by Elle Luckett
I had an amazing family, but these two… they had become my world. My everything. I would do anything, move heaven and earth to make them happy. The rest... Audine, her deceptions, lies, and current location; the world outside our bubble, we could deal with it all later. Right now was for us.
Our new home turned out to be the most incredible haunted mansion for Halloween. Asher had been on the roof spreading out fake cobwebs and placing giant spiders and scorpions on some of the Victorian curves. The porch had a pumpkin-headed farmer in a rocking chair, while a life-sized animatronic headless horseman reared for anyone who set off the motion sensor. Inside was just as elaborate. It was a house warming Halloween party where my family, friends, and Stigmata family mingled together for the first time. A situation that felt oddly satisfying when I’d inadvertently kept the groups apart all this time.
“Dude, this house is ridiculous,” Kammie squealed, arms folding around me in welcome.
Before I could respond, my own little ice queen came sweeping in and around my legs as her daddy, dressed in authentic lederhosen, came blowing in after her. Without blinking, he unwound her from my legs, picked her up and threw her in the air with a smile that made my heart sing. He littered her cheeks with butterfly kisses before pressing his lips to mine while she giggled in that infectious way. Asher took off with Ashleigh in his arms, and they disappeared into the crowd in the general direction of the art room, designed to distract the kids.
Both Tristan and Kammie appeared a little shell shocked before their eyes fell away from the pair and back to me. Kammie looked wistful, while Tristan looked unusually rattled for the composed man he was. I don’t think I’d ever seen him look anything outside of collected before.
“Baby, I want lots of those,” Kammie said, grinning at me conspiratorially before glancing over her shoulder to see her husband’s expression. Tristan looked pale to me, which was only confirmed when Kammie ran her hands over his cheeks, patting gently before shaking her head in amusement. “Maybe you should go get a beer.”
Tristan did, abandoning us and stumbling into both Thomas and Christopher, who stuck together close to the bar as kids weaved their way through the room. It was so strange seeing the two very different parts of my world collide. Even stranger was seeing these large, formidable men looking a little overwhelmed and unsure about the whole thing.
“Did you see his face?” Kammie giggled gleefully.
“I couldn’t miss it.”
“White as a sheet. It happens every time I bring up wanting kids. I use it to my advantage frequently, especially when he’s being an overbearing ass.”
“How many kids do you want?”
Kammie’s smile turned thoughtful as she watched Chelsea’s kids battle over a mini pumpkin they both wanted to paint.
“One to start with, maybe, then see where we go from there. Was Asher a natural with her?” Kammie asked, spotting father and daughter in the crowd. Ashleigh was sitting on a life-sized reindeer Asher had insisted on buying. The mannequin animal was also wearing lederhosen and string lights in its antlers. Asher stood close and casually chatted with some of my mom group and subs from the club. Ashleigh was too busy trying to get Thomas and Christopher’s attention, winning them over while introducing them to her reindeer to interrupt the conversation flow.
“From the moment he met her,” I confirmed, dragging my eyes away from the mind-boggling development. “But she was enamored with him the moment she laid eyes on him.”
“Pretty much just like you then,” Kammie teased.
She wasn’t wrong. She’d been there the night Asher had walked back into my life, but she couldn’t have known how much he’d always been there in my thoughts over the seven years since I’d last seen him, even when I hadn’t wanted him to be.
“I love that man, Kam. I’ve loved him since the day he walked into that club in Gatlinburg and sought me out.” I watched his easy laugh, the confidence in which he did everything, including resting a hand on our daughter’s back to keep her from falling, and I impossibly fell deeper in love with him. I’d been an idiot trying to convince myself otherwise.
Most of the people in Stigmata were aware of the situation with Asher’s family because the club was being dragged into the mix to question our character and the ability to parent our child. What kind of parents could we possibly be when we worked and actively participated in a sexual BDSM club? I don’t think his family had anticipated the club and all of its members circling the wagons around us. They would never understand that because loyalty was something they bought, a fickle thing that had a price tag. Our loyalty was bone-deep and earned through friendship.
A lot had happened since the night before Ashleigh’s birthday. Our lawyers had teamed together to go to war with the Morris family, an ongoing problem we seemed to currently have the upper hand in. There were no judges for Asher’s family to bribe here in New Orleans, and the system didn’t seem to care how much money they had. Asher’s preemptive strike had cut them off at the knees, and it had all been above board and legal. It was only a matter of time until the judge made a ruling, and our lawyers were confident it would be in our favor. The Morris family wouldn’t let it go even after losing. They had too much pride and money for that, but Asher believed that no matter what court they attempted to go through, they would have the same outcome. The Morrises could paint whatever picture they wanted, and no one would dispute that Ashleigh was where she needed to be, or that she was happy and healthy. In fact, I’d never seen her happier.
Asher’s family’s claims on his holdings were also denied, but I didn’t get too involved in that part of his business because I didn’t want to know how much money he had, or how his family was trying to gain control of it. Asher had been protecting himself since he’d left college, understanding very well who and what his family was. When he’d told me he would have chosen me, even after seven years, he’d backed that claim up. Seven years ago, his family could have cut him off, and he’d have been independently wealthy. I’d had no interest in what he was worth. I’d loved him because of how he made me feel, for who I was around him, and for the simple fact that he loved me with so much passion and intensity, all I’d ever been able to see was forever with him. I felt the same now with a hundred different reasons rolled in. All I had to do was look at him, and I was conscious of it from my toes to my follicles.
Audine had walked away when Asher had demanded it that night at the house with the oak tree, but that wasn’t the last time we’d seen her. She’d returned only a week later in New Orleans while we’d been moving into our home on Camp Street. Ashleigh was, thankfully, with my parents and away from the poisonous diatribe Audine, and their sister, Sherilyn, threw at the two of us on our porch. Accusations flew, and I ended the drawn-out conflict by calling the police and having them removed from our property, which embarrassed the two of them enough that we hadn’t heard from either since.
I learned a couple of things in that confrontation, though. Asher’s sisters were as bad as Asher had always told me they were. They’d both made an effort to make sure Asher didn’t hear from me. His wife was in cohorts with them, making it impossible for us to connect while they lived together—a good thing in hindsight. They’d also had a plan in place after the divorce between Asher and Naiomi when I’d already given up. In fact, his ex-wife had been the one to remove the note I’d left for him when she was sent by his sisters to “check on him” and found it tucked under the counter. And last but not least, his sister Sherilyn had paid Asher’s assistant to purposefully not find me when Asher had asked her to look.
It was an odd sensation knowing someone had actively sabotaged our relationship, especially when not one of them knew me. Still, all of the information coming now only made our relationship that much stronger. Asher was a part of my family, and it felt as though he always had been.
Asher fit into our lives so easily, and we, in turn, fit into his. We’d worked together until this life became ours. My fa
mily loved him, my mom group adored and lusted after him, and he’d always been an active member in Stigmata. Our life worked. The three of us were building a family in the home he’d bought to grow in.
And we were growing.
As though he’d heard my thoughts, Asher’s eyes met mine across the room filled with our family and friends, his raw, unfettered love washing over me while he beamed that deadly smile in my direction. He’d been doing that a lot over the course of the last week. Something that accompanied the quiet contentment he wrapped himself in. Only he and I knew what was coming, what the future held, and he lit up the room when he thought about it.
He lit up because our family of three was becoming four.
THE END
Remedy – Adele
Small Voices – Matt Gresham
Stigmata – Grandson
Calliope – Matt Lange
Secrets in the Sunset – Goodbye June
Ain’t No Sunshine – aeseaes
Wish we Had History – BEXY
Stroke – BANKS
Something Sweeter – LUME
Middle of the Night – Elley Duhé
Vessels– Rebecca Foon, Patrick Watson
Keep You Waiting – Kevin Garrett
Shout – Empara Mi
Symmetry (Dark Version) – SYML
Done – Meg Myers
Whatever it Takes – Manwell, Sarah Reeves
Don’t Say You Do – Lola Blanc
Insecure – Clover The Girl
Bones – Koethe
Hostile – Brokecove
Fade Into You – Whitehorse
American Sadness – XYLØ
Starz - Elley Duhé
Just Asking – Aquilo
Joke’s on You (Acoustic) – Charlotte Lawrence
Living – TENDER
Never Gonna Die (Alt Version) – Zara Larsson
Odds of Even – Marilyn Manson
All Eyes On You – Active Child
About the Author
Elle Luckett was born in Houston, mainly in the mind of L.J. Stock. As the darker side of a generally light personality, she became the voice that would tell lustful stories, something born from a very vivid imagination and an amass of characters with some interesting habits and tastes.
Elle Luckett Web
Also by Elle Luckett
Club Stigmata Universe
The Favor
– Club Stigmata Novellas –
You, Me, and The Memories
You, Me, and The Crazy Ex
You, Me, and The Stalker
You, Me, and The Secret
Gilded Knot Series
Reckless Abandon
Just Right
