by Ruby Vincent
I pulled him down, caressed his mouth with my tongue and then plunged inside. “You’re my warrior,” I murmured as we broke apart. “My knight.”
“What should I be careful of?” He climbed on my bed—hands and legs on either side of me.
“Making me come so hard I crack a rib.”
He hissed. “Damn. This is going to be rough for you, then.”
Carter swallowed my laugh. Lips connected, he pushed my gown up to my chin and made short work of my underwear.
Kisses dotted a path between my breasts, gentle as they passed over my stomach.
Excitement thrummed beneath my skin. I’d been waiting for this for so long. Carter forgiving me. Loving me. Making me his.
Both of us banged up in a hospital didn’t enter the picture I had, but our love story had been a wild roller coaster. This was almost fitting.
I sucked in a sharp breath as he tasted me. “I’m going slow.” His husky drawl tightened my lower belly. “Taking my time. Any objections to that?”
“There will be no objections for the rest of the night,” I said quickly. “That is blanket permission to have your way with me.”
He chuckled, and was still chuckling as he entered my folds, sending sweet vibrations through my body.
I fisted the sheets, head falling back as he kept to his word. Licking, tasting, and rolling his tongue through every inch of me. I’d never been eaten out so thoroughly before—usually because I was impatient as hell.
“Dammit, Carter,” I hissed. My back arched off the bed, riding a wave of pleasure and pain. His tongue was slowly fucking me in a way that was undoing me thread by thread. “Why haven’t we done this before?”
“You were stubborn.”
“You were stubborn!”
“Are we seriously fighting while having sex?”
“I—” A moan escaped me. Carter added a finger to the party, continuing his achingly languid exploration. “We are, because you’re impossible.”
“Will this make it up to you?” He crooked his finger, hitting that spot, and my eyes rolled up in my head.
“You’ll... have to do that a few more times to earn forgiveness.”
“Then I’m not doing it with a finger.”
Rising up, he rolled the condom on and positioned himself at my entrance. I opened my arms, wrapping in his firm, warm weight as he carefully lowered on top of me.
“I love you, Belle,” he whispered. “I loved you even while I hated you. I was hard, unyielding, and angry, but you steadied me. I needed your balance then, like I need it now.”
“You have it, Carter.” Groaning, my body tightened as he pushed in. Carter rained kisses on me as I relaxed, opening myself fully to him. “You have me.”
He started pumping—unhurried and deliberate strokes that withdrew to the tip and then connected us as one. Hushed moans, whispers, and promises filled the room.
He lowered his head, taking my hardened nipple in his mouth, and flicking it in pace with his gentle thrusts.
I said I could do this, but this hurt more than a little. My ragged breaths rocked my sore ribs and my knee hurt wrapped around him. Still, I’d lose my mind if he stopped.
The sweet taste of him. Peppery, cinnamon grapefruits. And the rightness of the first boy to make my heart skip a beat, filling me whole. Together it dragged and swept me under while the pain buoyed me, letting me hold out longer than I could before.
My rising orgasm came slow, fought through hurt, demanded to be earned, and was all the more special as it wracked my body, sending showers of numbing pleasure that beat everything else back.
This was me and Carter. The way we were now, had always been, and would always be.
“That hurt,” he whispered. “Didn’t it?”
“A little.” I drew him down next to me. “You can make it up to me the next time. And the time after that. And the one after that.”
“I look forward to it.”
Carter moved down, running his hands over me and dropping kisses in their wake.
“Have you ever had that feeling?” he asked. “That you’re on the edge of something huge. One of those times when you know your life is about to change.”
“Yes.” I reached for him, desperate to have him in my arms again as he kissed my toes.
“This is one of those times, Belle. I’m going to build that firm—I know it. I’ll be your husband—I know that too. Right now, I can see our story as if it’s already been told.”
He sank on top of me, capturing my lips.
I can see it too.
Carter Knight came to me. Our fate was sealed now. Our love story written in the stars.
I would never walk away from him again.
NATHAN
“Thank you for helping, Nathan.” Mrs. Lewis-Adler smiled at me over the suitcase. The two of us were packing up Belle’s room. “It warms my heart to meet the caring, sensitive man you’ve become.”
“That means a lot coming from you,” I said. “Considering how Belle and I ended.”
She waved that away. “Why concern yourself with endings when new beginnings are so much better? I have a feeling you and I will be seeing a lot of each other,” she said. “Let’s have a fresh start.”
“I definitely hope we’ll see a lot of each other. I hope you see me across the dining table. Standing with Belle before a preacher, and in a few Adler-Princes.”
Laughing, she came around the bed and hugged me. “I do too.”
“Nathan.” Hendrix stuck his head in the room. “Your grandfather is here.”
“What? Why?”
“Mrs. Desai asked him to come,” he replied. “I’ve shown him to your room.”
I hesitated—part of me holding out hope Hendrix would say he was kidding.
He didn’t.
“I’ll be right back, Mrs. Adler.”
“Take your time.”
I walked one door down and pushed into my bedroom. The colonel stood in the middle of the room, eyeing the shattered pieces of beer bottle I had yet to pick up.
“Rosalie said you were doing well this summer,” he said by way of hello. “Seems she was mistaken.”
“I have been doing well.” I lightly closed the door. “Haven’t touched a drop in weeks, but I’m surprised to hear you were concerned. I didn’t get that impression since you didn’t bother to encourage therapy, rehab, or even talk about my issues at all except to highlight why they prove I’m a failure.”
The colonel’s blank expression didn’t twitch. “I was not concerned. It was your problem and yours alone to deal with. When will you learn no one is responsible for you but yourself?”
“I learned that at twelve. You made sure of it.” Stuffing my hands in my pockets, I leaned on the door. “What are you doing here?”
He sniffed. “Rosalie insisted I come. Preston shot. Carter shot. And that girl abducted and beaten. She felt you needed my support, and was most insistent.”
“She really is a force of nature, isn’t she?” I laughed. “Getting you to come here to check on me? I’m tempted to ask if blackmail or bribery was involved.”
Orion’s lips curled. “Don’t you dare use that tone with me.”
“Oh look, the grandpa-grandson bonding is over. Shame.” I cracked open the door. “You can go now.”
He reddened like I told him to leave by the balcony instead of the door.
“Ungrateful, spoiled brat. I flew all the way here to call on your friends and bring you home, and this is the welcome I get? You have no respect. No discipline. And no common sense. You three were fools chasing after that man with nothing but a flare gun,” he spat. “Your idea, I’m sure. Carter and Preston are good sons from good families, and you almost got them killed. Is it any wonder I treat you as I do?”
I listened impassively, and answered the same.
“You treat me as you do because you’re a racist.”
“Excuse me?!” he sputtered. “How dare you?! I am no such—”
&n
bsp; “Save it,” I sliced in. “Didn’t think Mom would tell me, did you? Maybe she wouldn’t have if things had been different, but we’ve always talked, and Alzheimer’s hasn’t changed that. One night, she told me the full story of the day she brought the love of her life home. How her father took one look at him and said a ‘nappy-headed thug would marry my daughter over my dead body.’ She didn’t forget to mention you sending the police after them.”
Orion’s face went slack—jowls bleached of color. He hadn’t thought I knew about that day.
He opened his mouth. “Things are said in the heat of the moment—”
“What moment?” I cocked my head. “The moment you send your daughter to an island to find a wealthy husband and she comes back with one? That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? So, why wasn’t it a happy moment?”
His chest heaved. The colonel always had something to say. He was always larger in the face of me. Not today.
“Vanessa did not recall that night in its entirety,” he finally said. “She has dementia, Nathaniel. You should know better than to take everything she says at face value.”
I quirked a brow. “That’s what you’re going with? Seriously?”
“I am not a racist,” he snapped. “A racist wouldn’t have taken you in. Provided for you. Given you the best education money could buy. I have been there for you.”
“You abused me.” The sentence fell from my lips, taking a great, heavy burden with it. “Emotionally and verbally. You’d bellow for hours that I was an embarrassment. A waste of blood and oxygen, and I should have been on that boat with my father. You’ve fired anyone that stood between you and me, and you’ve been tirelessly fighting to cut me out of my mother’s life, so I’d finally be gone for good.”
“Nathan—”
“No. No!” I shouted. “I talk now, you bastard! For once, you’re going to listen!”
Orion fell silent.
“I’ve seen what a real family is,” I said. “Families who give up everything for each other. Who are supportive even when they don’t agree with their choices. Who love each other unconditionally. Belle’s father watched his life fall apart and his first thought was to protect her. Her mother got herself kicked out of a wedding, defending an outfit she didn’t even like. While you have never said a kind word about me to anyone. Ever.”
I shrugged. “That’s sad. It was for me and every kid that wanted a family and got an abuser instead. But you know what? It’s you I feel sorry for. You wanted a family molded, cut, and beaten into your perfect image, and now... you have no one.”
Straightening, I looked my Malcolm Byrne in the eyes. “I’m moving out for good, and I’m taking my mother with me.”
“The hell you will!”
“I will,” I said clearly. “Forget marrying a rich wife or waiting until I’m twenty-five. I have seven years of abuse and countless witnesses to prove you’re not fit to be her guardian. You got something to say about it, I’ll hear it all in court.”
I crossed to my nightstand, plucking something out as a stream of filth flew from his mouth.
“—waste is exactly what you are! You should have been on that boat! You and that piece-of-trash stole the best years of my daughter’s life. She could have been a success. Rose to the top. But you two dragged her down and made her nothing! You are—”
Slamming the door shut, I cut off his tirade. “Have yourself a heart attack, you miserable old man. I have somewhere to be.”
Bounding downstairs, I snatched poor Hendrix’s keys off the hook again and took off in his car. A strange, humming fervor took over me. Lighting my nerve endings with sparks.
I was free. I was fucking free of that man forever, and soon—much sooner than six years—my mother would be too.
I swerved into the hospital parking lot and hopped out, rushing up three floors and down a wing to Belle’s room. She, Carter, and Preston jumped when I burst in.
Carter was sharing her bed, showing her something on his phone, and Preston was sharing her lunch. It was the kind of peaceful, relaxed scene I hoped I’d walk into for the rest of my life.
“Nathan,” Belle said, smiling fit to turn me inside out. “There you are. Get in here. There’s room in this bed for you.”
“That is part two.” I reached into my pocket, pulling out the ring box. Her eyes widened as I knelt beside her bed. “This is part one. Belle, I love you. I love everything about you—and not in the way that everyone says it. I love your style and your threats. I love the way you kick me and drool in your sleep.”
She pinked. “I don’t.”
“You do, and it’s the cutest damn thing ever. Everything you do is magic, Belle Adler. You are my fairy tale, and if I spend the rest of my life drowning in you, it’ll be a life lived better than everyone else on the planet.” I bobbed my head. “Except for these two assholes, if you insist on keeping them around.”
Eyes shining, she laughed breathlessly.
“I love you, Belle. Will you marry me?”
Tears dripping down her cheeks, Belle put out her hand... and bopped me on the forehead. “Get off your knees, dummy. We can’t get engaged.”
I blinked. “Uhh... Okay. That wasn’t the answer I was expecting.”
Belle took my hands, dragging it, and me, to her heart. “Nathan, I love you too. That proposal was perfect, and I want to say yes. Just not today.” She looked at all of us. “We’ve been raised to do this all wrong. To get caught up in the heat and romance of a perfect summer, and then jump in with our eyes closed. But I don’t want to do that with you guys.
“I want college, crappy apartments, and eating cold pizza on the floor. I want the awkward meet-the-parents family dinners, and summers backpacking. I want to fight and make up a million times. And then, I want to marry the shit out of you. Can that be okay?”
“That can be more than okay, Belle.” I kissed her soft and sweet. “I’m all in.”
Preston held her hand. “You know I’m not going anywhere, Cinderella.”
“Agreed,” said Carter. “This is another one of those things I’m going to get stubborn about.”
“I love you,” she said.
“We love you too.”
Epilogue
Ten Years Later
Belle
“Carter? Carter, will you call the kids in, please? It’s almost time for lunch.”
My love got up from the kitchen stool, clad in an open shirt and trunks. He was playing defender in their water balloon fight until they tired him out.
He opened the back door and let in a torrent of shouts and screams.
“Austin, Vicky, Princess,” he called. “Time for lunch.”
“Blow it out your shorts, Daddy!”
“Shit,” he cried. Carter slammed the door just as the water balloon burst on the glass. “Little savages,” he muttered. “I blame you.”
I laughed as I tossed the salad. “I believe that one was yours.”
“Austin is mine, but all of them are yours. Who is the common denominator?”
Walking past him, I swatted his butt. “You’re going to want to have sex with me later, so I suggest behaving yourself.”
“I’m going to want to have sex with you in the next ten minutes, so feed the savages quick and let’s go upstairs.”
I shot him a wink over my shoulder. “I can make that happen.” I stuck my head outside, watching the three beautiful children who were definitely all mine, running happily through our back yard. Austin Knight, six years old and more mischievous than his father ever was. Victoria Prince, our sweet, curly-haired beauty who turned five the week before today, and Phoebe Desai, who demanded all call her Princess, and at four years old, was quickly learning she could get what she wants.
“Kids, come inside for lunch,” I said, “and stop being mean to your daddy.”
They dropped their balloons and toys and came running. Phoebe only stopped to take Grandma Vanessa’s hand. “Come on, Grandma. Lunch time.”
Na
than helped his mother off the chaise, holding her hand in one and our daughter’s in the other.
It was a long, hard road for Nathan to wrest guardianship from his grandfather. Court hearings, witnesses recounting the painful events of his childhood, and then the final twist of the knife.
A deeper dig into his parent’s documents and estate planning revealed Jameson Prince did state that his son would not receive his inheritance until thirty, unless something happened that left his mother unable to care for him. His grandfather knew this, having received all of their things when he assumed guardianship of Vanessa in the first place. With this information, she was removed from his care, restitution was ordered, and his reputation was left in tatters.
I kissed Vanessa’s cheek as they came inside.
But that was years ago. She was happy, safe, and loved with us. So was Nathan.
“Mommy, where is Daddy?” Princess asked. She looked so much like her father, it struck me every time. My little princess would break hearts with a look. The world had better get ready for her.
Picking her up, I snuggled her close. “Daddy is in his cave, baby girl. Go get him.”
I set her on her feet and she took off running.
His cave was what I called the room where he kept his favorite art pieces. It doubled as his office where he coordinated his family’s galleries and art collection.
Leaning against the doorframe, I looked out over my family. So much had happened in the decade since we left the cove.
Parsons, Julliard, Yale, and Columbia.
Nights eating cold pizza on the floor and fights that brought down all of New York City. We worked hard. Traveled hard. And loved hard.
My boys saw me through the creation of my company and fashion line, Citrine.
I cheered Nathan on through his years at Juilliard, and his career as a film scorer that eventually led to his own studio and company. I supported Preston when he and Delilah fought back against August Winthrop. Their battle was finally won when Delilah convinced the board to oust him, taking over and giving Preston control of Desai Industries.