There are families and lives and happiness around every corner, and as we drive on, I can’t stop my foot from tapping, nerves dancing along with excitement.
Please, please, please, I scream silently.
Finally, the limo pulls up outside the largest house I’ve seen yet.
A regal silver gate sits between two gargoyle-topped pillars. Jett climbs out and approaches the gate, typing a few buttons into the keypad, and then returns. The gate slides into grooves in the pillars and then we drive up the long gravel driveway.
The garden is as verdant as the rest of the neighborhood, but this one has a fountain, bright blue water spraying into the sky and then cascading back down to the earth.
The limo stops outside the mansion, at least a dozen windows staring at me from the front of the house, each one of them sparkling like twelve winking eyes. A broad set of steps leads up to the wide, tall front door. It’s the sort of place I’ve only ever seen in movies and reality shows before.
Suddenly, the car door opens, a chauffeur holding it open for me. I step out, about to say thank you, but then I do a double-take and let out a long peal of laughter.
Patricia looks prim and proper in her chauffeur’s outfit, and Rebel even has one of her own, her cap pulled over her head and her smile pink and toothy.
“You’ve been driving this whole time?” I laugh.
“Yes, and this one has been absolutely perfect,” Patricia chuckles, giving Rebel a little bob. “I think she knows it’s your special day, too.”
“Shall we?” Jett says, a broad smile on his face.
But I don’t mistake the uncertainty flitting in those summer-sky eyes of his.
He offers me his arm and I loop mine through his.
We walk up the steps and approach the door. Jett pushes it open, nodding for me to go ahead.
The hallway is a giant ballroom-sized room with a double staircase leading up to a balcony. A chandelier glitters from the ceiling and the floor is marble and so shiny it makes the whole house feel as though it’s sitting inside a light bulb.
After the darkness that marked the beginning of our journey together, I can’t stop the tears from rising up in my eyes.
“Juliana,” Jett whispers from behind me.
I turn to find him with his hand in his pocket, his jaw tight, his eyes intense and completely focused on me.
“Yes, Jett?” I murmur.
“I love you,” he growls. “I should’ve told you a long time ago, but I wanted to wait until now until you were standing inside our home. I love you more than life itself. My whole life, I never thought I was capable of feeling this. I never thought I was capable of feeling. But you’ve woken up so much inside of me. You’ve changed me in ways I never could’ve imagined before. You’ve – fuck it, I don’t care if it sounds cheesy – you completed me, Juliana, when I didn’t even know I needed completing. I love you—”
“I love you,” I gasp.
He smiles and I smile, and then we say it at the same time, “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
We draw closer with each declaration until Jett is looming over me and my cheeks are on fire with the passage of my tears.
“Juliana Crichton,” he says, using the name I was given at birth, not Smith, the name that was supposed to hide me. That just makes me cry even harder. “Will you make me the happiest man in the world?”
He falls to one knee and pulls a ring box out of his pocket. Opening it, the elegant yet large diamond glistens up at me.
“Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” I cry, forcing the words past my tears of pure joy.
“Thank God,” Jett smiles, taking the ring and slipping it onto my finger. He leaps to his feet and wraps his arms around me, spinning me around and around in our wonderfully bright entranceway. “I was worried.”
“Are you kidding?” I giggle when he puts me down. “As if I’d ever say no.”
“I’m the luckiest man in the world,” he says, smoothing his hand along my cheek, wiping my tears away. “And I’ll never stop loving you, my sweet Juliana.”
EPILOGUE
THREE WEEKS LATER
Jett
I jog down the beach, the water licking at my bare feet with Rebel running happily behind me. I’ve got a big smile on my face, and I don’t give a damn who sees it.
My cheeks ache from smiling so much.
These past three weeks have been heaven.
With Patricia back on the east coast setting up the closure of her business and her move to the west coast so that she and Juliana can start her empire here, Juliana and I have had the beach house to ourselves.
It’s become a personal haven just for the two of us, the perfect place to rest and relax after all the craziness that brought us together, and while we begin the process of decorating our mansion in the suburbs.
I got word from Liam a few nights ago that Igor and his men are facing an impossible case. They’re going where they belong, not the dirt with a quick end, but to a prison where they’ll be forced to contemplate all the mistakes that led them there.
We’re free, me and the woman I love, my fiancé.
I stop when I reach our section of the beach, hands on my hips, grinning as I suck in fresh lungfuls of air.
Rebel leaps around on her hind legs, doing the little dance she does every time we complete a run together, mouth open in a smile.
“Okay, girl,” I laugh, leaning down and scooping her into my hand.
She nestles against me, lapping greedily at the sweat on my bare chest.
“Jett,” Juliana says, her voice cutting across the beach.
I snap my gaze toward her immediately.
There’s a panicked note in her voice.
My mind fills with ghouls and dangers.
But then I see that she’s smiling, holding something in her hand, a small white object.
My heart begins to thump with pure blazing joy, brighter than the setting sun that tinges the whole beach a glorious shade of orange. I place Rebel down and meet her in the middle of the beach, catching her as she throws herself into my arms.
“Is it—are you—Juliana,” I gasp, hardly able to form sentences, the happiness is so bright and welcome.
“Yes, yes, yes,” she cries. “I’m pregnant, Jett. You’re going to be a daddy. I’m going to be a mommy.”
She says it like she can hardly believe it, her voice wavering with the same stunned euphoria that made me fumble my speech.
“We’re going to be parents,” I gasp, bringing my lips down to hers.
She meets me in the middle and it’s impossible to tell who initiates the kiss, only that it’s perfect, the most soul-binding kiss we’ve ever shared. I feel my heart leaping around in my chest, my seed rejoicing, a thousand hopes for our future coalescing into this one moment.
“It’s real,” she says, clasping my face in her hands, staring up at me with her verdant greens. “We’re doing this, aren’t we?”
“Forever,” I say passionately, pulling her toward me, mashing my sweat-dappled body against hers. “I love you, Juliana. I can’t wait to start a family with you.”
“I love you too,” she says, squeezing tighter against me, as Rebel leaps around us, sharing in the joy.
EXTENDED EPILOGUE
ONE YEAR LATER
Juliana
“So, I’d say that was a success, wouldn’t you?” I say, finally letting myself lean against the wall to give my calves a break from the heels.
I knew my body was going to kick up a fuss so soon after giving birth to little Anna – named after my mother – but nobody told me how long pregnancy calves truly last.
Not that Jett cares.
Even today, when I was getting ready for the winter ball, his hands were roaming all over my body, his breath whispering hotly in my ear.
“Even now?” I’d laughed, wriggling away from him with great effort. “Look at me. I still look pregnant.”
“Especially now,” my
husband had snarled, his hands smoothing down my hips to grab big handfuls of my flesh. “You look so beautiful when you’re like this, all full and round and curvy from pregnancy. You look so fertile and fresh and alive. It makes me want to put another baby in you.”
“Soon,” I whimpered, as he stalked me across the bedroom.
It was hard to focus on putting in my earrings with him standing there in just his gym shorts, his body seeming to get stronger and more capable with each passing month.
I don’t think he’s ever going to let age slow him down. He’s ten times the man any silly boys my age pretend to be.
Patricia tugs me back to the present when she clicks across the function hall in her heels, looking sleek and stylish and every inch the Patricia who was my boss on the east coast.
“You killed it,” she says, adjusting her purple hipster glasses. “You absolutely killed it, Julia.”
I feel my cheeks glowing red.
This was my first solo venture, planned, organized, and executed by me alone, with Patricia serving as my assistant for the night.
“Thank you,” I say. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
She walks over and we hug each other briefly, closer now than we ever were before I learned the truth about who she was, about how we’d found each other.
She still says sorry sometimes – mostly after a few glasses of champagne – but I always tell her the same thing.
She saved me, and I’ll never stop being thankful.
It led me here, to this wonderful bright life, with a husband who loves me and a daughter with the cutest smile in the world. I don’t care what anybody says. My Anna takes the gold medal on that one.
“Anything planned for the rest of the evening?” Patricia asks.
I think of the promise I made to Jett before I left when his predator’s hands were gripping my shoulders and he had me pushed savagely up against the wall, shimmering pleasure coursing through me.
“You’re mine when you come home tonight,” he growled. “I’m going to taste you, every single part of you. You’re going to be my little personal fuck toy again. And if you think Anna’s the only one tasting that sweet milk of yours, you’ve got another thing coming. Understand?”
“Yes,” I’d moaned, every instinct in me willing me to crush my body against his, to feel his massive manhood throbbing through his gym shorts.
“Oh,” I say now, with the most casual shrug I can manage. “I think Jett and I will probably just have a quiet night in.”
EXTENDED EPILOGUE
TEN YEARS LATER
Jett
Little Jeff – named after Juliana’s father – leaps from behind the broad tree trunk with a stick as a gun, aiming it at me.
His oak colored hair bobs around his face as he grins and fires the stick, making lip-smacking bang-bang noises. His blue eyes seem impossibly bright in the sunlight that filters through the trees.
“I got you, Daddy,” he laughs.
“Ah,” I roar, throwing my hands in the air so that my own stick goes flying.
I fall to the ground and make his favorite dying noises.
I go ribbit like a frog.
He laughs like he does every time, running over to me, falling to his knees, and thumping my chest with his tiny hands.
It’s difficult to believe that my four year old is going to grow up one day, going to become a teenager, and then a man. Part of me wishes I could freeze him like this, my perfect toddling boy.
But I won’t do that.
I’ll help him grow into the type of man he wants to be, as long as he’s decent and honorable and honest.
I gasp awake, the same way I do every time, pulling him into a hug.
“You saved me, little man,” I chuckle.
“Why do you go ribbit?” he laughs, grinning as I ruffle his hair.
“Because you said that’s the sound I have to make, remember?”
“Nah uh,” he laughs.
“Yeah huh,” I smile, needling him playfully in the side.
He giggles and dances away from me, shaking his head so fervently his brown fringe falls across his forehead.
I stand up, brushing the dirt from my pants. “I told you that I was a SEAL and that SEALs are sometimes called frogmen—”
“And frogmen go ribbit,” he cries. “I know, Daddy. I was testing you.”
I laugh and then the two of us turn back toward the path to find Juliana walking with Anna just beside her.
Our ten year old has blonde hair, the same sandy shade mine was before it turned iron. Wearing a T-shirt with her favorite band on it with one electric-blue earphone trailing from her ear.
She holds Jennifer’s hand, our seven year old, her brown hair tied up in a bun.
On the other side of Juliana, Stacey walks, Jennifer’s twin.
My family, framed in sunlight.
I can’t help but smile, wider and wider with each step they take toward me.
“Who told you to rush ahead, hmm?” Juliana smiles, aiming one of her funny faces at Jeff, the kind that makes him break out into hysterical laughter.
“Mommy has a funny face,” he laughs, gripping his sides and hopping up and down. “Mommy has the bestest funny face in the world.”
Juliana walks over to me, wearing a long flowing dress that strains against her breasts, dappling her body lightly. She’s become even more curvaceous and perfect as the years have gone on, as she’s established herself as one of the foremost event planners on the west coast, as I’ve opened my combat gyms for the underprivileged, trying to give back after so many years of bloody work.
Her hair is in a cute brown bob now, framing her full, captivating face.
Even now, I have to be careful as she approaches, swaying her hips so that her dress moves like mist around her.
Even now – and for always – the mere sight of my wife almost sends me into a frenzy.
“Having fun were you?” she says, looping her hands around my waist.
“Ew, Mom,” Anna says, but she can’t stop herself from smiling at the love her parents have for each other.
“Ew, what?” Juliana teases. “You’re lucky I’m not kissing his face off.”
“Yuck-yuck-yuck,” Jeff laughs. “Isn’t it yuck, Jenny?”
Jenny looks up at Anna for guidance, as she often does, absolutely in love with her big sister. My heart swells at the love brimming between every member of my family.
“Is it, Anna?” Jennifer asks. “Is it yuck?”
Anna turns back to me, light shimmering in her eyes.
She shrugs and a smile tugs at her lips.
“No, not really,” she says. “It’s actually kind of sweet.”
I lean down and place a warm kiss on my wife’s lips, having to remind myself that she’s mine, that this life is ours.
As crazy as it sounds, being hired to kill this woman was the best thing that ever happened to me.
A moment later, Rebel comes trotting over, trying to carry the gun-stick that I threw away when Jeff made me go ribbit.
Everybody laughs as she sets it down and yaps.
She’s become so bossy in her old age.
NEWSLETTER
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A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS
Book 1: Baby Lust
Book 2: Veteran
Book 3: Built
Book 4: Bambino
Book 5: Rescued
Book 6: Leader
Book 7: Professor
Book 8: Burned
Book 9: Worldly
Book 10: Pistol
Book 11: Policed
Book 12: Driven
Book 13: Lucky 13
Book 14: Lumberjacked
Book 15: Protector
Book 16: Carpenter
Book 17: Italian Stallion
Book 18: Gardener
Book 19: Budapest Bil
lionaire’s Virgin
Book 20: Billionaire’s Babysitter
Book 21: Cocky CFO
Book 22: Fireman’s Filthy 4th
Book 23: Mechanic
Book 24: SEAL’s Secret
Book 25: Police, Pooch, and Smooch
Book 26: Fireman’s Fake Fiancée
Book 27: Billionaire’s Virgin Ballerina
Book 28: Bitcoin Billionaire’s Babysitter
Book 29: Veterans Day Daddy
Book 30: Cowboy’s Christmas Carol
Book 31: Police Officer’s Princess
Book 32: Statham
Book 33: Bodyguard
Book 34: Greek God
Book 35: Billionaire Single Dad's Babysitter
Book 36: Mountain Man
Book 37: SEAL’s Justice
Book 38: Royal Romance
Book 39: Doctor Mountain Man’s Special Delivery
Book 40: Crocodile Dan D
Book 41: Mountain Man’s Secret Baby
Book 42: Doctor Bad Boy’s Secret Baby
Book 43: Cop’s Babysitter
Book 44: Nanny for the Cop Next Door
Book 45: Small Town SEAL’s Saving Grace
Book 46: Cop’s Fake Fiancée
Book 47: Billionaire’s Nanny
Book 48: Cowboy’s Babysitter
Book 49: Steamy
Book 50: Brother’s Best Friend
Book 51: Possessive Professor
Book 52: Firefighter’s Babysitter
Book 53: Soldier’s Secret Baby
Book 54: Ward’s Independence Day
Book 55: Doctor Next Door
Book 56: Possessive Policeman
Book 57: Coached by the MMA Fighter
Book 58: Boss’s Babysitter
Book 59: Virgin in New York
Book 60: Rock Star’s Baby
Book 61: Possessive Protector
Book 62: Possessive Australian
Book 63: Best Friend’s Brother
Book 64: Possessive Cowboy
Book 65: Summer Romanced
Book 66: Possessive Prince
Book 67: Lovers’s Enemy
Book 68: Cop’s Best Friend
Book 69: Possessive Firefighter
Book 70: Football Next Door
Book 71: Doctor December
Saved By The Hitman: An Instalove Possessive Age Gap Romance Page 13
