“It’s the bacon,” he explained like he knew what the fuck he was talking about. “Men and bacon. It’s in our DNA. Add bacon and we’ll eat almost anything.”
She agreed with a shy chuckle.
“Up you go, little lady. On your feet. I have to get going.”
He grabbed her for a ravishing kiss.
“Behave yourself today,” he told her before picking up his keys and dashing out the door.
First, they had sex. Lots of it. Raunchy, joyful, and straightforward sex with a side of exuberant fuckery.
Then they made love, and she was transported to a place beyond the stars where she and Roman were the entire universe. He filled her soul. She found paradise in his arms.
In the twilight before dawn, while still wrapped in the aftermath of their fierce lovemaking, Roman Bishop put his heart into her hands for safekeeping.
Using the same wondrous magic that stole her heart, he produced a bauble so extraordinary that she shot upright and gasped.
He’d already asked her to marry him, and she’d said yes. This, however, this was different.
The ring he slid on her finger took Kelly’s breath away. She knew what it was the minute she saw it.
There was a company in New York known for unique vintage styles that used recycled gems. She loved everything they did. As a fledgling jewelry designer, their work influenced some of her designs.
She was overcome by emotion. Roman understood her on a level so deep that she was staggered by what that meant.
He shared himself then—heart and soul. The wistful sound in his voice when he spoke of losing his wife and child tore at her heart. Things she was sure he’d rather never speak of were whispered. The way he talked about the war and what he’d experienced made tears leak from her eyes.
His hopes for their future melted her bones. He wanted her to reach for the stars—with him by her side. He used words of love and support for her dreams, her wishes, her desires. Whatever she needed to be happy, that was his only goal. If she wanted to tinker at home, he’d make that happen, and if she wanted to open a store in Beverly Hills? He’d make that happen too.
With his hand on her belly, he admitted to his most secret desire. To make a baby and watch their child grow inside her.
He spoke of Matty with such love and devotion that she started to cry in earnest. Fatherhood promises were made. Matty was their first, and his importance to their lives was sacrosanct.
As he had from the beginning, he reiterated that nothing happened without her full consent. She understood what he meant. He was talking about Liam’s considerable influence in all of their lives.
And then because it was Roman doing the speechifying, he went for the gold.
Right out of the gate, he vowed to put the toilet seat down.
Valentine’s Day would always be special.
He’d never buy her a vacuum for her birthday.
And while she could rightly expect the occasional one-sided, wham-fuck, he’d do his very best to make sure she was multi-orgasmic all the days of her life.
And then, of course, he snidely suggested she bring some quid pro quo with a few marital promises of her own. Promises he so kindly suggested.
Like morning sex—with a general expectation of daily.
Sexy lingerie and special occasion accessories.
She asked for clarification and heard a lot of macho hooey about remote controlled vibrators and crotchless panties.
The burble about dinner on the table and family occasions made her giggle.
He made it all sound so ridiculously perfect.
“Can I get a glimpse into those thoughts?”
Kelly jolted back to the present when a warm hand slid between her thighs and rubbed her pussy. She was wearing nothing but everyday panties and one of his button-down shirts.
She touched his handsome face. Her engagement ring sparkled in the morning light.
“I was thinking how neatly you maneuvered me into position.” She smiled into his eyes. “It took you the whole damn summer, but here we are, bags packed and tickets in hand with a date set and a ring placed just in time to seal the deal. Nicely done, Mr. Bishop.”
He chuckled. “I tend to do my best work when a deadline approaches.”
The way he looked at her made her whole being vibrate.
“Are you happy, Carina?”
“Very,” she replied with her heart on her sleeve.
He became grave and somber. “Will you be this happy a week from now?”
Ah, yes. New York. The circus elephant in the room.
She thought about everything he’d said in the wee hours before dawn. Her happiness was all he cared about.
Well, his happiness was what moved her. With a blinding flash, she knew what she had to do.
“I’m happy wherever you are, Roman. Wherever we are together is exactly where I want to be. Do I love Arizona? Yes. Is our life someplace else? Also, yes. And you know what?” she asked with a warm smile and a playful nudge. “I’m okay with that.”
He kissed her soundly and grinned. “And your brother? What about him?”
Kelly admitted she had given this question an entire summer’s worth of thought. He appeared relieved to hear this, and right that second, she silently vowed to be more open with her inner thoughts.
“I don’t like the city, but that’s not Liam’s fault. Any more than it’s his fault that Matty and I had a hard life.”
“Do you mean that?”
“Yes. And Rhiann likes him, so he’s got that going for him. He owes Charlize a car or something for all the positive spin she puts on the guy. I didn’t know about the stuff he’s got going on overseas. All those things and a lot more bring me to one simple question where Liam Ashforth is concerned. Do I trust him with Matty?”
One corner of his mouth curled in a slight smile. At least he wasn’t gloating!
“And what’s the answer?” he asked gently.
She rolled her eyes because, after all, Liam.
“I expect he’ll try to spoil him rotten and knowing how my older brother’s mind operates, I’d like to point out that you won’t be exempt from his nonsense. I easily envision a Caltech versus M.I.T. argument somewhere in the future.”
“Even then, Tesoro, you get the final say.”
Snuggling into his warm embrace, she let the sweetness of the moment sink into her skin.
“Everything is going to be wonderful, Roman. You’ll see. I’m excited about making a home for us. This is all I’ve ever wanted. What I dreamed of. To be a normal family.”
Hugging him tight, she looked into his eyes. “It’s time to go home and start our lives. Meghan calls all of us tumbleweeds. It’s great imagery. She’s right and for us, Bendover will be where we tumble. After all, it’s where Matty’s future is,” she said in a hushed murmur.
Roman cleared his throat, and she saw a bit of a sparkle in his eyes. She loved that he wasn’t afraid of his emotions.
“Speaking of Matty, let’s go get our boy. I’m not looking forward to his good-byes,” he admitted.
Kelly winced. Matty was such a big part of the Junior Justice dynamic. She was praying that he took the energy with him to meet their new life head-on.
“And her name is Grace Hopper. Not only did she invent a groundbreaking computer language, she was a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy. Uncle Calder thinks she’s the bomb.”
Meghan smiled. Alex and his empowered women flashcards. When he did crazy stuff like this, she just wanted to eat him up—that was how alpha adorable he was.
Stevie cooed in the appropriate spot and waved her hands. She was a sucker for nerd daddy.
From her seat in the glider by the window, Meghan watched the interaction with wonder. Her beast was a hands-on father. He paused his superheroine speech to hand a toy to Aiden. Encouraging the lad to reach for the rattle ring, he cheered and fist bumped with Stevie when he grabbed tight and stuck the plastic in his mouth.
B
oth kids were growing like weeds and were consistently ahead of the curve developmentally.
Alex held up another colorful, laminated card. “This is Aretha Franklin. She is the first woman inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”
He looked at her and nodded to the foam board on her lap. “What do you think of the plans?”
She was blown away by her husband’s vision for renovating and redesigning the family wing. Especially his thoughtful concept for adapting the twin’s rooms. The design sketches for each space reflected her preferred style—a clever way to get her enthusiastic buy-in.
“Caleb has a great eye. He took our wish list and knocked it out of the park.”
He put his homemade flashcards down, rolled from butt to knees and crawled close to kiss both babies on the forehead. “Be right back.”
Meghan tittered with laughter. “I told you that one day I’d make you crawl for it!”
Alex crawled toward her like a jungle cat on the prowl. She marveled at the man’s ability to make the movements sexy and felt the pull of his primal magnetism. With a snarky chuckle she put the foam board aside and shimmied out of her panties. When he reached her, his grin was enormous.
She sat down, put the foam board back on her lap, and handed him the scrap of satin. “Here. It’ll save time later.”
He accepted the proffered undies and roared his pleasure with a manly snort and chuckle.
Kneeling by her side, he peered at the design board. “What do you really think of the twin’s suite now that you see how it will look? Does it make sense?”
Aiden and Stevie were only a couple of months old, but she and Alex already saw a problem brewing. Both babies were fine together in the nursery for now, but as the kids got older, at some point, they’d have to separate into their own rooms.
The twins were intensely bonded and close. Aiden got twitchy when his little sister was unhappy or out of eyesight for too long. When they did tummy time and started rolling around, it never took long for them to end up touching. There was just no way that either of their precious babies would be happy with a wall between them.
Alex’s ingenious solution was just so … Alex. Practical but totally outside the box in a clever way.
She gathered her questions and comments and put them in order before answering.
“Let me see if I have this straight.” She pointed at the overall layout sketch of the second-floor wing. “In this scheme, the nursery stays a nursery.”
“Move-in ready for future occupants.” He had a predatory gleam in his eye. Alex liked baby making. It suited his inner beast.
The comment needed a swift, wet kiss. Mission accomplished, she continued.
“Moving along the hallway, you propose taking the next three rooms and reconfiguring them. A room for Aiden with French doors that open to a narrow playroom.”
“Playroom now—study space later.”
“Smart. Now this versatile space is connected by a matching French door to Stevie’s room.”
“Right. So a mini-suite but the beauty of it is in the doors. When they are open on both sides, it creates the impression of one continuous space. No walls between them—not really.”
“And as they get older and want privacy, the doors come into play. I love it.”
“The two rooms at the end of the hallway will be updated but left as is. Across the hall is where more magic happens. Caleb got his brother involved and we brainstormed several concepts, but nothing felt right. Then Jax came back with the brilliant idea for the kids’ bathroom, and everything sort of took off from there.”
“So this isn’t just a newfangled Jack and Jill bath?”
Alex sniggered. “It’s so much more. Look.” He pointed at the design board. “Two full bathrooms with a tub and stall shower. Separate toilet area. The beauty of it is in the future. This space between is essentially a walk-in closet for supplies and bed stuff. When the kids are old enough and these things matter, one side for the boys and the other for the girls.”
She had to give it to Alex and the Merrill brothers. They had an instinct when it came to designing family spaces.
“What’s this?” she asked of an odd-shaped room next to the bathrooms. “I can’t tell.”
He seemed especially pleased by her question.
“First,” he told her with boyish enthusiasm, “this shaded area? When we got out the plans from my grandparents’ overhaul in the seventies, we discovered that there’s a dumbwaiter that got drywalled over. Caleb says he can overhaul it and make the thing functional again. It goes straight down to a corner of wall in the kitchen—outside your office.”
Her aunt Heather’s old brownstone had a dumbwaiter that her cousins used for all sorts of nefarious purposes. The memory made her imagine the fuckery her kids would get up to someday.
“The rest of the space is for you.”
“Me? How?”
“The room has side-by-side window sets. Jax thinks it might originally have been a solarium. Cal has a local guy, I think his name is Drae, who can build bookcases and a window seat along the whole back wall. You won’t let me build you a diva den, but I insist on a second-floor mom sanctuary.”
“Still no playroom?”
“Meghan. For god’s sake. We play in the barn and the studio. We play at Vortice Amore and the storage room at Pete’s. You ambush me all the damn time at work and what we’re doing in the fuck truck would raise some eyebrows. Do we really need a movie set?”
She sniffed. He had a point, but something about a private spot she could decorate turned her to jelly. She envisioned a harem theme and maybe a doctor’s office. Whatever her imagination cooked up. Playtime with props and costumes seemed like delicious fun.
“No,” she sulkily groused. “When you put it like that, it sounds sort of greedy.”
“Tell you what. Every couple of months, we’ll do the hotel thing. Anything goes. If you want to pretend we just met or you’re a corporate spy, it’s all good.”
She caressed his face. “I liked the kidnapped and fucked in the desert scenario. We can always revisit.”
“You mean replay our greatest hits?”
Aiden Tarzan yelled to remind them they weren’t alone.
“Your son demands Daddy’s attention.”
She leaned in and kissed her studly beast. “I have to make a quick call. Trying to catch Kelly and Roman before they leave. Why don’t you give me a half an hour, and then we’ll all go for a walk.”
“Are you forgetting about this?” He twirled her panties around his finger. “How about you make your call, and I’ll put the twins on snooze control. There are ways to exercise that won’t involve leaving the second floor.”
She loved his filthy mind. “Will you do all the work?”
“Whatever pleases m’lady.” He raised a brow and gave a very lusty growl. “It hasn’t escaped my notice that lately you’ve been sweetly submissive an awful lot.”
As if any other option was available to her! Lord! Her desire for the father of her babies hadn’t diminished after giving birth. If anything, she was a round-the-clock slut for his gorgeous, sexy body. And since he was all over her morning, noon, and night, they were perfectly matched.
“You’re my drug of choice, Major Marquez. Desire and surrender are on the side effects list.”
He rubbed his thumb on her lips. She licked and sucked it into her mouth. The earthy sounds of her mate’s manly grunt made her pussy throb.
They stared at each other. She recalled being awakened by Alex’s hard cock teasing her lips. Chasing the fog of sleep away, her mouth opened, and she licked his staff. The sweetness of total submission—of offering herself for his pleasure—turned her on. His slow claiming of her lips, mouth, and throat turned her to a quivering mess. They climaxed together with his cock pulsing in her throat while he fingered her with lusty fervor.
“I enjoyed your naughty mouth, my love.”
Meghan blushed although she wasn’t sure why. “You woke m
e from a wicked dream. Finding something hard tempting me so boldly was terribly sexy. Don’t do it again.” She snickered.
The volume of the yell their infant son managed to fill the room with made them laugh. Aiden did not care for being ignored.
Stevie squirmed in her seat to look at her brother. She squeaked and gurgled. Meghan could quite literally do nothing but watch the two and how they interacted all day long.
“On that note, I’m out. Good luck getting them to sleep.”
Alex practically leaped up and ran to the guitar he kept in the nursery. “I’ve got the answer, babe,” he crowed while holding up his dad specialist equipment. “We have a system.” He chortled. “Diapers and face washing followed by cuddles and kisses. Then into their cribs. I shove the ottoman between and sit. Once they hear the guitar, it doesn’t take long.”
She marveled at his open, joyful expression. Her beast loved being a dad.
Kissing each baby before she exited, Meghan turned around at the door and watched as Major Big Daddy got his groove on.
If he got any cuter, they’d end up with a dozen kids because honest to god, Alex Marquez made her ovaries explode!
Domineau stuck her face an inch from his and laughed like hell. “Dude!” She sniggered with sardonic tinged glee. “You easily just crammed a hundred bucks’ worth of crap in the kid’s backpack.”
Roman gave her a discreet shove and snarled. “Fuck off. We’re in an airport shop. There are snacks and souvenirs out the ass.”
She continued to mock him with laughter. He moved away from her belittling commentary and looked around the busy store. Kelly was conferring with Heather in a discussion that appeared to involve refrigerator magnets. An easy smile lit him up from the inside out. Kelly had a ridiculous thing for souvenir magnets. She had a whole box that had been collecting all summer. What was a few more?
Brody was crouched next to Bella and Matty at the magazine rack—no doubt buying even more shit to drag onto the plane.
Enduring (Family Justice Book 8) Page 38