by S. M. West
The house is quiet save for our breaths, and most of the lights are out, with just the glow coming from her bedroom at the end of the hall. Her gaze shifts to mine, and her soft, gentle fingers trace the outlines of my face, the curve of my jaw.
She brushes the hair out of my face, and her thumb strokes my mouth before her lips seek mine for a kiss.
“I don’t know how I got so lucky to have a man like you in my life.” She kisses my neck.
My heart strains, almost too big for the confined space of my chest, and I stroke her hair behind her ear, whispering, “I’m the lucky one.”
She shudders, and I burrow my face into her shoulder, inhaling the warm vanilla scent of her. Sliding from my lap, she stands and leads me to the bedroom.
And that night, I make love to her, showing her just how lucky and blessed I am to be with her and Henry.
My home.
My family.
32
Daisy
His kiss shatters me
One month later
“Henry, come on,” Jocelyn croons from the third floor of our beach house, one floor below where I am. “Where are you?”
Familiar giggles and the pitter-patter of tiny feet make me grin as Henry calls, also from below, “Find me.”
I laugh, bending and placing a hand on our new bed, so perfect for our rooftop bedroom. The sound of the surf is just past the open glass doorway, and I can taste the salt on my tongue.
After the cabin, Gray moved into the beach house, or he moved his things in but stayed at my house until I was ready to leave. There was no question I wanted to be with him in every sense. I needed a little time to come to terms with the news of Jerome and what he’d done.
About a week later, the police informed us they had searched Jerome’s home and found GHB and Rohypnol, both date rape drugs, among other things. He was a predator, an evil excuse for a human, and had likely assaulted many more women than we’d ever know.
Despite all the evidence, I requested a DNA test, and it was confirmed that Jerome was in fact the monster who raped me. And as for Henry, the entire nightmare didn’t leave too much of an impression on him.
He was clingier than usual for a few days following the cabin, but now he’s himself again. And if one day he asks about his father, I’ll tell him the truth. Jerome may have shared his DNA with Henry, but he isn’t his father in the truest sense.
My feet slide into my high heels, and I twirl around to face Gray, watching me. “You look fantastic.”
“This old thing.” I shrug, spinning once more in my slinky black dress, now facing the mirror.
Raw silk and spaghetti straps, the dress is cut to kiss my curves then flare out at mid-thigh to where it ends just above my knees. It isn’t new. Gray has seen me in it before, but I might as well be naked for the way he feasts on me.
He grabs me from behind, and one strong arm wraps around my waist, crushing my back against him. His other hand slides upward from my stomach, up to my chest, where the tips of his fingers linger, sensually grazing the underside of my breast.
His touch and the soft caress of silk against my skin is nearly my undoing. My nipples pebble, twin peaks, and my insides liquefy. Just the sight of the two of us, our reflection in the mirror, turns me on.
I tilt my head back against his shoulder, raising my arms to thread them around his neck, opening my body to him. He lowers his mouth below my head, and his stubble scrapes along my skin as his teeth nip at my neck.
“I could eat you.” His lips brush against my ear, tongue darting out to lick the sensitive flesh.
The hard length of him presses into my backside, and my legs rub together to ease the growing ache between them. My sex clenches, greedy to have him inside me.
His hand, at my stomach, glides downward below my belly button until his fingers press into me. I’m so wet, my panties are of no use and my arousal may just seep onto the dress, where his hand holds me.
“Gray,” I moan, trying to turn around to face him, and he murmurs approval but his hand on my middle stops me.
He’s everywhere, bringing my body to life, and my breasts grow heavy, needy for him to stop teasing and give me what I need.
Any thoughts of dinner with Pansy, Silas, Jared, Eva, and Sasha vanish. Forget going out, all I want is for him to fuck me.
“Daisy,” Jocelyn calls, and my name is a bucket of ice water, dousing the fire and bringing me to my senses.
“Yes?” I wrench away from Gray, and a rich chuckle floats over my head.
Gray’s shaking his head, thoroughly amused with how I’m acting like a teenager almost caught making out with her boyfriend. I glare at him and straighten my dress and hair.
Jocelyn’s approaching steps sound louder, and he turns his back to the room entrance, adjusting himself and likely willing his hard as steel erection to go away.
“Henry has something for you.” The nanny’s cheeks are flushed, and I wonder if she saw us or knows what she interrupted.
“Oh, okay.” From my peripheral vision, Gray comes to stand beside me, fingers combing his hair from his face.
“Hey, Lovebug.” I smile as Henry moves past his nanny on the staircase and then into our room.
Jocelyn slips back downstairs, and I marvel at how we also got lucky with her. She isn’t a live-in nanny—that was our choice—but even when she’s here, she makes herself discreet and yet she’s fast becoming part of the family.
Henry walks to Gray’s side, placing his little hand in Gray’s big one, and the two of them share a look. It’s so much more than a passing glance, and I wonder what’s going on. This isn’t just about Henry coming to say goodnight.
“Daisy, I wanted to do this right and I wondered about the timing.” He glances to Henry who’s giddy and grinning from ear to ear. “I thought I’d had the timing all figured out when I first showed you this place.” Gray mashes his lips together, not needing to remind me how that ended.
I want to protest and tell him, once again, that timing wasn’t the issue, and none of how I reacted was his fault. That was on me. But I don’t want to interrupt whatever this is.
“Anyway, I realized timing doesn’t matter but how I do it does. So, with Henry’s permission, as the most important man in your life…” Gray pauses, getting down on one knee, and my son giggles, covering his mouth with a hand. “Daisy and Henry,”—he looks to the little boy still holding his hand—“will you marry me?”
Henry pulls a box from his pocket, and my heart thuds as his chubby fingers pry open the lid. A pink-hued diamond halo engagement ring gleams up at me, and I gasp.
“Gray.” Now it’s my turn to cover my mouth, blinking back the prickle of tears gathering in my eyes.
“Say yes, Mommy!” Henry almost shouts, jumping up and down. “You’re supposed to say yes.”
“Yes. Yes.” I laugh and cry as Gray gets to his feet and slides the ring onto my finger.
He scoops me into his arms and covers my mouth with his. Henry makes a “yuck” sound and runs for the stairs. I laugh and kiss at Gray’s neck, brimming with happiness.
Slowly, he places me back on my feet and wraps his arms around me. “Are you sure about this?”
His warm gaze studies me, looking for any sign of something I haven’t said or could be hiding. It isn’t that he doesn’t trust me or even thinks I’d be dishonest, but more he’s so attuned to what I’ve gone through.
Gray stood by me and gave me the space and support while I worked through everything. While I continue to work through it all.
“I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life.” I kiss him once more. “We’re going to have a lot to celebrate tonight.”
Gray’s hand slides down to grab my bottom and he squeezes, grinning. “That we are. I wish we could stay here, and I thought about doing it another night, when we’d be at home but—”
Two fingers press to his mouth. “It’s perfect, and I want to share our engagement with our friends and family. We�
��ll have plenty of time for just us.”
“The car’s here,” Jocelyn says from down below.
“Oh, thanks. We’ll be right down.” He takes my hand, and I grab my coat from the bed, staring down at the ring on my left hand and grinning.
We make our way downstairs, saying our goodnights and sharing with Jocelyn our good news. She hugs us both with tears of joy, and the two of them wave to us as we drive away.
Silas spared no expense for tonight. We are celebrating so many things. India’s album is finished and set to release any day now. Both Silas and Gray are thrilled with the end result and already have several other high caliber artists clamoring to work with them.
We’re also toasting that Sasha is now an Angelino. She just came back from Paris where she spent almost two weeks packing up her things, and she’s moved into the place I rented. While it’s smaller than she’d like, she’s also scaling back her work schedule, and this affords her the time and space to find a neighborhood she loves and to settle in.
Then there’s the end to the Jerome ordeal and our moving into our Malibu beach house. I truly love it and half the time never want to leave. I’d be content to stay there day and night and have people come to me.
“You happy?” Gray grabs my hand and brings it to his lap, shifting a bit as he wrinkles his brow.
“Never been happier. Are you okay?”
While his stitches have been out for a while from where he was shot, it’s still tender. And the gunshot wrecked his tattoos, which gave Gray another reason, like he needed one, to curse Jerome. His side is sore because he just had two new tattoos done to cover the scar.
One is of a daisy and the other, an octopus for Henry.
“Yeah, just a little tender. No big deal.”
Releasing my hand, he raises his to cup my face, crashing his mouth on mine. The full force of his kiss shatters me. But I don’t care. I’m in good hands. The best hands.
Gray will never let any harm come to me or our son. Yes, our son. We have started talking about Gray adopting Henry, and now more than ever, I want to make that happen as soon as possible.
He breaks our kiss but doesn’t go far, his lips a breath from mine. “When we get back tonight, I promise you, I’m going to take my time with you, wife-to-be.”
Epilogue
All the cale
GRAY
Four months later
“Anyone home?” Daisy’s voice carries to the floor above her where Henry and I are in his room, rummaging through his clothes looking for something for him to wear swimming.
“Hey, Daze.” I stand at the top of the staircase, awaiting her gorgeousness to come into view.
Her smile is the first thing to blind me and then her overall glowing appearance. Her happiness washes over me, flooding my senses. I never tire of laying eyes on her, especially when she hasn’t a care in the world like now.
Even though it’s Saturday, Daisy had an early photo shoot and then an appointment with her therapist.
Things haven’t been easy for her since Jerome kidnapped them. At first, after the cabin and his death, she tried to pretend everything was okay since she had a name and face to put to that horrific night in Paris.
But she was lying to herself, and sadly, for a while I was too, wanting to believe her. Unlike his mother, so far Henry seems to have forgotten or been unaffected by what Jerome did to them.
I wanted to believe Daisy would be okay, but in the days after Jerome’s death, she withdrew. Thankfully, Eva was able to reach her in her gentle, unassuming way.
Jared’s now wife—they got married over Christmas—is an old soul and sees more than most. She has a manner about her, offering insight and sage advice without you even realizing it.
Eva introduced Daisy to her therapist, Connie. The woman uses an untraditional approach, having sessions outside of an office, and sometimes, their appointments consist of activities where they don’t even talk about how Daisy is feeling or Jerome or any of that.
But no matter her method, it works for Daisy, and she’s doing so much better, even talking about moments in the past, whether in LA or in Paris, where she now sees Jerome in a different light.
And most of all, for the most part, she bears very little blame for not seeing how nefarious and sick the man was. He had everyone fooled, for many years.
“Hey, what are you guys doing?” She takes a few steps up the stairs toward us and stops when Henry slides in beside me, vibrating with frustration. “What’s wrong?”
“Mommy, where my swim tunks?” He holds up a pair of trunks that no longer fit him. “The red and blue ones.”
“We’re going for a swim.” I tilt my head in the direction of the Pacific Ocean, only feet from our back door. “Did you eat? There’s some leftover salmon in the fridge. I put it on the grill with the cedar plank how you like it, and there’s rice and green beans.”
“Yum, it sounds good, but I had lunch with Eva after my appointment.”
“That’s go—”
Henry interjects, “Mommy,” and waves the offending shorts at us, quite upset with nothing to wear.
“Easy, Lovebug. They’re in the laundry room. Remember, they had sand in them and I washed them? They’re on your hook.”
He scampers past me, running down the stairs, or as best as he can with his short legs.
“Hey, slow down.” Her fingers ruffle his thick head of hair as he flies past her.
“As you can see, he’s excited.” I saunter down to the main floor and wrap an arm around her waist, bringing her with me into the kitchen. “Did you have a good session?”
“Yeah. It was amazing. Eva joined us.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Connie mentioned flotation therapy a few weeks ago, and I talked to Eva about it. Remember, that’s what she does for her headaches and pain?”
I nod, recalling something about it. If my memory serves me right, Eva mentioned getting into a private pool-like pod where you float for a period of time in a mix of saline solution, or something like that.
It’s supposed to be a zero-gravity environment, and somehow it lets your body reduce pain and stress. Eva swears by it.
“Gray, it was fantastic. You have to try it!” She grabs at my hand, and that’s when I notice her tied-back hair is damp. “It was so relaxing and soothing with absolutely no distractions. Nothing. It totally gave me clarity, and I feel so centered.”
She’s beaming, and I can’t help but smile too. I don’t care what she does so long as it helps her deal with everything in a healthy way.
“Sounds cool. Maybe I could try it sometime.”
She’s nodding her head up and down when Henry clomps awkwardly into the kitchen with black rubber flippers on his feet. One leg at a time, he lifts them high into the air and takes a giant, wobbly leap forward, and I can’t help but laugh.
“Daddy, I’m ready. Let’s go.” He’s got his snorkel in one hand and goggles in the other.
“Okay. We need to put your sunscreen on, and I’ve got to get changed.”
He groans, dropping his equipment onto the tiled floor. “Why aren’t you changed?” His gaze flits to his mother. “Mommy, stop talking to him. We’re going swimming.”
Daisy feigns offense, clutching at her chest, and her mouth gapes open. “Ouch, Lovebug.”
“Hey, little man, that isn’t nice. We’re happy Mommy’s home.” I curl one hand around Daisy’s neck and squeeze. “You up for a swim?”
“Yes. I just need to take my equipment out of the car and then I’ll join you.” She pecks a light kiss on my cheek and heads back to the front door.
Her business is going well, no thanks to Jerome. It turns out he was behind the canceled bookings, which at the time had made no sense in light of her award. She wasn’t in the right frame of mind to care or follow up with those clients, not until much later.
The bastard spread rumors about her lack of dedication and said she was difficult to work with. Fortunately, Daisy w
as able to smooth things over, and her work is now more than booming. So much so, she’s expanded to larger office space and hired a few more staff to assist with scouting locations and photo shoots.
And through the growth of her business and meeting new clients, she stumbled upon Minka, a small not-for-profit program for victims and survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.
She quickly bonded with Marta, the founder and mother of Minka, the woman who died at the hands of her attacker, and has been a huge supporter ever since. For free, Daisy put together a media campaign to help raise awareness and funds for the program. It launched only weeks ago, and they’ve already doubled their fundraising goal.
Daisy’s giving a lot to this small program but also getting an immeasurable amount of purpose and joy from the work she’s doing. And Marta is talking of expansion, which Daisy is all too happy to support in any way she can.
Jerome took something from her, something she still struggles to name or understand, but she’s healing and stronger than ever.
“Don’t forget we have the cake tasting this afternoon.” She saunters into her home office, just off the kitchen, with a bag in hand.
“I know, and we’re still taking Henry? I’ve got Joc on standby.”
Our wedding is a month away, and choosing the cake is the last thing to do. Both of us want small and intimate so there wasn’t a lot of planning involved, although Daisy might disagree. She’s done most of it with Pansy’s help, of course.
We’re getting married on the beach, just outside our back door with a small gathering of friends and family.
“Yeah, let’s take him. He can help us decide, and I haven’t seen a lot of him this week.”
She comes from the room, shutting the door, and hooks her arm around my waist from behind. The front of her slender body presses into my back, and her chest rests on my shoulder blade.
“He’ll love it.” I twist my neck, only able to glimpse the golden crown of her head. “You know, he might not be able to choose. He’s going to want all the cake.”