When I started to shift in the bed to give Julia to her big sister, Zack slid his hand down my back to help me reposition. Delia transferred the baby into her arms like she was a pro. “Hey, sweetie.” Her eyes filled with tears, and she sniffled. “She’s so perfect. I could do with another one just like her. Maybe you guys could get right on that as soon as the doctor says it’s okay.”
I figured she was just teasing us and laughed, but I missed the considering look on Zack’s face. When I found out I was pregnant again, he totally threw his oldest daughter under the bus and blamed her for giving him the idea.
Epilogue
Zack
“Zack! I need to get this article posted!” Amelia halfheartedly pushed against my chest. I didn’t budge, keeping my mouth glued to her neck. She’d been working at my desk while I met with my managers. Now that I was done for the day, I’d returned to my office to collect my wife and go home. We had one stop to make, then we’d relieve Delia of babysitting duty.
She’d just looked too fucking tempting, sitting there staring at the computer with cute little glasses on her nose and her hair up in a messy thing on top of her head, exposing her slender neck. I’d walked over to stand behind her and couldn’t stop myself from tasting her sweetness.
“Go ahead and work,” I murmured as I slid my lips along her silky skin. “Don’t mind me. I’m just having an evening snack.”
Amelia moaned and tilted her head to the side so I had better access. “You’re distracting me,” she protested weakly.
My mouth watered for more, and I spun the chair around and braced my hands on the arms as I bent down and fused our mouths.
Thirty minutes later, I stuck my wife’s panties in my pocket and gave her pussy one last kiss before gently pushing her legs together. She was sprawled in the chair, panting and still shivering from the three orgasms I gave her. I couldn’t help the cocky grin that spread across my face at the sight of my woman looking freshly fucked and satisfied.
After smoothing her skirt back into place, I got to my feet and licked my lips, wondering if I needed another taste. Then I decided against it since it would keep Amelia from finishing her work and delay us from getting home. “I need to pop in at the arena and check in with Drew and Knox.”
Amelia’s eyes fluttered open, and she looked at me with confusion for a moment before the haze began to dissipate. “Good,” she sighed as she straightened in the high back leather chair. “No more distracting me?”
I laughed at her tone. “Are you asking me or telling me, beautiful?”
She cleared her throat and spoke with more conviction. “Go. I’ll be finished when you get back, and you can distract me some more after the kids are in bed.”
A wide smile stretched across my face, and I winked at her. “I’m going to be doing a fuck of a lot more than distracting you tonight.” I leaned down to give her a quick kiss, then started for the door. “I’ll be back soon, and I’m taking you home whether you are finished or not,” I warned. “You shouldn’t be working so hard in your condition anyway.”
It only took me ten minutes to get to the arena that was attached to both The Artemis and the Lennox. Drew and I had created a partnership years ago and built it between our hotels. It made for a larger, more spectacular space that would attract bigger names. We had most types of entertainment booked, and this weekend, we were hosting the finals for the MMA championship.
When I arrived, Knox and Drew were standing a few feet from the ring talking to Michael St. John, who was the favorite to win the championship. He looked pissed as fuck. “Saint,” I greeted as I walked up to the trio. “From the look on your face, I assume they’ve told you about the switch in opponents tonight.”
He nodded and cracked his knuckles ominously. He opened his mouth to respond when something caught his eye, and he suddenly spun toward the ring.
I followed his intense gaze to see a pretty, young girl in a tiny bikini stepping into the ring. She walked to the referee, who handed her a set of signs with numbers. She was obviously the new ring girl, and though she tried to look confident, it was clear she was nervous and out of her element.
Saint suddenly growled, “Oh, fuck no!” before charging to the ring and climbing inside. He wrenched off his silver robe, and when he reached the girl, he threw it over her. Then he threw her over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold, climbed out of the ring, and marched back over to us. Saint set the girl down next to Knox and gave him a hard look. “Hold this for me.” Saint turned away, but the girl shouted, “Hey, wait! You can’t just pick me up, put me where you want me, and tell some strange guy”—she hitched her thumb toward Knox—“to hold me for you...while calling me a ‘this.’ I’m a woman, not a thing.”
Saint pivoted back around, and his gaze swept down her body, which was only partially covered by the silver robe, then back up to her face. “I’m well aware that you’re a woman,” he stated. Then his expression darkened with irritation. “The scraps of material you’re wearing that are supposed to pass for a bikini made it more than clear. I could see just about every inch of your delectable body, including your pebbled nipples pressing against the top.”
I chuckled, and the girl turned to switch her glare to me, her cheeks filling with heat. I held my hands up in surrender and said, “I’m not laughing at you. I swear, it’s aimed one hundred percent at Saint.”
Her eyes went wide with shock before she swiveled her head back to Saint and asked, “You’re fighting Vince Butler tonight?”
What the hell? How the fuck did she know that? I looked at Drew, and he shook his head, silently telling me that it wasn’t him. Saint’s eyebrows lifted as his head jerked back, clearly caught off guard as well. “Yeah, I just found out about what happened to Sam. How did you know about the switch before me?”
“That’s an excellent question,” Drew said as we all moved to stand next to Saint.
Knox’s eyes were narrowed, and his hard stare was focused on the ring girl. Drew and I let him take the lead as this was his area of expertise and the reason Drew had hired him. “I’m Knox Dawson, head of security for the Lennox,” he said before jerking his chin at Drew and me. “This is Drew Lennox, owner of the Lennox, and Zack Parker, co-owner of The Artemis. Both of whom own this arena. As the hosts of the match, we have too much on the line to tolerate security breaches of any kind.”
We obviously intimidated her, and she took a tiny step back, crossing her arms over her chest. I felt a little guilty that we were ganging up on her, but we needed to know how she’d learned about the substitution before it was announced. If there was a leak in our organization, it needed to be dealt with as soon as possible. A deep growl rumbled up Saint’s chest, and he stalked to her side, wrapping his arm around her waist to pull her close. “Knock it off. You’re scaring her,” he growled, giving each of us a glare that promised pain if we didn’t do what he demanded.
Well now, that was interesting. It seemed Saint had fallen victim to the same spell that had taken each of us down. I almost grinned, wondering if the tradition of kidnapping would continue. If it ain't broke, don’t fix it.
“Relax, Saint. I don’t think she’s the breach. I meant some Joe Blow on the payroll who’s running his mouth when he shouldn’t,” Knox explained. “Sometimes, guys get dumb around pretty girls and say shit they know they should keep quiet because they’re hoping to impress them.”
Saint’s arm tightened around her as she groaned, “Eww! That’s not what happened at all.”
“How’d you find out about the switch, angel eyes?” Saint asked.
“My brother told me,” she admitted softly, turning her head to search behind her, looking a little frightened. Was she afraid of her brother?
Saint shifted his hold on her so she was looking at him instead of Knox, Drew, and myself. She relaxed a little as I stared up at him, and I made a note to start a bet with Knox and Drew on how long it would take Saint to get a ring on this girl’s finger.
“Wh
o’s your brother?” he asked.
“Vince.”
Her one-word reply dropped like a bomb into the silence surrounding us, and Saint’s eyes filled with rage. His nostrils flared as he looked over her shoulder at us, seeing a similar expression on our faces. Then he took a few deep breaths before his gaze dropped back to her face, and most of the anger drained from his eyes. “Is your brother the one who got you the job as a ring girl?”
“Yeah,” she confirmed, her tone heavy with resignation.
Saint shifted his focus to Drew. “Pull one of the showgirls and have her take over as the ring girl for the match.”
“Hey, wait!” she cried. “You can’t do that. My brother got me the job, and I really need the money.”
“No way in hell are you going out there. Not when I’m about to kick your brother’s ass for getting you a job that has you walking around practically naked,” Saint growled. “Between what I’m being paid just to be here, sponsorship money, fight bonuses, and pay-per-view points, money isn’t something you’ll ever have to worry about again.”
Her brow wrinkled in confusion, and she looked at each of us, who simply nodded in confirmation. The expression on Saint’s face had been the same one Drew, Knox, and I knew all too well. That girl belonged to him. She just didn’t know it yet.
Drew pulled out his phone, fired off a message, and said, “They’ll have a new ring girl before the end of the first round.”
“Perfect,” Saint responded, lifting his chin in gratitude. Then he dropped a kiss on the top of the girl’s head before pointing at Knox. “Take care of her while I’m up there.”
“Will do, man,” he promised. We watched Saint stride away, then Knox gently gripped her elbow to lead her closer to the ring, with Drew and I following close behind. The aisles were packed with people making their way to their seats, but everyone moved quickly out of our path. Most of them knew who we were, and those who didn’t took their cues from the ones who did. It didn’t take long for us to reach the front row, and Knox gestured to four seats with reserved signs. “This is us,” he explained to the girl who still looked a little shell-shocked. He removed the signs and pointed at a chair on his right.
She immediately dropped into it without protest, then scrubbed her hands over her face. “I don’t understand what’s happening here,” she sighed.
Laughter bubbled up through my chest, and I lifted my brow at Drew and Knox, who looked as though they were in the same predicament.
“What’s your name?” Drew asked after a moment.
The girl hesitated but finally answered. “Angelique.”
“Well, Angelique. We’d tell you, but it’s more fun to discover on your own,” Drew said with a smirk as he took the seat to her left.
Taking the seat on Drew’s other side, I added, “It’s good for Saint that our wives aren’t here because they’d definitely fill you in.” I couldn't hold back the chuckle this time. “And then you might get it in your head to run in the opposite direction.”
Knox laughed and cocked his head to the side, giving her an amused smile. “Not that it’d do you much good,” he said, shaking his head and leaning back in his seat before stretching his long legs out in front of him.
“True,” I conceded with a nod. Then I adopted a similar position as Knox, and my grin turned wicked. “But it makes it more fun for those of us enjoying the show when they try to resist.”
“I’m not sure what’s going on, but I know my brother isn’t going to like it,” she mumbled. There was that fear again, and it made my jaw clench in anger. If I wasn’t positive that Saint was going to give her brother the beating he so richly deserved, the three of us would have been waiting for his ass after the fight to deliver justice ourselves.
“I wouldn’t worry about him being pissed at you, Angelique.” Knox patted her shoulder matter-of-factly. “Vince was already outmatched in the fight against Saint. Now that he’s managed to piss him off and make it personal, the little asshole is about to get what’s coming to him.”
Knox’s prediction was spot-on. Saint almost killed the son of a bitch. His sister seemed to be conflicted about the whole thing, which was very interesting. She gasped every time Saint got in a good blow, and her worried gaze flew to her brother. But her hands told a whole different story. They were grasping the arms of the chair, and every time Vince managed to land a hit, her knuckles turned white from squeezing the plastic so hard. She also held her breath until it was clear that Saint was unharmed before blowing it out as her shoulders relaxed in relief.
After the fight, we let Knox handle the situation with Saint and his woman and the piece of shit she called a brother. Drew and I made our way to the exit, discussing some logistics and issues that had surfaced as we prepped for the next event in the arena. We stopped when we reached the lobby where the doors on either side led to his casino or mine. “How’s Amelia?” he asked.
I grinned, bursting with pride. “She’s gorgeous, brilliant, and an incredible mother.” Amelia had grown her little blog into an online magazine with a small staff and a cache of writers. She grew more beautiful every day, and I had no fucking idea what I did to deserve her, but I didn’t care as long as she was mine.
Drew studied me for a few beats, then he grinned. “Yeah, but that’s not why you look smug and are practically popping the buttons on your suit coat.”
I schooled my features and replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He laughed and clapped me on the shoulder. “Sure. Just remember, I’ve had that look on my face four times.”
I shrugged, but the smile crept back, and before I said something that would piss off my wife, I waved and jogged to the entrance of my casino. I’d made the mistake of opening my big mouth too soon once before, and Amelia had made sure it never happened again.
After collecting Amelia from my office, we headed home to our waiting family. When we walked in the door, we halted at the sound of giggles and the pitter-patter of little feet.
“Zack! You little monkey!” Delia yelled from somewhere in the house. “Get your naked butt back here!” In the next moment, a laughing, nude, two-year-old little boy came streaking into the foyer where we were standing. There was something white dangling from one hand, but he dropped it when he spotted us.
“Mommy! Daddy!” he shouted happily, then he grinned and ran at Amelia. Right before he reached her, it dawned on me what was happening, and I caught him mid-jump. I held him under his arms and dangled him out in front of me.
Delia came running around the corner and almost tripped on what I was certain was a full diaper that my son had tossed away. She was out of breath and glared at me, as though it were my fault Zack had escaped her mid-change. Amelia snorted with laughter, and I knew she had also noticed what were clearly sprays of urine on Delia’s T-shirt.
Just then, Julia suddenly appeared from the kitchen, her face smeared with what I hoped was chocolate. Delia groaned and collapsed against the nearest wall.
Amelia laughed again. “Take a break, Delia. We’ve got this.” Delia grunted and slid to the ground.
Amelia looked at me, and I nodded, my lips pinched to hold in my laughter. She went after our daughter, and I dodged another bullet from my son’s bladder on the way to the kids’ bathroom. We bathed our babies, read them stories, and put them down for bed. Then we changed out of our bathwater-soaked clothes and went looking for our oldest daughter.
Delia was sprawled face down on the couch in the den, and as we entered, she turned her head to glare at me. “I don’t think I thought this whole sibling thing through,” she grumbled as she sat up.
I grinned and dropped into a chair, pulling Amelia down into my lap. “Too late now. This was your idea, sweetie. We’re already cooking you another one.”
Amelia smacked my chest and glared at me. “We were supposed to tell her together.” Then she cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes to slits. “You haven’t told anyone else, right? Becau
se it’s too soon.”
I held up my hands in a surrender pose. “No one. I swear.”
Delia drew our attention when she grumbled and climbed to her feet. “I’m going to bed,” she said as she trudged toward the door. “These siblings better be prepared to babysit and change diapers when I have kids.”
Then she disappeared, leaving me choking and Amelia slapping me on the back while laughing hysterically.
“You alright there, babe?”
I swallowed hard and shook my head. “She’s joking, right? She can’t have kids if she doesn’t have sex.” My eyes met Amelia’s, and I silently pleaded for her to agree with me, but she just snorted again.
“Don’t you want to be a grandpa someday?” she asked when she finally calmed down.
“That will be Zack Jr’s job,” I informed her.
Amelia raised an eyebrow and gave me an arch look. “Kind of a double standard, don’t you think?”
I frowned and started to defend myself, then stopped because I knew whatever I said wouldn’t make a difference. I might as well be honest, so I shrugged. “I guess so.”
“And how exactly do you expect to keep them from having sex?”
“My little girls would never do anything like that,” I insisted, keeping my head firmly in the sand.
Amelia chuckled and gave me a condescending pat on the shoulder. “Good luck with that.” I tried to hold on to her when she moved to get up, but she managed to dance away and skip to the door. Then she stopped and winked at me. “Didn’t you promise to do some distracting?”
I perked up at her question...literally. “Absolutely,” I agreed and jumped to my feet.
“Great! I’d like an ice cream sundae with chocolate and caramel on the side, lots of extra whip cream, and cherries.”
Obviously, I’d been expecting a different type of distraction, but I would always be happy to do whatever made my wife smile. “Sure, beautiful.” I kissed her cheek as I walked past her and headed to the kitchen.
Vegas, Baby: Complete Series Page 54