by R. C. Martin
Table of Contents
Her Prologue
His Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Her Epilogue
His Epilogue
Also by R.C. Martin
About the Author
Copyright © 2020 R.C. Martin. All Rights Reserved.
Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Untapped Publications, Ltd, 3208 Oakes Mill Place, Castle Rock, CO 80109.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and other elements portrayed herein are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, business establishments, locales or events is coincidental.
Cover Design by Cassy Roop at Pink Ink Designs ©2020
www.pinkinkdesigns.net
Her Prologue
I felt his lips as he pressed a kiss just beside my ear, and I clung to sleep with all my might. Even the thought of waking up without him made me whimper in complete and utter devastation. I wanted it to be real. His touch. His presence. His whispered words.
“Teddy, sweetheart—wake up.”
I ignored the command but held tight to his voice. I missed it more than words could say. I ached for it with every fiber of my being. That morning, the deep, rumbly sound felt so real—the vibration of his tone rattling my insides as it beckoned me from my sleep. I squeezed my eyes closed tighter, desperate to keep him close.
“Baby,” he mumbled. “Teddy, wake up.”
This time, along with the sound of his voice, I felt the heat of his breath before his lips touched mine. My whole body jolted when I opened my eyes and realized I wasn’t dreaming. Then it all came rushing back to me. The roses. The ring. The most gorgeous man I had ever seen in my entire life.
My arms felt heavy, like the sleep I had been clinging to a moment before was suddenly unrelenting. A moan, which sounded a lot like a whine, spilled from my lips as I forced my limbs to act on my command. I circled my arms around his neck, keeping him close as I sought out his kiss. When he filled my mouth with his tongue, I wondered how I could have believed this was a dream. It was better. It was like I had died and gone to heaven.
While he kissed me, my mind was flooded with all the memories we’d created the night before. I did as he requested and came straight to his place after work. We barely spoke to each other. Words weren’t needed. Our bodies did all the talking, over and over again, until I was so exhausted I could hardly remember my own name.
I felt Judah’s smile as he chuckled into my mouth and began to pull away from me. Trapping my bottom lip between my teeth, I stared up at him, bleary eyed and confused.
“Fuck, you’re adorable,” he muttered with a shake of his head. “And as happy as I’d be to get back under these sheets with you, we’ve got things to do today.”
I blinked a few times, still trying to ground myself in reality. A frown tugged at my brow when I focused in on my man’s face and noticed he looked all cleaned up. I pressed myself further into my pillow as I slid my hands over his shoulders and against his chest. I scowled when I realized he wasn’t just cleaned up but fully dressed.
“What—what time is it?”
“It’s almost one,” he replied with a smirk.
“One?” I blurted. My eyes grew wide as I asked, “In the afternoon?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, my—I—why didn’t you wake me up?”
He didn’t answer me right away. Rather, I saw it as the amusement faded from around his beautiful gray eyes while he stared at me. When he gently took hold of the side of my face and traced the pad of his thumb below my eye, I felt the residual pain of the last two weeks as it stirred beneath my ribcage. We hadn’t talked about it—how long my nights had been, how sleepless, how lonely—but he saw it, anyway. As we stared at one another, I saw his answer in ways no amount of explanation could express.
His nights had been long, too.
“You needed the sleep,” he finally said.
I didn’t know what to say. So much had happened in twenty-four hours. It felt like we still had everything to talk about; and yet, I’d said yes. Yes to forever—and forever felt a topic too grand for words.
“We’ll go get lunch, and then we’ll swing by your complex and break your lease. You can pack a bag, and I’ll arrange for movers to get the rest. We’ll put it in storage until we figure out what to do with your stuff.”
“Wait—what?” I mumbled with a shake of my head.
“Your things, Teddy. We need to take care of your apartment.”
“But movers? Judah…” I forced myself upright, and he moved his hand from my face down to my naked hip. Sweeping my hair behind my ears, I ignored the fact that I likely resembled a tangled mess while he looked as sophisticated as always.
“I—I don’t even know what the fee is for breaking my lease. I still have it until May. And—movers? I haven’t so much as thought about packing. Also, I live in a shoebox. I don’t need movers.”
“They’ll handle everything. Don’t worry about the price. I told you—”
“Wait. Stop,” I insisted, squeezing my eyes closed tight.
It didn’t matter how late in the day it was, or how much extra sleep I’d gotten. My brain wasn’t caffeinated enough for our conversation.
“Hey. Look at me,” he commanded. His fingers took hold of my chin, and I blew out a sigh before I obeyed. “I meant what I said. You’ve got my ring on your finger, which means you’re in this bed every night.”
My eyes flicked down to catch a glimpse of the gorgeous, diamond studded band he slid on my finger the previous morning. He told me it was a placeholder, but it meant so much more to me than that. For a second, my thoughts ran away with me, and all I could think about was everything the little diamonds promised. It was the feel of Judah’s thumb gently grazing my bare skin that coaxed me back into the present. Even still, I couldn’t make sense of all he was insisting.
“I hear you. I do. And I want the same thing.” I closed my fists around the fabric of his fitted sweater as I went on to say, “I missed you so much. And I don’t want to be without you. But—but we can’t just figure all this out in one day.”
“There’s nothing to figure out. We’re agreed. You belong here—so, I’m seeing to it that you’re here. There’s no sense in you paying rent for an apartment you no longer occupy.”
“Okay, but, I can’t afford to pay anyone to pack up my things. I’ll have to do it myself; and I’ll need boxes and—”
“Theodora, you’re not listening to me—”
“No, Judah…” I groaned, leaning forward to rest my head on his shoulder. “I need coffee.”
“Theodora—”
“Jude, it’s my first home.” I lifted my head in search of his face. I then forced my brain to make sense of my emotions and translate them into coherent sentences. Challenging as it was, I managed to express, “It’s small and humble and understandably means nothing to you—but it’s
my first apartment; the first place I called home all on my own. I don’t want strangers packing up my things to be shoved in some sad, dark storage unit.”
Judah frowned and replied, “I don’t have room for all your things.”
“I’m not implying that you do or that you should make space. I know you.” I paused, leaned toward him, and rested my forehead against his. Speaking through a small smile, I continued, “I remember you telling me about designing this house. I know it’s everything you want it to be, and my hand-me-downs and knickknacks don’t have a place here.”
“That’s not what I’m saying,” he interjected mildly.
“Well, what I’m saying is—it’s a lot. Yesterday, I woke up in my bed alone and sad, and today—”
“Today, you woke up in my bed. This bed. Our bed. Your home is here, now.”
I closed my eyes and drew in a long, deep breath. I held it in my lungs for an extra moment before exhaling it slowly. It was a lot to wrap my head around. Even after the proposal, after hours of reconnecting with the man I loved, the reality of starting a whole new life with him—it was overwhelming. But it was also everything I wanted.
Feeling as though I’d run out of words, I lifted my arms and wrapped them around him before I buried my face in his neck. He smelled sensational; and when he held me close, I knew at once that I was home. Like he’d done time and time again, Judah was merely taking care of me. My gentleman was ushering me out of the misery of the last couple of weeks and escorting me into our future.
“Tell me you love me,” I whispered.
“I love you,” he replied without pause.
My skin broke out in goosebumps, and I shivered in his arms. Hearing him say the words felt amazing. I was sure I’d never tire of hearing them.
“No movers,” I murmured softly into his ear.
“Teddy…”
“Okay, movers—but no packers. I’ll pack.”
“Theodora, I—”
“We’ll go get all my clothes today, and then I’ll box the rest of my stuff over the next week. Movers can pick it up next weekend. Just give me a week,” I pleaded as I held him tighter.
“Fine.”
I turned and pressed a kiss against his cheek before I murmured, “I love you, too.”
“Tell me again tomorrow, sweetheart.”
“Always,” I breathed. “Can I have coffee now?”
He turned, until his lips grazed mine. I felt rather than saw his smile as he mumbled, “Yeah.”
His Prologue
I pulled the Mercedes into the garage and killed the engine. It was later in the day than I liked, but my errand took more of my time than I anticipated. It was two days before Christmas, and the traffic around town implied I wasn’t the only one picking up last minute gifts. I pocketed the car key as I headed inside and commanded the garage door closed along the way.
With the moon on its way up, and the light pouring down the stairs from the second level, it wasn’t hard for me to venture a guess as to where Teddy was. It’d been a week and a half since I proposed, and a few days since her address officially became mine. Already, home felt vastly different. It wasn’t her clothes in the closet, or her makeup in the bathroom. It wasn’t her favorite coffee mugs in the cabinet, or her books on my bookshelf. It was moments like the one in which I found myself—me coming home to someone. I didn’t know it would feel so good.
Teddy sat with her legs folded beneath her on the couch, her computer perched in her lap, and a scowl of concentration tugging at her brow. She was in a pair of leggings and drowning in the sweater I’d worn the day before. With her hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, and her face void of any makeup, I marveled at how sexy she could be without even trying. When I reached the landing, she glanced up at me. Her face relaxed and she flashed a hint of a smile before her gaze dropped back onto the screen.
“Hi, baby,” she murmured distractedly. “You were gone a long time.”
“Yeah. Took longer than I expected. What are you doing?”
This time, when she looked up at me, she pinched her bottom lip between her teeth in a failed attempt to hide her smile. Her excitement was evident in the light which emanated from those hazel-brown eyes of hers.
Finally, she replied, “Research.”
“What kind of research?” I inquired as I moved to occupy the space beside her.
She lowered her computer screen, and a grin spliced across her face.
I quirked an eyebrow. “Teddy?”
“I just—I was just looking at, um…” She hesitated and closed her laptop completely before she hugged the device to her chest. Speaking faster, she confessed, “I was looking at potential wedding venues.”
“Oh?” I replied casually.
She stared at me, as if trying to read my thoughts. “We’re going to have a wedding, right? I mean, you want a wedding…right?”
I reached over and rested my hand on her knee. “Honestly, I don’t care either way,” I admitted. “If you want a wedding, fine.”
“I want a wedding,” she whispered.
“Okay, then. I only have one condition.”
“No pink?” she teased.
“I’m not worried about your tastes, Theodora.”
She offered me a bashful, closed-lip smile, leaning toward me before she asked, “Then what is it?”
“You’ve got three months. I don’t want to be engaged longer than that.”
“Three months?” she gasped.
“Sweetheart, I’d marry you tomorrow. I don’t want to be those people who are engaged for ages. This is a pit-stop, not a destination.”
“You can’t marry me tomorrow. It’s Christmas Eve, and we’re announcing our engagement to your family. I don’t even have my engagement ring, yet.”
I smirked at her before I reached into my pocket and pulled out the box she’d been too distracted to notice before. I held it up, and her eyes grew wide as her mouth fell open.
“Oh, my god,” she breathed. Her focus jumped from the box to my face and then back again. “Well, can I see it?”
“Three months, Teddy.”
“Three,” she whispered. She brought her gaze back up to meet mine. “Three—that’s March. Not March,” she insisted helplessly. Teddy moved to set her computer on the coffee table before she curled up close to me. “March is Geoffrey’s birthday.”
“February, then.”
Her brow furrowed in a disapproving frown. “No. February’s got Valentine’s Day—and don’t you dare say January. I hardly know where to begin to plan a wedding—I cannot do it in two weeks.”
“Fine. April, then. Four months, no longer. Agreed?”
“If I say yes, will you open the box?”
I reached for her hand and worked the placeholder ring I’d given her from her finger. She relinquished it without argument, and I pressed a kiss to her lips. “You already said yes.”
“Baby, let me see,” she pleaded on a giggle.
I stalled for just a second longer, pulling away from her in order to slip her other ring into my pocket. After I righted myself beside her, I held the black velvet box between us and watched her face as I snapped it open.
Teddy sucked in a breath, instantly covering her mouth with both hands. I didn’t look down at the four carat, oval cut, solitaire diamond fitted on a plain, thin, rose gold band. I didn’t need to. I custom ordered it the Saturday Benjamin showed up on my doorstep, insistent on buying me breakfast, nearly three weeks prior. It was a day I was sure I’d never forget.
Curling her fingers until her hands were fisted beneath her chin, she finally murmured, “It’s gorgeous.”
I plucked the ring from out of the box, then reached for her hand. She uncurled her fingers instantly and allowed me to ease the diamond over her knuckle. Once it was in place, she held up her hand and stared. Then, her gaze still trained on the ring, she snuggled herself against me as she rested her head on my shoulder.
“I love it so much.” Wiggli
ng her fingers, she hummed, “You’ll never be able to top this. Best Christmas present ever.”
“This is not your Christmas present,” I chuckled as I slid my hand along her leg, rested in my lap. “That’s in the garage.”
“You—you got me a gift that’s not this?”
I couldn’t see her face, but I didn’t need to in order to translate the confusion I heard in her voice.
“Sweetheart, your engagement ring is your engagement ring. If I’d had it a week and a half ago, you would have gotten it then.”
“Wait…” She pushed herself upright. Her eyes found mine as she queried, “So, I have a present in the garage?”
“Yes,” I stated matter-of-factly.
Slowly, she moved her legs out of my lap and brought her bare feet to the floor. “Is it hidden?”
“No,” I answered, amused by her careful movements.
“Do I have to wait until Christmas to open it?”
“No.”
She arched her eyebrows in surprise and asked, “No?”
“No.”
Teddy grinned at me and then jumped to her feet. She got all the way to the stairs before she realized I hadn’t moved. Speaking over her shoulder, she asked, “Well, aren’t you coming?”
Nonchalantly, I stood and made my way toward her. As soon as I was in reaching distance, she took my hand and tugged me excitedly down the steps. The closer we got to the garage, the more I braced myself. I knew I’d have to because I knew my woman. She wasn’t going to let me get away with what I’d done without a fight.
She let go of my hand only after we both entered the mudroom. When she opened the garage and flipped on the light, she stood frozen in the doorway, momentarily speechless.
“Judah?”
“Teddy?” I muttered, fighting a smirk.
“Where—where’s your Porsche?”
“In storage, until I can get a garage built for it.”
“Did you—Jude—did—did you buy me a car?”
“I certainly don’t have need for three,” I jibbed.
Teddy spun around to face me, and I caught a glimpse of her shock before she replied, “And I don’t have need for two.”