by Ruby Knoxx
I suppressed my roar as my balls clenched and my orgasm shot from me. I pushed everything into her as my vision blurred. There was nothing but me and Justine, floating in euphoria.
Slowly, I came back to myself, and gently removed my fingers and myself from her, feeling shaky. I kissed her gently, wanting to tell her how much I loved her right then, though I was still just a little scared.
I lay down next to her, on the edge of the bed, just needing a minute.
Justine wrapped her arm around me and kissed my cheek, my temple, my neck. Her lips traveled up my neck and to my ear where she whispered, “I love you, too.”
I looked at her, startled. Had she said that? Had I heard that? Had I said that?
“That was six years coming,” she said, smiling. “But it was true then, and it’s true now. I love you, too, Leon.”
Epilogue – Justine
“Shhh, shhh,” I said quietly to Kat in the kitchen. “We can’t surprise him if we wake him up. Okay, do you have the tray?”
I didn’t trust that she did, but I was carrying all the hard-to-clean-up stuff on my own, like the syrup for the pancakes and the coffee.
“Oh wait,” I said, stopping her with a gentle touch of my toe on her calf. “We nearly forgot your beautiful card!”
“Oh yeah!” Kitty put the tray down on the floor and ran to her bedroom, her little feet stomping all the way. So much for not waking him up. I thought that lions were supposed to be stealthy.
She came running back with the folded piece of colored paper with different shapes cut out and glued all over it. She had tried to make a lion to go on the front, but the teacher had insisted that it was supposed to be a card that showed the whole family. As it turned out, Kat had little to no skill when it came to portraying humans in art, something I hadn’t realized until this card came home. As I reflected on it, it occurred to me that I had never really seen her draw a person. She always drew animals and told me I was one of them.
Of course, now that I knew that she was a shifter, it all made sense. I had always just put it down to her love of animals in general and documentaries. But she was showing me her true self all along. She knew that she had a lion in her. I was just slow to learn.
The talk that we eventually had was productive. It helped having Leon there, who had made a few calls to family members and friends who had their own shifter children and asked them how they went about having their talk. He knew things that I never would have thought of, like reminding Kat that if she got hurt on the playground, she couldn’t let anyone see the wound, because humans didn’t heal the way shifters did. I was shocked at that one and had my own questions about broken bones. Leon shook his head, saying it didn’t matter. It would heal in minutes, especially with kids.
Leon moved in soon after we introduced him to Kat. At first he was a man that I worked with, then a friend, and then when she was comfortable around him, we told her the truth, that he was her father. I think part of her already knew, as she wasn’t hesitant at all to throw her arms around him and call him Daddy.
I helped Kat pick the tray back up and place the card on top of it.
“Okay, honey,” I said. “We have to walk very slowly. If we walk too fast, the wind will knock the card over.”
“Okay,” she whispered back to me.
I couldn’t care less if the card fell over. But I did care if the plate slid off the tray and there were eggs on the carpet.
She took her task very seriously, taking tiny little steps to keep the tray even and watching it more than where she was going. A couple of times I had to redirect her so she didn’t run into a wall. I followed her, carrying coffee and the syrup jug, and nudged the bedroom door open with my elbow as Kitty came in.
I didn’t miss Leon’s open eyes close quickly as we came in.
“Happy Father’s Day, Daddy!” Kat yelled.
I saw it happening before I think Kat realized what was going on. I quickly put the coffee and syrup down on the dresser and caught the slipping tray, stopping the plate of food before it was sacrificed to the carpet gods.
Kat didn’t even notice as I took the tray from her hands. She ran and jumped on the bed, giving Leon a big hug.
“Aw, thank you,” he said, kissing the side of her head. “Is all that for me?”
I put the tray next to the coffee on the dresser and joined them on the bed, bringing the card with me.
“Do you want to show Daddy what you made him?” I asked.
“Look!” Kat said, taking the card from me and opening it up. “It says ‘I love you!’”
“Yes, it does,” Leon said, taking the card from her and looking at the front. “I love you too, Kitty Kat.”
I leaned forward and kissed him. “And I love you, too.”
He smiled as both Kat and I curled into his arms.
“So this is what Father’s Day is like,” he said.
“I guess so. I’m new to it, too,” I giggled.
It had been a few months since Leon became a part of the household, and it was a decision I never looked back on. I hated that we had spent so much time apart when we could have been building our family, though I loved that we still managed to find each other in the end.
There had been a little bit of panic on Leon’s end when we did get together. It meant that he had to give up his job and apartment. As someone who had worked all of his life, he felt directionless.
Luckily, he did use some of his money to hire a good lawyer, and we revisited Royce Roger’s offer. I wasn’t sure about the guy, but when it came down to it, he was literally offering Kat a future that neither Leon nor I could provide, no matter how good Leon’s savings had been. As we hashed out the details and our attorney made sure that we weren’t going to get blindsided by anything, we signed the paper work, making Kat the recipient of RRC Bank if she wanted to when she was old enough.
In the meantime, Rogers took on Leon as his CEO. There were plenty of people in the company who weren’t happy about the decision, but with Leon’s affinity for rules and doing things by the book, he was a good fit in the end. Rogers made it very clear that he was only in this position until Kat came of age and decided what she wanted to do with the company.
Between what Leon was earning as a CEO of a bank and his savings, we were able to find a beautiful house right on the beach. I was getting more comfortable with driving in the city and soon found that I didn’t mind the commute to the office and back, knowing that I had my family and a tranquil beach front property waiting for me. As I became more comfortable with driving, I opened myself up to getting a band going again. It was something I hadn’t realized I missed until I found a few people to start playing around with, Nina included.
Now, I lay in bed with Leon and my Kitty Kat, wondering how on earth I had gotten so lucky. All of the pieces of my life had fallen into place. Nothing could be more perfect.
THE END
About the Author
Ruby lives on a farm with her two daughters and husband. Besides horses, chickens, and a donkey, she sometimes imagines that there are other types of animals on her farm, too... Animals that turn into Very Hot Men at night to look for their mates... Whenever that happens, she turns to her computer and writes down the paranormal love stories of these rough Wolf, Bear, and Dragon shifters who will destroy any obstacle to protect their mate. Come and enjoy the steamy, suspenseful, and slightly sweaty adventures of Ruby's shifter romance world.
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Books by Ruby Knoxx
“Black Ops Mates” Series
Black Ops Mates is a series about a bunch of seriously hot lion shifters who always keep their cool. Except when they run into that one delicious woman that will turn their world upside down. And when that happens, they’ll obey the hungering cat within and devour what is theirs and theirs alone…
Wild Lion
Wicked Lion
Warrior Lion
Wounded Lion
Wet Lion
Wanted Lion
“Bear Justice MC” Series
We’re the Bear Justice MC. We’re like paid vigilantes, on the hush-hush end of things, making sure that justice is served in this world. We’re kept off the books, off the radar, and if we ever get caught doing what we do… things won’t be pretty. But there’s no rest for the wicked. So let’s get the engine roaring. Duty calls.
Sold to the Beast
Mated to the Beast
Broken Out by the Beast
Claimed by the Beast
Rescued by the Beast
Kidnapped by the Beast
Tamed by the Beast
Secret Baby of the Beast
Rocked by the Beast
Protected by the Beast
