Accidentally All Of Me

by Parker, Ali

  I could feel my breath hitching in my throat, my heart stuttering as I got closer, closer, closer, so close that it almost hurt, that I could almost feel it.

  And then it happened.

  Every time I came with him, it felt like a relief. He got me so hot and bothered that the tension soon rose to unbearable levels, and I was glad for the chance to finally let it go once more.

  I cried out, and he held me even closer, pulling me tightly against him, like he was trying to draw our bodies into one being. I knew just how he felt. I couldn’t bear to have a moment of distance between us, not a moment, and every inch that our skin wasn’t connected felt like a mile.

  Soon, I felt him reach his own release inside of me, releasing his seed inside the condom and letting out a growl that rose up from deep inside his belly. I cupped his face in my hands and kissed him once more, slower this time, with less intent, just letting him know that I was there and that I had no intention of going anywhere at all.

  Slowly, he slipped out of me, and he rolled over onto the bed beside me. I was still trying to work out what it was that had caused him to invite me to his place this morning. The sex had been incredible, as it always was, but I got the feeling there was something more to it than just that.

  “What are you thinking about?” I asked him, reaching over to plant a hand on his bare chest. I knew that I probably should have been getting out of bed and getting ready to go to work, but this was far too nice for me to give up on.

  “I’m thinking about the fact,” he lifted his head from the pillow and looked at me, “that I just got it confirmed that the house we looked at together is going to be mine.”

  My jaw dropped. That was the last thing I had expected. With everything that had been going on, I had all but forgotten that we had even looked at houses together. But the look on his face told me that he meant this and that he was beyond excited about it.

  “You mean it?”

  “I mean it,” he replied. “And I was wondering when you wanted to move in? You could make the move when we do it, or you could give me some time to get us all set up out there before you come over. It’s totally up to you.”

  He was talking like he was already sure that I was going to live with them. Lucky for him, that was just what I had been dreaming about. I knew that we had never had the actual conversation, but we didn’t need to. It felt natural.

  “I’ll have to think about it,” I replied, and he laughed.

  I was kidding. I could break my lease without putting too much of a dent in my savings. I knew that he would have paid for that for me in an instant if I had needed it, but I didn’t want to have to rely on him for every little thing. I was just so touched that he was treating this like it was obviously going to happen. That I was such a welcome addition to his life that he couldn’t imagine moving to the next stage of it without me.

  “I love you,” he murmured to me, and he brushed his mouth over my forehead and smiled, wrapping his arms around me again.

  I could see from the clock on the wall that I was going to be running a little late for work, but I didn’t much care. All that mattered to me was that I was here with him and that he wanted to make every morning like this one, the two of us together, no space between us, living together, loving together, building our lives together. Everything to one another, the way I knew that we had always meant to be.

  “I love you too,” I replied, and I nuzzled into him. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Everything I had wanted for so long was coming true. We were going to have a life together. A life with Winnie, Nico, Tink, George, all of them. A life that belonged to us.

  And I wanted to enjoy the very start of that, the two of us lying here in bed and holding one another, just a little longer before I let the real world come bother us again.

  Chapter 69

  Harry

  “All right, all right, if I could borrow your attention for a moment.” I stood up from the chair I had been sitting on and waved a hand in the air so that I could draw the attention of my staff and friends around me.

  Yara had done a hell of a job putting all of this together. It had only been a couple of weeks ago that I had brought up the idea of the party to her, and she had sprung into full-force action at once, running off this way and that to make sure everything got dealt with as best she could manage it.

  She told me she was just happy to finally have some kind of party she could organize—and said I could do with throwing a few more like it, actually, though I decided it was for the best that I ignored that little comment. I had been so busy these last few months, I couldn’t imagine finding any more time in my packed-out schedule for fun little gatherings like this.

  It had helped, of course, that George had been willing to put up his house and grounds to hold the party. We had about sixty employees who had all turned out for the free food and drink, and they were scattered across the huge yard in front of me, while the staff worked tirelessly in the kitchen to make sure that everything was running smoothly.

  George himself was tucked up under a blanket and propped up in a chair. The last few weeks had really taken it out of him, and his nurse was hovering a little nervously as though she were ready to pounce at any moment. But he was holding court, and I knew that it would be a long time before we got rid of him. So he threatened me, anyway.

  And even though it was meant to be staff only, Raina was there, too, holding Nico in her arms. It was the first weekend that we would be spending with him as part of the custody agreement, and I wanted to make sure it was one he would remember.

  Well, in truth, I wasn’t sure how much he could actually remember yet, but he had been a massive hit among all the staff. His cheeks were pink, and his eyes were bright, and he looked so much better than he had when he had been all curled up at the hospital under those tubes. Even the thought of that memory made me wince. I was going to make damn sure that he never ended up there again. At least not as long as I could help it.

  “I just wanted to let you all know,” I announced once I had attracted the attention of all the staff around me. There were some faces I barely even recognized, and it was a reminder to me that I needed to make sure to dedicate myself to my work.

  I had all the more reason to do it now that I was thinking about supporting a whole family. I was pretty sure two kids and Raina and I counted as a family, right?

  “That I’m immensely grateful for all your help and support keeping the office running while I’ve been away,” I continued. “As a few of you know, I’ve had a hell of a few months, and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.”

  I glanced over at Yara, who was sipping on a glass of champagne to my left. She was in her element, surrounded by people thanking her for the awesome party.

  “And a special thanks to Yara, my second-in-command,” I continued, lifting my glass in her direction. “For helping keep me sane.”

  There was a round of “here, here,” and Tink barked in agreement. A chuckle ran around the crowd.

  “And to Tink,” I added on quickly. “For convincing me that we needed to let dogs into the office.”

  This time, there was a round of applause, and I laughed as I toasted and took a sip of my sparkling juice. I had decided to stop drinking recently. I knew that I was going to miss it, but I didn’t want anything to impair the way that I wanted to live my life now. I had a whole family to think of, and I loved them, and I wanted to be there for them. I didn’t need anything to enhance that happiness, not any longer. Before, I had used drinking to blot out the hard edges of my life, but these days, everything felt a hell of a lot softer.

  I stepped down and gestured for everyone to go back to what they had been doing before I had so rudely interrupted. I scanned the room to check for Winnie, and there she was, playing with Tink not far from George.

  I had tasked her with keeping the old man company, and she had taken it on at once. I think the two of them had gotten closer over the last few months. All t
his emphasis on family, on the things that tied us together, had made them even tighter than they had been before.

  And I was glad for that because I was ready to start building my family again. It wasn’t like I had ever really lost it, but after what had happened with my sister, the thought of committing to something totally and completely seemed a little scary. I knew how swiftly it could all be stolen from me. And the thought of losing it all again had been frightening enough for me to hold back on actually committing to anything that mattered.

  I hadn’t known until I’d met Raina how much I was hiding from, but now that I could see it, it made my heart ache to think about everything that I had been missing. I thought I had been protecting myself, but in reality, it had just been isolation.

  Yara had seen that. I was pretty sure, in fact, that she had seen that before I had. I had been ducking and diving from the truth, and she had seen through me, seen me for what I was, seen all the pain I had been carrying with me all this time. And that was why she had set me up on a date.

  It was crazy, really, thinking that all of this had started with something that I had been so averse to in the first place. I had pushed back against the very idea of going on that date, sure that it was just going to end with me making a fool of myself and looking like an idiot in the process.

  Of course, if I had known where all of this was going to lead me, I would have gone back in time and told myself to go with it, that it was going to be better than anything I was ready for. That it was going to change my life, and I was going to be glad for every second of it.

  I went over to find Raina and Nico and pushed my way through the small crowd toward them. She was bouncing the little boy on her hip, and she looked so comfortable with him right there beside her.

  Yeah, okay, I would have been lying if I’d said that I hadn’t thought even a little about how it would be to have a child of my own with her. But I hadn’t broached the subject with her yet. We had a lot to balance, what with Winnie and Nico and moving into the new house, before we even thought about bringing some more little people into our lives.

  “How are you doing?” I asked her softly, sliding an arm around her waist and planting a kiss on her cheek. She was looking particularly delectable, and I was having a hard time keeping my hands off her.

  If this hadn’t been a work function, I would have already dragged her off to the nearest bedroom so I could undress her and remind myself of what lay under that pretty, figure-hugging blue dress she was wearing.

  “I’m good,” she replied, and she bounced Nico on her hip. “We both are, right, buddy?”

  “You sure are,” I agreed, and I ruffled Nico’s hair.

  He giggled happily. He seemed so full of life these days, and it gave me such joy to see him that way. I knew his treatment plan was a long-term thing, and that was something I was just going to have to live with, but I would have poured anything into making sure that he never had to suffer the way he had when he had last been at the hospital.

  Not to mention the fact his mother was doing a little better, too. We finally had a solid treatment program for her in place, and the doctors seemed totally optimistic about her survival.

  They had warned us that they couldn’t always be right, of course, but that as far as they were concerned, she was as good as cured. The treatment wasn’t going to be fun, but if it meant that she was around for the rest of our son’s life, that was all that mattered.

  Not to mention the fact that Reed had offered to take her out to dinner to celebrate as soon as she was done. He was totally taken with her, and I knew she was with him, whether or not she would have been quick to admit it.

  The whole family was really coming together, and I couldn’t have been happier about it. This was what we were meant to be—together, gathered, a unit. Us against the world. No matter what was thrown at us, we were here to fight it together, and that was all that I cared about.

  “You having a good time?” I asked Raina.

  She nodded and kissed me on the cheek. “I really am. Seems like everyone really likes you as a boss.”

  “Or they’re just not going to say anything different to the boss’s girlfriend,” I said.

  She cocked an eyebrow at me. “Girlfriend? Hey, now, we’re only moving in together. I don’t know if we’re ready for that.”

  “Hmm, you make a fair point,” I said as I hitched my beautiful son from her arms and into mine. “Maybe I could call you my fiancée instead?”

  Her eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, Winnie came from nowhere to run enthusiastically into my side. She tossed her arms around me and looked up at me. Her eyes lit up, probably hyper from the alcohol-free cocktails the cooks had made.

  “Yara told me that they were going to have ice cream for dessert?” she asked. “Did you get the special dog kind for Tink as well? Because if not, then I’m going to have to give him some of mine. Do you think that would be all right, Raina?”

  Before either of us could say anything back, I took a moment to just let all of this sink in.

  Winnie was here, Nico was in my arms, Raina was standing beside me and beaming at the both of us. I couldn’t imagine anything better.

  For so long, my whole world had felt like it was spinning out of control, but now, I could see that it had been heading right where it needed to all this time, to these women, to this boy in my arms, to this feeling that everything was as it should be.

  Because it was. For the first time in a long time, everything was exactly as it should be.

  And I wanted to enjoy every single moment of it.

  The End

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  About the Author

  Ali Parker is a full-time contemporary and new adult romance writer with more than a hundred and twenty books behind her. She loves coffee, watching a great movie and hanging out with her hubs. By hanging out, she means making out. Hanging out is for those little creepy elves at Christmas. No tight green stockings for her.

  She’s an entrepreneur at heart and loves coming up with more ideas than any one person should be allowed to access. She lives in Texas with her hubs and three kiddos and looks forward to traveling the world in a few years. Writing under eleven pen names keeps her busy and allows her to explore all genres and types of writing.

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  Accidentally All Of Me

  Copyright © 2019 by Ali Parker

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  The novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and plot are all either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons – living or dead – is purely coincidental.

  First Edition.

  Editor: Eric Martinez

  Cover Designer: Ryn Katryn Digital Art