Quantum Boxed Set: The Complete Series

by Force, Marie

  He does.

  I cry out from the shock of painful pleasure. My nipples and clit throb, and my skin is alive with sensation that makes everything more intense.

  Sebastian dips his head and takes my left nipple into his mouth, sucking and tugging and biting, just enough to draw my attention away from what’s happening below—until he sinks farther into me. It’s all I can do not to scream.

  “Is that it?”

  “That’s half.”

  “Jesus.”

  “I’ve told you before it’s Sebastian, but I can understand how you’d make that mistake.”

  How can I laugh when I’m being invaded by that monster?

  He presses his thumb against my clit, and a sound I’ve never made before comes from deep inside me.

  I’ve been told anal is the most intense experience there is, but I had no idea how intense it would be. Time seems to stand still as he withdraws and returns, giving me more each time, until finally, somehow, I manage to take all of him. I’m having one orgasm after another, my entire body thrashing and reacting to the nuclear-level thrill of taking him this way.

  I feel a ridiculous sense of accomplishment.

  “You feel so good.” His lips skim my ear as he speaks in a gruff whisper. “So hot and tight and sexy. Tell me it’s good for you.”

  “It’s getting there.”

  “Tell me when you’re ready for more.”

  “You said I had it all!”

  “You do, but that’s only part one.”

  “Oh my God. You’re going to kill me.”

  “Never.” He kisses my lips, my throat, and pays homage to my right nipple. When he switches sides, I squirm, looking for something more.

  He pushes himself up on his arms. “Hold on to me.”

  I grasp his biceps, trying to brace myself, but nothing I could do would’ve prepared me for the ride he takes me on. Powerful is the only word I can think of to describe the connection I feel to him as he surges into me over and over and over again until I’m coming harder than I ever have before. He’s right there with me, groaning through his release.

  Afterward, I drift on a sea of pleasure and aftershocks and emotion. It’s such a fucking relief to have found him, the one who’s meant to be mine. I put my arms around him, holding on tight to him, to this, to us.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. You?”

  “I’m so good. Never better.” He withdraws from me, slowly and carefully, and gets up to use the bathroom.

  I hear water running before he returns with a warm washcloth that he uses to clean me up. He drops the washcloth on the floor and sits on the edge of the bed, an arm propped on either side of my hips, gazing down at me. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “Yep.”

  “Further proof that you’re a total badass. You’re only the third one who’s ever been able to do that with me.”

  “Where are the other two so I can have them killed?”

  His smile lights up his beautiful black eyes. “You have nothing to worry about where they’re concerned. I wouldn’t know them if I fell over them. That was years ago.” He twirls a strand of my hair and lets it slide through his fingers. “There’s no one else but you, my sexy badass superstar. You ruined me for anyone else years ago.”

  I flash him my trademark goofy grin. “Excellent.” I give him a tug to bring him back into bed with me and curl up to him, my head on his chest, my arm across his abdomen and his arms tight around me.

  We have so much to look forward to—Kristian and Aileen’s wedding in a few weeks, Leah and Emmett’s wedding in the fall, watching Logan and Maddie and Harry and Cece and God knows how many other kids grow up, maybe having a few kids of our own…

  “Do you want kids?”

  His body goes completely still. “Do you?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Huh.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It just never occurred to me that you’d want a family.”

  “Why not?”

  “You’re so focused on your career most of the time.”

  “I have been in the past, but now I’ve got other things I want to focus on.” I smooth my hand over his muscular abdomen. “I didn’t really want kids until I had someone in my life to have them with.”

  “You think I’d be a good dad?”

  “You’d be a great dad. They’d be so lucky to have you.”

  “What if I screwed them up or they got into trouble or found out about the shit I did when I was a kid?” He raises his head to look at me. “Are you laughing?”

  “I’m not laughing at you.”

  “Well, I’m not laughing, so you’re not laughing with me.” He pokes my belly, and I laugh harder.

  I clear my throat and force myself to be serious because I know he’s legitimately concerned. “Do you honestly think that any kid of mine is going to be allowed to run wild and do the things that you did?”

  “No, but—”

  “No buts. We’ve got this, Seb. We’ll be great parents, and we’ll raise wonderful, well-behaved kids who’ll be so focused on school and sports that they won’t have time for anything else.”

  “Are you sure we can do that?”

  “I’m very sure we can do anything if we do it together.”

  “You promise you’re not going to suddenly wise up and realize you could’ve done way better than me?”

  “If you ever say that again, I have permission to stab you.”

  His delicious lips curve into a sexy smile. “Such a badass.”

  “And don’t you forget it. I love you. I will always love you. And the only thing you have to do to keep me forever is love me back.”

  His dark eyes sparkle with happiness that looks so good on him. He kisses me, lingering for several delicious minutes. “Done.”

  * * *

  If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1.800.799.7233 or visit their website at https://www.thehotline.org.

  Keep reading for PRECIOUS, A Quantum short story…

  Precious

  A Quantum Short Story

  I wake up on what’ll be one of the greatest days of my life the same way I do every day now, wrapped up in the arms of the man who loves me and my children more than anything. He’s my dream come true, my happily ever after, my everything. Today, he’ll become my husband. I’ve never had a husband, only a partner I lost to drug addiction years ago, leaving me to raise our two beautiful children alone.

  But we’re not alone anymore. We have Kristian now, and the family we’re creating together is my greatest blessing. Later in the year, our foursome will grow to five when our baby makes his or her appearance. Our baby is going to be very lucky to have them as his or her big brother and sister.

  Kris can’t wait for the baby to arrive. He keeps saying he can’t bear that it takes almost ten months to make a baby. It’s not fair, he says, to make a man wait so long to meet his child.

  I laugh at his impatience and try to take his mind off the agonizing wait any way I can. A couple of years ago, when I was in the thick of my battle with breast cancer, I never could’ve dreamed of the life I have now in the incredible house in Calabasas that Kristian surprised me with, two happy, thriving kids, a baby on the way and my illness now a distant nightmare that might’ve happened to someone else.

  That’s how far in the past it seems, even if I’m well aware that I’m years away from being declared “cured.” It can always come back, so I try to live each day with purpose and determination not to let cancer rule me. I’d like to think I’ve learned a few things about how precarious life can be, and I take nothing in this new life for granted, especially the man at the center of it.

  His hand, which had been flat against my belly, slides down to cup my center as his erection presses against my back. “How long have you been awake?”

  The sound of his voice is enough to make my heart race. “Awhi
le.”

  “Why didn’t you wake me up?” He kisses my shoulder and the back of my neck, making me shiver with excitement the way I always do when he touches or kisses me.

  I’d never slept naked in my life until he came along and made pajamas extraneous. “I didn’t want to disturb you. You’ve been working like a madman to get free for the next two weeks, and you’re exhausted.”

  “I’m never too exhausted for you.”

  “I’m not supposed to see you today. It’s bad luck.” Despite my best efforts to convince him we should spend last night apart, he wasn’t having it.

  “Fuck that shit,” he’d said, making me laugh at his indignance. Now, as he kisses his way down my back, he says, “Are you still feeling superstitious?”

  “Yes.” I close my eyes tightly, doing whatever it takes to stave off any form of bad luck. We’ve both had enough of that to last us a lifetime. “Don’t see me.”

  “Okay, have it your way.”

  I raise my ass to encourage him. “I’d rather have it your way.”

  His low chuckle makes me smile. I love to hear him laugh. When I first knew him, he was so serious, so solemn all the time, and now he laughs frequently, as if he can’t contain the joy the kids and I have brought to his life. His laugh is one of my favorite things, especially knowing how far he’s come from a dreadful childhood during which he witnessed his mother’s murder, among other horrors.

  He kisses and touches me in all the places that make me gasp. I grip the sheets so tightly, my hands ache. By the time he finally slides into me from behind, I’m already primed for the orgasm that rocks through me with a force that takes my breath away. You’d think I’d be used to that by now, but I’m not. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the way he makes me feel. He’s an amazing, inventive, thoughtful, caring lover and dominant who always takes care of me before taking his own pleasure. This time is no different. Only after he makes me come twice does he let himself go.

  “Aileen,” he whispers, his lips close to my ear, “I love you so much. Thank you for marrying me today.”

  My brain is so scrambled, I can barely breathe, let alone speak. “I love you, too. More than you’ll ever know. I can’t wait until you’re my husband.”

  “Mmm, me too. More than anything, I can’t wait for two weeks alone with you in Hawaii.”

  Hayden and Addie are moving into our house to take care of the kids while we’re away. The kids say they’re excited for the time with Uncle Hayden and Aunt Addie, who promised to spoil them rotten. But I’m expecting a few tears before Kris and I leave, especially from Maddie, who’s been extra clingy the last few days.

  I’ve never spent more than a night or two away from them, let alone two weeks, but I know they’ll be very well cared for by Hayden and Addie as well as the rest of our closest friends, who’ll rally around them while we’re gone. Kris convinced me to take this time just for us because we’ll never get married again or have another honeymoon.

  “Don’t be stressed about leaving the kids. They’ll be perfectly fine, and we’ll FaceTime with them every day.”

  I’m not surprised that he tunes in to what I’m thinking. “I know. I’ll miss them, though.”

  “I will, too. I can’t imagine a day without them in it anymore, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ll never again ask you to leave them at home. We’ll take them everywhere with us.”

  “We don’t have to take them everywhere.”

  “Yes, we do. I’ve waited forever to have a family. I don’t want to be away from them any more than you do.”

  “I love you for that. I love you for so many things, but I love you more than anything for the way you love my children.”

  “They’re our children now, and I’d do anything for them. I hope you know that.”

  “I do and so do they.”

  “Today is going to be the best day of my entire life.”

  “Mine, too.”

  He kisses the back of my neck and nibbles on my ear. “Are you sure I’m not allowed to look at your gorgeous face and kiss your sweet lips?”

  “I’m sure, but later… You can kiss me all you want.”

  “I’m going to want to kiss you for hours.”

  “That sounds perfect to me.”

  Every day I get to spend with Aileen, Logan and Maddie feels like something out of a dream, but today… There’s never been a day that could compete with this one. Everything is ready. I insisted we hire someone to handle the details because I didn’t want Aileen to have to deal with that. I worry about her all the time, but never more so than since we found out she’s pregnant.

  Having everything you’ve ever wanted is a funny thing. While celebrating the fact that you’ve found your soul mate—and her two incredible kids—you also have to worry about losing her or the kids or the happiness they’ve brought to your life. At least that’s how it’s worked for me. We got nothing but good news from Aileen’s oncologist at her appointment last week, but fear of recurrence will always lurk in the back of my mind. I’ve also learned that pregnancy after breast cancer can be dicey due to the way hormones work, but Aileen and her doctors have assured me that it’s perfectly safe for her to have our baby, even if I worry all the time about her, the baby, the kids.

  Love has made me crazy in all the best and worst ways.

  Today, I’m determined to put aside my worries so I can focus on the joy. I remember the first time I realized the elated, giddy, delighted way I felt any time she was around was actually joy. I’d never experienced it before, not like that anyway, and it had been as foreign a concept to me as the idea of being so in love with one person that I couldn’t conceive of a future that didn’t include her and her kids.

  All of this is new to me, and I feel like I’ve won the biggest lottery payout in history because I get to marry Aileen and adopt Logan and Maddie. I thought today would never get here, and it’s only been a couple of months since I proposed to her in the house we now call home. I’ve never been more impatient in my life as I’ve been waiting for this day to arrive. I’m not sure how I’ll survive waiting for our baby to get here. Ten freaking months is an interminable amount of time.

  Jasper Autry, my best friend and Quantum Productions business partner, comes into the guest bedroom where I got dressed in the navy suit I had made for the occasion. Jasper took me to his tailor to be measured for the suit, and I have to say, the end result is satisfying. I hope Aileen likes it. She told me to wear whatever I wanted, which is when I’d turned to Jasper for assistance. He’s the clotheshorse in our group, and while I could’ve asked one of the stylists we work with for events to take care of me, it was more fun to give Jasper the job of decking me out for the biggest day of my life.

  He gives me a careful once-over, inspecting me thoroughly before smiling. “You look spectacular, mate.”

  I breathe a sigh of relief. His seal of approval means the world. “Thanks to you.”

  “It’s all about knowing where to go when you want the best.” He pulls a light blue silk handkerchief out of his pocket and gets busy making it into a perfectly folded square that he tucks into the breast pocket of my suit coat. “I wore this the day I married Ellie, and it brought me good luck. I hope it does the same for you.”

  What does it say about me and my raw emotions when a pocket square from my best friend can choke me up? “Thank you, Jasper. For everything.”

  Jasper hugs me. “I’m so chuffed for you and Aileen. I’ve never seen you smile the way you have since you met her at Flynn’s wedding.”

  Speak of the devil himself. Flynn Godfrey comes in, carrying his newborn baby daughter, Cece, and his baby nephew Harrison, who he hands over to Jasper.

  “How’s my little chap?” Jasper asks his son as he snuggles him into his embrace.

  “Ellie says he’s fed, diapered and ready for a nap, and you’re not to rile him up,” Flynn says.

  Grinning, Jasper rubs the baby’s back. “His poor mum doesn’t understand
the ritual of male bonding.”

  A tentative knock on the door has me turning to see Logan sticking his head into the room. “Is it okay if I come in?”

  “Of course.” I hold out a hand to the boy who’s now my son. I have a son, and he’s magnificent.

  Logan crosses the room to stand with me, and I put my arm around him. If I’m around, he wants to be with me, and I can’t describe what it’s like to have a child look up to me the way he does.

  “How you doing?” I take a careful look at him the way I do every day, hoping to see that my presence has lightened the burden he carried for so long. He was far too young to be worried about the things that concerned him while his mother was so desperately ill. I can’t think about her being so ill or I’ll lose my composure.

  “I should be asking you that,” he says with the playful grin I adore. “I’m not the one getting married today.”

  The smart, articulate comment is vintage Logan, and it makes me laugh. “I’m all good. Have you checked on your mom and Maddie?”

  “Uh-huh. They look so pretty, but Mom says I’m not allowed to tell you anything about her dress.”

  “She says I have to wait.”

  “Uh-huh. Girls are weird that way.”

  “They sure are.”

  Hayden Roth and Sebastian Lowe join us, rounding out my wedding party. Logan will serve as my best man while Maddie is her mother’s maid of honor. We wanted our closest friends included in the festivities, so we asked them all to be in our wedding party, meaning that most of our guests are also in the wedding party. Oh well. It’s our day, and we were determined to do it exactly the way we wanted to.

  The wedding planner, a young woman named Jeanette, comes to the door to ask if we’re ready.

  I glance down at Logan. “Are we ready?”

  “Yep.”

  I nod to Jeanette as my heart skips a beat of excitement and elation. “Let’s do it.”

  The ceremony takes place under the lights that Flynn, Hayden and I strung last weekend over the pool deck at our home in Calabasas. Aileen wanted a small, intimate, casual wedding at home, and that’s exactly what she’s getting.