“I don’t care if he’s married. If he stays with his wife, then we will just be friends and I will find a way for that to be good enough, because she deserves the best. If he chooses me, then we will be together and I will be happy. You want me to be happy? That’s what I want. Respect that and honor it, because you owe me that, at the very least, if nothing else, you owe me that.”
She shook her head at him. “Get up off my bed and get these flowers cleaned out of my house. I haven’t liked red roses ever since you left me.”
Lamar sat up in surprise and stared at her. “Marina, no! Please! Think about what you are doing!” he pleaded with her.
She closed her eyes in frustration and then looked at him squarely. “I have thought about it! I have thought about it so much over the last few weeks, Lamar… how it would be if I let you back in. Could things work out? I know it might work out alright. I realize that you might actually mean it this time and that we could possibly have a real wedding where you show up and we trade rings and tie the knot.
“I’ve also given a lot of thought to whether or not I really want that, and I will tell you something; every time I’ve thought about it, I’ve realized that that isn’t at all what I want.
Now get all these flowers and that ring and get it out of my home. This is my home, and it won’t ever be yours. You can leave now.”
She spoke truthfully without malice, and strongly, without hindrance or hesitation, and she knew in her heart that she meant it.
Lamar stood up from her bed silently and pulled his own shirt back on. Then he cleaned up all the rose petals and put them in trash bags, hauling them out to his car. He came back in and looked at all of the bouquets of roses.
“What am I going to do with those?” he asked.
“Take them to a hospital; they will pass them all out to their patients. Take them to a retirement home. Go brighten a stranger’s day.”
“Marina…” he whispered.
She looked right at him. “No. Take them out and if you ever come back here again, it better be as my friend and only as my friend.”
Seeing that she meant it, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly, shaking his head. Then he gathered the bouquets, and after several trips, his car was completely full of them. She watched him place the last one in his vehicle, climb into the driver’s seat and pull away. As he did, she expected her heart to hurt, but she found that there was an enormous sense of freedom in her, as though her future was wide open, and it was a powerful feeling; one that made her feel as though she could fly.
Chapter11
Marina answered her phone with an enormous smile. “Hello!”
Kevin grinned at hearing her voice. “Hello, beautiful. How are you and Maddie doing today?” he asked with more happiness in his voice than she had heard since she met him.
“We’re wonderful.” She smiled happily.
“I wonder if I might take you girls on an outing today,” he said with his own grin.
Marina was delighted. “I’d love that!”
“Good. I have a surprise for you,” he said clandestinely.
“Okay!” Marina didn’t care what they did, as long as she got to see him. It had been a week since she had seen him, and she missed him terribly.
An hour later, she and Maddie were riding in his car with him. They pulled up to an enormous home that was fronted by a lush and well-manicured garden filled with hedges, trees, fountains and flowers. Marina looked at the house in amazement, but she said nothing. He parked the car and helped her out of it, then lifted his daughter from her car seat and together they walked into the front door of the massive home.
Marina stopped in the foyer and looked all around her, and then she looked at Kevin as realization spread over her face. “This is your home.”
He smiled at her. “No, Marina. This is our home. My divorce was finalized and my ex-wife has moved out. This home now belongs to me and to you, if you want to live here with me.”
She gasped and stared at it with new eyes. She could not believe what she was seeing or what she had heard him say. He slid his hand into hers and said softly, “Come with me, my love, let me show you around.”
He walked her through all the various rooms and showed her each of them in turn, while Maddie looked at him and patted his face and laid her head on his chest. They toured the kitchen and he introduced her to Sarah, who liked her immediately.
“Marina, this is my housekeeper, Sarah. She runs the whole house, and I have no idea how she does it. I could never manage without her. Sarah, this is Marina, and this is my daughter, Maddie.” He spoke proudly, and Sarah was shocked for a long full minute, but then she took Maddie in her arms and played with her, kissing her and cooing at her happily.
“Miss Marina, I am so glad to have you here and to meet you. If there’s anything I can do for you at all, you just let me know. I’ll take good care of you.” Sarah grinned at them both and finally relinquished Maddie back to her father.
They saw his office and he showed her the beautiful view of the garden from the window. Marina loved all of it. Then he took her up the winding staircase and stopped at the room down the hall from his, the room that used to belong to Ellen. He grinned at Marina and she opened the door.
Inside was a bright room filled with light colors and decorated as the most beautiful, fun, fantastical nursery that she had ever seen. Stuffed animals filled the corners, a gorgeous crib was set up in against one wall, toys filled the toy box and books filled the small bookshelves. A wagon stood waiting beside a tricycle, and mobiles and kites hung near a hot air balloon with a teddy bear in it, drifting beneath the cloud painted ceiling.
Marina was elated with it. She clapped her hands and took Maddie from her father’s arms, showing her all the fascinating things in the nursery. Kevin walked with them, helping to point out all the best surprises. Maddie was completely taken with her new room.
Kevin then walked Marina to the room at the end of the hall and when she went in, she was stunned at the beauty and grandeur in the design. It was an enormous space, built with marble, wood and ceramic tiles. She had never seen another bedroom so grand. He walked up beside her and slid his arms around her waist.
“This is all yours if you want it,” he said softly, whispering into her ear.
She turned to look at him with tears in her eyes. “What I want is you.”
“Well, luckily, I come with the house,” he teased and then touched her cheek. “Come with me, there’s a little more to show you.” He took them outside and showed them the pool, the pool house, the tennis courts, the flower gardens, the vegetable garden, the European gardens, and the private beach.
When they reached the beach, they stood looking at the sun as it began to sink into the warm colors of the late afternoon sky. He knelt down before her and took her hand in his while Maddie watched him from her mother’s other arm.
“Marina,” he spoke humbly, “I will love you always, and I will give you, Maddie and any other children we have together the promise of a lifetime of love and happiness. Please do me the honor of becoming my partner for life, my wife. Marry me, Marina. Make a family with me.”
She could not stop the tears that spilled over onto her cheeks as complete happiness filled her whole heart. “Yes, Kevin. I will marry you. I will spend the rest of my life with you. I love you,” she said simply, with a huge smile on her beautiful face.
He rose, choked up with overwhelming emotion, and held her and his daughter in one big hug. Then he slid a stunning diamond ring on her left hand and kissed her cheek.
“Shall we put her down for the night?” he asked, looking at Maddie as she lay on her mother’s shoulder with sleepy eyes.
They walked back to the house and put their daughter in her new nursery, and then Kevin took his fiancé to their room and closed the door behind them. She turned in a circle, staring at the enormous room around them, and then her gaze stopped on the handsome man in the suit and tie who was gazing at her,
watching her with hungry eyes.
Her breath caught and he walked slowly toward her, enjoying every single moment of it. He reached her and took her hand, raising it to his mouth and kissing her fingertips lightly. Then he led her to the giant bed near the French doors that opened onto the balcony overlooking the gardens. She stood before him and he traced his fingertips slowly down her cheek.
“I’ve waited so long for this. I have wanted you more than you will ever know, and I will always want you this much and probably more. I need you.” He lifted her chin and closed the distance between their faces until they were almost nose-to-nose, eyes closed, and she could feel his breath on her lips.
“Thank you for becoming my wife,” he said softly, and then he pressed his lips to hers ever so gently, brushing them over her skin and learning her curves with his mouth and the tip of his tongue. She gasped as the butterflies in her went wild and heat flooded her core and careened through every part of her body.
She touched her dark fingertips to his suit and began to pull it from his body, one piece at a time until there was nothing between them but warm air. Their heartbeats grew faster and their breath grew shallow as desire burned hotly in them. She too had waited, just as long as he had, for this night, this time to be together, and they both were consumed with every passing moment, every touch, every taste, every kiss, as they explored one another slowly, achingly, and reveled in it.
Kevin looked at her body as though it was the first time he had ever seen a woman, and as he gazed upon her, he knew that he never wanted to see any other woman besides her for the rest of his days. His fingertips touched all of her curves and lines, felt the heat that emanated from her, and sent electricity into her body that she had never known before.
She felt every part of him, running her hands and fingers over his muscles and his flesh. He grew hard with need for her and he closed his eyes as her fingers closed around him and touched him, stimulating him, massaging him until he could not hold in the moans of desire that escaped him.
“I have wanted this for so long,” she whispered, her breath short and ragged.
“As have I, my love. It has been the most difficult experience of my life to wait for you, to hope that someday I could love you like this, touch you, hold you and love you like I have wanted to. You bring me such happiness, but this is more than I ever imagined. I could not have dreamed you more beautiful than you are. You amaze me.”
He lifted her up and laid her across his bed, sliding his hands over her body and caressing every part of it. “You are like nothing I have ever seen or touched,” he spoke, his lips against her skin, his tongue tracing flames over her.
Marina thought she had known love and pleasure, but nothing in her life had ever prepared her for the ecstasy that saturated her when he traced his tongue up her inner thighs and lost himself for what seemed like ages in the exploration of the core of her body with his tongue and lips. She held his hands tightly and her soft cries became louder as he tasted her. Drinking her in, he brought her to a heated climax over and over again. When he could no longer hold himself back from her, he lifted himself above her, moved between her thighs and pushed his erection into the hot dark depths of her, burying himself in her body and in her love.
She wrapped her arms and legs around him tightly and together they moved as one, losing their own individualities until there was nothing left but togetherness. She clasped at him, holding him to her with every ounce of her strength as he filled her with himself, giving her pleasure beyond her imagination. Then, as they wrestled with passion growing faster and fiercer, he pulled her hips firmly to his and thrust himself as far into her as he could, emptying the fires of himself into her until they both collapsed in bliss and exhaustion.
Kevin finally caught his breath and looked at her. “Marina,” he said softly as his heart began to slow. “I have never felt anything like you in my arms before. I know right now that I will never get enough of you. I will never know a day when I am not aching to be inside you, loving you,” he leaned over to her and kissed her sensually on her full lips, “losing myself in you. Can you give me that?” he asked, looking into her blue-gray eyes.
“Yes, my love. Gladly.” She slid her dark fingers over his back and pulled him to her body again. She lowered her mouth to his rising erection and with her tongue and lips, kissed him, swallowing him and sucking on him until he became completely aroused again, arcing his back and moving himself into and out of her mouth and throat until he could no longer stand his ache for her body.
He pulled himself from her hot mouth and laid her back on the bed, his hands reaching low and spreading her thighs apart, then rubbing himself against the outside of her body in her heat and moisture, making her gasp and hold tightly to him. He maneuvered against her core for only a few moments before he pushed the pulsing tip of himself into her.
There was no time to explore as they began to make love again; the urgency of their need was too great. They had tasted the best of each other, and both of them needed more of the same as though it was oxygen and they could not live without it.
He entered her swiftly in breathless need, moving in and out of her as slowly as he could, learning her body as they moved, holding her tightly to him, sucking at her breasts and teasing her nipples, clinging to her hips and pulling her snugly against his own, until before long, they were gasping in each other’s arms again.
They finally fell asleep in utter happiness, awash in love and joy. When they woke, they made love, and then showered and tended to their child, and every chance they got, they found themselves in each other’s arms, in each other’s bodies, in each other’s hearts.
In no time at all, the feel of the house changed, and it was filled with laughter and happiness, with love and great joy, as the members who lived in it made their family strong within the great walls.
A small wedding was held on the beach where Kevin had proposed to Marina, and their friends and a few family members congratulated them and wished them a lifetime of happiness, health and prosperity. It wasn’t long after the wedding that Kevin and Marina announced that they would be adding a second child to their family, and they knew no greater joy.
Their happiness lasted all of their days as they finally welcomed five children over the years into their lives and home, raised them together and put the dark memories of their pasts in the shadows that the brilliant light of their love and lives created.
THE END
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Book5
HER BOSSES BABY?
KIMMY LOVE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Despite being childhood sweethearts, it is clear that the love went out of Macey's marriage many years ago. Her once-perfect husband is now an abusive drunk and Macey wants better for herself.
So it is no surprise when she finds herself in the arms of another man.
Her boss Adam is caring, respectful and chivalrous. He is everything she knows she wants in a man and as they grow closer, several nights of passion soon follow.
However, despite being careful the inevitable happens. Macey finds herself pregnant.
Is she carrying her Bosses' baby? Or is it her husbands?
And more importantly, who will she be with when she finds out the truth?
Chapter One
Drew has that look in his eye again as he glares at me from across the table. I sit here wishing to God the table was a lot wider, that I was closer to the door, and that I hadn’t gone and opened my big mouth and said, “Are you job searching today?”
Five little words. That’s all. But five more than he wanted to hear.
“What are you saying, Macey?” he says through gritted teeth. “You saying I’m lazy? That I sit around all day waiting for y
ou to bring home the bacon?”
I don’t answer. I just stare down at the coffee that’s been going cold as Drew gave me that deathly look.
“Well?” He brings his fists down hard on the table. Everything rattles and so do my nerves. In one fell swoop, he leaps to his feet and pulls me up off my chair, grabbing the collar of my blouse and pushing me into the kitchen counter. The wood presses hard into the small of my back and Drew’s breath is hot on my face. His knuckles are digging into my neck. He’ll rip my blouse if he doesn’t calm down—and it won’t be the first time.
I can’t breathe. My eyes dart from side-to-side and my throat goes dry.
“Drew, please,” I manage to whisper, but Drew’s cheeks are burning red and his eyes look through me and not at me.
The Baby Shower Page 45
