by Lynda Chance
“Nick,” she remonstrated softly.
“Right. You’re getting it. I can see it in your eyes. So tell me, why do we have to make this choice about children now? Let’s don’t have kids. We’ll stay protected. If you change your mind later, the option will be there.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It’s entirely that simple.”
She relaxed her hands, giving herself over to him, but said no more.
“Baby,” he began gently, “You had no family. None at all. Our kid, or kids, if we have them, will have my mom and my brothers and sister and their future families. Trust me, my siblings will eventually get married, they’ll have families, and any children that we might have will be loved by not just us, but by their grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins.”
Courtney sucked in a breath, his words hitting her brain in a rush. Nick did have a huge family. And they were her family as well. She felt her face flush and at her silence, he seemed to understand she was really listening and he pressed further. “What we ought to do, if you decide you want a kid, is to have a shit-ton of them. We could have four or five and then they’d never be alone. God forbid, even if something happened to us, they’d have each other, right?”
She licked her lips, totally gobsmacked. She swallowed and held his eyes. “I’ve never … I’ve never thought about it that way. The thought of having kids, leaving them orphaned, has always terrified me so much that I’ve never thought about having a bunch, instead of just one.”
He swirled his hand up and into her hair, holding her closer. His forehead fell to hers and he said gently, “Well think about it. You don’t have to decide right now.” He lifted his head and continued, “Stay on the pill if you want. I’ll even wear condoms for double protection if it’ll make you feel better. We’ll decide this stuff later. But baby, please, please say you’ll stay married to me. Let me put my rings on your finger and please, leave them there.”
“Are you sure, Nick? I might never change my mind.”
“It’s a chance I’m willing to take. I need one thing and one thing only in my life to make me happy. And that’s you.” They stared at each other as the tension between them began to build. His eyes dropped to her lips and Courtney felt a flare of butterflies at the same moment as a rush of wet heat came between her thighs.
“I love you,” Nick groaned as his mouth dropped to hers. His kiss was all things: gentle, loving, possessive, forceful, a promise.
Courtney kissed him back, pushing against the hand that held hers captured. He let go, and immediately, she sank her fingers into his hair.
His scent was all around her, his hard muscles surrounding her and she tried to stop herself, but she couldn’t contain her need. She had to lift her hips, just so.
His hand trailed up and lifted her chin. “Ask me nicely.”
“Nick, please,” she whispered, not wanting to say it.
“No. I want to hear you say the words. You’ve been putting me through hell and back.” He reached down and kissed her so aggressively her brain almost splintered in two. Without her volition, her hips lifted against him again, begging for him. He tore his lips from hers. “I’ve already held you down against your will and abused your sweet little butt, no way am I going to be accused of a worse crime.”
His words were half-teasing, half-serious, and Courtney speared her fingers through his hair and smiled up at him. “You’re forgiven. Love me, Nick. Make love to me, please.”
A sizzle hit the air as a feral look transformed his expression. He shifted his legs, surged back and with a power and dominance she’d never felt from him before, thrust inside her with one powerful stroke.
Courtney was inundated by the exquisite fullness she’d quickly come to crave. As he pushed in and held himself there, she knew in that second that the situation between them really was killing her too. She couldn’t live without him and she never wanted to have to try. This was killing them both and she couldn’t keep it up another moment.
Swallowing hard, deciding to trust him to know what was right, trusting him with her entire heart, she whispered, “Nick.”
Continuing to hold himself deep inside, he took her chin with one hand and nipped at her bottom lip, before opening his eyes. “What, sweetheart?”
She stared at him for several long seconds as the heat began to build between them. “What, baby?” he asked more gently.
“Did you mean what you said?” she asked, her voice full of entreaty.
“I usually mean what I say,” he answered carefully, kissing her on the lips before stilling again and catching her eyes with his.
“About … about the children,” she elaborated.
His shoulders stiffened almost infinitesimally as he took a sharp breath. “What about them?” he asked gently.
“Can we have a bunch?” she asked quickly. “You really meant it, right?” As she watched him, she couldn’t stop her lips from trembling. “I couldn’t have just one. We’d need four or five, at least. You’re right, they’ll need to always have somebody else, you know? In case something happens to us.”
Nick closed his eyes for an instant, an immediate, all-encompassing look of peace descending on his features. When he opened his eyes and looked back at her in total concentration, she read complete relief mingled with joy. “I meant it.”
Her breath hitched at his words of assurance. “And what if … what if something happens after the first one and we need to adopt the rest? Would you be okay with that?”
“Absolutely, baby. They’ll be ours. I’ll be able to love them all, just the same.”
She took a deep breath, a strong feeling of contentment bleeding through her entire being. “Thank you.”
He pushed his fingers through her hair, gripping her scalp, a look of utter relief and happiness on his features. Without missing a beat he asked, “Does that mean you’ll wear my rings?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“And the entire family can know? Tomorrow?”
She smiled as she felt him push farther into her, insisting on an answer. “Yes.”
He looked heavenward and then back down to her. “Thank you.” As he spoke the words, Courtney didn’t know if he was thanking her or a higher being.
But it really didn’t matter.
All that mattered was the love they felt for each other and the chance of the future they’d been given.
****
Epilogue
Many, many lovely years later
Courtney rushed ahead of Nick while he strolled more leisurely behind her, watching the smooth, luscious backside that still held him enthralled after all these years.
“Mr. and Mrs. Rule are in the backyard with the children,” the housekeeper said as she led them through Damian and Angie’s house until they’d reached the rear doors that opened up to the huge, landscaped backyard.
By the time Nick walked through the double doors, Courtney had already raced ahead of him, kicked off her shoes and was standing on the second step of the swimming pool, completely ignoring the hem of her sundress that was now in the water. Her arms were open wide, waiting while their youngest, Emily, who was only four, paddled up to her with a big grin. After hugging her mother tightly, she asked, “Where’s Daddy?”
Courtney kissed Emily’s forehead and pointed behind her as Nick came up and took their youngest child from his wife’s arms.
The backyard scene was chaotic. Children were everywhere, their laughter contagious. Damian was grilling burgers in the outdoor kitchen while Angie watched over the children from her chair next to the pool. “Melissa! Stop splashing your cousins,” she remonstrated one of her fourteen-year old twins as she put a bandage on her seven-year old son, who wriggled around, ready to get back in the pool, despite the recent scrape to his knee.
Nick studied the swimming pool, counting heads until he’d pinpointed their other three children amidst the mayhem. Leaving Courtney to catch up with Angie and their older children, Nick be
gan strolling over to his brother with Emily hanging around his neck, dripping wet, babbling to him the entire time. “Madison got in trouble last night,” she whispered conspiratorially as they neared her Uncle Damian.
Only halfway across the yard, Nick stopped in his tracks as he looked at his daughter in surprise. Angie and Damian’s twin girls were always angels, as far as he’d been aware. “What’d she do?”
“Nobody would tell me ‘cause I’m too little,” his youngest complained, a pout on her lips.
“Your brothers and sister wouldn’t even tell you?” he asked, knowing that his and Courtney’s four kids always stuck together.
“The boys wouldn’t; they were being stupid. They prolly don’t really know. Jenny didn’t know either but she told me Aunt Angie took Madison’s cell phone away.”
Nick kissed her on the cheek and scolded softly, “Don’t call your brothers stupid, baby.”
“Even when they’re being stupid?” Emily asked, staring up at him with big eyes that couldn’t fail to remind him of his wife.
Nick chuckled. “Even then.” He kissed her again and then set her on her feet. “You’ve got twenty minutes left to play with your cousins before we head home. You want to do that or come with me to talk to Uncle Damian?”
“Play!” she screamed as she ran back across the lawn toward the pool.
Nick walked up beside his brother and pounded him on the back in greeting. “Hey, man.” he greeted as Damian flipped burgers.
“Hey,” Damian responded with a nod.
“Thanks for having the kids.”
“Not a problem. You kept ours last month; paybacks are hell,” Damian quipped. “So, how was the Caribbean?”
“Awesome, as usual. Traveling there and back sucked, though, just like it always does.” Even after all these years, his wife wouldn’t travel on the same flight with him. She said it was more dangerous than putting the President and the Vice-President on the same plane. It just wasn’t done.
Damian laughed. “You have to keep cutting her some slack, Nick. Courtney may never get over it completely.”
“You’re probably right,” Nick responded, knowing he’d happily deal with that one small inconvenience in his otherwise perfect life. At least Courtney agreed to go away with him once a year, to leave their children with either his mother or his siblings and their spouses. His life had worked out brilliantly as far as Nick was concerned, he wasn’t complaining about shit. He knew he was the luckiest man alive.
“So, what happened with Madison last night?” he asked his brother.
Damian glanced away from the grill and looked at him with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You’ve heard already?”
“News travels fast when one of the angels gets into trouble,” Nick teased, although it looked as if his brother was not happy.
Damian frowned and Nick could tell just how upset his brother was. “We’d warned her three times about texting late at night. Shit. She’s supposed to be asleep.”
Not particularly shocked and not really thinking the transgression was all that terrible, Nick asked mildly, “How’d you catch her?”
“Cell phone statement,” Damian answered.
“Past her eleven o’clock bedtime again?” Nick mocked, expecting this ‘late night’ terminology to mean eleven-fifteen or so.
“Dude. Two o’clock in the fucking morning.”
Nick just stared at his brother, stunned. “You have to be shitting me.”
“I shit you not.”
“What the hell do fourteen-year-old girls need to talk to each other about that late at night?”
Damian turned completely toward him but only smirked condescendingly. “You have a lot to learn, little brother.”
“What do you mean by that?” Nick asked, confused.
“Madison hasn’t been texting a girl. Hell, no. Not as easy as that.”
Nick was completely floored. “She’s texting a boy at two a.m.?”
“Oh, it gets worse,” Damian announced, his muscles stiffening as anger became apparent on his visage.
Nick couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Do I need to sit down?”
“You might.”
“Tell me,” Nick demanded.
Damian lowered the boom. “The kid she’s been texting is sixteen.”
Nick stared at his brother for a moment before glancing at Madison who was lying on a lounger with ear buds in her ears. Christ. Were those curves on that little kid? Moving his eyes to Melissa, her twin, he saw the exact same curves but she was rambunctiously playing in the pool with her cousins and little brother so they weren’t as transparent. Nick swallowed and glanced back at his brother. “Have you put out a contract on the kid?” he asked, only half-teasing.
“Wish I could. Just wait. You’ll see, it’ll happen to you one day.”
Ignoring that prediction into his future, Nick asked, “Where’d she meet him?”
“School. Summer practices. He’s on the football team.”
Nick caught on quickly and felt his brother’s pain. “Fuck … she made freshman cheerleader.”
“Yeah, and classes start next week. It’s not like we can ground her from school,” Damian said flatly.
“You think anything’s going on?” Nick asked, almost flinching at the thought.
“We don’t think so, but we’re pretty much dumbshit parents, you know? You think we grew up fast man? These kids grow up at warp-speed.”
Nick shook his head, not liking the sound of things. “How’s Angie handling it?”
At the sound of his wife’s name, Damian turned, his gaze searching for and finding her. “Better than I am. She’s talking to Madison about it, a lot,” he said, continuing to watch his wife from across the yard.
“Well, that’s good, I guess,” Nick answered, although it appeared he’d lost his brother somewhere. Damian’s attention was firmly on his wife, and as Nick glanced in Angie’s direction, he saw she was watching her husband as well. Her glance moved to Nick for a second, and she flushed before quickly smiling and then looking away. Feeling as if he was interrupting a moment that was suddenly private, Nick cleared his throat.
Damian’s attention turned back to Nick and the waiting grill. “You guys going to stay for lunch? We’ve got plenty,” his brother offered, almost as an afterthought.
“Can we take a rain check?” Nick asked. “We have a million things to get ready with school starting next week.”
“Sure, no problem.”
“I better get to it then,” Nick breathed out. “You know how long it’s going to take to round ‘em all up.”
Damian just laughed, nodded his head and began flipping the burgers again.
****
Later that night, all four kids were accounted for and in their bedrooms, if not asleep.
Nick leaned back in the bed, hands behind his head and waited for Courtney to come from the shower, his body hardening at the mere thought. He loved the smell of Courtney all the time: when she was made up and ready to go out, when she was fresh from a swim in the ocean, even when she was covered in dirt from working in the garden.
But the smell of her right out of the shower did him in every time. It wasn’t so much because of her squeaky clean scent or because he knew she’d be naked under her nightclothes.
It was because she was ready for bed. And the connotation of that was like a red flag to a bull where he was concerned.
He certainly didn’t live his life just for their love life. He loved every second of every day of his life. He loved the family they had together. The kids meant everything to him and Courtney was completely happy now, and she was the perfect mother.
But when she took a shower at night and came to bed, it was to be with him. He didn’t mind sharing her during the day with the kids, or even at night if one of them happened to be sick, but most nights, nights like this one, she was his and his alone.
It never let up, the love he felt for her. It had always been the
re, since his early twenties, and it had only grown and deepened as the years went by.
He heard the water stop and a few minutes later, she began walking toward the bed, taking her hair from the elastic band she’d tied it in.
As the soft blonde curls fell around her shoulders, he groaned and bit out, “I love you.”
She glanced at him, undoubtedly hearing the intensity he couldn’t keep from his voice and she stared at him a moment, her heart in her eyes. “I love you, too.”
He patted the spot beside him, “Come to bed.”
She smiled and began to switch off the light.
“Leave it on,” he rasped out.
She sucked in a breath and then sent him a small, seductive smile. “We’re going to play a game?”
Leaving the light on usually meant Nick was in a certain mood and Courtney knew him well enough to recognize that fact. They only very rarely played sexual games. There was really no need. The sex was fantastic without anything extra. But for some reason, there was a certain thought that was tantalizing him tonight. He raised an eyebrow. “You want to?”
Her eyes lit up and she nodded her head. Putting first one knee on the bed and then the other, she paused and whispered, “Tell me your rules.”
“My rules?” he asked, barely keeping the amusement from his voice.
Her palms went to his chest and with her hot touch against his naked skin, his amusement fled. “The situation you want,” she prompted softly, running her mouth along his ear, all too eager to please him.
His hands landed on her outer thighs, gripping her where she kneeled eagerly next to him, ready to try anything he wanted. “Okay. You’re eighteen, and I find you home, all alone.”
“Oh, I like the sound of that one,” she smiled wickedly.
A rush of blood hit his groin. “Shit, me too, baby.”
She lifted her head, about to begin, but Nick ran his hands up to her shoulders and she paused, searching his eyes. He swallowed, “You’re eighteen, Courtney. You’re eighteen, I’m twenty-four, and I’m going to strip you naked like I was never able to before.” Her eyes flared and his heart began racing as he demanded, “but you’re happy, understand, baby?”
