“My heart is very involved,” she said, her voice breaking. “I love you. Forever sounds like a good plan to me. I’ve seen what my life looks like without you in it, Hendrix, and I don’t want any part of that misery. I want you, and us, and this. Every day.” Her eyes filled with tears.
I crossed the space between us, into her open arms, then kissed her long and deep. “I love you, Savannah,” I said against her lips.
“I want all of you,” she replied, winding her arms around my neck.
“You have all of me.” I lined up the head of my cock to her entrance, then slid home in one smooth thrust.
We both gasped.
Then she wrapped her legs around my waist, and I took her with long, sure strokes. We kissed and touched, both giving into the hunger that had brought us here in the first place. But this time was sweeter, hotter—it meant more.
It was everything.
When her thighs locked and her muscles quivered, I slid my thumb between us and stroked her clit to push her over, then fell over the cliff right with her into the hardest orgasm of my life. It nearly took my knees out, but I did what I should have done in the first place—held onto her—and stayed upright.
Our breaths were ragged as we stared into each other’s eyes, our foreheads touching, my dick already swelling for round two.
“So what now?” she asked between pants.
“Well, we have a couple choices.” My fingers bit into the soft skin of her hips. Of course, I needed her again. I never got enough of her.
“I’m listening.” She swirled her hips.
“Either you move in with me,” I offered with a kiss. “Or we need to go furniture shopping. We’ll pop that air mattress in a heartbeat.”
She laughed. “I don’t know. I mean, I already unpacked the glasses.”
“Truly a sacrifice.” I kissed her nose, her cheeks, and finally her lips.
“I choose you. Your place. Your heart. All of it.” She kissed me sweetly. “As long as I have you, I’m good with anything. You get traded, we’ll go. You want to visit South Carolina, I’ll make sure my dad doesn’t bust in on us in my bedroom.”
I laughed, my heart lighter than it had ever been. “Actually, I took the house off the market. So your dad will have to know the gate code before he busts in on us when we visit.”
“Even better.” Her smile was brilliant. “Now let’s go pop the air mattress. Just for fun.” Her eyebrows wiggled, and I shook my head at how much I loved her.
Then I took her to the bedroom.
The air mattress didn’t make it.
We did.
Epilogue
Savannah
Three Years Later
Laughter filled Hendrix’s and my home as I hurried around the kitchen, preparing snacks as quickly as I could. We had a full house today, and Hendrix was already in the backyard on the grill. I was covering the snacks and drinks. Teagan and Roman and their daughter Rosa had come up for a visit, as had Nixon and Liberty, Nicole now toddling her way around the backyard.
I shimmied my way through the sliding glass door, smiling at our little tight-knit family as I set out the chips and drinks on the glass table underneath the patio awning. I relished the sound of my friends’ laughter and the soft giggles of the children. We were celebrating the official adoption of Rosa by Teagan and Roman, but I couldn't help but beam for another reason.
A secret reason.
My world shifting once again—even though it had been the best three years of my life. I had settled perfectly into my job with the Hurricanes, my best friend doing her thing with the Reapers, and my husband, Hendrix maintaining his best wide receiver in the NFL title.
Life was perfect.
Absolutely perfect.
And of course that meant everything was about to change.
I took a minute to appreciate the gorgeousness of my husband, the way his jeans hugged his muscular thighs, the way that white T-shirt hugged every inch of his gorgeous chest. Showed off the muscles beneath, even with the black apron slung over it. He clicked the tongs back and forth, laughing at something Roman had said. But his eyes snagged on Nicole running away, giggling as Nixon chased her.
I crossed the distance, sneaking up behind Hendrix to run my fingers over his back.
"You look happy," I said as he turned around to hug me.
He set down the tongs on the counter beside the grill, closing the lid so the heat wouldn't get to us. "How could I not be? I have the best wife in the world, and I finally got my old teammates to come hang out with us. "
"We have made this a quarterly thing," Nixon chimed up from where he chased his baby girl around the yard.
"Still not an everyday thing," Hendrix teased.
"We can’t all get traded," Roman teased. "Some of us actually like being Raptors."
Where those words used to sting, nothing but love radiated from him now. Hendrix was absolutely happy with his team, as I was with life here. The life we’d built together.
I swallowed a ball of apprehension, smoothing my hand over my still flat stomach. Watching as Hendrix’s blue eyes lit up as he continued to watch Nixon play with Nicole in the backyard.
Hendrix worked his hand down my back, holding me close. "Maybe it's time we start thinking about our own family," he whispered in my ear, and I had to bite back my smile as he looked down at me. "What?" he asked. "I think you would look phenomenal carrying our child. Not to mention if we have a boy, he’ll be a shoe-in for wide receiver. And if we have a girl, she’ll be the biggest little badass we've ever seen."
Tears threatened to fill my eyes, but I shook my head.
"What is it baby?" he asked suddenly, concern filling his eyes.
I grabbed his hand and smoothed it over my belly, grinning up at him. "You always have to be first, don't you?" I teased.
For a few seconds, he didn't understand, confusion coloring his eyes. But then something hit him over the head, and he jolted, looking from my stomach to me and back again.
I nodded, and he let out a whooping holler and scooped me off my feet, gently hugging me as he spun us in a circle. He kissed me until I was breathless and my head spun. My heart raced and everything felt right in the center of my world. He didn't set me back on my feet, not even as I arched back a little to meet his eyes, cupping his cheeks in my hands and tilting my head.
"What do you say?" I asked, smiling down at him. "You want to add another life to this lifetime?"
"I think we can pencil it in," he said, then crushed his lips on mine.
I lost myself in his kiss.
I sank inside the happiness from the life we’d built together, despite the odds stacked against us. The happiness we carved and shaped and made our own. I relished in this new chapter and the new adventures this baby would take us on.
And I knew it wouldn't be easy. I knew raising a child was one of the hardest things we would ever do. The most challenging, but the most rewarding too.
Hendrix Malone had never been able to back down from a challenge.
And neither had I.
Thank God for that, or we never would’ve found our way to each other.
THE END
Did you love meeting the reapers? Get ready for STERLING with AXEL! The NHL's been at Axel's door since he was eighteen, but he'd never leave the Swedish hockey league while he was raising his little brother. But now he's grown, and the Carolina Reapers are at Axel's door with his greatest weakness: Langley Pierce. The fierce and fiery publicist has sworn off men, but if she wants him to accept her proposed contract, she'll have to accept his...proposal. Read Axel, book one in the Carolina Reapers series here!
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New to the Raptors? Catch up with Nixon! The NFL quarterback hasn't been able to forget—or find—the woman he spent an earth-shattering night in Vegas with...
until Liberty shows up with the ultimate shock—a pregnancy test with two pink lines. Their chemistry is undeniable, but he's bound by contract, and her post-masters dream job is a continent away. Read Nixon, the first book in the Raleigh Raptors series here!
The Onyx Assassins Series Sneak Peek!
If you love the alpha males in my sports romance series, you’ll definitely want to sink your teeth into my upcoming sexy vampire series!
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The Onyx Assassins Series
Chapter One
Alek
The massive, formal front door of my estate swung open before I could so much as reach for the handle.
“Welcome home, my king.” Serge bowed his head and made room for me to pass. The guy was dressed in a suit, which was as casual as he got. He took his job as the head of the talem—our immortal stewards—just as seriously as I took my position as king.
“You know I was only gone for an hour, Serge. Relax a little. Maybe let me get the door every once in a while.” The sound of my boots echoed off the vaulted ceiling as I strode through the marble entry and past the sweeping, dual staircases that led to the second floor.
“As soon as I’m dead, sir,” Serge called after me.
I shook my head as I made my way into the expansive ballroom that consumed a quarter of the estate’s floorplan. We used the hall for celebrations, official court business, and all the other glitzy shit I couldn’t stand. Suited talem made their way down the four long tables that ran perpendicular to a raised dais, filling crystal goblets with fresh, crimson blood for the evening repast.
I muttered a curse. It was already ten o’clock, and none of the nobility had even risen from their guestrooms yet. Lazy fucks.
Lachlan, my second in command, stood at the foot of the dais, looking as out of place in his leather and tats as I did. He was a hulking brute of a warrior with thick red hair and two Glocks openly holstered beneath his arms. No doubt one was loaded with regular ammunition and the other, silver. His eyes narrowed as I approached. Lesser vampires withered under that stare, but I was anything but lesser.
“You look hungry or pissed, and I’m hoping it’s the first,” he said with a raised brow and a highland burr that even three hundred years on this continent hadn’t dulled.
“I just fed.” I reached his side then turned to survey the hall as the first of the nobles trickled in, dressed like they were going to the opera, not just the first meal of the night.
“Pissed it is,” the Scotsman noted, turning to one of the talem who was making his way up the steps to the table I was supposed to be sitting at. “Don’t bother. He won’t drink the canned shite, anyways.”
True.
The talem nodded and took his pitcher to the next table.
“Alek, it would make my job protecting you a wee bit easier if you’d feed on the estate.” He nodded to the left, where a door led to a sumptuous, velvet upholstered room where willing humans waited eagerly for a set of fangs at their veins.
“I never said I needed your protection.” It was the same argument we’d had for the last few hundred years.
“For fuck’s sake,” Lachlan muttered. “They’re right here. They want it. They sign waivers. Though there’s something to be said for the days when they didn’t.” He flashed a grin at me.
“Did he go out to eat again?” Ransom asked with a smirk as he joined us at the foot of the platform. “Can’t blame him. The feeders get a little territorial when he’s involved. It’s like we’re back in the good ‘ol harem days.” He gave a wistful sigh.
“You weren’t alive in the harem days, jackass. None of us were. And don’t encourage him.” Lachlan shook his head and grumbled something about useless nobles as he looked down the tables.
There were half a dozen aristocrats in the hall now, all from the finest families, and they’d all chosen seats at the farthest end from the dais. This court was respected, admired, even emulated…but overall, it was feared.
We were feared.
I liked it that way.
I had no use for the simpering class of nobles who cared more about their proximity to the throne than they did for fighting to keep our species at the top of the immortal food chain. While all vampires were dangerous, those who served in the Order were the most lethal of our kind. We were bigger than average nobility, faster, stronger, and trained to carry out our duty by the covenant—mete out the king’s justice.
My justice.
We were called the Onyx Assassins, not only for the onyx medallion each of us carried from the day we were initiated, but the death delivered by our hands.
“How long are these festivities, anyway?” Lachlan’s gaze moved from one noble to the next, assessing any potential threat as another one of my warriors joined us.
Benedict stood at my left and crossed his arms over his chest.
“At least a week, and half the nobility aren’t even here yet,” Ransom answered, clearly enjoying Lachlan’s discomfort. “Has Lenora already cornered you? Rumor has it she’s looking to get her oldest daughter mated.”
“Fuck that.” Lachlan flinched.
“He’s not lying,” Benedict added with a touch of a smile. A quick glance at the unchanged, black tattoos on his arms confirmed Ransom’s honesty. Whenever someone lied around Benedict, the words appeared on his skin. Most vampires outside our circle kept their mouths shut around him for that exact reason.
Ransom laughed, drawing the attention of the newest nobles, all female, of course. Just because they feared us didn’t mean they didn’t like to fuck us.
“One day, your mouth is going to get you into trouble, lad,” Lachlan muttered.
“Doubt that.” Ransom shrugged, his silver screen smile only widening. He was definitely the prettiest of my council…and as my master of combat, he was also the deadliest.
“Where’s Hawke?” I asked, noticing the warrior hadn’t made an appearance.
“Waiting for us in the bat cave,” Ransom answered. “He knows he scares even the purebloods.”
We all turned to stare at the combat master.
“What?” He asked with a shrug.
“Stop calling it the bat cave,” Lachlan ordered.
A muscle in my jaw ticked as the room filled with more and more nobles. Jeweled wives, mate-seeking mothers, conniving males, ambitious sons, and star-eyed daughters all looked to us—to me. I had no problem leading them. I just didn’t want to socialize with them.
“What am I supposed to call it?” Ransom argued.
“Council Chambers?” Benedict offered.
“Come on, it’s pretty much a bat cave,” Ransom argued. “And I don’t see Alek arguing.”
I cocked a brow but kept my thoughts to myself. In twenty-four hours, I’d be responsible for one more noble under this roof—one that wouldn’t leave at the end of the week’s festivities. One I loved more than my throne.
“You honestly think our king should weigh in on whether or not you get to call the sacred chamber where our council meets the bat cave?” Lachlan growled.
Benedict muttered a curse under his breath, then leaned in slightly. “Cassandra Zorin, two o’clock.”
My gaze shifted between the third and fourth tables on the right, and sure enough, Cassandra Zorin was breaking from her family to head this way. As purebloods went, she was strikingly beautiful, with long, black hair, high cheekbones, dark eyes, and a lithe figure. She was the logical choice to make, were I to finally choose a queen.
I just didn’t want her.
“Fuck,” Lachlan mumbled as she came closer.
“My king,” she said, whisper-soft, dropping into a curtsy before me with feigned submissiveness. The female would no doubt eat her future young if it meant getting the seat beside me, though the look in her eyes as she glanced over my leather jacket, black t-shirt, and pants said she’d rat
her eat me.
“Good evening, Cassandra,” I said in greeting, forcing my manners to the surface. “The hall looks nice. Thank you for seeing to the decorations.” I tried to smile. It didn’t happen.
Benedict pressed his lips in a firm line and recrossed his arms.
The female practically glowed under the compliment and offered me a coy smile. “Well, as the ranking female of the line of Zorin…” she tilted her head in thought. “The ranking female in every house, now that I think of it,” she chuckled. “It was not only my duty but my pleasure to prepare the hall for your sister’s visit.”
“My sister, Aviana, is the ranking female of every house, and she’s not visiting. She’s returning.” I locked down every negative thought in my mind and pictured a vast, empty field. My thoughts had gotten the best of me too many times over the years, and having the strongest compulsion gift in our species—the results had been disastrous. Just because I sarcastically thought someone should fling themselves off the roof didn’t mean I actually wanted it to happen.
“Of course she is, and we look forward to her return tomorrow evening.” Cassandra’s smile slipped. “The court needs a female’s touch.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
“And it shall have one in Aviana,” Ransom interjected, saving my ass.
“My king, I believe we have a meeting about last night’s justice,” Lachlan added. “Hawthorne is waiting.”
“He is,” I agreed. “Cassandra.” I nodded my head as custom dictated.
“King Alekxander,” her voice curled around my name in a way that made my stomach sour, and my jaw locked at the flash of color I saw on her forearm as she backed away, then retreated to the loving arms of her father.
“Did you fucking see that?” Ransom’s gaze turned toward me slowly.
Hendrix: A Raleigh Raptor Novel Page 19
