Miller
I complete another lap of the pool, feeling the warm summer sun blaze down as I duck my head and bring my hand over in a powerful stroke. I turn and kick off the edge of the pool, making toward the other end.
I never knew what I was saving and investing for all those years when I was working on my practice, but now it’s all become clear, as Macie and I have moved into our large seven-bedroom house and started to make it our own. For three weeks she’s been rushing around, ordering furniture, fixing her office and my study, a library, a living room…
There’s a long way to go yet, but she’s making incredible progress, and watching her grow into this new homebuilding role has been like watching a flower bloom in real time, flooding me with an even deeper need.
Three weeks of pure bliss…
I never knew a man like me could exist in such a steady, happy place, smiles arising on my lips as easily as grimaces and smirks once did.
Derrick has been tried for kidnapping, assault, stalking, and a few other, more serious crimes he committed while he was in Canada. He’s going to be spending a long time in prison, most likely decades, and if he ever shows his face – not that he will – I may not be so merciful next time.
I finish another lap and grab onto the end of the pool, turning my face to the sun and closing my eyes, letting the sunlight rest against my eyelids and my cheeks. This is the sort of thing I’d never have done before I met Macie, allowing myself simply to enjoy the sun like this, to enjoy the moment.
But she’s changed so much in me, and all for the better.
Meeting my woman has been the greatest adventure of my life, and I can’t wait to make her my wife.
“Miller.”
I turn to find her standing at the edge of the pool.
It’s Saturday morning and she’s in her silk bathrobe, tied lazily around the waist, a glimpse of her lacy bra peeking out and driving me crazy. We have lots of privacy here, enough that I don’t have to worry about some bastard getting a glimpse at my woman’s perfection.
Her hair is tousled and sits on her shoulders temptingly, begging me to climb from the water and run my hands through it.
I haul myself up and stand, the water sliding down my torso as I walk around the edge of the pool.
“What is it?” I ask, as she wrings her hands and bites her lip.
Although…
She hasn’t been as nervous lately, emerging from beneath her shield of shyness as we work together on the house or simply work on loving each other, making love to each other, spending every moment together that we can.
I still focus on my work and my career, of course, and she’s working her butt off to get her novel finished, but in our free time, we’re fused together, hungry to get to know each other more than we already do.
It’s strange that she’s suddenly so much like the Macie from the beginning, nerves flittering across her expression.
It makes me think something is wrong.
“Macie?” I say when she doesn’t answer.
I grab the towel from the chair and quickly rub myself down, wiping my hands, and then I reach out and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Are you just going to stand there and say nothing? You know that’s sort of weird, don’t you, my writer queen?”
She giggles and places her hands on my shoulders, staring up at me with light shimmering in her eyes, the sort of light I find difficult to read…
But then a feeling moves through me, deep and primal.
“Macie,” I whisper, my voice shaking. “Is this…”
She nods slowly, a smile spreading across her face.
“I guess I’m still sort of stunned. I just did it. The test. I just did the test.”
“And it was…”
“Positive,” she says, her voice cracking with emotion, tears glimmering in her eyes. “I’m pregnant, Miller.”
I let out a roar of pure joy, throwing my arms around my fiancé and pulling her into a close hug.
She lets out a shivering moan and places her head against my chest.
“Sorry if I seemed a little weird. I guess I was trying to process it.”
“No, no,” I growl. “I understand. I feel like I’m floating. I feel like I’m in heaven. This is amazing, Macie. This is… the beginning of our lives, the true beginning, the day we’ll look back on and say, That’s it, that’s where our family started.”
“The first of our five, huh?” She smiles up at me in that adorable way of hers. “Or maybe we’ll get, you know, whatever the five versions of quadruplets is.”
“The five version of quadruplets?” I laugh banteringly, kissing her cheek.
“You know what I mean.”
“I love you, Macie,” I say passionately. “I love you and I love our baby and I love our life.”
“I love you too,” she whispers.
I lean down and kiss her hard, claiming her lips. She moans through the kiss in that way I’ve come to understand well, the way that gets my body stirring, as my woman leaps up and wraps her legs around me, confident I’ll catch her.
And I do.
I always will.
Epilogue
One Year Later
Macie
I type the last paragraph of the novel, a smile spreading across my face as my fingers flutter over the keys, typing the words I’ve been dreaming of for weeks.
Part of me wanted to write the final paragraph before I’d written the rest of the story, but I forced myself to hold back because I wanted this moment to matter.
I wanted the end to truly be the end… even if it’s not, even if there are edits and submissions and all that jazz.
But for now, for the time being, when I type the final word – outlining how the giant and the woman find a happy corner of the world to raise their children – it really is the end of the story.
I sit back and let out a long breath, looking across the room to where baby Keira sleeps in her crib. I save and backup my work, and then stand and walk over to the crib, staring down at her as she sleeps.
Her breath rises and falls softly, a sleepy smile on her face as she makes the cutest sounds imaginable.
When she was first born I’d watch her sleep for hours on end, fascinated by every little thing she did, and that hasn’t changed.
I could watch her for the next ten years and never get bored…
Even if, logistically, that would make no sense.
Somehow I don’t think she’d want me looming over her bed when she’s ten.
I giggle at the thought, and then I realize there are tears in my eyes, hot tears of pure happiness.
This past year has been the best of my life, without any contest.
Sure, writing my book took a little longer than expected, what with the pregnancy and the wedding planning and the absolute joy of being Miller’s wife.
But the story is over now and everything else has gone so amazingly.
We’ve built an incredible home together.
We’ve brought Keira into this world.
We’re married and – even after the pregnancy and all that it brings – Miller still looks at me the same way he did when he first claimed me, when he fell upon me like the savage he is.
I turn when I hear him approaching behind me.
He’s wearing his workout gear, his shirt sticky with sweat, outlining his irrepressible muscles as he strolls over to me and places his hand on my shoulder. I shiver under his touch, gazing up into the dark intensity of his eyes, an intensity that promises never to fade no matter how much time passes.
He gives my shoulder a squeeze and leans forward, kissing the top of my head. I inhale the sweaty musky scent of him, the same way I would when I was pregnant and the hormones would cause the scent to drive me crazy, lust hammering through me with every moment I spent near my man.
“Look at our angel sleep,” he murmurs, smiling down at her with pure happiness glimmering in his eyes, the sort of unfettered joy
I never would’ve expected from his grim-set face when I first walked into his office a lifetime ago.
“I can’t stop,” I whisper. “She’s so captivating.”
“Just like her mother.” He kisses the top of my head again, pulling me into a hug. “You know why I love you, Macie?”
“Why’s that, Dr. Good?”
He chuckles at the new nickname, Dr. Good short for Dr. Too-Good-To Be-True. I started calling him that in the lead-up to our wedding when his happiness was unbridled. When he was smiling more often than not.
“You used to be Dr. Devil,” I told him. “Always scowling, smirking but never smiling… but now look at you. Dr. Good, that’s what I’m going to call you.”
He gives me some banter about the nickname sometimes, but I can tell he likes it, laughing every time I toss it his way.
“Because you don’t cringe away from me when I’m all sweaty from a workout,” he chuckles. “Most women would.”
“I like you when you’re like this,” I whisper, turning to him and standing on my tiptoes, bringing my lips to his in a fusion of lust and love. “In fact…”
He grins, a feral note entering his expression. “I like the sound of that. Come on.”
He takes my hand and leads me from the study-slash bedroom, the room I chose to combine my two passions in life, my writing and my daughter.
But my other passion requires our bedroom, with our four poster bed and silk sheets.
His touch lingers on the small of my back, burning against my skin the same way it did the first time he claimed me.
Extended Epilogue
Ten Years Later
Miller
“Daddy, I get to be the giant,” Freddy says, grinning up at me as the fire dances across his face.
We’re sitting in our large living room, the curtains drawn against the winter cold, the fire flooding the room with warm orange light that whispers over the furniture and the large display cabinet at the back, glinting off the glass. I love to study that cabinet, drinking in the sight of my woman’s books, all of them bestsellers, two of them made into Blockbuster movies.
I’m prouder and prouder of her every single day.
Freddy does his mock-glare, looking so much like his mother I almost feel a tear rise to my eye. My five year old is one hell of a troublemaker.
“Daddy.”
“Nah uh,” Keira says, reaching down to ruffle his hair. “I’m the biggest. I’m the giant.”
“You didn’t even want to be in the play,” Alexis says, strolling up next to her twin brother.
Alexis has the same deep brown hair as her brother, with a smattering of freckles across her cheeks. She wears her hair in a braid over her shoulder, and she’s very proud of the fact she can do her braid all by herself. That’s how she always says it.
“All by myself, Daddy.”
And it fills me up with more and more love each time.
“So you see,” Alexis says, “I am the giant.”
I chuckle and glance over their heads, looking at my wife on the couch with Jasper in her arms. Our newborn is sleeping peacefully, making soft cooing noises as Macie rocks him softly.
Beside them, Lily sits with her legs tucked beneath her, her eyes focused on her paperback, flickering from one side of the page to the other as though she can barely wait to get to the next line. Of all our children, Lily is the most likely to grow up to be a writer like her mom.
Macie glances up, catching me watching her, and a warm smile spreads across her perfect cheeks. The years have only made her more beautiful, more full-figured, more confident and sassy and all the other things I knew she could be.
“Daddy, you’re doing it again,” Alexis says.
“Yeah, come on. So gross,” Keira adds.
“Doing what?” I chuckle.
“Looking at each other,” Freddy grins. “But all lovey-dovey. Lovey-dovey like two loved-up doves.”
He laughs, proud of himself like he always is when he says this.
Even if it’s become one of his favorite catchphrases, I never get tired of it, and I never will.
“Mommy,” he goes on, spinning on her. “No more looking at Daddy. He needs to choose who the giant is.”
“But how can he choose, huh, when you all want to play the part? You’re putting him in a very difficult position.”
Freddy laughs and steps forward, straightening his shoulders and thumping his chest proudly in a way that makes my heart melt. “Nope. It’s the easiest choice in the whole wide world. It’s—”
“Me,” I suddenly roar, leaping to my feet and making my monster voice that always drives Freddy and Alexis into hysterical laughter.
Keira rolls her eyes like a true over-it ten year old, but even she can’t stop laughing when I start chasing the three of them around the living room, growling, and grumbling. Not for the first time, I’m relieved Jasper has been the most chilled, laid-back of our babies.
A bomb could go off and that beautiful little man would sleep peacefully.
I grab Freddy in one arm and Alexis in the other, wrestling them to the ground and then lifting them over my head.
They giggle and smile at each other, true twins, and Keira drops down next to Lily and smooths her hand through her hair. Macie smiles at me, and I think there might be tears in her eyes, but it’s difficult to tell with the firelight reflecting off her full gorgeous cheeks.
I love you, she mouths in between the mayhem.
I mouth it right back. I love you.
Freddy uses the moment to dive-bomb me, hugging onto me as his sister goes to work clambering onto my head.
I laugh as waves upon waves of love move through me, unbelievably thankful Macie walked into my office that day, unbelievably thankful I get to call this heaven my life.
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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 Billionaire’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: Bro
ther’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
Book 72: Possessive Canadian
Book 73: Blue Collar Billionaire
Book 74: Possessive K-9 Cop
Book 75: Possessive Brazilian
Book 76: Hockey Obsession
Book 77: Possessive Boston Irish American MMA Fighter
Book 78: Halloween Next Door
Book 79: Possessive Russian
Book 80: Baseball Mine
Book 81: Cop’s Caribbean Captive
Book 82: Instalove Island
Book 83: Dad’s Best Friend
Book 84: Thanksgiving with Dad’s Boss
Book 85: Possessive Italian Neighbor
Book 86: Possessive Portuguese
Book 87: Possessive Christmas Cop
Book 88: Russian’s Obsession
Book 89: Possessive Doctor’s Christmas
Book 90: Possessive Parisian Pilot
Book 91: U.K. Boxing Day
Book 92: Jealous Russian Stalker
Book 93: Italian Mountain Man
Book 94: Aggressive Russian
Book 95: Possessive Valentine
Book 96: Possessive Hunter
Book 97: Dad’s Russian Mafia Friend
Book 98: Russian Teacher
Dr. Good: A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance Page 13
