Our girls were three days old, and we’d been discharged from the hospital mere hours ago. If I hadn’t been present for the baby-readying part of our story, I wouldn’t have believed this was the same bedroom I’d first seen when Marco had given me that tour of his house.
Everything had been so clean and orderly then. His furniture had been masculine and dark, the color scheme dominated by deep hues paired with gray. There hadn’t been so much as a stray sock on the floor.
Obviously, it no longer looked anything like that. A changing station had been set up where his mahogany chest of drawers used to be. Two cribs had been moved in and placed on either side of the bed.
The floor was covered in the luggage we’d brought back from the hospital, onesies and burp cloths littering the carpet. Pajamas spilled out of my bag. Just to add that extra level of sexy, there were some breast pads that seemed to have found their way out, too.
The diaper caddy had fallen off the changing table at some point, and the room smelled like baby supplies already. To add insult to injury, there was a baby monitor mounted where the giant flatscreen TV used to be.
In the months it had been since I’d moved in, we’d changed the bedding, too. We now had a mint-green comforter with gray accents, sunshine-yellow pillows on the couches, and the hot tub had been covered. I knew it would be more than a year before they were supposed to be able to get to it, but I figured it was better to do it while we’d baby-proofed the rest of the house.
Marco didn’t show any signs of even noticing the many changes, much less that they bothered him. After that first fumble, he’d been an absolute rock star throughout the pregnancy. His protective papa-bear instincts had kicked in early, but while I’d pretended to be annoyed by them at times, I’d secretly loved every second.
It had made me feel a sense of love and belonging like I’d never had before. It had been a daily reminder of his love for me and for us. Most of all, it had proven to me that when he’d said he was all in, he’d meant it. I hadn’t doubted him again, and I couldn’t imagine ever going back to that insecure place.
I’d never realized how much I wanted what I had now until I had it. I felt complete in a way I’d never even known was possible.
Marco looked away from Amelie suddenly, grinning when he caught my eye. He tipped his head forward to indicate our daughter, and I saw she’d fallen asleep in her daddy’s arms. I didn’t blame her. I knew how magically comforting those strong arms could be.
“You okay with her?” he whispered when he laid Amelie down in her crib.
I glanced down at Gracie. Her little hand rubbed her eye, and her mouth opened on a yawn. Another overwhelming rush of love traveled through me. “I’m fine. She’s going to follow her sister to dreamland soon.”
The expression in his eyes told me his heart was just as full as mine. I reached out for his hand, squeezing it tight as I smiled at him. “You never told me about that superstition your mom keeps mentioning. What is it that your family says about twin girls?”
A soft grin tugged at the corners of his mouth. He kept his voice as low as mine was, taking a seat on the bed with me. The mattress dipped at my feet where he made himself comfortable, his legs draped over the edge.
“Have you ever heard of Romulus and Remus?”
Recognition flickered at the edges of my mind, but my mental faculties weren’t quite as sharp as usual. For obvious reasons.
“Weren’t they twins in Ancient Roman times? Something like that.”
“Exactly like that.” He looped his arms around my legs, his fingers trailing up and down my calf while he spoke. “They were twins who were supposedly suckled by a gentle she-wolf before being rescued from a cave in the hills that would later form part of their Eternal City. The wolf protected the twins, which is why Italians say good luck with words that honor her.”
“In bocca al lupo,” I repeated the words I had heard from Elena too many times to count. They were burned into my brain.
“That’s the phrase, yes.” He paused when Gracie let out the most adorable snore I’d ever heard, opening his arms for me to hand her over.
Since my body felt like it had been hit by a battering ram, I didn’t try to do it myself. I watched as he laid her down next to her sister, then took his place by my feet again. Brilliant fucking man that he was, he decided to busy his hands by massaging them.
I stifled a moan, too curious to hear his story and too sore to even think about getting turned on by his touch. “So, in bocca al lupo?”
“Yep. Literally translated, it means ‘into the wolf’s mouth’ or ‘death to the wolf,’ which doesn’t make much sense when used as a good luck saying. But it comes down to wishing for someone to be protected like she protected the abandoned twins.”
“Okay, but those twins were boys. What’s the significance with girls?”
He sighed, but his mouth quirked upward. “I’m pretty sure one of my great grandmothers made this next part up. There’s a lot of mythology surrounding the wolf and her protection, but nothing about the rest of it.”
“Got you,” I said, tapping the side of my nose.
He chuckled under his breath before growing serious again. “My family believes that twin girls not only carry that extra layer of protection with them but also that they have the purest hearts. They are said to bring the kind of gentility, selflessness, and bravery without which the urge to protect wouldn’t mean a thing.”
“That’s pretty special.” My eyes drifted over to our dark-haired, hazel-eyed angels. “They’re pretty special.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, emotion swirling in the depths of his eyes. “They are, but so are you. It’s also said that only the purest heart will be able to gift those souls to the world.”
Marco slid off the bed then. I frowned at him until I saw he had landed down on one knee. My heart kicked into overdrive. The expression on his face wasn’t one I remembered seeing on him before.
The love shining from his eyes nearly floored me. My mouth dried up, and even though I was sitting down, my legs trembled.
My heart soared as I drank in his love, beating like it wanted to fly out of me and into his. Like there was a magnet in his chest pulling my heart to his.
Marco turned his face up to mine and gathered my hands in his. Unfamiliar flickers of nerves played in his eyes, but he took a deep breath, and they were gone. Everything in my world narrowed to those eyes and the babies that lay in their cribs behind him.
We’d talked about getting married, of course. Both of us knew that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together, but we’d decided to wait until after the babies were born to discuss details. I just hadn’t realized he had meant this soon after their birth, but I was ready.
“I had this whole speech planned, but now I can’t remember a single word of it.” The emotion in his eyes made his voice hoarse. “All I can think about is how much I love you. All three of you.”
Like he had plucked my thoughts right out of my brain, he said, “You complete me. You make me happier than I’ve ever been. I don’t even mind that our bedroom looks like a baby depot.”
So he had noticed. “Or that my man cave was converted into a nursery. All I care about is you and our family. I’ve never known a woman like you. I don’t know how I got so lucky that you needed to take a breather right next to me when I was doing my best not to be seen.”
He squeezed my hands. My breath was caught in my lungs, but I squeezed him back. “This year has been filled with unbelievable highs and that one very bad low, but I don’t only want this one year with you. I want a lifetime. I love you. Let me spend every day of the rest of my life proving it to you.”
Transferring my hands into one of his, he stuck the other into the pocket of his faded jeans. When he pulled it back out, there was a tattered purple velvet box sitting in his palm.
Patches of the velvet were missing, but when he ran his thumb along the fabric, his eyes glassed over. “This was the ring my father g
ave to my mother. It was the ring his father gave to his mother. Today, I’d like to give it to you.”
He flipped the top open to reveal a simple golden band with a small but bright brilliant cut diamond in the center. “I love you, Adaline. Will you marry me?”
His tongue flicked over his bottom lip. Then he lifted the ring out of the box and held it out to me. Offering it to me.
“Yes,” I breathed, transfixed by the man who owned my heart. “Yes, of course I will.”
A deep breath I hadn’t realized he’d been holding whooshed out of him. The most radiant, beautiful grin spread on his face as he slid the ring onto my finger.
Just as he pressed his lips against mine, one of the girls started crying. Instead of the passionate, frenzied kiss most women got when they got engaged, I got only the sweetest peck before he turned to lift Gracie into his arms.
But it was the most perfect beginning to our happily ever after that I could possibly imagine.
The End.
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About the Author
Hey there. I'm Weston.
Have we met? No? Well, it’s time to end that tragedy.
I'm a former firefighter/EMS guy who's picked up the proverbial pen and started writing bad boy romance stories. I co-write with my sister, Ali Parker, but live in Texas with my wife, my two little boys, a dog, and a turtle.
Yep. A turtle. You read that right. Don’t be jealous.
You're going to find Billionaires, Bad Boys, Military Guys, and loads of sexiness. Something for everyone hopefully. I'd love to connect with you. Check out the links below and come find me.
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The Parker’s Wicked Playground
Take It All Off
Copyright © 2020 by Weston 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
Take It All Off Page 27