by Layne, Ivy
From across the kitchen, Knox said, “You can sit, Adam. I'll bring dinner to the table.”
“K, Mr. Knox,” Adam called back, excitement sparkling in his eyes. Knox slid a bone china plate in front of me piled with lobster and a twice baked potato—an almost exact replica of the meal we'd eaten in Bar Harbor all those weeks ago, right down to Adam's hot dog.
This time he ate it, finally accustomed to the loose tooth that continued to wiggle but had not yet fallen out. Unlike that meal in Bar Harbor, he was not the world's most horrible crank-monster. He chattered happily about school, the kids he liked, comparing their Legos to those at his preschool, all the while sneaking expectant looks at Knox.
Knox seemed to be communicating something back, but I had no idea what. I wasn't worried about it. My two men were blindingly handsome all dressed up, though, admittedly, in completely different ways. I was a little thrown to see Adam in his bowtie, without a fidget or a request to change into something more comfortable.
When Adam exhausted his store of information about kindergarten, Knox updated me on the status of construction. His early departure from work gave him a chance to catch Charlie on the site and she'd promised the garage would be done in a matter of weeks.
The second he took his last bite of hot dog. Adam whispered to Knox, “Now? Now?”
Knox answered with another brief shake of his head. What were they up to? As the last bite of lobster slid between my lips, Adam asked again, insistently, “Now?”
A smile cracked Knox's face. “Now. But I'll do it. You stay put.”
Adam did as he was told but squirmed in his seat with impatience or anticipation. Maybe both.
“Close your eyes,” Adam ordered me, bouncing up and down so much I thought he'd fly right off the cushion onto the floor. I raised an eyebrow and Knox confirmed, “Close your eyes, Lily.”
I did. A few seconds later Adam cried out, “Open them! Open them!”
A squeeze of my shoulder and Knox's low rumble, “You can open your eyes.”
Sitting in front of me was one of Annabelle's chocolate tarts, my favorite, the dense chocolate drizzled with caramel and sprinkled with sparkling crystals of salt and sugar.
The sparkle of the salt and sugar didn't come close to the brilliant fire of the ring nestled in the center, propped up by two plump raspberries.
A ring?
A ring was the last thing I expected.
I thought of us as a family already, Knox and Adam and me. Somehow my mind hadn't gone from that to a ring. Not yet.
We talked about it like it would happen eventually, but we never got down to specifics. How and when was still up in the air, and we absolutely hadn't talked about a ring.
A ring. I hadn't thought about it, but if I had, the ring before me was exactly what I would have chosen for myself. An emerald cut stone on a slender platinum band, it was elegant, almost understated, but not quite. The stone was a carat or two too big to qualify as understated.
I looked from the ring to Knox, standing beside me, silent and oddly tense.
Adam, who didn't have a speck of Knox's patience, burst out with, “Mr. Knox wants to marry us. And then he'd be my dad. When are you going to say yes? Say yes already, Mom.”
Say yes.
As always when I had too much in my heart and no idea how to let it out, my throat locked up. Not a word made its way past my lips.
Instead, I looked up at Knox and nodded, a tear of pure joy spilling over my lashes to run down my cheek.
This man. It would have been a Yes anyway, but Knox making Adam a part of his proposal, telling Adam he wanted to marry us and not just me…
I knew what I wanted.
Knox.
For me. For us. For the children we'd add to our family.
Knox, and only Knox.
Knox plucked the ring from the raspberries and slid it on my finger. It fit perfectly, the stone sparking cool fire against my skin. Still unable to get a word through my tight throat, I threw myself into Knox's arms, pressing my lips to his.
He kissed me once, taking his time, before he said, “So, that's a yes?”
In answer, I kissed him again.
Adam let out a whoop of triumph, diving around the table to join us. Knox bent down and picked him up, bringing his head level with ours.
My son threw his arms around both of us, pulling us into a messy jumble of a hug that only brought more tears to my eyes.
“I can call you Dad now, right? Do I have to wait until after you guys get married?”
Oh, hell, I was never going to be able to get a word out if they kept this up. I nodded again, but Knox answered for both of us.
“You can call me Dad now if you want, Adam,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. Adam let out another whoop, all but deafening me before squirming to be put down, shouting, “Time for ice cream!”
Knox set him on his feet, and Adam ran straight for the freezer. Knox leaned back, wiping the tears from my cheeks with the sides of his thumbs. “You like the ring?” he asked.
Managing to force words through my tight throat, I said, “I love the ring. I love you.”
Knox cupped my chin in his fingers, pressing a gentle kiss to my lips before dropping his hand to take mine, lifting my fingers to the light. His dark eyes were hot with possession as he studied the glitter of the diamond on my finger.
In a murmur only I could hear he said, “I want to see you wearing that ring and nothing else. You have no idea how long I've been waiting to see it on your finger.”
“How long have you two been planning this?”
“We went ring shopping as soon as we got back from New Hampshire.”
“You and Adam went together?” I thought of the times they'd snuck off to do guy stuff. In a million years I never would have guessed that guy stuff was picking out my engagement ring.
“I wanted to make sure he knew that we're a team. That this isn't about me and you. It's about the three of us.”
Overwhelmed, all I could manage was, “You guys are so sneaky.”
Knox dropped a kiss on the corner of my mouth. “Get used to it.”
Adam returned to the table with the ice cream and a scoop. With a grin, Knox dropped my hand and strode across the kitchen to shut the freezer door Adam had left hanging open.
He paused at the island, nudging the box of chocolates beside the roses and meeting my eyes. Without a sound, he mouthed, “For later.”
I shuddered from a wave of pure, liquid heat.
I knew what he could do with those chocolates.
Knox still hadn't seen the can of whipped cream and the chocolate sauce I'd picked up at the store the day before. I'd learned that baking required precision, but I planned to follow my instincts with the whipped cream and chocolate sauce. I had a feeling Knox would appreciate my instincts when it came to whipped cream and chocolate sauce.
I sat at the table with my two guys, listening with half an ear as Adam chattered away, planning the wedding of his dreams, complete with a spaceship built out of Legos and a honeymoon riding roller coasters. I love my little guy, but I was not getting married in a spaceship built out of Legos. I'd break that sad news to him later.
For now, I took a bite of Annabelle's chocolate tart and basked in the joy of the moment.
My family.
My future.
Knox had been right. That first day, I'd opened the door and my gut urged me to slam it in his face. He was a stranger. A threat. An unknown. I'd been afraid to hope, afraid to trust.
A whisper deep in my heart had urged me to let him in.
Following my heart led me into trouble more than once, but it also gave me the greatest gifts I'd ever know. My son.
And Knox.
My love. Soon to be my husband.
I shouldn't have been surprised by
his fairy-tale cottage of a home. It was a perfect fit since Knox was my dream come true.
Epilogue Two
Cooper
I wasn't ready for the sound when it came.
Bang.
Bang.
A fist pounding on my door.
I looked at the woman in bed beside me, her nearly-black hair a sharp contrast to the white of the pillow. Even in the dim light of the room her lips were red, her lashes dark fans on her cheeks.
If whoever was banging on the door woke her up, I was going to kill them. If she woke up, she might remember where she was. She might leave. I wouldn't let that happen.
I liked her right where she was. Asleep in my bed. I preferred her in my arms, where she'd been a moment before the asshole at the door interrupted.
Pulling on a pair of pants, I grabbed my weapon from the bedside table and strode through my apartment. With a stab of my finger at the panel, I woke up the screen to see the face of the man I was about to kill for disturbing my sleep.
I had to blink at the image that flicked into view.
Are you fucking kidding me?
It couldn't be.
I had to be hallucinating.
As a teenager, betrayal sparked a flicker of rage in my heart. Nearly a year ago that spark ignited, the flames growing hotter day by day. At the sight of the man on the screen, those flames erupted into a raging inferno.
In an instant, my control evaporated. All I could see was red.
I was going to fucking kill him.
I wrenched open the door and stared into the ice blue eyes of Maxwell Sinclair. My father.
My father, who faked his death five years before, leaving us to grieve with no answers.
My father, who'd stolen money from the mob, making his family and the people we loved into targets.
My father, who had broken so many laws I couldn’t keep count.
My father, who moved through life thinking only of himself, leaving destruction in his wake.
My father, who stood at my door, wearing the cocky grin I'd learned to hate.
I did the only thing I could, the thing I'd dreamed of doing for far too long.
Lunging at him, I swung, my fist connecting with his jaw in a solid thunk, sending a shockwave ricocheting up my arm.
My father flew back to sprawl on the carpet in the hallway, his head lolling to the side, blood trickling from his mouth.
My chest heaved, lungs tight with adrenaline and rage.
A slender yet strong arm slid around my waist. Sky-blue eyes looked up at me, concern and amusement battling in their depths.
“I think you knocked him out,” was all she said.
We both froze at the rustle of feet on the carpet. A small figure came into view.
Her too-big sundress sliding off her shoulder, a bedraggled bear tucked under her arm, she looked up at me with a familiar pair of ice blue eyes.
“You hit my dad.”
From beside me, Alice muttered, “Oh, shit.”
Exactly.
Click Here To Read Uncovered, Cooper & Alice's story.
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Don't miss the series that started it all.
The Alpha Billionaire Club Trilogy.
Also By Ivy Layne
The Untangled Series
Unraveled
Undone
Uncovered (Summer 2019)
Scandals of the Bad Boy Billionaires
The Billionaire’s Secret Heart (Novella)
The Billionaire’s Secret Love (Novella)
The Billionaire’s Pet
The Billionaire’s Promise
The Rebel Billionaire
The Billionaire’s Secret Kiss (Novella)
The Billionaire’s Angel
Engaging the Billionaire
Compromising the Billionaire
The Counterfeit Billionaire
Series Extras: ivylayne.com/extras
The Alpha Billionaire Club
The Wedding Rescue
The Courtship Maneuver
The Temptation Trap
About Ivy Layne
Ivy Layne has had her nose stuck in a book since she first learned to decipher the English language. Sometime in her early teens, she stumbled across her first Romance, and the die was cast. Though she pretended to pay attention to her creative writing professors, she dreamed of writing steamy romance instead of literary fiction. These days, she’s neck deep in alpha heroes and the smart, sexy women who love them.
Married to her very own alpha hero (who rubs her back after a long day of typing, but also leaves his socks on the floor). Ivy lives in the mountains of North Carolina where she and her other half are having a blast raising two energetic little boys. Aside from her family, Ivy’s greatest loves are coffee and chocolate, preferably together.
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