescue his wife and kids. Come on, buddy! Always with you.
Then it stopped.
“What?” Sean and I screamed at the same time. Mia had pressed the pause button.
“I have to tell you something, mom and dad,” she said in a serious tone.
“Yeah, baby,” I said, putting a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
“I want a brother. Like seriously. All my friends at school have a brother or a sister. And even in this movie, this guy is rescuing his daughter AND son.”
Even halfway through I understood where this was heading. I looked at Sean who grinned.
“I’m sorry, babe. But you see, mommy is a bit busy with her firm and everything. These things need patience and focus. So you might have to wait for a while,” he said, kissing the top of her head and staring at my eyes. His were smiling. I knew that he wanted more kids. He had told me that he would wait for me. When I was ready. And I thanked him for that. Sean belonged to the rare group of men who would wait for their women to decide. After all, he was well aware that I was the one that would carry that kid for nine whole months and then deliver it. Duh!
Suddenly I wished to intervene. “Well, who knows? It might happen sooner than you would expect,” I said with a smile on my face.
“You’re kidding, right?” Sean spoke, his face just like the one of the happy emoji.
“Hmm… Do I look like it?” I said and ran my hand across my belly.
“OMG! That’s amazing.” Sean stood up and came to kiss me.
“Mommy, is it true? Will I have a brother?” Mia exclaimed jumping and laughing. She hugged me tight, not letting me go.
“Well, I can’t promise you a brother. It may be a sister,” I told her. She just grinned.
And then we laughed with all of our hearts. I gazed into Sean’s eyes that told me everything. They were all teary. He kissed me on the lips again, our tears colliding. Tears of joy.
I couldn’t remember when I had ever been this happy. I had everything right here next to me. The joy ruled in the room triggered by the news of a fourth member in the family.
In that moment I thanked God for everything that I had been through, for it made me who I was today. A proud mother and a wife and a lover.
“I love you,” Sean whispered and locked his lips with mine.
“I love you and always will,” I replied.
If you liked this, keep reading the rest of the Pass To Win series!
Book 1-Touchdown: A Bad Boy Sports Romance
Book 2-Line of Scrimmage: A Secret Baby Sports Romance
Book 3-Between The Tackles: A Bad Boy Sports Romance
Book 4-Fourth and Goal: A Bad Boy Sports Romance
Book 5-Game Winning Catch: A Secret Baby Sports Romance
Dirty Indiscretions: A Dark Mafia Romance
Copyright © 2017 by Roxy Sinclaire
All rights reserved.
Cover design © 2017 by Resplendent Media
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the authors’ imagination.
Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and all characters represented as 18 or over.
Chapter 1
Luke
I walked around the spacious room, keeping an eye on the guests. I could think of a dozen things off the top of my head, that I would rather be doing, but it was part my job description, apparently.
I wasn’t a guy that liked to wear suits, but I'd had to get used to it with the crowd I ran with. Still, dealing with the upper crust wasn’t a part of my job that I liked. I was supposed to be there to enjoy the events, not working; but I couldn’t help but act as a lookout. The party was boring, anyway.
And then she caught my eye, and I had second thoughts.
Tall, slim, in a close-fitting black dress with a slit up the side that stopped high on her thigh, showing a mile of pale, toned leg. The dress had a 'V' neckline, down the front and back, that showed, even more, skin, so pale that the contrast against the dark dress was striking. The hem nearly swept the floor, even with her high heels. Her dark brown hair was held back by pins on one side so that it hung down her back and onto her opposite shoulder. I wasn’t close enough to see her eyes, but I thought with her coloring, they would be a dark color like her hair, maybe brown.
She wasn’t the best dressed, nor was she the skimpiest dressed woman in the room, I could see that with just a cursory look around. Yet, when I took my eyes off her to do just that, I found my attention skittering back to her.
I didn’t think I knew her. That wouldn’t be surprising; I didn’t know a lot of the people at this party, considering I was technically just the help. But I'd been to enough of these parties that I knew the crowd my boss ran with.
Intrigued, I followed her around the room. She interested me more than most, because unlike everybody else, she didn’t find a group and stand around chatting with them. Instead, she moved around the room, never sticking to one group long, always with a glass of champagne in her hand that she never drank from, though she brought it to her lips a couple of times, only to be 'distracted' and forget about it again. I noticed, that in all the stops she made, she didn’t speak to anyone.
I narrowed my eyes.
I looked around. Everyone was busy, making polite conversation and whatever else those rich types did when they got together at a party. I caught sight of my boss on the other side of the room and decided that for once, he wasn’t doing anything shady. No one was paying attention to things they shouldn’t, yet this woman didn’t look like she was paying attention to anything specifically.
Trying not to act suspicious, I moved into her orbit. She wasn’t following a pattern, but I'd gotten good at maneuvering this sort of shindig.
I was lucky enough to have her coming closer to me. No one was close enough to pay any notice to either one of us. I couldn’t resist the urge to move and intercept her circuit.
She looked up, almost surprised, to see me. I'd seen her moving with single-minded focus, despite how randomly she seemed to move, so I wasn’t sure I bought that she was surprised to run into me.
"Please, forgive me for interrupting you, ma'am, but I couldn’t help but notice you and get a little curious." I gave her a genuine-looking smile, playing the part of a young gentleman.
It was almost laughable.
The surprised look was instantaneously replaced by something gracious, a small smile curving her lips. "Think nothing of it. Who, if I may ask, do I have the pleasure of conversing with?"
She held her hand out to me, the curl of her lips turning up into something like mirth. Feeling amusement curve my own mouth in response, I took her hand and brought it to my lips, kissing the back of it. Her dark eyes watched me, intent on mine.
"Luke Bable. But please, call me Luke."
Bable, technically, wasn’t my real name, but it was the name I’d taken when I’d left my old life after being recruited. It was a safe enough name to use, the few times I’d had to introduce myself to people because Luke Bable did not exist.
The pretty lady in front of me didn’t need to know all that, though.
"It's wonderful to meet you, Luke. I am Elda Abba. But you can call me Elda," she added, h
er smile turning into a smirk.
"Elda," I repeated, curling my tongue around the name. Her eyes grew slightly darker in fascination, and I felt almost smug. Her last name was foreign, but I couldn’t begin to think from where. "Well, Elda. I was wondering if you would mind accompanying me."
I tugged her closer by the hand, pulling it around my elbow and flattening my hand over hers on my arm. She moved without resistance.
"Should I be worried? A strange man comes up to me and asks me to accompany him. It's suspicious, no?"
I chuckled, keeping my voice low. "It’s a private party. Trust me, everyone is vetted for these things. We're both here, so you should have nothing to worry about," I said pointedly.
Her lashes lowered to cover her eyes, lips pursing. "As you say," she murmured, diplomatically.
I pulled her with me and she followed. We avoided other guests and the staff. The room was quite large and littered with guests, but I didn’t need to take her from it.
Instead, I dragged her over to a corner that left us out of view from most of the room, and the section that could still see us weren’t going to be considering dark corners unless they wanted some action for themselves. But this crowd was much too classy for something like that.
I stopped her there, turning so we were facing each other and took a quick glance around, just to be sure.
"Are we here for any reason in particular?" she sounded amused.
I decided to be blunt. "I need to frisk you."
Just about any other person would have been annoyed or insulted. No one got frisked at these parties, they were checked before they got this far. This woman was a little special, though.
"Is there any particular reason?" she murmured, looking up at me from under her lashes, but I thought her amusement only grew.
"I never saw your name on the guest list."
She gave a Gallic shrug. "Maybe I was invited last minute and my name isn’t on it."
One Night With The Tycoon (Billionaire's One Night #1) Page 25