In an unexpected move, Arush sits down heavily on the porch. “I think I had too much to drink on the flight in.”
“I wish I could feel sorry for you, but you’re talking about taking my wife away from me, so…”
He looks up at me, miserable. “She paid it anyway. My debt? Then she paid off my parents’ mortgage and opened an account for Niraj’s college. All of it. Like it was nothing.”
“Sounds to me like that’s something you should thank her for.”
“And when we didn’t answer her calls,” he continued with a baleful glare. “She got married to a stranger anyway, but this one was on the other side of the country from our parents. A stranger. She didn’t even invite us to the wedding. It’s not right for a woman to act this way.”
He sounds so bewildered I almost feel sorry for him. I know all about pride and what it goeth before. “Women can do all sorts of things now, brother. Vote. Drive a car. Own a company. Marry whoever they want. Maybe you should give up on thinking you have all the answers and move into this century.”
Arush leans against one of the columns I restored with my own hands. It’s clear his liquid courage is wearing off. “I didn’t mean the things I said about her. I’m here to promise her that she never has to marry again, as soon as we get this one annulled. She never wanted to get married anyway. She said it all the time and I should have listened. Then we can go back to movie nights and M’Baku jokes and my mother will stop glaring at me every time I turn around and—areyoucrazy? What the hell are you doing?”
Before I even realize it, I’ve grabbed two fistfuls of his jacket and yanked him up until he’s on his toes in front of me. “Nothing is getting annulled, brother-in-law. Your sister is my wife in every way possible, and the stepmother to my boys. Our boys. You still know nothing about her, and you know less than nothing about me if you think I’ll let the woman I’m in love with go without a fight.”
“Dad!” Lang calls out the window, reminding me that we’re not alone and I’ve taught my children violence is the wrong way to settle their differences.
I look from the slack-jawed Arush to see Tanisha and her driver standing a few feet away.
She looks stunning and stunned, but it’s not her brother she’s staring at. It’s me.
“Hey, baby,” I say, attempting innocence. “Looks like it’s our week for confrontations in the front yard. Let’s hope it doesn’t become a habit or the neighbors will talk.”
“Tanisha,” Arush starts, but she holds up a gloved hand, still studying my expression.
“In love with?”
I start to turn in her direction, then realize I’m still holding her brother, so I set him down more gently than he deserves.
“I didn’t know it was a real wedding,” he mumbles before I turn my back on him.
“In love with?” she repeats, staring at me.
“A Wayne always knows, Tanisha. Ask my mom. Ask any member of my family. It’s always been true. When we meet that one person that we’re supposed to spend the rest of our life with, the only person we’ll ever love, something inside just clicks. And we know.”
When her eyes narrow in disbelief, I take a tentative step closer, my heart in my throat. “It’s never happened to me before now. But with you, there it was. I think from the first time I saw you. Definitely after our first kiss. Absolutely before I agreed to marry you.”
“No one else? Not even…” Her eyes shift to the side and I know she’s worried about young ears.
“We were young and irresponsible. It never took. I didn’t think I’d get another chance, let alone have this—”
“Wayne click?” she says quickly, her cheeks flushing with cold or pleasure. I’m hoping the latter. “Are you sure? You wouldn’t talk to me and you slept in the guestroom. I thought after seeing her again, and then the lawyer’s email, that you might want to renegotiate. I was trying to give you space. And using that time to think about ways to talk you out of it,” she admits that last bit with an embarrassed grin.
“I don’t need to think about it. I definitely want to renegotiate.”
When she frowns, I realize she misunderstood, so I drop to my knees in the snow in front of her, my pants instantly soaking through.
“Emerson?”
“Tanisha Wayne,” I say, taking her hand with a smile. “I’ve got a boring job and a starter house, and I can be difficult to live with. A stubborn, proud pain in the ass.”
“That’s not how you do it,” Barry says in my ear, suddenly right beside me.
“Yeah, Dad. That was just sad.” Langston looks disappointed.
Tanisha has tears in her eyes but she’s trying not to laugh. “They have a point, Emerson. Maybe we should call Robert? He’s the marketing genius, isn’t he?”
I give her a look that promises a spanking but concede that I could have done better. “Let me try again. Tanisha Wayne, I’m deeply and completely in love with you. Lang asked Santa for you last year and you came and filled our lives with color and throw pillows and more happiness than we know what to do with. You belong with us. I think we’ve been waiting for you all these years. Marry me again, for no other reason than that. With no time limits or escape clauses. And this time, we really need to do it in front of both our families, baby, or my mother will skin me alive.”
“I didn’t plan on this at all,” she whispers, almost to herself. “But I hoped. I love you, too. All of you.”
Lang nudges me and I see the rose I bought at the mall in his hand. I try to take it from him, but he doesn’t let go, instead reaching across from me and setting Barry’s hand on top of mine. I look up at Tanisha with my eyebrows raised as we all hold it out together, and she laughs.
“I get the final rose?” She flattens her hand over her heart as she stares down at us.
“Always. Now will you take it and say yes so I can get up before I lose all feeling in my knees?”
“Yes,” she gasps, grabbing the flower greedily. I’m on my feet and swinging her off of hers before she can blink.
She loves me.
“I thought they were already married. She can’t live with a man she’s not married to.”
Tanisha’s driver, Derek, has already moved into action with a strong grip on Arush’s arm. “I was thinking I should take him to the hotel you were planning to put your family in, ma’am.”
Tanisha lifts her head from my neck, tear tracks chilling on her cheeks and a grateful smile on her lips. “That’s a wonderful idea, Derek. See if they can get the suite a few days early. And can you make sure they bring him something to eat? He’ll be sorry if he doesn’t. His stomach is sensitive.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“I missed her. And her biryani,” Arush says as they head to the waiting SUV.
She’s mine now. And I’ll never take her for granted.
“Speaking of food, let’s get you boys inside,” she says, still swinging slightly in my arms. “You can tell me about your day while you help me with dinner.”
“I don’t think this Santa is as good as last year’s,” Barry starts as I set her down. The three of them head toward the house, leaving me to follow at a slower pace through the snow.
I’m getting married again.
I guess I’m going to have to call in a favor after all. I’ll need more than a miracle to pull off the kind of wedding my wife deserves and my mother wants in less than a week.
As luck would have it, Bronte is friends with a senator’s wife who’s a sucker for romance.
Epilogue
Tanisha
Christmas Eve…
“Is the water warm enough?”
His voice is a deep, lazy rumble against my back, his full lips coasting my neck.
“It must be,” I murmur, tilting my head to give him more access. “Or maybe it’s you. Something is definitely making it hot in here.”
He chuckles quietly, his hands cupping the water and drizzling it over my sensitive breasts. “You said all you wanted fo
r Christmas was a warm bath. I figured I might as well go all out.”
“It works for me.” I moan when he traces the water’s path with his fingers. “After that five-course extravaganza and a few hours of caroling, this tub was all I could think about.”
The night’s events run through my mind. A restaurant full of Waynes, Finns, and my best friend’s horde of foster brothers. It was pure madness, in the best kind of way. Rick and Matilda were nice enough to sit with my parents, who seemed a bit overwhelmed by it all. But they’re trying. And I’m glad they care enough to want to get to know Lang and Barry. I think my aunt would approve.
At the party, I recognized so many of the same faces that I’d seen at my slightly non-traditional, moderately over-the-top wedding less than a month ago, and it gave me a sense of belonging. I was part of this. The blended families, these generations of love displayed in every possible combination, all crammed together for one night to celebrate the season.
I would never be the maiden aunt watching from the sidelines, though I was wearing my tiara. And I wasn’t just the schedule queen anymore, helping other people find the perfect arrangement for their growing family. Though I was still plotting with Joey about the interesting Jae situation.
I was a wife and mother now. A Wayne. I’m so happy, I wouldn’t even mind being a cliché. As long as it’s of the happily ever after variety.
“I can’t believe my mother convinced them to go caroling,” Emerson says against my shoulder. “I was sure they’d sneak away to the pub at the first opportunity.”
Now it’s my turn to laugh. “You clearly don’t understand the Irish. Pubs are where loud singing in public places was born. It’s kind of their thing. The crowds that started following them around, on the other hand? I don’t think your mother was expecting that. But she should have. No woman can resist that kind of boy band.”
It’s going to be front-page news tomorrow. I know it. Handsome Finns and Waynes serenade a grateful city on Christmas Eve.
He grunts, shifting beneath me and adjusting my thighs so they’re spread on either side of his. “Stop talking about other men while I’m giving you your present.”
He starts massaging them and I let my head fall back on his shoulder. “More of that.”
“You walked too much today.”
“It was worth it, so stop worrying. This is my present. Be possessive again.”
“You want possessive? Tonight, Joey told me he was getting you a stuffed M’Baku and I almost lost my temper.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have told Joey about Emerson’s reaction to my Winston crush. I’m used to telling him everything, but my everything has gotten a little too interesting for tea and conversation since I met my husband. “He was trying to get under your skin.”
“It worked,” he grumbles, his massage moving subtly higher. “I’ll never be able to enjoy that movie again.”
“Yes, you will,” I gasp, rocking my hips back against his thick arousal. “Just keep your eyes on all those female warriors and you’ll be fine.”
“There’s only one female warrior I want.” His hands move into action, one squeezing my breast and the other intimately cupping my sex. “Is this the kind of bath you were imagining?”
I moan again when two fingers slip inside me. “It’s so much better.”
“Tomorrow everyone will take you from me again. We’ll do that thing at Bellamy House and all the girls will want to try on your tiaras while all the boys follow you around. But tonight, my wife is all mine.”
Yes.
I cling to his strong forearm, feeling it flex as his fingers pump inside me. I’m open to him, spread out like a banquet as he touches every part of me above and below the warm, fragrant water.
I turn my head to kiss him, and he groans into my mouth, showing me without words that he can’t get enough of me. That he wants me. Loves me.
He lifts his lips and rubs his nose against mine. “This is what I wanted to do the first time I saw you in this tub. Like a siren floating in that steamy water, showing me how you needed to be touched.”
His thumb rubs my clit and I bite down gently on his lower lip, more than ready for him. “I like that. Now show me what you really wanted to do to me.”
His breath stutters into a growl, water splashing as his arm bands across my chest and he guides his erection between my thighs. He thrusts deep. Deeper than I expected in this position. “Ah.”
“Is this what you needed? Done being the efficient Princess Tani and ready to be my well-fucked wife?”
“Yes!”
His hips are causing small tsunamis in the cooling water as he fills me again and again. I look up at the ceiling but all I see are stars. I cling to the arms around me, desperate for purchase as he rocks up and into me again and again. The sounds of moans and pleas and wet skin slapping fill the room, along with the scent of citrus and honey.
He’s everything to me. Gentle, romantic, old fashioned, and sometimes stubborn. But when we’re alone and he touches me like this, he’s a fierce, foul-mouthed, conquering warrior who’ll never get enough of me.
I love the way he makes me feel.
“Emerson! I need it.”
“Fuck,” he swears, gripping my jaw so he can turn my head and kiss me roughly. “You need me to come, baby? You first. Always you first. Are you close?”
I nod and the hand on my stomach slides down to pinch and rub my clit in time with his now-furious strokes.
Stars and tidal waves.
I bite back my scream and tighten around him, loving his pained groan, “I love my wife.”
As I shudder above him, feeling the heat of his release filling me, feeling him pulse inside me, I know.
I’ve never been so sure of anything.
It’s not until we’re lying in bed together, his muscular chest my favorite pillow, that I give him his Christmas present.
It starts with a story.
Once upon a time, years ago, a doctor told me that, just like my great aunt before me, I couldn’t have children. I believed him. Then, a genius of a little boy asked Santa for a mother who would stay for Christmas. Someone who would make his father happy. Someone who would hold his hand.
And the very next year, his little brother, impressed with the wish-granting abilities of the ordinary looking mall Santa, made his own request. For a baby sister. Or brother. He wasn’t picky.
They both got what they’d asked for.
I’m pregnant.
It happened so fast, I’m still having a hard time believing it. But four tests and a doctor’s appointment probably don’t lie.
Barry is going to be the best big brother. Just like Langston.
I can’t wait to tell her all about my Aunt Tanisha when she’s older, and how her inheritance and advice changed all my plans and eventually brought me to the love of my life.
Joey will take credit for that if I let him.
I don’t know for sure that it’s a girl. Just a feeling. Plus, that was Barry’s first choice.
“Merry Christmas, Emerson. Emerson? Are you okay?”
I lift my head and look down into his handsome but utterly stunned face.
“A baby? We’re having a baby?”
“You have given me everything I’ve ever wanted, Mr. Wayne. I hope you’re happy. There’ll be no living with me now.” I chuckle. “Or the boys. We really need to warn them to be careful what they ask Santa for next year. They seem to have the knack.”
He wraps his arms around me and buries his face in my hair, whispering promises and making plans.
I think he liked my surprise.
To: Santa
From: Langston and Barack Wayne
Subject: Thanks
That’s all. That’s the email. Thanks for your help.
P.S. Barry doesn’t mean to sound greedy, but if you have an extra puppy running around, we would give it a good home. You’re the best.
Merry Christmas!
Thanks for Reading!
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Other Books from R.G. Alexander
The Finn Factor Series
Curious
Scandalous
Dangerous
Ravenous
A Curious Wedding
Shameless
Fearless
Lawless
One Wild Finn
Obvious
Breathless
Relentless
Finn’s Pub Romance
One Night at Finn’s
Two Weeks and a Day
Third Time Lucky
Wedded to a Wayne
Finn Factor Bundles
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4
Fireborne Series
Burn With Me
Make Me Burn
Burn Me Down-coming soon
Bigger in Texas Series
Big Bad John
Mr. Big Stuff
Big Big Love-coming soon
Billionaire Bachelors Series
The CEO’s Fantasy
The Cowboy’s Kink
The Playboy’s Ménage
Billionaire Bachelors Trilogy
Gaia City Superheroes Series
Who Wants To Date A Superhero?
Wedded to a Wayne: A Finn World Holiday Romance Page 10