by Ella Miles
I shake my head. “I read the contract front to back ten times before I signed it. I know better than to sign a contract like that without reading it first.”
“Go get your copy of the contract.”
I sigh. This is pointless, but I walk to my makeshift office in the corner of my dining room. I dig through the stack of papers until I find the contract, and then I bring it back and thrust it into Kade’s hands. He flips through the pages, but can’t find the one he’s looking for.
He flips to the third page, studies the paper for a second and then begins pulling at the corner. Two pages are stuck together. And when he pulls them apart, and I see the paragraph. Tears fall from my face, most likely forming puddles on the floor near my feet.
“You wanted a baby this whole time. It’s encouraged in the contract, but ultimately up to me if I want to pursue or not. You think I’m the perfect woman to have a baby with, and you want an heir because you are probably never going to get married for love. And you would love a child with a woman you care about, to love, to be your heir, and keep other women from trying to get knocked up so their child would become your heir,” I say, paraphrasing all the important parts of the contract.
He nods.
“You want this baby?” I ask.
“As much as I want to spend the rest of my life loving you.”
He wipes the tears from my eyes. “Will you have me? Let me try to make up for all the horrible things I’ve done to you. Love you and this baby and—”
I don’t let him finish. My lips land on his in the most passionate kiss. “I’ve always been yours, from our first kiss, to the first time we had sex. Even when you pissed me off, it didn’t make me love you less. It just made me mad.”
“Then, you’ll let me love you for real, forever?”
“You can love me for as long as you can stand me,” I say, still sobbing as our bodies collide together.
He kisses me over and over.
“I’ll never get enough of you, beautiful. I loved you even when you wouldn’t let me. I just didn’t know how to convince you to love me through your fear.”
“Now you don’t have to, because I’ll never be afraid again as long as I have you.”
“When do I get that five million bonus in the contract for having your baby?” I tease, not believing he thought I would ever be after his money.
He smirks. “I think I owe you half of my money, my businesses, and my heart. We may have been fake married in our hearts, but on paper, our marriage is very real.”
I smile. “I like real.”
20
Epilogue
Kade
“You are not proposing to me again,” Larkyn says, brushing past me to rearrange the flowers at the entrance of the sanctuary that she and my brother created together. I’m a little jealous, actually, that he gets to work with her every day. They’ve created something incredible, and today is the grand opening.
I smirk. “How did you know I’m planning on proposing again?”
She flashes me a glare, but all I can do is laugh, because her heart isn’t in it and it turns more into a half smile, half grimace.
“Because I know you. You won’t leave my side, you bought me a new dress to wear today, and you bought enough flowers to fill my entire house.”
“Our house,” I say, referring to her home that we moved into together. I wasn’t sure I would like the smaller, more modest home. But I love that there are fewer places for her to escape to and hide away from me. And I like that it gives us a fresh start.
“And can’t I just do something nice for you?” I ask.
“No, you are up to something.”
Larkyn grabs the vase of flowers and moves them from the right side of the front desk to the left side.
I wrap my arms around her stomach from behind and feel her relax in my arms. I love that I simply have to touch her and she melts.
“Everything is going to be perfect. Now stop fussing, and kiss me,” I say into her ear.
Her head leans into me as I speak in her ear. I turn her head toward me as I kiss her, not able to let go of her stomach, where our baby is due any day now. She turns her body toward me to deepen the kiss and her arms wrap around my waist. I grin against her lips when her hands grab my ass, then slide toward the front of my slacks shocking me. I might get to fuck her in her office.
“Ah, hah! What is this?” she asks, pulling a tiny box out of my pocket.
I shrug. “I don’t remember putting that in there.”
She glances down at my mother’s ring that hasn’t left her finger since the night we told each other we loved each other and wanted to make this real. I would never replace that ring with another.
“You didn’t buy me another ring, did you?” she asks, exacerbated with the idea of me buying her more jewelry.
I grin. “Open it and find out.”
She eyes me and the box carefully. And then opens it. She smiles and shakes her head, as she pulls the tiny handmade heart out with a note attached that says: You’re mine forever.
She looks at me unsteadily as her eyes grow bigger, and I know, if I do this right, she’ll cry, and I’ll get to see her gorgeous tear-streamed face filled with love.
“I didn’t want to propose. I know you don’t want me to. And I don’t either, but I wanted something special to cement our new relationship before this baby comes,” I say, placing my hand on her stomach.
Her lip trembles.
“We don’t need a redo. Everything I’ve ever felt for you was real. The pretending, the marriage, the love. All of it real. The only thing fake was when I treated you like crap.”
“I don’t want a redo either.”
“We don’t have to get married again, or go through a proposal or any of that. I just wanted you to know that I will spend the rest of my life finding ways to tell you and show you how much I love you, forever.”
She kisses me, and I forget about my speech or what I was planning next. I know I need to wrap this up soon so we can officially open her business to the public. But I need a few more stolen moments with her. As soon as her business is open, and we have this baby, I know my stolen moments with her will be few.
“I’ll be yours forever, as long as you promise never to be an ass again.”
I smirk. I love calling herself mine. I love it when she calls me her husband or her baby daddy or any of the words she uses to describe me too. She loves me. And I love her. I was afraid, for far too long, of screwing up and becoming my father, but the only thing I needed all this time was the right woman, one that I didn’t want to screw up with.
“Can I be an ass twice a year?”
She raises an eyebrow at me.
“Never being an ass is too hard,” I say.
She laughs, and I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to get to listen to her laugh for the rest of my life.
“Fine, but you’ll be sleeping on the couch any time you are a jerk. And you have to do cute things like making me handmade hearts to win me back after you fuck up. But no more pretending to be a jerk because you enjoy watching me squirm.”
I smile; I never want to be fake with her ever again. “Deal.”
The End
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Savage Love
** Now an Amazon top 100 bestseller! **
I hate him.
He's made my life a living hell every day since we were five years old. We've been enemies since the day he cut off my pigtails in first grade and I retaliated by drawing on his face with a sharpie.
Our hate of each other grew stronger as we got older. We grew more savage in the way we dealt with each other. We broke bones in fights, sabotaged eac
h other's dates, and ruined any chance each other had at happiness.
We went our separate ways after college. I never thought I'd have to deal with that asshole again.
But I'm out of a job, so when the opportunity to compete for one of the highest profile PR jobs presented itself, I jumped at the chance. Even if it means I'll have to compete with Carter for the job. I'll be more than happy to crush him on the way to my dream job. I'm willing to do anything, savage things, to ensure I win.
There's just one problem. I forgot how much my body betrays me every time I see Carter. Because despite all the horrible things he's done, it doesn't stop me from wanting to do naughty, unthinkable things with him. Will my savage heart be enough to resist his charms?
Prologue
Victoria
My heart flutters in my chest as Mark leans against the locker next to mine with a grin on his face. I try to focus on putting my books into my locker and packing up my backpack to go home, but I can’t focus. I have a feeling I know what he’s here to ask me and an unsettling feeling pulls at my stomach every second that passes.
“I have a question I’d like to ask you,” Mark says.
I grin as I pile the rest of the books into my locker, not bothering to organize them at all. I turn to give him my full attention. “Ask away.” Please don’t let it be that he wants to invite me over to study for geometry again. I loved spending time with him the last time, but I want to be more than just his tutor.
He glances down as he rubs his neck.
I sigh. Mark is great. He plays soccer, he gets good grades, he’s good looking. He’s not exactly in the popular crowd, but he is definitely high on the social ladder. And every sign points to him being interested in me.
“How did your geometry test go?” I ask, breaking the awkward silence.
“Good, thanks to you.”
“Have any plans for this weekend?” I ask at the same time he asks, “Will you go to prom with me?”
I stop breathing and my cheeks flush. He asked me. He finally asked me.
He smiles at my reaction. “So will you?”
I open my mouth to say yes, when my brother, Logan, walks up between us and his jerk of a friend, Carter, throws his arm over my shoulder.
“You ready to go?” Logan asks, looking from me to Mark.
“Can you give us a minute?” I ask glaring at my brother to leave me alone for five minutes so that I can say yes without having to be teased about it the rest of the night.
“Can’t do that. We have to get home, have a busy afternoon planned,” Carter says, staring at Mark as he pulls me tighter into his chest. I don’t know why he’s acting like this. He loves to tease me and torture me, but he’s not interested in me. I can tell from the way that Mark is looking at him and then to me that he thinks we are together. We aren’t.
“I should go. I have practice. I’ll catch you later Victoria,” Mark says, turning around and jogging quickly in the opposite direction.
“Mark wait,” I shout as I run after him, but Logan steps in front of me blocking my path and Mark doesn’t turn around or hesitate for a second.
“What are you doing?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Mark Wagner really? You want to date Mark Wagner? You do realize that guy has slept with half of the girls in this school and that all he wants to do is get in your pants,” Logan says.
I frown. “So? Maybe I want to sleep with him.”
“No, you don’t,” Carter says from behind me.
I turn and glare at him too. “You guys can’t tell me who I can and can’t date.”
Logan sighs. “Come on, Carter promised his mom he’d be home early today to babysit the new foster kids.”
I grab my backpack off the hook and then slam my locker shut. I’ll argue with Logan later once we drop off Carter. Once we are home and I’m alone I can call Mark to tell him yes.
“Here let me help you,” Carter says grabbing my backpack out of my hands.
He swings my backpack over his shoulder along with his own as all three of us start walking down the hallway toward the parking lot where Logan’s 1994 Buick LeSabre sits.
I raise an eyebrow at Carter not understanding at all why he’s offering to carry my backpack. That is something nice people do or boys do when they are dating someone. It’s not something that Carter does.
“I can carry my own bag, thanks,” I say reaching out to grab my backpack back but Carter grips it tighter.
I exhale deeply and give up. It’s not worth the fight anyway. I’m just glad that he’s going to be at home tonight instead of over at our house like usual. I could use a break from him.
We get to the Buick, Logan climbs into the driver’s seat while Carter opens the back door for me. I climb in giving him an what the hell has gotten into you stare. He hands me my backpack before closing the door and climbing in the front seat. Logan puts the key in the ignition and we all cross our fingers while we wait for the engine to purr to life. When it does, we all sigh in relief that we don’t have to spend the afternoon walking the five miles home.
Carter turns the radio on to some hip-hop station. Neither Logan nor I like hip hop but it helps Carter relax, which is what he’s going to need if he’s going to survive an entire night at home. We all sit in relative silence, the music the only thing keeping us company until Logan pulls up in front of Carter’s trailer and turns the car off. Carter stares at the front door, but doesn’t move to jump out.
Our home life isn’t great, but Carter’s is far, far worse. He became a foster child when he was six. His foster parents have basically treated him as free labor and a welfare check ever since. He rarely stays at home, usually sleeping on our couch or in Logan’s bedroom. Today is one of the rare occasions when he’s required to be home. He’s supposed to babysit his foster siblings.
Carter exchanges a glance with Logan and then opens the door and climbs out of the car. He doesn’t say anything and we don’t either. We don’t say good luck dodging his foster father’s beatings. We don’t say keep your cool while the people that are supposed to be your parents throw all their money away on the slots instead of providing food and clothes for you. We don’t say anything because despite not having to worry about getting beat, our life isn’t much better. So we just watch Carter walk up to the door and disappear inside.
Logan doesn’t start the car up again. Instead, we just sit outside and hope that Carter comes back. Even I, who hates Carter’s guts and wishes I had some time to myself without having to worry about what stupid pranks he and my brother are going to pull on me, would rather have him here than getting beat.
“Why did you and Carter try to get between me and Mark?” I ask as I climb into the front seat.
“You’re too young to date,” Logan says ignoring me and staring at the door. He seems more worried than usual about his friend.
“I’m fifteen! That’s plenty old enough. You started dating way before that.”
“Yea and I shouldn’t have. You don’t want to end up like Amber, do you?”
I frown. “I’m not stupid enough to get pregnant in high school like my sister did.”
He finally looks at me. “You’re not having sex or dating until you’re in college.”
“You can’t tell me what to do. You’re not my father. You’re only two years older than me.”
He sighs and runs his hand through his hair. We both realize that it’s time to go. That Carter is stuck inside for the night and there is nothing we can do to protect him. Not tonight anyway.
“I can’t tell you what to do. Date Mark if that’s what you want. Just be careful, you’re the only one of us that has a chance at breaking free of this shitty town.”
I smile a little as I twist my frizzy hair around my finger and put my feet up on the dashboard.
Logan starts the car and begins speeding off toward our house. He glances in the rearview mirror and suddenly steps on the breaks.
“What the hell?” I s
ay as my body is thrust forward and then back abruptly.
Logan continues to stare in the rearview mirror as his face goes white. I turn around scared to glance behind me when I see Carter running toward our car. He throws the backdoor open and jumps in. Logan immediately steps on the gas as soon as Carter is safely inside. I see Carter’s face out of the corner of my eye. His eye and cheek is black and blue.
We don’t ask questions. We don’t have to. And Carter offers up no explanation of what happened. We just drive to our house and pretend that this isn’t our life. That we are normal kids that don’t have to worry about problems like this.
Logan parks the car in the driveway to our house. It isn’t much, just a little over a thousand square feet in total. We don’t have a garage and the lawn has never been taken care of so it is mostly weeds at this point. We walk up the sidewalk that has large cracks in it and throw open the front door that no one ever bothers to lock. It’s not like there is anything worth stealing inside anyway.
We all head to the kitchen. We’re starving and food is the only thing that will make Carter forget about what just happened. Logan throws open the fridge and finds it empty. He opens the freezer and finds one bag of peas which he hands to Carter. He puts it to his face.
“Mom! We are out of food,” I yell as I walk into the living room.
I fold my arms across my chest when I find our mother in her usual position, passed out on the couch from drinking. She works the night shift at a convenience store and then spends her days drinking or smoking. I don’t even know why we bother calling her Mom, it’s not like she is one. We are basically on our own, always have been, always will be.
I walk over to her because I can’t take her crap today. I shake her shoulder until she finally stirs enough that she opens her eyes.