by Ivy Wonders
“For your information, Tabby loves being with us both. We’ve done lots of things together, and she’s perfectly comfortable and happy with Ky and me.” I shoved my hands into my pockets, fisting them as I started to get angrier about their intrusion into my personal life. “This shouldn’t even be happening. I didn’t even have to tell you about Ky.” Maybe I should’ve just kept my mouth closed.
Rebecca grinned. “Keep your mouth closed about what you do behind closed doors, and we won’t say another word about taking Tabitha away from you. Hide your tawdry things away from our granddaughter and society as a whole. We’ll pretend you’ve never said another word.”
Hide the love I’ve found?
“No way.” Not only would that be unfair, but it would devastate Ky. I wanted to be open about what we had. “We’re going to be a family. One day in the near future you may even hear Tabby calling Ky mom.”
Rebecca grabbed her chest, staggering backward. “No!”
Oh, the drama!
Claus caught her as she stumbled back into his waiting arms. Apparently, she’s done that on more than one occasion, because he’d gotten right into place.
“Yes,” I crossed my arms in front of me. “Ky and I are a couple now. Get over it. She’ll be in your granddaughter’s life whether you approve or not. My advice to you is to get on board. It might cost you the adoration of your granddaughter if you say nasty things about the woman she loves.”
Claus looked at his wife. “She talked a lot about her this weekend.”
Rebecca nodded. “She’s already got too much influence over Tabitha as it is. If she sees her as a mother figure, all will be lost. We’ve got to move forward, Claus. For our daughter and granddaughter, we’ve got to do what’s right.”
He nodded, and my jaw dropped. “You’re not doing anything, Rebecca. You can’t. I’ve never done wrong to my daughter to take her away from me.”
“We can cut off your money, Alexander,” Claus said. “That was our daughter’s inheritance, not yours.”
“As her husband, when she passed, her money is mine.” It pissed me off he’d use that against me. “Rachelle wanted me to have it. She wanted to keep our daughter’s life as similar to what it was before she passed. And the fact you want to take it away from us tells me that Rachelle didn’t tell you about the papers she had drawn up that left her assets to me.”
Claus looked at his wife. “Did she tell you she’d done anything like that?”
Rebecca shook her head. “I’m sure our lawyers can fix anything she’s done.” She looked at me with narrowed eyes. “We’ll give you a short time to come to your senses, Alexander. Only a short time. Drop the girl or hide the girl, that’s your choice.” Then she turned away and they walked out of my home.
When I turned back around, I saw Ky standing there with her eyes cast on the floor.
“Baby, don’t worry.” I walked toward her, and she put up her hands to stop me.
Now what?
Chapter 18
Ky
My hands on his chest, I felt the buzz in my brain as I said the words I’d never thought I would say, “I don’t want to see you anymore, Alex.”
“You don’t mean that,” he whispered as he took my hands off his chest, holding them between us.
“Tabby is more important than anything else.” Her grandparents had more money and power than Alex. “Those people can make things happen that you can’t. They can take her if they want to. And you don’t care about the money, but I’m sure their lawyers can take that away, too. You’ve got too much to lose to keep things the way they are between us.”
“I’m not afraid, Ky.” He pulled me in closer, wrapping his arms around me. “That’s not entirely true. I am afraid of losing you. I won’t lose you over them and their idle threats. So get that through your head right now.”
I held on to him, not wanting to let him go, but knowing I should. “They’re the first people in a long line that’ll declare what you’re doing with me is dimwitted.”
“I think you’re wrong.” He rocked from side to side with me. “This isn’t dense. Not even a little. My colleagues don’t think anything bad about this. I see those people every day. And here’s a tidbit about myself, Ky: I don’t give a damn what other people think. If my old inlaws want to take Rachelle’s money, then so be it. I make plenty of money on my own anyhow.”
“But this house,” I whined thinking about him and Tabby losing the home they lived in. “You’d lose it all.”
“No, I wouldn’t.” He hugged me tighter. “Everything we have is paid for. The house, the cars, everything. So what would I lose? Access to billions is all. And I doubt that’ll even happen. Rachelle used her parents’ lawyers to draw up the will. So their threat isn’t even doable.” His lips pressed against the top of my head. “But I’d give up all the money in the world if it meant I’d get to keep you.”
I didn’t know what to do. So I pushed him back a bit to look into his eyes. “Promise me that if they take you to court, and they are able to take Tabby away, you will end things with me.” The pain I felt at having that looming over us was ungodly.
“It won’t happen that way,” he said. “We don’t have to come up with a plan. They’re upset right now. They’ll learn to accept it. Besides, they don’t have time to raise a kid. They barely had time for Rachelle. She lived at boarding schools most of her childhood.”
I shivered thinking of Tabby living in one of those places. “That would be dreadful if Tabby had to go through that.” He needed to know I would walk away from him before anything bad happened to Tabby. “You might not need a plan if the worst happens, but I do. Understand that I will leave you if it looks like they’ll get Tabby. I mean it, Alex.”
He smiled, then kissed me. “You really love her.”
I put my head on his shoulder as I hugged him. “As much as I love you. You guys are like family to me.”
“You’ll make a great mother.” He kissed me again. “Someday. When we’re ready.”
My breath caught in my throat. “Are you saying one day you and I will have a kid?” A chill that flashed through my body.
“Or kids. A few more would enhance this family.” He twirled me around in a circle, dancing with me to no music. “You’re my family, Ky. No one can break my family up. Not even the old, rich Vanderhavens.”
Tabby came running into the foyer, her arms wrapped around my legs. Alex let me go to pick her up, then hugged me again. “Get in on this, Tabby. We’re in love and love you, too.”
She put her hand on my cheek, then whispered, “I love you, too.”
Tears were stabbing the backs of my eyes. “Me, too. I’d do anything for you, Tabby.”
“Can we have pizza?” she asked. “Nana only has veggies.”
I thought about how her life would be if her grandparents did manage to take her away. “Pizza sounds like a great idea. You must be starving.”
She rubbed her tummy. “Yes.”
Alex looked at his daughter with a sad expression. “Did you not have a good time with your grandparents, Tabby?”
“I missed here.” Tabby hugged him, and he looked at me weirdly.
Putting her down, he said, “Go put on a coat and we’ll go to the pizza place.”
She ran off like a streak of lightning as Alex looked at me. “I might need to draw up papers for you sometime, too.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. “For what?”
“For you to be able to keep Tabby if anything ever happens to me.” He looked concerned. “And you’d keep her capital, too. Until she’s old enough to handle it on her own.” He bit his lower lip as he contemplated things. “She needs to be protected. I don’t want her to grow up the way Rachelle did. She complained about her upbringing a lot. I don’t want my daughter to go through all that nonsense they put her mother through.”
“What about your parents, Alex?” I had no idea if he could make this stick if anything did happen to him, which I d
idn’t even want to think about. But losing his wife to cancer had him considering things I didn’t want to.
He shook his head. “Tabby hasn’t seen them much. She doesn’t know them enough to be her guardians. She wouldn’t do well with her other grandparents raising her.” His eyes met mine. “Would you want that responsibility, Ky?”
“To be honest, it would kill me for someone to take her away from me.” But I didn’t have it in me to fight her mother’s parents. “The legal papers would have to be pretty much bulletproof. The Vanderhavens seem to be tough adversaries. It would better to have them on our side.”
“It would,” he agreed. “Maybe with time, they will see we’re not so bad.”
Even he didn’t want to fight them. But he would do a lot better job than I could. “Let’s pray nothing ever happens to you, Alex.”
Looking into my eyes, he didn’t seem convinced. “If only prayers could stop bad things from happening, baby.” He put his arm around me as we heard Tabby running back to us.
“I’m ready, Daddy.” She skidded to a stop, then took her father’s hand.
Heading to the garage, we stopped off at the kitchen. Alex looked at the food the chef was already preparing. “We’re taking Tabby out for pizza. Ky and I will be eating dinner here though. We’ll take it in the lounge. Tabby’s weekend was sans junk food, and she has a craving.”
Rudy smiled at Tabby. “When you get back home, I’ll serve you up a big piece of the chocolate cake I made.”
“You miss me, Mr. Rudy?” Tabby asked with a grin.
“I did.” Rudy tapped his finger to her nose. “And those cute little freckles of yours, too.” He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a five dollar bill. “Here, play some games on me, Princess.”
With wide eyes, Tabby took the money. “Thank you, Mr. Rudy.” She looked up at her dad, then at me. “What a great day!”
Alex looked at me. “Yeah, it sure is.” As we walked away, he leaned in close to whisper in my ear, “And what a night we’ll have, my sweet little thing.” He looked over his shoulder. “Rudy, can you tell Chloe to get Ky’s things moved out of her room and into mine while we’re out?”
“I see,” Rudy said with a smirk as I blushed. “Congrats, you guys. You make a beautiful couple.”
Tabby seemed to think the same way, “They are cute.”
Alex beamed as I laid my head on his shoulder. He’d been right about the people around us being okay with us. That was what really mattered.
As I helped Tabby get secured in her car seat, Alex got behind the wheel of his Suburban. “So, which pizza place is it going to be, Tabby?”
“Hobbit’s Pizza.” She reached out to run her fingers through my hair. “Your hair is shiny. Pretty.”
“Thank you. Your hair looks pretty today, too.” What I overheard her grandparents saying about her grammar? I better start watching how I spoke and correct her when she used poor grammar. “You know, if you hear me saying anything like totes or def or anything like that, remind me that it’s not proper to speak that way. I’ll do the same for you. We do want to be smart, don’t we?”
Nodding, she agreed. “I want to be smart.”
“Good.” I finished buckling her in, then got in the front seat, finding Alex smiling at me. “What?”
“You make me happy.” He pushed the button to lift the garage door then backed out.
Tabby pointed at the radio. “Can we hear music, Dad? I missed my music.”
We both laughed, and I turned on the Disney music channel, and we all sang along as we went down the road.
This is beginning to feel a lot more special.
Chapter 19
Alex
The activities at the pizza place had worn Tabby out. She’d fallen asleep in the car, and I carried her straight up to bed. After tucking her in, I stopped by my bedroom to make sure Ky’s things had been moved into it. Seeing her robe hanging on the hook on the outside of the second closet made my heart dance. “She’s officially moved in.” I closed the door, then went down to meet Ky in the lounge where we’d be served dinner.
She sat at the bar, sipping on something pink. Her eyes followed me as I approached her. “Want to taste?”
“It looks kind of fruity.” I wrinkled my nose.
“It’s got rose tequila in it.” She handed the glass to me. “Come on, taste it.”
Taking a little sip, I found it good enough. “Not bad.”
“I made it up myself. I’m going to call it Ky’s Rose.” She smiled as she placed the short glass on the bar. “It’s got the tequila I told you about, a drop of maraschino cherry juice, and a splash of triple sec.”
“You’re getting quite creative, aren’t you?” I rubbed her shoulders as I stood in front of her, then urged her to sit with me at a table.
Delia came in with our salads. Her eyes went wide as she saw us like that. “Oh, that’s what Rudy was hinting at. You two are a couple now?”
Dropping her head, Ky blushed as the chef’s assistant learned about us, “We are officially a couple.” I took Ky by the chin to pull her pretty face up. “Right, baby?”
She giggled. “Right. We’re a great thing.”
“It’s nice to see you happy,” Delia said. “Things will work out well for you both. I’ll bring the grilled swordfish in later. Enjoy.”
I took Ky to the table, pulling a chair out for her. As she took the seat, she made a little moaning noise as she said, “Yum, swordfish. How ritzy.”
“That moan made has me hungry for something else.” I sat down, then reached across the table, taking her hand and holding it as I looked into those pools of green and brown. “I checked the bedroom after putting Tabby down. Your things have been moved to our bedroom now. And I am ready to break that bed in with you.”
Smiling, Ky looked away. “This is too much. At first it felt like a dream. I’m kind of freaking out.”
“Don’t.” I pulled her hand up, leaving a kiss on top. “This is real, Ky. All of it. Things won’t always go as planned. We will have disagreements.”
She cocked her head to one side. “Okay, now that we’ll be sharing a bathroom, you should know that my mother trained my father well. We never had to deal with a toilet seat being left up. I tend to go into the bathroom at night without turning on a light, trusting I won’t have a splashdown event.”
I let her hand go to snap my fingers. “Dang it. I never put that seat down,” I joked.
“Well, you better start, or you’ll hear me screaming for you to come rescue me.” She laughed, then took a bite of her salad. “Oh wow. Raspberry vinaigrette. It’s amazing.”
I took a bite and agreed, “It is tasty.”
After a scrumptious dinner, we headed to our room. It felt good to share a room with someone I love. As we walked into the living area of the suite, I gestured to the room. “I want you to give this space your personal touch. This is home to you.”
“The first thing would be a television.” She smiled as she took my hand, pulling me out of the living area and into the bedroom. “We can binge-watch shows while eating ice cream and drinking wine. That sounds like what couples do together on a Saturday night, doesn’t it? I’ve never been a couple, so I’m just spit-balling here.”
“We can do that sometimes.” I pulled her into my arms. “But mostly I’d like to ravage your body while we’re in here.”
“That sounds good, too.” She ran her hands up my arms, then into my hair. “How about we start ravaging each other right now?”
“I like the way you think, baby.” Pulling her shirt off, I tossed it on the floor. “And no getting up to change the sheets or pick up the things we’re tossing off got it?”
She nodded as she took my shirt off and threw it across the room. “Got it.”
The bed in my room was an Alaskan King, much bigger than the queen size she slept in. One glance at the bed and she was bewildered. She would feel lost in the thing. “Don’t worry, Ky. I’ll hang onto you, so you
don’t get lost on our enormous bed.”
“Promise?” she asked, laughing as she shucked out of her jeans. “Cause I can see myself winding up at the foot of this bed clear across the other side.”
“I won’t let you get far away from me.” I dropped my drawers, too, and looked at her gloriously naked body as she scanned mine. “First night in our room. It feels right.”
She nodded, then climbed up on the bed on her knees. “It does feel right. Now come over here and climb up on this monstrosity with me and make me feel even more right.” Turning over, she moved up the bed on her hands and knees to get to the top.
I yanked her by the ankle, stopping her. “And where do you think you’re going?” I dragged her back to me, smacking her ass once.
“Hey!” she yelped.
Flipping her onto her back, I pulled her until her ass was perched at the edge of the bed. Getting on my knees, I blew air across her cunt, then flicked my tongue out to tease her clit. She made a mewling sound that made my cock jerk. “I’m going to get my dessert now. You just lie back and let me eat you all up. I’ve got a craving for another drink. This one doesn’t have liquor to intoxicate me.”
Pressing my lips to her more intimate ones, I grazed them over her before running my tongue through the hot folds. She took my hair in her hands, pulling it as she groaned, “Yes, baby. Oh, that feels so good.”
“You taste like Heaven, baby.” I licked her up and down, then pressed my tongue into her sweet pussy, using it to fuck her relentlessly until she was crying in her orgasm.
Whimpering as she tugged my hair, she asked, “Will you fuck me, please?”
Getting up, my cock yearned to be inside of her now quaking walls. “Since you’ve asked so nicely.” I held her legs apart as I stood in front of her then thrust my hard cock into her pulsing pussy.
“Oh, yeah!” She grabbed the sheets in both hands as I held her hips and made hard thrusts.