by Lia Lee
“So, turns out your secretary was a diamond in the rough,” Doug said. He glanced at Elena and lifted his champagne glass. She nodded at him. I doubted they would ever like each other, but they tolerated each other for the sake of the company.
“She’s so much more than that,” I said. “But you’re right. What we needed came from the most unexpected place.”
“How is the new secretary?” Doug asked. I had managed to find a new secretary that could replace Elena. Of course, no one would ever replace Elena, but this one was good enough for the job she needed to do. Even Elena approved.
“So, I’m here to congratulate the two of you,” Doug said. “You did really well.” He looked at Elena. “Especially you.”
“Thank you,” Elena said, smiling. For the rest of the night, we spent time with my employees, and we were congratulated by everyone before we started a conversation. It felt good to be with my people, to mingle, to spend time with them. They all worked very hard, and they deserved to see how well it had paid off. If my company had gone bankrupt, it wouldn’t only have been my loss, a lot of people would have lost their jobs. I was so glad that we could have prevented that.
“Let’s get away from the crowd,” Elena said later that night. I nodded and walked with her to my office, and she closed the door behind her. She turned to me and wrapped her arms around my waist, pulling me into a hug.
“This is where it all started,” I said.
She nodded with her head against my chest.
“We’ve come full circle, you and I,” she said. She looked up at me with her bright green eyes. “I love you, Noah Fuller. Thank you for giving me a chance, not just as an employee, but as someone you can love.”
I shook my head. “You’re the one I should be thanking. You saved the company without even realizing it. You saved me. When I met you, I was a single father, confused and alone. I didn’t know who I was and how I fit in this world. Thanks to you, I have somewhere I belong. I have a family.”
Elena smiled at me, and I dipped my head to kiss her. Standing here in my office, surrounded by the semidarkness, my employees partying outside the door, everything felt perfect. I slid my hand down her body and onto her stomach that was starting to grow. She was showing, but barely. In time, that would change.
“I can’t wait to meet this little person,” I said. I kneeled before Elena and kissed her stomach. She ran her hands through my hair, smiling down at me.
“I’m pretty sure Baby can’t wait to meet you, either.”
“I am so excited for our future together,” I said to Elena. “The road ahead is bright and happy. I just know the company will make it as long as we work together as a team. We’re going to have a beautiful child, and Lilly is the perfect older sister.”
“Don’t jinx it,” Elena said. “What if something goes wrong?”
I shook my head. “I doubt something more could go wrong, but if it does, we’ll handle it the way we handled everything that went wrong before. Together. That’s the way we’re going to get through life, you and me.”
Elena smiled. “You’ve always been an optimist,” she said.
“I told you. Everything will be okay.”
Epilogue
Elena
Nine Months Later
“It’s time for bed, little lady,” I said to Lilly who sat on the floor in the living room watching the movie Moana.
“Just another ten minutes, Daddy,” Lilly said.
I shook my head. “Unfortunately not, honey pot. Come on, let’s get your teeth brushed.”
Lilly groaned, switching off the movie and getting up. She tried to fight me on going to bed every night, now. It was amazing how much she could grow in a year. I was starting to see glimpses into what it would be like when she was a teenager.
“Where’s Elena?” Lilly asked on the way to the bathroom.
“She’s feeding Bryant,” I said. “She’s going to tuck him in the same time I tuck you in.”
Lilly grumbled something before sticking a toothbrush in her mouth, and I went to check on Elena in the nursery. We had changed the guest bedroom close to our bedroom into the baby’s room. Elena sat in the rocking chair, feeding Bryant. She was humming something soft and low, and the dimmer switch in the room was already on.
“There’s my little prince,” I said, kissing him on the forehead before kissing Elena. “Are you okay, here?”
“I’m putting him down the moment he’s done feeding, and then I’ll come kiss Lillian good night.”
I watched Elena for a moment longer with our son. Bryant was two months old, now. He had been born late at night when the first snow had started falling, and it had been one of the happiest days of my life. Since then, things had only been getting better. Lilly was a terrific big sister, taking care of Bryant, protective over him. We had been worried that she might be jealous now that she wasn’t getting all the attention, but she slipped into a family of four seamlessly.
Diane still worked for us, but she was on baby duty more often, now. We had employed full-time instead of only doing afternoons with Lilly, and she loved Bryant as much as we did.
When Bryant had been born, the press had gone mad. We had managed to keep the pregnancy completely quiet. Everyone at Saturn Intelligence had helped us keep it under wraps so that we could enjoy the pregnancy and the birth in private. Of course, keeping the baby a secret hadn’t been that easy, and in no time at all, we had been painted as the perfect business family. The story of my romance with Elena had circulated again. Saturn Intelligence was back in the limelight, and that had boosted our sales for a while.
We had been worried that the publicity would affect our family life, or that something negative might arise. But it had been two months, and everything was fine. Everyone seemed to be on our side. The company was doing well. And we were the happiest family. I wouldn’t have chosen for my personal life to be strewn all over the news, and the scandal of me kissing Elena had put a strain on us at first, but if I had to go back and do it all again, I would have done it exactly the same. I was happier than I could have imagined any man to be, and my story with Elena was only beginning.
“Good night, princess,” I said to Lilly after I kissed her on the head. “I think we should go to the movies tomorrow. Just see you Elena and me.”
“What about Bryant?” Lilly asked.
“We’ll get Diane to watch him. I think we need to spend some big kid time.”
Elena and I tried to make time for Lilly away from Bryant. The baby needed a lot of attention, and we didn’t want to make Lilly feel like she had been replaced somehow. So far, it was working.
“Do I hear talk of a movie day?” Elena asked, coming into the room. She kissed Lilly good night as well.
“That’s exactly what you heard,” I said.
“That sounds great to me,” Elena said.
We closed Lilly’s door and walked to the main bedroom together.
“I’m so tired,” Elena said.
Having a new baby in the house took a lot of time and energy, and we were both exhausted. We hadn’t had the energy to have sex since Bryant had been born. But tonight, when we were under the covers, Elena rolled toward me so that we were pressed against each other. Her hand slid around to my back, and her lips were only a sigh away from mine.
“Are you up for it?” I asked.
“I am. I miss you”
So, in the dark of the night, quietly so neither of the kids woke up, we undressed each other. I relearned my wife’s body by feel, running my fingertips over every inch of her, following my hands with my mouth. Her lips found mine, moving down and finally finding my cock.
When I couldn’t take it anymore, when she was driving me crazy, I flipped her onto her back. Her legs fell open for me, and I positioned myself between them. It had been so long since I’d been able to do this. When Elena had been pregnant, we’d been restricted in our positions, sticking to doggy style or her on top. Now, I lay on top of her, my face abov
e hers and I pushed into her.
She gasped quietly as I did, writhing beneath me, and I loved the feel of her body beneath mine, lean again, the body I knew as Elena’s. I ran my hands down her sides, and she shivered. Her breasts pressed against my chest, her nipples hard. I kissed her, slipping my tongue into her mouth before I started moving inside her.
I pulled out slowly before sliding back in again, working in and out of her body with slow, torturous strokes. I knew I was working her up, pushing her closer and closer to the edge without letting her tip over. She complained to me, whispering about it, her words trapped between us like a secret. We had to be quiet with the children around but doing it as quietly as we did added to the thrill.
I started thrusting harder and faster, fucking her until she whimpered through her first orgasm, the best she could do to keep quiet. I lifted my head and listened for a sound from the two rooms.
“They’re still fine,” I told Elena. When she orgasmed, I was her ears and the other way around. If we orgasmed at the same time, we hoped Lilly wouldn’t walk in on us.
“Do me on my stomach,” Elena said. I nodded. She wanted the positions we hadn’t been able to do for months now, too. I pulled out of her, and she rolled over onto her stomach. I lay my body on hers again, and she gasped as I put most of my weight on her. Her legs were slightly wide, and I found her entrance, pushing into her. I starting bucking my hips, sliding in and out of her, and she muffled her moans with the pillows.
She orgasmed again when I rode her like this, and before long, I was on the edge, too. I started fucking her harder and harder until I came. I emptied myself inside her. For a moment, I thought about getting her pregnant again, but we would wait, I told myself. At least until Bryant was a year old.
When I pulled out, I rolled off her and lay next to Elena, holding her against me.
“I love you,” she said.
“I love you, too,” I answered. “I have a question.”
“Yes?”
I looked at her in the semi-darkness, her profile delicate and perfect, her green eyes pools of darkness without the light. “Will you marry me?”
Elena lifted her head. “Really?” she asked.
I chuckled and nodded. “Really.”
She didn’t hesitate, not even for a second.
“Yes!” she cried out.
I chuckled and kissed her. “I’m so glad you said yes,” I said. I reached for the lamp on the nightstand before opening the drawer and retrieving a black velvet box. “Because this wouldn’t have fit anyone else.”
“Oh, my God,” Elena said and took the box from me. She opened it. Inside, a rose gold ring with diamonds winked at us. I’d had it in my drawer for the past three months. I had meant to propose as soon as Bryant was born, waiting for the right time. I hadn’t been right until tonight when I’d suddenly known that I could never live without her, that I didn’t want to.
“When I met you,” I said, “you were the hottest woman I had ever seen, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t hire you for your looks. But that wasn’t the only reason I hired you. I was intrigued by your mind, and you had that MBA that tickled my business side. As the time ticked by I got to know you, and I realized that I couldn’t do without you – not just in a business sense, but as a person. You bring the best out in Lilly and me, and you gave me a beautiful son. There is no one I would rather grow old with than you, Elena Hayes.”
She was smiling at me, her eyes welled with tears. The ring was on her finger, but her eyes were on my face.
“I can’t begin to tell you how much I love you and the family we have together,” she said. “I’m so glad you hired me. And I’m glad that you came after me that day after I stood you up, that you came to fight with me, fight for me.”
She kissed me, and we cuddled back under the covers. I reached for the lamp, and the room plunged back into darkness.
“We should tell Lilly tomorrow,” I said.
“We should,” Elena agreed. “And I’d like to officially adopt her if I can.”
I wasn’t sure what that would entail, legally, and if we would be able to find Cheryl if we needed her consent. But I was happy to look into it. I already saw Elena as the mother of both my children and even though Lilly was difficult sometimes, I knew she looked up to Elena as a role model. That Elena wanted to adopt her as her own was the perfect ending to a story that had been destined to be happy from the start.
THE END
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Chapter One
Quinn
The Neighborly Thing To Do
It’s too damn hot in here.
My eyes feel like boiled onions as I try to read the words on my computer screen. I can’t remember a September so blistering in my twenty-two years on this planet; not even here in Arizona where it’s hot most of the time to begin with. Although when my dad and I go camping in the desert sometimes, it can be blessedly cool at night—even cold on occasion.
But it isn’t night. And we aren’t camping. I lie on the bed of my upstairs bedroom in the same-old four-bedroom rancher we’ve lived in forever, with my laptop propped in front of me, open to the notes for Wednesday’s quiz. Just one more year to finish my Master’s in Psychology at ASU, and I’ll be free to move on, find a good job or maybe even set up my own business. Hopefully somewhere more temperate than scorched Scottsdale. Though I love our house here, it seems awfully empty with Mom gone.
With a pang of sadness, I realize it’s almost two years since the accident that claimed her life, and in a way, it claimed mine and my dad’s too. Frederick VanderKemp, noted and respected family doctor, for all his skill and knowledge could not have saved his wife from the oncoming semi that crushed her small vehicle on a lonely Arizona highway that night. He’d never been the same since, and his practice had suffered. Our lives went on hold as the two of us stayed locked in the dubious comfort of our shared grief.
For that reason, I couldn’t leave my dad to deal with it all alone. I’d buried myself in my studies, shelving my own sadness while helping him to cope. When I graduate, I want to become a grief counselor and help others to overcome such devastating events and put my experience, as traumatic as it is, to productive use. It would help me heal in the process, too; put the tragic past behind me for good. I miss my mom, but nothing will bring her back. Dad and I both have to move forward somehow.
I roll over onto my back and rub my tired eyes. I can’t take another second of that bright screen, or read yet another case study on counseling methods for substance-induced behavioral disorders. Dealing with psychos and drug addicts was not going to be my area of specialization. But, as part of the mandatory curriculum, I have no choice but to learn it if I want those letters behind my name someday. And I definitely want them.
In truth, the rubric isn’t all that different than the methods for treating depression or PTSD. Empathize with the patient, make them feel safe, help rationalize their thought processes to avert potential destructive behavior. It sounds so simple in theory. But I can’t say for sure if I’d remember what to do or say if I came face-to-face with some trigger-happy meth head, and I hope I never have to find out.
I expect my friend Rochelle to be calling soon, like she always does on Sunday nights, trying to persuade me to come out for drinks at one
of the campus bars.
“You’ve gotta get out more,” she always says. “Meet some guys, for Christ’s sake. You’re like a damn nun—wearing your schoolwork and your virginity like habit robes. You need that cherry popped, girl. You’ll feel better, I guarantee it.”
She makes it sound like punching a ticket for admittance to some exclusive club; some status symbol I should be striving to attain. I sigh and tug my cotton tee shirt away from the sweaty valley between my breasts where the material has stuck. Sex is everywhere on campus. Horny guys and gals seem to float through classes and social events for no other reason than to get off or get laid, and they don’t care with whom. That’s not me. Maybe I’m delusional, or just old-fashioned, but I want my first time to be with someone I really care about, and who cares about me in return. Was that so impossible these days? Was it so much to hope for?
As much as I feel the same urges as my classmates, I know all the guys approach me only because of my looks, and only want one thing. My blonde, blue-eyed Dutch genes and my mother’s voluptuous curves are more of a curse than a blessing. I’m just a tantalizing Dutch Treat on legs to them—a hot, fluffy waffle with whipped cream on top, ready and willing to be eaten wherever, whenever, like a $2.99 all-day breakfast special. Ugh. I dream of a guy who might actually want me because of me, Quinn VanderKemp. Gentle, smart and caring. And a virgin.
Dammit. Waiting for Mr. Right to “pop my cherry” doesn’t stop me from feeling as horny as the rest of them. Sweat trickles down my abdomen from beneath my tits, and I feel my nipples press annoyingly beneath the fabric stretched tightly across them. Jeez, couldn’t just a little breeze waft in through my open bedroom window? The spinning ceiling fan offers some minor relief from the devilish heat, but not nearly enough.