Always (Family Justice Book 1)

by Halliday, Suzanne

  Twelve expectant eyes turned his way. “Yeah. He does. But Victoria gets that pleasure. You’ll have to wait.”

  When he finally went to leave, Cam murmured to him, “Dude. Do yourself a fucking favor and the minute you get back to the suite, jump in the bathroom and clean yourself up. They have a basket of shit like a toothbrush and a razor in there. Use ‘em, man, ‘cause the next time you see us a thousand pictures will be taken. And make sure Tori feels presentable, too, okay? Time to step up, bro. She actually needs your moldy ass now more than ever.”

  Better advice had never been given before. He hugged his fellow father, did a fist bump then turned and hurried back to his wife and son.

  “YOU READY, MOMMY? THE GANG’S all here and ready to kick down the door to get in and meet our little guy.”

  Tori was on cloud nine and feeling like she wanted to take up permanent residence there.

  As the anesthesia gradually wore off, she freshened up with the help of her amazing support nurse who thought of everything and even helped fix her hair. After a couple of shitty days in a hospital bed, she didn’t look her best, but these nurses were seasoned veterans of the labor and delivery suite and really had it on the ball.

  After using a dry shampoo and moisturizing the hell out of her face—she had Draegyn help smooth body lotion along her arms and legs. With the feeling coming back to her limbs, what he was doing felt heavenly.

  Luckily, her mom had the foresight to bring her a bag of clothes so she had some options, which was just what she needed instead of an unflattering hospital gown.

  And now, it was time for the big unveiling.

  “Okay, Daddy,” she cooed happily. “Bring me that handsome guy.”

  Draegyn chuckled as he scooped the baby from his bassinette and brought him to her. Slowly. Because she could tell he was so in love with his son that holding him and staring at how beautiful he was required a few extra seconds.

  As he lowered their son into her waiting arms, he followed the baby’s descent and kissed him on the forehead once he was safely seated in her arms. On his way back up, he stopped along the way and kissed her on the lips.

  “You look beautiful with him in your arms.”

  Tori tilted her head against the raised bed at her back and smiled into his soulful blue eyes.

  As the family tiptoed gingerly into the suite carrying an abundance of blue balloons and teddy bears, she beamed with love for them all.

  Everyone gathered round, her mom closest and angled to get a good look at her grandson.

  Tori sat there and took her well-deserved victory lap as the whole crew gushed and wiped away the occasional tear, lavishing praise for how handsome a boy she and Draegyn had created.

  Finally, her mother asked breathlessly, “May I hold him?”

  Tori looked at her husband who told her, “Hold on,” while he whispered something to Cam, who nodded like he understood.

  When he made his way through the crowd gathered round, he stood proudly next to his wife and son as Victoria lifted the precious little boy into her mother’s waiting arms.

  “Mom Mom,” she choked out as the emotion of the moment overtook her. “Say hello to your grandson…Daniel Alexander St. John.”

  Her mother gasped, looked back and forth between her and Draegyn, who had put his hand on Tori’s shoulder, then burst into tears.

  It did not escape Tori’s notice that Calder practically jumped across the room to get to her mother’s side the minute the tears started. What shocked her, though, was when she turned her tear-stained face toward him and while cuddling the baby tight, said, “They named him after my husband.”

  Calder ran his hand up and down the new grandmother’s back, smiled broadly at her, and Draegyn then motioned his head toward his nephew.

  “Think he’s got a little sumpin'-sumpin' to do with the name, too, huh?”

  Tori delighted in watching her husband puff up like he’d invented baby-making.

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, dude,” he quipped to a stunned looking Alex. “But we essentially named our son after our fathers. And we had a clever plan in place for a name if we had a girl. Option number two was Danielle Alexandra.”

  “Drae,” Alex choked out in a gravely, emotion-filled voice. “I don’t even know what to say.” He looked at her, and she definitely saw tears in his eyes. “Tori. I’m so honored.”

  “Major,” her mom drawled now that her sniffles had stopped. “Come on over here and meet your namesake, shugah.”

  Tori’s heart almost burst when her mom handed the bundle wrapped in blue to the man who helped change her life and whom her husband practically worshipped.

  Handing him the baby, she told him, “It’s so perfect, Alex, that this little boy carries the names of two such honorable men. Daniel would approve.”

  Tori and Draegyn held hands as their son was passed around. It was an overabundance of pleasures for the next hour. Everyone was snapping pictures. There were even pictures of Dylan meeting his cousin for the first time. Tori almost exploded with happiness when Cam showed her a video of the moment when she’d handed the baby to her mom and announced his name. He promised to send the MPEG to everyone in the room as a memento of the occasion.

  Pretty soon, she’d had enough. The high of bringing this new precious life into the world was being battered by the physical realities of the Cesarean. She was tired as shit and craved some uninterrupted quiet time with Draegyn and Daniel.

  Didn’t take long after she visually began to flag for her husband to wrap things up and move people one by one from the room until just her mother was left. He took the baby and placed him gently in the bassinette, then came and kissed her on the forehead with a knowing look.

  “How ‘bout I give you two some alone time, hmmmm? I want to talk to the others before they leave anyway.” He looked at Stephanie with a tender smile. “Mom,” he said as he squeezed Tori’s shoulder, “take all the time you need.”

  When Drae left the suite, he found Calder hovering near the door. He looked at him approvingly. Stephanie totally deserved an upstanding guy like him. Someone who would know instinctively that she was going to need him after such an emotional morning.

  He saw that Alex and the others were gathering their stuff and Calder told him to go on—that he would wait for Stephanie. They shook hands like gentlemen who respected each other did and then Drae hurried off to talk with Alex and Cam.

  As Calder stationed himself at the door to Tori’s suite, he watched Drae for a moment then went back to monitoring what was happening with Stephanie. He heard the two women as they spoke, moved by how openly they showed their love for each other. After a bit, he heard Stephanie say something that he was probably going to remember for the rest of his life.

  ALONE, JUST THE TWO OF them, mother and daughter hugged and wiped away a few tears as they talked about the new man in their lives.

  The minute Stephanie learned what they named the baby, she knew the opportunity had come to share a special moment with Tori that she worried would never happen.

  One of the reasons she’d always been so pithy about the way Draegyn and Victoria had gotten married was because for all the long years since her Daniel had passed away, she’d been carrying inside her heart, a message he asked her to share with their daughter when the time was right.

  When Daniel knew he didn’t have much time left, he told Stephanie he wanted her to tell Victoria something heart-achingly specific and that she would know the time and occasion for the telling. For so many years, she imagined that moment would take place when their baby girl got married. When that didn’t happen, she’d begun to despair that the time would ever be right.

  Hearing the name, Daniel Alexander St. John, she knew the moment had arrived.

  She cuddled on the raised bed with her only child and wrapped her in a loving embrace. They were both mothers now and never would there be a better opportunity to do this.

  “Darlin’, your daddy would be so p
roud of you today. And he’d be over the moon that you named that sweet baby boy after him.”

  “Aw, thanks, Mom. That means a lot to me.”

  “He loved you so much, baby girl. When he knew that his time was short, he gave me a message to pass on to you when the time was right. To be honest with you, shugah, I think that’s why I gave Draegyn such a hard time at first. I thought that we’d have this talk when you got married. Then you put that darling baby in my arms, all I could think at first was…this is Daniel’s grandchild. When you told me his name—it was like you were picking up my thoughts.”

  Tori snuggled closer and started crying softly. “What did Daddy say, Mom? What did he want me to know?”

  “He said that no matter what happened, even a long time after he was gone, I was to tell you how very much he loved you and that he wanted you to know that though he wasn’t here, he’d be with you always.”

  Tears were streaming down her face now, too. “When I heard the baby’s name, I also heard Daniel saying those words and thought, My love, how right you were. Victoria, sweetheart—now you really and truly will have him with you. Always.

  Tori broke down sobbing in an avalanche of tears as Stephanie cried, too, and rocked her in her arms. In some weird, karmic way—the circle remained unbroken.

  Draegyn found them like that a while later when he returned to the suite, and he didn’t seem in the least surprised to find them crying and clinging to each other.

  He scooped Daniel from the bassinette and brought him over to them for some good-bye kisses.

  Mom Mom kisses, my boy,” he mock whispered with a chuckle. “Enjoy them. This is the lady who’s going to defy all your parents’ wishes, and who you’ll run to when we drive you crazy as a teenager.”

  Stephanie was lighthearted but also very, very emotional when she left the room. When she discovered Calder right there on the other side of the door, she let him sweep her into a comforting embrace. Now that Daniel was safe and sound in his parents’ arms and Tori was out of danger, exhaustion and too much emotion were shredding her composure.

  “Take me home,” she murmured, glad for the supportive arm about her waist.

  “Happily, m’lady,” he said.

  He seemed reserved somehow and she wondered if he’d heard some of her conversation with Tori. Not that it mattered. In her present emotional state, she’d tell him if the subject came up anyway. It wasn’t a secret after all.

  They walked to the car, Calder offering support the whole way. By the time they got in the car, left the parking garage and were on the road to home, she was struggling to keep her eyes open.

  IT WAS LIKE WATCHING A child sleep. She was down-for-the-count, dead-to-the-world conked out, curled on her side, knees bent, hands clutched at her chest. It was an alluring sight that Calder was content to continue staring at.

  Once they were driving, she’d sorta crumbled like a kid’s toy losing some of its stuffing. He’d been waiting for it to happen. It was inevitable that the extreme stress and crushing worry about Victoria would catch up with her.

  During the long ride home, he had thought of nothing else except the words he’d heard her speak to Tori about her father. Truth was, he’d been deeply moved, to the point of having to choke back some emotions that stung his nose and made his eyes water.

  She never stirred. After arriving at Drae’s house, he opened the door then went back to the car, gathered up her sleeping form and marched straight into the house and up to her private suite.

  That was where he was now, sitting in a big overstuffed easy chair stationed near her bed, standing watch as she slept.

  His old-school gentleman credentials were put to the test when he’d decided to undress her after a lengthy internal debate of the pros and cons involved. Luckily, she was wearing one of those soft tracksuits that were easy to pull off. He made fast work of her shoes, pants, and jacket and then hit a moment of conflict over removing the t-shirt underneath.

  Took about ten seconds to convince himself that her comfort was the only thing he had on his mind when he somehow managed to deftly peel the stretchy shirt off her slumbering body.

  And that was when he got his first solid look of the breathtaking beauty wearing nothing but her underwear and holy fuck what he saw practically melted his damn eyeballs.

  He wanted to study the ravishing woman and what little she had on but she moaned sleepily and curled on her side, nestling into the pillow beneath her head. Pulling the soft blankets up to cover her, he felt a surge of possessive tenderness sweep through him. It was coming up on mid-day, but her bedroom had room darkening window treatments that he‘d closed, sending the room into semi-darkness so she could sleep peacefully.

  Glancing at his watch, he noted the time and realized he’d been sitting there silently staring at her for an hour. They’d been through a rough couple of days and a long sleepless night. He was starting to wind down finally and needed to close his eyes for a while before he simply fell over.

  He mulled over what he should do. Sleeping in the chair, even with the ottoman for his legs, just wouldn’t work. And he didn’t want to leave her alone so passing out on the sofa was out. Deciding it was no big deal to crawl into her bed, because, after all, it wouldn’t be the first time they’d slept side by side. He quickly stripped down to his briefs and then slid quietly under the covers beside her. Exhaustion didn’t quite cover how he felt, and before the thought was even fully formed, he fell into a deep sleep.

  MMMMM, YES. HE LIKED THAT smell. Inhaling the mouth-watering scent, his senses came alive as he luxuriated in the alluring combination of fragrant aromas.

  Something soft was touching his face and warmth extended down the front of his body that he burrowed into.

  In his mind’s eye, he saw a woman, the one he sought each night in his dreams. She was dressed in nothing but a cheeky pair of mauve-colored lace boy shorts that looked sexy as hell and a matching bra with delicate lace molding her succulent breasts.

  Reclining on a bed hung with filmy gauze material that fluttered and swayed from a gentle breeze, she shyly smiled and held out her hand beckoning him to join her.

  His senses filled with her. The way she moved. Her soft, smooth skin. The little whimpers and sighs that accompanied his hands slowly caressing her luscious body. She denied him nothing.

  Wanting more and more he looked, touched, smelled, and listened until all that was left was to taste her. And taste her, he did. Her skin vibrated and flushed with warmth as his lips seduced every inch of her flesh until ending with a devastating kiss that blew him apart.

  Heart pounding, he positioned her under him as she writhed and moaned with unleashed desire. He was going to have her. Sink into her receptive woman’s body and demonstrate how deeply and fully she could take his loving.

  A sound, brief and husky, cut through his sensual dream. Drifting slowly from the depths of sleep, Calder began to awaken, aware that Stephanie was plastered against him chest to ankle, her backside languidly rubbing on his heavy erection.

  They were spooned together, one of his arms wrapped around her middle from underneath, his hand splayed wide against her skin and so low on her abdomen that his fingers met the top of her boy shorts. His other hand was filled with a breast that he must have scooped from inside her bra.

  As the sleep faded from his brain, he felt the thundering desire coursing through him pump uncontrollable heat into his body.

  Burying his nose in her hair, he breathed deeply until her scent became a part of him. His mouth watered as he remembered in the dream how he’d feasted on her flesh with his mouth.

  Seeking out skin, any skin, he ran the flat of his tongue along her shoulder blade, absorbing her hushed moan of pleasure. She shuddered slightly. He felt it most in his thighs, which were curved beneath hers. And then she ground her ass more fully against his pulsing manhood and he knew then and there he was lost.

  Gently squeezing the full breast he cupped in his big hand, Calder groane
d close to her ear. He could hear her softly panting between the sensual little sounds she made. Desire slammed him hard. Would she whimper and sigh like that when she came? Or would she cry out and lose control? He needed to know.

  Reluctantly releasing the tantalizing mound, he reached for the snap on the bra and undid the two sides so he could peel it off. Wanting to see her body as he uncovered it, he slid out from behind her, shifted, and guided her onto her back.

  In the darkened room, she seemed to shimmer from the inside out, driving home for him that this woman, this angel, was special and unique. Her shy desire deeply thrilled him.

  When he pulled the lacy bra off, she lay on her back staring up at him with an adorably bashful expression as he got drunk on her potent beauty. She hadn’t said so, but Calder wasn’t a complete idiot. He knew without the slightest shadow of a doubt that she rarely if ever, indulged in any sort of sexual intimacy.

  Because of the way she spoke of her late husband, the unbelievable fact that she never married again or had a boyfriend and the way she tried to cover up her reserve with all that Southern belle bullshit meant he was in a unique position. The access she was granting him, not just to her body, but also to her emotions was a big fucking deal.

  Her trust unleashed a flood of emotion. With Stephanie—it was never about just fucking. The need to possess her, make love to her, take care of her every need, want and desire—these were the things that she inspired. Desire, lust, need—all shot through his mind and body at supersonic speed.

  Raising her arms above her head, she rolled her lace-covered hips as he watched, mesmerized. Lying on his side, he moved a leg across one of hers and dipped his thigh into the valley between her legs effectively trapping her in place. Not that she is going anywhere.

  She was looking at him through eyes smoky with passion. Her cheeks were flushed and the lips he’d been regularly gorging on were open, inviting, waiting.