The Partnership (Callaghan Green Series Book 10)

by Annie Dyer

  “Fuck, Georgia. I’m never going to get tired of fucking you. This,” he looked at my tits. “This is just for me now. No one else. And this,” he slammed into me harder, making me almost come again. “This is mine. Mine. Mine.”

  I felt him explode in me, his cum filling me up and his pulsating cock making me reach a sweet orgasm again. At some point, he’d get me pregnant like this. We’d make another baby, but until then we’d practice, and practice some more.

  We stilled, me in his lap, his cock still inside me. My chest heaved with heavy breathing, my nipples still tight, breasts swollen, and my skin pinked with arousal.

  “I meant everything I said.” He punctuated his words with a soft kiss. “Everything.”

  “I know.” I kissed him back, pretty sure we wouldn’t be sleeping tonight. “And you’re mine too. Forever.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Georgia

  Six months later

  “Mummy, do you know which box my Magic Treehouse book is in?”

  They were not the words I wanted to hear, not when my whole life was packed up in mostly correctly labelled boxes.

  “I do, but we’re not opening any boxes until we’ve moved them into our new house.”

  I’d already told Seph that this was the last time I was moving until I retired. The packing of books and clothes and kitchen items this time had been the most draining and I was done. Ava had tried to persuade me to get professional packers in, but I hadn’t been able to bring myself to it. The idea of having someone else touch my stuff and possibly not pack it how I wanted it just didn’t sit right, so instead I’d suffered, just not in silence.

  “But I want to read it while we wait for the ‘moval men.” Rose’s bottom lip quivered, something that worked beautifully on Seph, but hadn’t worked once yet on me, mainly because I was immune to it after seeing Olivia try it on our mother growing up.

  “I’m pleased you want to read it, but you’ll have to wait. Didn’t you get a book ready last night?”

  She nodded and looked even sulkier.

  Footsteps echoed from the almost empty hallway into the lounge, which was a room full of boxes. Everything was ready to go and it was only seven in the morning. We’d completed on the house we’d bought three weeks ago, and the painters and joiners had finished two days back, meaning we could properly move in.

  Rose headed straight towards Seph as he came through the door, reaching up to him for him to pick her up. I’d never carried her around much as a toddler, mainly because even though she was tiny, lifting her up was a workout in itself, but she sought that from Seph.

  “Ready for your new home, Tinkerbell?”

  She smiled at him and grabbed the centimetre’s worth of scruff on his jaw that had grown over the last few days. He refused to tell her off for doing it, and I decided not to interfere. If she ended up epilating his face at some point, that was his fault.

  “I’ve decided what mural I want on my wall.”

  Here we go.

  “Let me guess. A witch’s house.”

  “No!”

  “A big painting of me?”

  “No! You’re silly!”

  “Okay, one more guess… you just want it painting yellow?”

  “But purple’s my favourite colour!”

  “I give up. What mural do you want?”

  I touched his arm, drawing his attention to me. “Crap, we haven’t put the wall right in her room. It was stated in the contract – if we changed anything to the décor, then it had to made right when I left.”

  Seph gave me the dazzling grin I knew I’d never tire of. It made me both excited and slightly wary at the same time.

  “The landlord says it’s fine.”

  I frowned. “How would you know? I don’t want to get stuck with paying an overinflated bill.”

  “I asked him.”

  “You know the landlord?”

  “Of course I do. Very well, in fact.” His smile dropped a little. “This is probably something I should’ve told you earlier on.”

  “Joseph?”

  He moved his mouth from side to side, still holding Rose. “You remember when I said there’d be times I messed things up?”

  “Joseph…”

  “Let me phrase this a different way. Ready, Rose?” He put her down and stayed close to the floor himself.

  Rose ran off into the kitchen and came back with a smile so big it was about to snap her face in two, and a bag.

  I stared at my daughter, trying to ignore the fact that my boyfriend was on one knee in the middle of a load of boxes.

  “I have a solution to your mural problem.”

  Rose passed him the bag and he rummaged in it for a second, producing a small box. It was ring sized, but this was Seph, so that didn’t mean there was a ring in it.

  “Go ahead. Are you comfortable down there?”

  “I’m fine, just don’t think too much about your answer. Anyway, the solution. If you say yes to the question I’m about to ask, you will be joint landlord of this property, so the mural won’t be questioned.”

  “Joseph…”

  There was a squeal from Rose and she clung to my leg, staring at Seph who was still on one knee.

  “Georgia Marston, will you marry me? I think we make the best partnership, because you’re my best friend, the only person I want to wake up with and, well, ears and all.” He looked at Rose. “I have her permission.”

  My head spun. “Seph, what do you mean… shit, you’re proposing? Oh, holy… fudge.” I looked at Rose and realised I couldn’t swear right now. “Yes! Yes, I’ll marry you.”

  He popped open the box and a simple but rather large diamond solitaire on a gold band sat there.

  I saw his fingers fumble as he took it out of the box.

  “Can I stand up now? I haven’t proposed before and I have no idea how long you’re meant to stay down there.”

  I grabbed hold of one of his arms and tugged at him to come up. He stood, catching my left hand, the ring box now on the floor and the ring held between his fingers.

  “You said ‘yes.’” He put the ring on me, smiling as if he’d just won gold at the Olympics. “Congratulations, you now have a fiancé.”

  “Mummy, you’re getting married!” Rose clapped her hands together.

  Before I could look at her, I was tipped backwards, rather dramatically, Seph’s mouth on mine in a kiss that was very Disney romance and I knew was making my daughter – and me – swoon.

  He held me for longer than he’d kissed me afterwards, whispering in my ear about the kisses he’d give me later.

  “Wow. I think we need to repeat that so I can take it all in.” I felt as if a whirlwind had just swept me off my feet, which I supposed was what had happened twelve months ago.

  Seph held my left hand up so he could see the ring on my finger. “I was going to wait until we’d moved into our house, but the opportunity presented itself and I didn’t completely trust Rose not to lose the bag. That was her one job.”

  “You gave a five-year-old a very expensive ring to look after?”

  He shrugged. “She’d have been fine. I hoped. Now you just not need to lose it.”

  “It’s perfect.”

  “Good.”

  “What should you have told me ages ago?”

  He smiled, joy and happiness dancing in his eyes. He knew I would never be mad at him for long when he looked like this, happy and like I was his world.

  “I was your landlord.”

  “Shut the front door! You weren’t!”

  He nodded. “I bought this house off Ava and lived in it for a bit, before I got the apartment. The idea was for it always to be a rental. I should’ve told you, but it never seemed, I don’t know. I guess I forgot.”

  I nodded, stunned by everything. Plus, I could hear the removal men outside.

  “The rent went into a company that’ll belong to both of us when I add to that ring there.” He looked at my hand again. “What do you
think, Rose?”

  He dropped down again and picked her up, pulling the three of us into one huge, huge hug.

  “I think there’ll be more questions, but not today.”

  This was my world, my quirky, bouncy, happy world. And I loved it and both of them so very, very much.

  “Mummy?”

  “Yes, sweetie?” I mumbled the words into her hair, the three of us still holding each other.

  “Can I have a purple bridesmaid dress?”

  Epilogue

  Seph

  Eighteen months on

  I looked up at the shelf, tightening the screw a tad more. It wouldn’t fall down, no matter how many more books Rose put on it.

  “Daddy, Mummy wants you to go upstairs.” Rose was seven now, and since Georgia and I had gotten married, she’d decided to call me ‘Dad’ or some deviation of it. I’d had ‘Pops’, ‘Pa’ and ‘Father’ occasionally too, depending which buttons she wanted to press.

  I put the electric screwdriver down and eyed my daughter, because that was what she was.

  “What’s she tried to do now?” This could be as simple as that she was struggling to get out of a chair, given that she was about eleventy thousand months pregnant.

  “She said you needed to go upstairs because you needed to phone an ambulance because her waters have broken and then she swore. What does it mean that her waters have broken?”

  I was on my feet quicker than a cheetah grabs its prey. “It means you’re about to become a big sister.”

  Rose looked serious. “I’m not sure I’m ready.”

  “I don’t think any of us are ready, but we don’t have a choice. Did she say anything else?”

  Rose shook her head, running with me to the staircase, my phone clutched in my hand. “She shouted and yelled.”

  “Fuck.”

  Rose didn’t say anything about the swear word, and neither did I. My heart was about to drum itself out of my chest and panic was trying to take over my body. Not because I was about to witness my child coming into the world – this wouldn’t be the first birth I’d attended; I’d been there for Wren’s twins when they made their rather sudden appearance – but because I found out just a few weeks ago that when Georgia went into labour with Rose she’d had an unusually quick delivery, and the midwife had told us it could be quicker this time.

  “Rosie, go get the towels out of the linen cupboard and bring them back here.” I pushed her gently in the direction of it and headed into the bedroom where I could hear Georgia.

  She was holding onto the top of the large chest of drawers, her bottom sticking out and she was moaning. She’d pulled on a nightdress that was more sack than garment, but making comments like that would be enough to have me castrated.

  “I’m going to call an ambulance.” I put my hand on her back and rubbed. “Rose is getting towels.” I really hoped we wouldn’t need them.

  “No point phoning an ambulance. It won’t get here quick…” She stopped speaking to yell.

  I waited, bracing myself. After finding out about her rapid labour last time, I’d done a bit of research, looked at home births and what you could do if there wasn’t a doctor or midwife there.

  “Seph, help me get on the bed. I need to push, but I need you to tell me what’s happening down there.” She ended the sentence with anther yell.

  I half escorted, half carried her to our bed, pushing her bag out of the way. Rose came in the room with what looked like a dozen towels, looking slightly pale.

  “Can you phone Auntie Claire from the landline?” I looked at her and saw how scared she was. “Tell her Mummy’s having the baby at home.”

  We’d moved near to Claire, which was a blessing and a curse because she was so close. Right now, it was a blessing, because she’d be round here in two minutes if she was at home. Her number was also one of the contacts we’d made Rose memorise, Claire’s and Killian’s.

  “Okay.”

  “Then get a bar of chocolate and an orange drink. Put a film on. Mummy might be noisy, but she’ll be okay.” I could hear Georgia trying to keep her yells quiet so as not to scare Rose anymore.

  “Okay. Love you, Mummy.” She stepped to her and clamoured onto the bed, giving Georgia a quick hug and then legging it out of the room.

  “You need to check.” Georgia pulled up the nightie thing over her swollen belly. I had my phone in hand, my thumb hovering over the call button for the paramedics.

  I looked between my wife’s legs.

  Those tutorial videos were about to come in handy. We were having a baby, and it seemed it was about to be delivered by me.

  Forty minutes later and I was sitting on the bed next to Georgia, staring at the bundle of baby boy in her arms and wondering how I’d managed to find the most amazing woman in the world.

  The midwife busied about us, folding and checking, the job pretty much done before she’d arrived, let through the door by Claire who’d luckily been home when Rose called.

  “You’ve done well.” She looked at me approvingly. “Not as well as Mum, but you’ve earned a wee dram of something later.”

  I didn’t need to smile. As soon as Luke Joseph Callaghan had yelled and I’d held him in my hands, I’d started smiling and I didn’t think I was going to stop. Georgia had started crying – happy tears, she promised me – and we’d both held the bloody, squalling baby while the midwife helped finish everything else off, including dealing with afterbirth which was interesting to say the least.

  “I’m going to give you five minutes and tell your little girl to come and meet her baby brother.” She smiled at us again.

  I waited for the door to close and looked at Georgia. “You’re incredible.”

  She smiled, her eyes barely leaving our son. “Women do it every day.”

  “But you just delivered our son. He’s perfect, Georgie. Like you.”

  She didn’t say anything, just leaned over to kiss me over Luke’s head.

  “Next time, we’ll book a hospital room a week before your due date.”

  Her laughter was giddy. “Let’s not talk about the next one. Not for a couple of years.” This time when she looked at me her eyes lingered. “Joseph Callaghan, when I took the job as a partner at Callaghan Green, I never realised that the partnership I accepted would be more than just office based. Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  She shook her head. “Don’t start fishing for complements.”

  We both smiled.

  “Thank you for being everything. For me and for Rose.”

  I knew a tear had slipped out of my eye. I pretended it wasn’t there.

  “I should say the same to you. This, us – it’s my everything. I fucking adore you, Georgia Callaghan. You’re my happily ever after no matter what the fairy tale.”

  THE END

  READY FOR YOUR NEXT BOOK BOYFRIEND?

  Want to spend some time in Severton? And want more Callaghan Greens?

  Lainey Green swaps London for Severton in Sweetened, moving onto the farm coveted by Jake Maynard. Sparks aren’t the only thing setting fires in this enemies-to-lovers romance. Pre-order it now.

  Have you read Stirred? If enemies-to-lovers is your manna, then you’ll want to stay in Severton for Stirred. Keren Leigh and Scott Maynard have been at daggers drawn for years, until their one-night ceasefire changes the course of their lives forever.

  Ready for something darker?

  The Tarnished Crowns Trilogy is deep, dark and suspenseful. A royal romance with a twist, start with Chandelier and enter a world where no one knows who to trust, and your darkest secret might be your saving grace.

  Still not sure? Then turn the page and find a little peak into each!

  SWEETENED

  Sweetened is the fifth interconnected standalone in the Severton Search and Rescue series, and sees a crossover with the Callaghan Greens.

  Here’s an unedited snippet to whet your appetite!

  Chapter One

  Jake Maynard was
pissed off.

  It was raining, and the forecast had been for dry weather. The barn roof was leaking in, and he’d been promised it’d been fixed. The feed delivery was late, and it was meant to have been there this morning. Three of the alpacas had escaped, and the fence should’ve been enough to contain a world-class escapologist.

  The neighbouring farm and its land, that should’ve been his, weren’t, and from the top of the barn roof, where he was trying not to slip, he could see the new owner.

  Tempting as it was to say the day couldn’t get worse, Jake knew that was the best way to tempt fate and he knew from experience, it could get a whole hell of a lot shittier.

  “If you stop glaring over there, we might get this done a lot quicker.” His cousin, Zack, tapped Jake’s foot with a hammer. “Then we can find the walking flea bags that are probably destroying my livelihood.”

  Jake picked up the hammer and debated chucking it into the field where his neighbour was checking one of her horses, which he knew damn well was his idea of chucking his toys out of the pram.

  “The alpacas don’t destroy anything. They keep your grass down and entertain your residents.” Jake had already considered pushing Zack off the roof.

  He was also considering spending the rest of the day in his workshop where no one else ever went, because these murderous urges weren’t getting any less.

  “They also get let into the building by Glenda, and I’m not sure that wouldn’t get us shut down if someone official visited.” Zack owned and ran Sunrise, a residential care and nursing home for the elderly. It had been built on family land and shared a boundary with Jake’s farm.

  The alpacas had learned that getting into there was manna; plenty of people to feed them treats and act as if they were pets, and Jake was pretty sure they had enough intelligence to do it to annoy Zack.

  “Just tell them it’s alpaca therapy.” He passed the hammer back to Zack. “It’s probably a thing. Check with her; she’ll probably know.” He nodded in the direction of his new neighbour. “Seems to know everything about therapy.”