The door to the bedroom opened, and the first thing she saw was a huge bouquet of roses. Marc’s face popped up over the top of them with a wide grin on his face.
She couldn’t help but smile back. He had been coming home with a different bouquet of flowers every day since she’d come home from the hospital. She kept telling him that soon their house was going to turn into some kind of flower shop, but he insisted on spoiling her rotten.
“How are you feeling, beautiful?” he asked.
She pointed at the list sitting next to her on the bed. “I’m hoping that Alex will let me get out of bed soon. I have so many things that I want to do for the baby before he comes,” she said as she rested her hands on her stomach. She still couldn’t believe that she was going to have a son in just a few short months. Her stomach had already grown to twice its normal size, but she was getting used to her new shape, and she loved feeling him kick. It was the best feeling in the world.
Marc set the vase on the table next to her. He sat down on the bed and took her hands into his. She still smiled every time she saw the gesture because his hands were so much bigger than hers. She could just imagine what it would look like when he held their baby’s hands.
“As soon as Alex says it’s okay, it will be okay with me, too. But he says you need to rest. The baby needs you to take it easy and make sure you’re fully recovered before you start moving around again.”
Marc gently set his hand on her stomach, and she saw the smile of wonderment as he felt the baby kick against his hand. She settled her hand over his. “He’s been waiting for Daddy to get home,” she said.
She would never get tired of seeing the excitement that crossed Marc’s face when he thought about the fact that he was going to be a dad. It was so obvious how proud he was.
“Well, he should know by now that I will do everything I can to protect him and his mother from anything bad ever happening again,” he said.
She sighed. “I know that you think what happened with Margot was your fault, Marc, but it wasn’t. And I believe that you will protect us. We’re safe here as long as we’re together.”
“Speaking of forever, there’s something that is long overdue for me to give you,” he said. He pulled a small box from the middle of the roses and handed it to her. She took it and felt her heart start to beat even faster. She slowly opened it and gasped. It was the largest solitaire diamond ring she’d ever seen.
“Kelly Hillock, you have made me the happiest man on this planet. I can’t imagine what my life was like before I met you. It will truly be complete when I can say that not only are you my mate, but you are my wife for life.”
Kelly looked up at him and smiled softly. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be than with you,” she said softly. She went willingly as Marc gathered her up into his arms. His kiss was soft but possessive, and she loved every minute of it. Finally, she felt like everything had settled into place. Things were going to be all right because, like she said, they were together.
They had their whole future in front of them.
EPILOGUE
Kelly squeezed his hand with everything she had. Marc was pretty sure if he was a human man, she would’ve broken every bone in it. She was trying so hard not to cry out, but he knew it was a struggle for her. This was very different than when he had brought her to the hospital in pain before. This time, it was all for a very good reason.
She was giving birth to their son.
“I’m not sure I can do this. I’m not sure I can do this,” she said in a breathless voice.
Marc kept a firm hold on her hand, but he put his arm around her shoulders. He peered down at the foot of the bed. The doctor and nurses were waiting for the baby to emerge, and Alex stood just behind them continuing to monitor the situation as well. Marc wanted him close just in case anything did happen during the birth.
“You’ve got this, babe. You are going to be a terrific mother, and he knows that. It all starts right now,” he said to her as he kissed the top of her forehead. “Now push,” he said.
“I’m pushing!”
“Push harder.”
“You push yourself, you bastard! You’re not the one who’s giving birth here. I’d like to see you try.”
Jesus Christ.
Alex covered his chortle with his laugh.
He should have told the doctor to give her an epidural earlier. Women in labor were quite frightening. Marc remembered an article about the Huichol tribe’s custom of sharing labor pain. The wife would tie a rope around the husband’s scrotum and when the wife struggled with a painful contraction, she’d pull the rope as hard as she could. Good thing that he lived in modern civilization. His balls were saved from barbaric torture. “Babe, darling, take a deep breath and calm down…”
“I can’t calm down! The baby is coming out.”
“Then push!” Marc regretted that he couldn’t use his gift of persuasion on her. It’d come handy in situation like this.
“I’m pushing. I can’t.” Kelly screamed. “I hate you, Marc!”
“No, you don’t.”
“I can’t do this.”
“Yes, you can. Push!”
Kelly let out one more earth-shattering, piercing, elongated yell just before it was followed by the squawking cry of a baby. She then collapsed on her back in exhaustion. It had been a long labor. She started having contractions yesterday, and the past four hours were spent pushing. A relief washed over him. He wasn’t the one who gave birth, but he felt bone-tired, too.
“Congratulations, Mr. DaVaca. It’s a boy,” said the doctor.
He knew that. The firstborn in the DaVaca clan was always male.
Marc watched in awe as the doctor cleaned mucus from his infant son’s mouth with a suction device. He then clamped the umbilical cord. The nurse wrapped him in a blanket and proffered him to his mother.
“Mr. and Mrs. DaVaca, meet your son,” the nurse said. “He’s a handsome baby.”
Kelly burst into a round of fresh tears, while Marc was transfixed at the sight of his son. He felt his own eyes starting to water, which wasn’t like him at all. The baby had stopped crying and now watched them with equal curiosity.
“Hello, son, welcome to planet Earth,” Marc whispered. The baby gave him a “what you talking about” kind of look. Marc chortled.
The doctor gave them five minutes’ bonding time before he took the baby again for some aftercare. The doctor performed Apgar assessments and declared the baby healthy. One nurse quickly cleaned up the baby and weighed him while the other nurse took the infant’s measurements and made his foot imprint on paper. When they finished, the nurse wrapped the infant in a blanket and donned him a cap and gave him to his mother once again.
“He looks like you,” she said.
Marc chuckled. “No, he looks like his beautiful mother.”
She smiled at him, and then she looked down at their son again. “I can’t believe that we made him. He’s perfect,” she said.
The baby gave a throaty howl, and Marc laughed. “Now that is the call of a DaVaca.”
He felt someone move closer to him and saw Alex standing there. “A new father beaming with pride,” Alex said. “Congratulations. He’s healthy and happy.”
Marc ran his palm across the baby’s cheek realizing that his hand was bigger than his son’s head. The tiny body felt so fragile in his arms.
He looked at Kelly. “What are we going to name him?”
“I don’t know. Do you have a family name that you would like to use?”
Marc thought about it. “I think I would like to name him after my father, and we can use my middle name. That would signify both me and my dad,” he said. “Three generations of alphas in the DaVaca clan. It helps solidify his claim for the future.”
“I think that’s perfect,” she said with a smile. He moved down and kissed her lips even as he gently handed her their son. He couldn’t believe that in such a short time, his life had changed so much. But he would
not change it for anything in the world. He had everything he could ever want, and he would make sure that no one ever bothered his family again.
A lasting love and a new DaVaca clan member. He would teach his son to never question what the fates had in store for him.
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Lizzie Lynn Lee is a gutter-minded hopeless romantic who doesn’t live in this world most of the time. In her perfect utopia, her heroes never take their women for granted, love at first sight exists and soul mates always find a way to be together. She invites you to visit her world, where she spins her tales because the men are sizzling hot, master the art of sex and they are really into their ladies—be that a slim girl, or curvy, interracial, interspecies, sassy or shy—their adventures redefine erotica. Are you ready to be thrilled?
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Lizzie Lynn Lee Bibliography
Shunga Chronicles: Lady of the Snow
Love in the Elevator
Shunga Chronicles: Prince and the Assassin
Payback
Shunga Chronicles: Flight of the Heron
Wicked Game
Eve Aizawa: Eve of Seduction
Busted
Eve Aizawa: Deus Eve Machina
Sexopalooza
Switched
Cyber Lover
Jumping Bones
The Wolf She Married
Savannah’s Menage
Charly’s Chocolate Factory with Celia Kyle
Original Sin
Lycan Wars 1: Instinct
Claimed
Hot-Blooded
Fierce Heat with Celia Kyle
Orient Fevre
Gilded Cage
Corporate Plaything
Spirit World: Maison Plaisir
To Bed A Goddess
The Last Siren
The Donor
The Alien King and I
Dangerous Curves: Wet
Lions of the Serengeti: Jennifer’s Lion
Lions of the Serengeti: Sarah’s Lion
Bound to Me: Fever Lust
Private Sessions
Lions of the Serengeti: Caly’s Lion
Faerykin
Werebeasties
Dragon Hunts
Night of the Lions
Chain of Lust
Taken By a Nymph
Maiden and the Lion
Dominate Me with Noelle Ashford
To Blackmail a Billionaire with Noelle Ashford
Her Dragon Billionaire
Kidnapped and Claimed
Her Tiger Billionaire
Raven’s Bride
Her Lion Billionaire
Bad Dick
Naughty Librarian
Lions of the Serengeti: Yazmina’s Lion
Naughty Boys
Scorched
Tamed
The Man with the Dragon Wings
Tiger In Her Bed
Hot Like Fire, Cold As Ice
Animalistic
My Boss is a Lion
Fairy Godlover
Wicked As He Comes
Tiger Speed Dating
Romance Warfare
Spotilicious
Special Preview: Romance Warfare: a Tigress’ Guide to NOT Secure a Mate
It’s hard to enforce a no contact rule when she’s working for you. Totally ignoring her makes you look like a jackass.
“Who?”
“Eva….Eva Carey.”
“You are fucking kidding me.” Adam Frost slammed his hands onto his mahogany desk and kicked his chair back.
“There’s no way that’s happening. Eva Carey is not working for me.”
Adam stalked back and forth across his office, his legs lithe and muscular as he paced the length of the room. He stopped in front of the floor-to-ceiling window and peered down at the busy streets below, the cars and people all miniature versions of themselves from this height.
“Does she know?”
There was no answer from behind him. The mid-morning sun slanted across his chiseled features, picking out hints of copper in his deep chocolate hair. He spun and speared the man in the chair with his gaze. “Does. She. Know?” he ground out.
Dean Woolsey, VP of Frost Industries and, coincidentally, Adam’s cousin, was sprawled across a leather club chair parked in front of Adam’s massive desk. He chuckled at Adam’s discomfort, clearly he enjoyed torturing Adam. “Does she know you’re CEO of Frost Industries? Yep, pretty sure she does. Does she know she’s your new executive administrative assistant? I…I’m not sure.” He cleared his throat and developed a keen interest in the abstract painting dominating the wall to his left.
Adam stopped his pacing and dropped back into his chair, closing his eyes, and massaging his temples with his thumbs. He could feel disaster in the making. Big time. One that he couldn’t easily wish away. Anything related with Eva Carey always drained his energy and his sanity. Winter is coming, he thought sarcastically. “This was all you, wasn’t it?” he asked Dean.
Dean shrugged and gave him a half-cocked smile. “Listen, she needed a job. When the Carey clan alpha came calling, what was I supposed to tell him? ‘No way in hell am I hiring your gorgeous little heir?’”
Adam huffed his exasperation and for a split second, his sky-blue eyes flashed topaz at Dean. “This is a huge company, Dean. There must be another department where you could have put her. Mail room, perhaps?”
“Come on, mail room? You want to insult the Carey’s alpha? She’s more than qualified and she needed a position that pays well.”
“Fine, accounting, whatever. Just somewhere else. Away from me. Somewhere I don’t have to see her every day.”
“Oh-ho, don’t tell me you still have feelings for her?” Dean hooted with laughter. “This is going to be even better than I thought!”
Adam narrowed his eyes. Irritated. “You did do this on purpose.”
“Of course, I did, Adam. You need a little shake-up in your life. And I don’t think anyone can shake you up as much as your ex-fiancé, the lovely Miss Eva Lillian Carey, whom we all dearly miss.”
God damn it, Dean.
“Well, where is she?”
“Down in HR, filling in the last of her paperwork. I told them to send her up as soon as she’s finished.”
Adam jumped out of his chair and started pacing the room again. Dean watched him back and forth, a smile playing at his lips. Adam stopped in front of the window again, smoothing his hands over his thick, chestnut locks and fidgeting with his tie. Dean snorted, trying to hold in his laughter.
“You’re walking on thin ice, cousin.” Adam growled.
“How many years has it been?”
“I don’t know.”
“Five or six…”
“Eight.”
Dean howled with laughter again. “This just gets better and better.”
“I don’t know what you think is going to happen. Or just what is so damned funny. That was a long time ago. Yes, I loved her. Then. But now, this is going to be strictly professional. She needs a job. Fine. She can work for me. But that’s it. She has her office, I have mine. Keep the correspondence electronic. No reason for any contact beyond the job.” Adam sank into his chair and started rummaging through a stack of paperwork, trying to distract himself from thoughts of Eva Carey. The girl, now a woman, who haunted his dreams and waking moments long after she walked away from him. “Yeah, I think I’ll do just that.”
Dean snorted derisively. “It’s hard to enforce a no contact rule when she’s working for you. Totally ignoring her makes you look like a jackass.”
Before Adam cou
ld retort back there was a soft knock on the office door. Dean cocked his eyebrow at Adam. “You wanna get that?” Adam’s eyes flicked back and forth from Dean to the door. The knock sounded again, louder this time.
Adam cleared his throat. “Come in,” he said loudly.
The door swung open and his past stepped over the threshold.
***
Eva Carey was standing in the doorway, the office lights behind her silhouetting her curvaceous body. She was staring down at a sheaf of paperwork and stepped forward, still studying the papers.
“Hi, I’m Eva. HR told me come on up to this office when I finished.”
Adam watched as she strode forward, luscious hips outlined in her black pencil skirt, sky-high stiletto’s making little dents in the plush office carpeting. Adam was entranced by every sway her body made. She threw out her hand when she reached the chair Dean was sitting in. “It’s nice to meet….” she looked up, her voice trailing off faintly.
Her mouth dropped, forming a little O of shock as she shifted her gaze back and forth between Adam and Dean.
“You.” She finally croaked out.
“How’s it going, Evie?” Dean grinned at her. “You’re looking lovely these days…very, very lovely.” He winked at her.
Adam shot him a look that said knock it off.
Eva ignored Dean. She stopped in the middle of offering her hand and was staring across the desk at Adam.
He saw the confusion and the anger move across her face.
“Eva. Hi.”
“Hi? Is that seriously what you’re saying to me after all these years? Hi?”
She crushed the papers she was holding in her hand into a crinkled bundle. She lobbed them across the desk at Adam. “Is this a joke? Because it’s a really bad one.”
Adam wasn’t sure whether to be amused or pissed. She was still a fiery little tigress. She’d swept her cinnamon-colored curls up into a prissy bun, but tendrils of hair escaped and were brushing over the nape of her neck, right where it was burning red with her anger. Adam wondered briefly what it would be like to nibble over the soft skin. He wondered if she still smelled like peaches. His gaze drifted over her, her buttoned-up silk blouse couldn’t hide her firm, upturned tits any more than that knee-length skirt could hide the generous curve of her ass, pushed out even further by the heels she was wearing to make herself taller. A picture of her in nothing but the heels flashed across his mind, his thoughts interrupted by Dean’s not-so-subtle cough.
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