“We’re going to Washington, baby girl,” he rasps, grabbing my waistband to push it down over my ass. “Are you happy?”
“Xan, I’m so fucking happy, I could cry.”
He grins and quickly sheds the rest of our clothes, backing me up into the shower to push me up against the wall beneath the water. He pulls my head back by my hair and kisses me again, blindly reaching over to grab the shower gel from the side. I run my hands over his abs and he washes his dick with his free hand, groaning when I reach down to help him do it.
“Hey, Jordyn?” he asks, breathing hard against my lips.
“What, Xan?”
He pulls back a bit to look at me and smirks like a bad boy, his nose brushing mine while he teases my ribs with his fingertips. “I dare you to love me forever.”
epilogue
Xander
Seven years later...
“I hate this, Xan,” she chokes out, dropping her head to rest it on her forearms. “I hate you.”
I hide a grin and lean over to hold her hair for her, gently rubbing circles on her back to help ease her through it. She tells me that every time I get her pregnant, but then the morning sickness goes away and she goes right back to loving me.
Most of the time.
She finally stops throwing up and stands up to walk over to the bathroom sink, glaring at me through the mirror while she snatches her toothbrush and brushes her teeth. This is the third time she’s been pregnant in four years, and I’m pretty sure the only thing she’s thinking about right now is how much jail time she’d get for killing me in my sleep.
“Baby–”
“Don’t talk to me.”
I snap my mouth shut and roll my lips in, silently staring at her ass while she bends over to wash her face. She looks so fucking sexy today, her tight little body wrapped up in a short floral sundress with her tanned legs on full display. As soon as she turns around, she catches me looking and tosses her hand towel on the counter, clipping the back of my head while she passes me on her way out. I laugh quietly and move to follow her, not missing the way she smirks at me over her shoulder while she walks away from me.
There she is.
She shakes her ass on purpose and I smack it, quickly stealing a kiss from her lips before I stalk her all the way down to the back yard. It’s her twenty fifth birthday today and most of our friends and family are here to spend the day with her, except her mother because of course the evil queen couldn’t take a day out of her busy schedule for her own flesh and blood. She married some rich asshole named Pierre a couple years ago and they spend most of their time in Europe with his children. It still pisses me off that Elizabeth doesn’t appreciate her daughter for who she is and what she’s made for herself, but Jordyn’s more than used to it by now and doesn’t let it bother her as much as she used to. She’s too busy with me and the boys and her big ass studio to give two shits about her absent mother. As soon as she graduated college four years ago, she became a full time photographer and now she’s got a waiting list three times the size of mine. She’s worked for celebrities and authors and even shot a few album covers for Justin and a handful of other artists she’s met through him over the years.
She’s fucking amazing and beautiful and mine, and I honestly don’t know how I managed to convince her to spend the rest of her life with me.
The humid air hits us as soon as we walk outside and Jordyn grins, winking at me before she makes her way over to the barbecue set up by the hot tub. She freaked out over the cold every winter when we lived in Seattle so we moved to LA the day after her last exam, bought ourselves this big ass house with a huge pool and more bedrooms than we know what to do with. I suggested we fill them up with kids and my parents were fully on board with that idea, but Jordyn just laughed at me and told me to go fuck myself.
“Dude, your wife is so fucking hot,” Justin informs me, snatching a beer from the cooler to uncap it with his teeth. “Maybe I should get me one of those.”
“A wife?”
“A pregnant girl,” he jokes, still staring at her chest while he lifts his drink up to his mouth.
I snort and shove his head away, secretly hoping it makes him choke on his own tongue. Jordyn’s jaw hit the floor when she met him for the first time and I almost broke his nose, but it’s been seven years and he hasn’t tried to fuck her yet, so I consider that a win.
Our friend Monica shows up a little while later and hits us both with a fake smile that screams fuck you, losers, then she hugs my wife and moves on to say hi to my parents and the kids. She’s one of the best tattoo artists I’ve ever met and she works her ass off seven days a week, which is why she’s pretending to be pissed at me for closing the shop today and forcing her to take a day off. She loves Jordyn like a sister, though, and she still shows up for her birthday every year without fail.
Justin stares at my employee and bites the edge of his fist, groaning into it when she pulls her shirt off and drops her jeans, revealing a black bikini underneath and a body covered in ink. She’s told him she’s into girls about a hundred times by this point but he doesn’t let that stop him, the fucker.
“Goddamn, that ass,” he hisses loudly, clearly trying to get a rise out of her. “Mon, will you let me lick your pussy if I cover your eyes firs–”
“Hey,” Jordyn cuts him off, looking up at him with a brow raised and a sharp knife in her hand. “Watch your mouth by my kids.”
“Sorry.”
She shakes her head at him and I laugh, walking over to see what she’s chopping considering me and the boys already cooked everything we had earlier. She drops down in her seat at the table and starts making herself a chicken and bacon burger, then she grabs a pineapple ring and places it right there in the middle. I scrunch my nose in disgust and she grins, lifting it up to her mouth to take a big ass bite out of it.
“No, baby, you can’t–”
“Can’t what?” she asks, speaking around her food. “I’m pregnant and I’m the birthday girl. Fight me.”
I hide my amusement and lean back against the table to watch her eat it, looking up when Nikolas comes rushing over to me from across the yard. Bear follows behind him like he always does and I scoop him up in my arms, running a hand through his dark hair until it sticks out like mine does. He’s three years old and he can talk until he runs out of oxygen, but I still can’t understand a damn word that comes out of his mouth.
He tries to say something to me and I frown, looking at Jordyn for help.
“He wants to go in the pool.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because he just told you,” she draws out, leaning over to wipe her hands with a napkin.
I frown some more but give my son what he wants, quickly shoving his life jacket on before stealing Jameson from my mom to take him with us. She feigns a pout at the loss of her grandson and crosses her arms over her chest, making us all laugh. My dad pokes her ribs and she smacks his hand away, but I don’t miss the sideways look she gives him that makes me want to gag. They gradually started working things out after they kicked me out in high school and now they’re pretty much back to the way they were before my brother was killed – disgusting as fuck, if you ask me – and even though I’m sure they still hate me for it sometimes, they never hesitate to tell me how much they love me and how proud they are of me and my girl.
Jameson squeals when he realizes where we’re going and smiles up at me, wrapping his tiny little arms around my neck while I lower him and his big brother into the pool. He’s eighteen months old and he’s the chillest kid I’ve ever met. Where Nikolas can run around for hours without stopping, Jameson would rather sit on my lap and stare at a book all day long.
He’s fucking perfect.
They both are.
“Go, daddy, go,” Nik laughs, thrashing his arms and kicking his legs out beneath the surface.
“Let go,” Jordyn explains, laughing to herself while she leans over to grab her camera from the table.
I let him go and he swims off as fast as he can, his life jacket holding him up while he spins around and splashes himself with water. I mess around with the boys for a while and then Travis and Kian jump in to steal them away from me, both them and Justin arguing over who their favorite uncle is. It’s Kian, hands down, but I don’t encourage the little brat by telling him that.
I’m just about to get out and grab us all another drink each, but then Jordyn takes her dress off and lifts her arms up to tie her hair in a messy bun, looking hot as fucking sin dressed in a white bikini with a strapless top and two sets of strings hanging from her hips. She sits down on the edge of the pool and I move to stand between her legs, slowly sliding my arms around her waist to kiss her stomach. We’re having a girl this time, just like I always wanted, and I swear to god I almost choked when she asked me if we could call her Frankie.
I kiss her again and she reaches out to run a hand through my hair, watching me closely while she slides her tongue bar over her teeth. She finally let me have my way with her on her nineteenth birthday, and even though she cursed me to hell and back because it hurt like a bitch, I know she loves being able to drive me bat shit crazy the same way I do her. And when she lies on her back with her head off the edge of the bed and lets me fuck her mouth while I’m eating her pussy..
God fucking damn it.
“You wanna pretend you’re sick so everyone has to fuck off home?” I whisper, lifting her up to pull her into the water with me. “I’ll get my parents to take the kids and we can spend the rest of the day in bed.”
“You’re awful,” she whispers back, almost annoyed, but I don’t miss the tease in her tone.
“You’ll still love me forever, though, right?”
“Yes,” she answers, sighing heavily against my lips. “It’s very inconvenient, you know? Loving you.”
I smirk at that, carefully pulling her thighs up around my waist to ensure I don’t squish my daughter between us. My dick rests against her clit through our swimsuits and she digs her nails into my neck, quickly looking over to ensure our boys aren’t watching, then she dips her head and smashes her mouth on mine, making me laugh.
Inconvenient, my ass.
The End.
Acknowledgements
To my husband and son, and our beautiful friends and family: thank you for putting up with me. I know I’m an antisocial basket case who refuses to leave my writing cave, but I appreciate you all for sticking by me and supporting me anyway.
To Samantha La Mar: thank you so much for everything you’ve done for me and this book over the last few months. I mean.. just LOOK AT IT! *cue swoony heart eyes and fire emojis* I love you and your massive heart, and I’m so freaking lucky to have you in my life.
To my favourite book besties, Geissa (AKA Cece Perez), Pamela, Chrissy, Lisa, Rachael and Jocelyn, and every single author, reader, reviewer and bookstagrammer I’ve come to know since I started this journey a year ago: thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I couldn’t cope in this terrifying industry without you.
To my incredible beta readers, ARC team and the reviewers at TalkNerdy2Me: thank you so much for your early feedback on this book. You never fail to encourage me and big me up when I’m shitting myself and I love you for that.
To Lacy Dyson: thank you for pineapple chicken burgers. I tried one like you told me to. It was.. horrifying, to be honest. But Jordyn likes them so you can consider that a win.
Last but not least, thank you to every single one of you for picking up this book and reading it. I am eternally grateful.
All my love,
Bethany <3
Also by Bethany Winters
The Kingston Brothers Series
Kings of Westbrook High
Reckless at Westbrook High
Coming Soon
Dirty Love
(Romance After Dark: A Taboo Anthology)
About the Author
Bethany lives in South Wales with her husband and their four year old son. Her favourite things are books, tea, pizza, popcorn and Machine Gun Kelly, although her husband is still pretty mad about that last one. When she’s not writing, she’s either reading or daydreaming about the books she’s read, or raiding Amazon for pretty paperbacks to hoard.
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