All Mine

by Lisa Renee Jones

  “But she didn’t tell him about the pregnancy,” I say. “Are you sure?”

  “He didn’t know when we were going through this. I’m certain of it, and knowing Cat, she was worried about the trial he was in the middle of and probably just didn’t want to have their news ruined by this woman. Of course, I wouldn’t know. I barely got her to let me help.” He gives a bitter laugh. “Ironically, I think it’s me being an asshole that won her over. The woman was threatening to go public. Her partner in this was following Cat around. Reese wanted to send Cat away, but she was afraid if the woman went public, that would make Reese look guiltier, like she left him. She was worried for her marriage and her husband’s reputation. Now, I know she was also worried for her child.”

  “I can’t imagine how horrible that was for them. What happened? How did it end?”

  “This is between you, me, and Gabe. Cat and Reese don’t know. I paid off the woman’s family, got her out of town, and then paid to have a DNA test done.”

  “Why don’t you want her to know?” I take his hand. “That was an amazing thing to do.”

  “Cat and Reese have money, but my sister has worked her butt off to build up her career. I heard her say she’d have to write another book to pay the woman off. It was a large sum of money that I negotiated down. I also demanded the DNA test.”

  “Has it been done?”

  “Not yet. Soon. The woman gives birth in a few weeks, and Cat and Reese are aware of this. They might not talk about it, but it’s on their minds. I know on some level they both need to know the other one has those results. I think it’s better that they don’t know the results are coming. The anticipation would weigh on them.”

  “You get them first?”

  “Yes. I get them first.”

  “What if—”

  “It’s not his baby,” Reid says. “The woman confessed to lying for money but the test is just peace of mind, which brings me to where my head is tonight. Reese would never have hurt Cat like that and yet that woman tried to make it seem as if he had.”

  “You did a good thing helping and you didn’t even take credit.”

  “She knows I helped. That’s when we started getting closer and then you came into the picture and made sure that it kept happening. The bottom line is this brought me back to us. I can’t fully protect you any more than Reese can Cat. That’s almost unbearable to me. I didn’t want to fall in love. I didn’t want to have someone that I could lose or hurt but I can’t imagine life without you.”

  My heart squeezes and I lean forward and press my hand to his face. “Then don’t.”

  “I can’t lose you, Carrie. I might have walked out of this bedroom tonight for five minutes, but that was me battling with the idea of wanting control that I’ll never have, that I can’t ever fully protect you.”

  Suddenly his need to tie me up, to demand control, makes sense. I take his hand. “You can’t protect me from everything any more than I can you, but you can go to sleep every night knowing that if I die tomorrow, I’ll die loved and happy. I’ll die in love and happy with you.”

  He pulls me to him and cups my face. “You don’t get to die. Ever. You hear me?” He kisses me before I can tell him that I can’t make that promise so I let it go but I don’t let him go. I won’t ever let him go. And he doesn’t let go now either. He picks me up and carries me to the bed, and this time when we’ve torn away our clothes, he doesn’t fuck me. He makes love to me and me to him and when we fall asleep, it’s holding each other. Neither of us letting go.

  ***

  Saturday morning is cold. Reid and I workout in the gym and then shower together before we both dress in jeans and bundle up for our outing to meet Snowflake, but first we detour to our favorite coffee shop. I really love that we have a coffee shop and little habits between us now that we share. We’re walking to the shop, past my old building to find all kinds of construction work going on. “Looks like they’re finally getting to work on fixing that place,” I say.

  “Do you miss it?” Reid asks, pulling me under his arm, his big body sheltering me from the December chill.

  “Remarkably, not at all,” I say, glancing up at him. “I thought I would, but I feel at home with you.”

  “We should talk again about buying a new place or remodeling.”

  “I don’t need us to do that, Reid. I like what we have.”

  We enter the coffee shop, order and wait for our drinks. “Why don’t we just look around for a place?” he asks, returning to the subject of our home.

  “We have a wedding to think about,” I argue. “That’s enough for now. I’m really excited about the place Cat suggested for the wedding.” I touch his cheek. “I really am amazed at what you did for her. I wish she knew. Maybe one day you’ll tell her.”

  He kisses my hand. “I just want her to have that DNA test.”

  My brow furrows. “I wonder if she told your dad about the baby?”

  “I would vote no on that one, and I’m sure the fact that she doesn’t have a parent to share this news with is bothering her.”

  “I hate that she doesn’t have her mom to share this with and the same for you with our wedding.”

  He strokes my hair behind my ear. “She would have loved you and the changes you’ve brought in me would have pleased her.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yes, Carrie. Very much so and I do regret that she’s not here to meet you and see what you’ve made me.”

  “I didn’t do this. She did with that letter. Have you talked to your dad at all?”

  “Not today,” he says. “I don’t expect we’ll hear from him anytime soon.”

  “What about Christmas?”

  He arches a brow. “What about it?”

  “What’s he going to do for Christmas?”

  “He never comes to Cat’s place. He never invites anyone over. He’s alone, by choice, though this year I think we’d all agree with his choice.”

  “That’s sad,” I say, as they call out our drinks.

  “Only you, my gorgeous woman, could feel sorry for my father. He’s a killer, remember?” He heads to the counter and grabs our drinks.

  When he returns and hands me my cup, I reply, “I guess it’s easy to forget that part because it doesn’t feel real.”

  “Forget my father. We have a good day planned. Let’s keep it good.”

  I smile. “We’re going to meet our cat today,” I say excitedly, as we head out of the building toward our hired car.

  Reid pulls me close and says, “Snowball, right?”

  “Snowflake,” I correct.

  “That sounds like a political joke.”

  I laugh. “It does, doesn’t it? We could call her Snow White.”

  “Hmmm. Maybe. We need to meet this cat to know what we think.”

  We head outside and when we reach our hired car, we’re laughing, his father, and even last night, forgotten. Today is about starting our family and nothing is going to get in our way. My man won’t let that happen and I love that I know this. I love that I trust him the way Cat does Reese. Reid will never betray or hurt me. I will never betray or hurt him.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Carrie

  Reid and I travel to a Brooklyn rescue to meet Snowflake but stop by a pet store and buy supplies just in case we end up taking our new kitty home. The minute we walk into the home of her foster, she’s at my feet meowing. I kneel down and start stroking her back and I’m in love instantly. Reid knows it, too. He chats with the foster a few moments and then kneels beside me, stroking Snowflake’s head. “We’re new cat parents, aren’t we?”

  I smile. “Yes. We are.”

  “I should tell you,” the foster, a woman in her mid-forties with dark, braided hair, says, “My daughter started calling her Kesha, after the singer she loves, and she answers to that now.”

  Reid eyes her and then me. “It’s better than Snowflake.”

  “It’s kind of cute,” I say, picking up Kesha. “You�
�re cute.” A comment that earns me purrs and face rubs. “She’s so sweet.”

  “Orientals are lovers,” the woman says. “She will be on your lap and at your feet all the time.”

  Reid stands up. “What do we need to do to make Kesha part of the family?”

  Family. I really love that he just used that word about us and Kesha. “You’ve done the application,” she says. “And Kesha seems sold. She’s yours.”

  My eyes light and I set Kesha down and stand up. “Thank you so much.” I look at Reid. “I think you need a Kesha tattoo and then everyone will ask who she is.”

  He laughs and wraps his arm around me kissing me. “You’re a crazy woman. Now you’re about to be a crazy cat lady.”

  “Yeah. Isn’t it great?”

  A few minutes later we have Kesha in her cute pink bag in my lap and we’re headed home. “I wonder if she’ll try to take down the Christmas tree?” I ask. “Cats like to do that.”

  Reid gives me a sideways look. “Now I have a Christmas tree and a cat to try to destroy it. Talk about a change from last year to this year.”

  “You also have a woman in your bed every night.”

  “For the rest of my life, baby,” he says. “When are we getting married?”

  “I really hate we can’t do Rockefeller Center at Christmas, but it’s ten days away. That would be nuts.”

  “What about before they take the tree down? I looked it up. It comes down the seventh. I can have Connie see if she can find us a place in Rockefeller Center between New Year’s and the sixth, but that gives us about two weeks to plan a wedding. I still think it’s too fast.”

  “It is pretty fast,” I agree, “and as much as I love the idea, I want us to enjoy our first Christmas and we have all this stuff going on with the company and our fathers. Maybe we should just pick a day in March. That gives us three months to plan.”

  “March it is, then,” he says.

  I stroke the kitty and add, “I think we should go with whatever Saturday we can find a place we like for the wedding.”

  He pulls to a stoplight and takes my hand. “Perfect, baby.” Kesha pops her head out of the carrier and meows. We laugh. “She agrees,” I say, and for the first time, in perhaps my entire adult life, I’m happy. I didn’t realize I wasn’t before, but I know now that I was living without really living. Reid has changed me as well and I think I need to tell him this and soon.

  Once we’re home, we set the kitty up with all her new things, which include a bed in about every room we’re ever in. There is lots of fluffing, purring, and general kitty cuteness. Reid and I settle onto the couch to work and we are walked over, and our pens and papers are shoved to the floor over and over. What’s really remarkable to me is that this man who came off as so hard and cold is a magnet to our kitty and so very good with her. Reid hid so much behind his wall, and it’s really an amazing thing to see him show his true self now.

  Come bedtime, we snuggle under the blankets and about the time that Reid has his hand on my breasts, and his cock between my legs, Kesha jumps on top of us. Reid actually laughs, kisses her nose and sets her on the floor. “You wait,” he says. “I get her first.”

  And he does.

  Get me first.

  He proceeds to make love to me, in a tender, sexy way that has me falling in love all over again. When we’re done, it’s like Kesha understands because she’s back on the bed, and a few minutes later, I fall asleep with Reid at my back and Kesha snuggled in front of me in the crook of my body. My little family. I love them. This is perfect. We’re perfect and I’ve decided my man is also perfect.

  ***

  Sunday morning, Cat and I decide to meet at her favorite coffee shop which has all kinds of fun pastries on the weekends. I bundle up in jeans and a sweater as well as my coat, and leave Reid to his work and our kitty. I laugh as I leave the apartment and glance at him sitting on the couch, his computer in his lap right in front of the kitty, who is also in his lap. If I didn’t soften that man up all the way, Kesha is going to finish the job.

  A while later, as I sit at a table with Cat munching on pastries and sipping coffee, I share that moment with her, and she smiles. “I love what you’re doing to him. Our mother would, too.”

  “So he tells me,” I say. “He talks about her. More so as time goes on. I know about the letter. It affected him. He hates that she thought he would be like his father.”

  “It’s amazing to me how you’ve changed him. I mean, he told you about it. I feel like that is big with Reid.” She lets out a breath. “Mom didn’t know about the murder of his girlfriend. I didn’t know. Does Gabe know?”

  “Honestly, I don’t think so, but for some reason, I haven’t asked that. I assumed that he didn’t, but were they in school together?”

  “No,” she says. “They actually were accepted into different schools, so you must be right. He told no one. He shut us all out.”

  “He felt like you were like her. Like you’d sacrifice yourself for someone you loved so he didn’t want you to love him. He used his asshole persona to just keep everyone away.”

  “Obviously, that wasn’t a healthy response,” Cat says. “Should he see someone?”

  “I don’t think he will and I think he’s healing.”

  “I’ll trust you on that because he does seem better. I just don’t want it to somehow come between you two.”

  “It won’t,” I promise. “I think I’ve become his sanctuary of sorts. He was affected by your baby news. He talked to me about it, though.”

  “Because of the divide between us, right? I know he talked to me with your prodding. Thank you for that.”

  “It was more than the divide between you. He told me—I hope it’s okay—he told me about the blackmail. He was upset that you must have been aware you were pregnant when that was happening.”

  “I was,” she says. “It was—hard. I didn’t want to ruin the moment for me and Reese so I waited, hoping I could somehow make it special, despite all of that mess.”

  “And did you?”

  “Oh, yes. Reese made it special. That man is the world to me, but enough about me. You and Reid. The wedding. I got a list of place for you in the Battery Park area with open dates.”

  “You did that for us?”

  “Of course,” she says, covering my hand with hers. “You’re family now, Carrie, and we need you in this family.”

  I tear up. I can’t help it. I have not felt a part of a family ever in my life. “Oh, honey,” Cat says. “Why are you crying?”

  I tell her about my mom and talk about my dad, I feel as if I have a new friend in Cat. After breakfast, we head over to the pier location where Cat suggested we have the wedding and I’m in love. It’s cozy and gorgeous, right off the water, and I can’t wait to have Reid come see it. So much so that I set up an appointment to bring him back.

  Cat and I part ways on the pier and I’m walking toward our building when suddenly a man is standing in front of me. Elijah Woodson. “You do know he fucked my wife, right?” he demands. “In my house, in my bed, as a ‘fuck you’ to me for crossing him in business.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Carrie

  I recover from the shock of Elijah standing in front of me far quicker than I expect.

  “He didn’t go to your house and fuck your wife, and you know it,” I snap. “And stop following me or I will call the police.” I try to walk around him.

  He steps in front of me. “He lied to you if he told you differently. He lies. That’s who he is.”

  “If you don’t let me pass, I will scream and there are plenty of people around to hear me.”

  “Don’t be a fool. He’ll hurt you like he hurt me. I’m just trying to save you the pain.”

  “Seems more like you’re stalking me and trying to scare me to hurt him. Move out of my way, Elijah.”

  He grabs my arm and pulls me to him. “This isn’t over,” he growls and then he sets me away from him so hard I smack into
a person passing by.

  “Sorry,” I call out and twist around, darting toward a group of people and then rushing inside the nearest building because I just don’t want to walk alone right now.

  I enter a high-rise that I know is a residence for a reason. I don’t want a crowd Elijah can get lost inside and sneak up on me. I enter the lobby and walk straight to security, where I greet the guard. “A man was following me. I’d like to stand here while I call someone to come get me. I live two buildings down.”

  The man’s eyes go wide. “Of course. Call. Do you need me to call the police?”

  “No. Not yet. I’ll let you know. Thank you.” I pull my phone from my pocket and start to dial Reid and have a really bad thought. I dial Royce Walker instead.

  “Carrie?” he answers.

  “There’s this man, I can’t even remember in this very moment if you know who he is.”

  “I do,” he says. “Deep breath. Tell me what’s happening.”

  “Elijah confronted me and even grabbed me.”

  “Where are you?” he asks.

  “I’m in Battery Park and I’m not far from Reid, but if I call him he’ll charge after me, and I’m afraid that’s what Elijah wants. What if he set him up to shoot him or something? Royce, I was at a wedding venue with Cat, and he confronted me not far from there. That means he followed me there.”

  “You’re right. That is smart thinking. That could be exactly what he’s doing and I know it took tremendous willpower to call me and not Reid. Where are you?”

  I grab the card off the security desk and I read him the address. Once he confirms he has it, I ask, “Should I call the police?”

  “Not until we talk this out with Reid. Right now, I’m going to send a man to Reid to confirm he’s safe, while I come to you.”

  “The minute he sees your man, he’ll freak out over me,” I say. “There are reasons I can’t let that happen.”

  “And we can’t risk him needing help right now.” He’s silent a beat. “I’ll call him on my way to you, confirm he’s safe and then keep my man at his door. Are you with the guard at the building?”

  “Yes, and he said I could stay here until help arrives.”