by Janae Keyes
I groaned as I made my way towards the room where Veronika and her mother were getting ready. I went to knock on the door when I heard them talking in German. When I first went to Germany I didn’t know a single word of German, but after hiring a teacher and dating around, I quickly became fluent. I listened in on their conversation.
“Mama, I hate this dress,” Veronika growled out. I could hear her feet stomping around. She was a hard one to please. “It fits strange.”
“You are 8 months pregnant Nika,” her mother reminded her. Veronika only growled in response.
“Whatever, we can take other photos later where I do not look fat, after this thing is out of me. I cannot wait to hire a nanny to care for it so I can enjoy my riches,” Veronika sounded pleased with herself. I shook my head. She always loved money and I had a lot of it.
“I hope the baby looks a lot like you so he will not question its parentage, because if he finds out it isn’t his…” Her mother started.
“Shh, keep it down Mama. We don’t need him hearing. I will be marrying him in only minutes. That won’t happen. He will not find out,” Veronika insisted. I balled my fists.
What did she mean this baby wasn’t mine? I’d dedicated myself to this child that I believed was mine for the past five months. My head was spinning. I wanted to walk right in there and wring her neck. The look on Brielle’s face when I told her I was marrying Veronika, that face was etched into my mind. I’d hurt her for nothing.
I forced the door open. I’d pushed it so hard that it violently hit the wall. I was boiling from the inside out. Veronika looked actually afraid as she stood there in her white dress. Her mother started in my direction. I knew she was going to try and calm me down.
“Patrick, she isn’t ready yet,” Her mother cooed as she tried to pretend the situation didn’t exist and that I didn’t just hear their conversation. I placed my hand in her face. She was just as bad as her lying daughter.
“You spent five months ruining my life and you were planning to continue your charade for the rest of my life?” I questioned looking directly as Veronika.
“I do not know what you are talking about,” Veronika insisted. I wanted to laugh hysterically. She was pretending that the conversation I’d overheard did not exist.
“I heard you. The baby isn’t mine?”
“It is yours!” she yelped out looking pitiful.
“I fucking heard you. You just wanted me for what I could give you. You’ve always been that way. You ruined what I had, you selfish piece of shit.” I was shaking intensely as I spoke to her.
“Patrick, the baby is yours. It is our Junior, remember?” Veronika was trying hard to convince me, but I’d finally seen it.
I saw what Brielle had been talking about the entire time. Veronika was using me and using this baby of hers to keep me wrapped around her finger. She knew my life, she knew how much I craved to not be like my own father and she was using that against me.
“Save your lies Ronnie. Tell me the truth, fucking tell me!”
Of course Veronika burst into tears. Her mother rushed her way and pulled her blonde hair behind her back. I rolled my eyes. I was done. I’d broken Brielle’s heart, I’d broken my own heart over her. I was completely finished.
“When I was with you in Germany. That same week I was with another guy, we didn’t use a condom. He I know is the father, but I wanted it to be you,” she admitted.
“You wanted it to be me because I had money,” I growled out. One thing I knew about Brielle was she didn’t want me for my money, Brielle didn’t give a damn about money. Brielle had a flourishing career and was working for herself. Brielle was with me because she loved me. I needed her. I needed to get back to San Francisco, I needed to beg her to come back to me. I would get on my hands and knees and do anything to have her back.
“Patrick…” Veronika started.
“Save it, get your ass on a plane and out of my life,” I snapped before I left her with her mother.
I yanked my phone from my pocket. I needed to call Layla to make travel plans to get back to the Bay Area tonight. I wasn’t going to bring in the New Year without telling Brielle I loved her and needed her and that I was beyond sorry.
As my phone came on it began to blow up with messages. I was overwhelmed. There were plenty of messages from Layla, my mom, and April. I started listening to them and the biggest smile came across my face, Brielle was in Vegas, I needed to find her and be with her. I needed to confess my wrongdoing and my love. I could only pray that she would want to try with me again, I was only asking for her to try.
Brielle
I DIDN’T UNDERSTAND how this could be. The people at the chapel had told us he and Veronika had married, but he was saying he didn’t marry her. My heart was pounding and hands were sweaty. Was he picking me or taunting me, toying around with me and my fragile emotions?
“I’m going to give the two of you a minute,” April interjected as she slipped past me and Patrick at the door.
As soon as April was out of the room, Patrick walked fully inside and closed the door behind him.
“Patrick, you married Veronika. We went to nearly every chapel and one of them told us you got married there,” I said trying to make sense of all of this. Why was he here?
Patrick shook his head. He took my hand into his. I shivered at his touch, as I’d always done. He pulled me with him fully into my room and he sat on the edge of my bed. I didn’t say a word as I sat down next to him. None of this was making any sense to me. I needed answers from him, but I couldn’t even form the questions to ask.
“Someone else maybe? It wasn’t us. I swear to you Bri, I never married that witch.” He paused and squeezed my hand. He was thinking. I saw him formulating words in his mind. “It’s funny… people... Some really have no souls. I overheard Veronika and her mom talking. They mentioned that the baby wasn’t mine, but they were hiding it from me so Veronika could marry me for my money.” It was funny. I’d known this fully. I knew she was using him and that the baby wasn’t his. I’d told him multiple times and so had his mother, but I guess some people had to find out for themselves.
“So I was right and the baby was someone else’s?” I asked, looking into his pained honey eyes. I knew as much as he seemed relieved and remorseful, he was also disappointed. I knew he wanted his baby, he wanted his boy.
“She’s had unprotected sex with another guy around the time I slept with her, though she and I used a condom. She got pregnant and she felt that was her ticket to holding onto me and my fortune. You were right all along. She was using me and I couldn’t see it, because the only thing I could think of was how my dad abandoned my mom. I didn’t want to be that guy. I refused to be that guy, I had to do right by my baby. I broke your heart in the process, more than once. I don’t think I could ever be sorry enough or apologize enough for that. Brielle, I love you. I love you so much and I cannot have a life without you in it. I know it might take time to find us, but if you are willing to find us again, I want to be with you. Brielle, will you be the one that I marry, will you be my wife and my forever?” My heart was pounding.
I’d been right about Veronika all along. Patrick wanted to be with me and only me. Though I kept thinking of the way I felt that day at his place when he said he would marry Veronika. My mind went there, but my heart was all in. Patrick was my forever and I tonight there was no denying what my heart wanted.
I flew to him. His arms were around me so fast. He held me close. I inhaled cinnamon. The nightmare was over and there were no more questions. There were no more what ifs. We could actually have one another with no distractions, no baby mama, no comatose fiancé. It was Patrick and Brielle, no questions asked.
“Yes, you know I will,” I breathed out as he brought his forehead to mine His honey eyes, those honey eyes, stared into mine. Forever started right now. “I love you.”
“You’ll be Mrs. Brielle Bailey?”
“You know I will.”
“Right now?” he asked. I saw his hand reach into his pocket and out came the ring he’d given me that night on the boat along with a matching diamond covered wedding band.
“Get married, right now?” I questioned.
“When it Vegas…”
“Let’s do it. If I’m to be Mrs. Bailey, it might as well be right now.” I let out a scream of delight as I pressed my lips hard onto his. We were getting married tonight. I was the one who was going to be his wife. It felt so good. Our puzzle pieces were back together and this picture was complete. Our picture was complete.
Epilogue - 1 1/2 Years Later
Patrick
THE CLAP OF the thunder caused me to jump from my slumber. I groaned and rubbed my head. The Bay outside of my bedroom window lit up with a flash of lightning. Through the hectic nature of the storm there was a beauty that stood out, as I watched the waves crash against the shore and the lightening brighten up the dark sky.
I was taken by the beauty that was nature, but then I thought of her. Peering down next to me, my bed was empty. I wondered where she’d slipped away to. With a groan, I slipped from the comfort of my bed and allowed my feet to drop to the hardwood floor. I stretched for a moment before leaving my bedroom behind. That is when I heard her voice, faint, but there. I followed that beautiful sound, she was singing.
I stopped outside of the open door, inside I could hear her voice soft and soothing. Quietly, I pushed the door open to see her there. The room was only lit by a dim lamp in the shape of a star on the wall. She continued to sing, not realizing I’d entered the room.
The beautiful woman that I knew as my wife was bent over a crib and stroking the back of a small baby boy.
“This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine,” she sang beautifully, her voice echoing through the room filling it like an angelic chorus. I watched her move a strand of hair from her face using her free hand. Her milk chocolate skin seemed to glow with the grin that spread across her face as she sang to our son.
I tip toed deeper into the room until I was right behind her and slipped my hand over her hip. She slightly jumped, but then shivered as she always seemed to do under my touch. She continued to sing as she leaned into my arms.
“Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine,” she finished off the song before turning to me. “The storm woke me up and I came to check on him. He seems to be sleeping through it fine,” she whispered. I nodded and took her hand. I pulled her with me. Before leaving the small bedroom I turned off the star light and gently closed the door behind me.
With her hand in mine, I pulled her along the hall, and back into our bedroom. I observed her in her ivory silk nightgown. She was the sexiest woman I’d ever laid eyes on. I felt my arousal jerk at the sight of her. I didn’t want to waste anytime as I pulled my wife to me and pressed my body to hers.
“Paddy,” she breathed. I would never get tired of this nickname she had for me. I always smiled whenever she used it.
“Brielle,” I muttered in response.
It had been nearly two years since Brielle and I married. We got married that New Year’s morning with April as our witness. The ceremony was absolutely perfect, and so different from the gloomy pretense I had traveled there for. It was me and the woman I’d loved for so long. We didn’t need this huge expensive blowout with strangers looking on, we only needed us, together finally with no complications, only love. I remembered the way the light hit her cocoa eyes as she said I do.
Being married to her was everything and more. I got the privilege of waking up with her in my arms every single morning and that was all I needed to live a long and happy life, just Brielle, in my arms. I’d almost lost her once. I nearly lived without her. Now when I look back on that time, I knew it would have been impossible for me to live without her. Making that stupid split decision to marry Veronika was ridiculous and today I was so grateful that union never transpired. I had the woman I belonged with, the most intelligent and caring woman around.
Our life was enhanced when we discovered she was pregnant with our little man, our Kyle Joseph Bailey. He entered our lives six months ago and it was the greatest joy to not just be a husband, but also a father. I had the life I always wanted and we weren’t going to let anyone get in our way of living this life.
“You smell nice,” I whispered as I inhaled her beautiful natural scent that reminded me of vanilla. I pressed my lips to that spot I’d memorized on the nape of her neck, she moaned, as I’d expected her to do. I slipped my hands to the hem of her nightgown, she was no longer going to need it. I pulled it over her head and observed her body. Having our son changed her, but in ways that made her better. Her hips were wider and she was marked with the imprints of a mother. All of it made her more radiant.
I laid her down on the bed and crawled over her. She looked up at me, her cocoa eyes shining with lust and wanting. I slid my hands up her legs and used my knee to spread her legs.
“My beautiful wife,” I murmured with my lips on her neck. She wiggled under my touch as I placed soft kisses down her body, landing on her full breasts. Taking her pert nipple into my mouth I suck hard, eliciting a groan from her. I loved the way her body reacted to me. It had always been this way with her.
“Mmm, Patrick,” she breathed out as I slipped a hand between her thighs. My fingers came in contact with her damp core.
“So wet,” I groaned against her breast. I needed her badly, I could feel my hardness aching for her. The only thing I could think of was being inside of her and having that connection. I slipped my hands from her and grabbed at my boxers and yanked them down. I had to have her, I needed my wife.
I angled myself at her entrance and thrust into her. She let out a sharp cry filled with passion and eagerness. I slid into her again, hard. Her nails gripped into the skin of my back as slammed into her.
“Oh yes, just like that… Patrick,” she cried out, trying to keep her voice down. I wanted to chuckle, knowing she was trying to be courteous to our sleeping son, but if he could sleep through the thunderstorm, he could sleep through this.
I low moan seemed to hum from her lips as I took her as my own. Her muscles contracted around me. I knew I’d gotten her there, from that and from the way her breathing was hitched. I craved my own release.
“Please… Patrick, don’t stop,” she groaned as her hips arched towards mine. I looked down her her, I could physically see her eyes rolling back before she shut them tight. “Oh… God… Yes!”
“Damn,” I hissed as I released my seed into her womb. Secretly, I was hoping we could have another baby in the near future. I loved our family and to me the more the merrier.
I rolled off her and caught my breath as she moved her head onto my chest. I slid my hand over her thick hair before rubbing it over her bare back down to her full backside.
“I know you’re trying to get me pregnant, again,” she commented. I chuckled in response. She knew me well, but I knew her.
“You caught me,” I mumbled before placing a kiss on her forehead. She looked up at me and gave me a soft smile.
Though as much as we would like another, I knew Brielle wasn’t too keen right now on taking more time off work. She’d just gone back to work after having Kyle and now as CFO of Core Solutions, she had a lot on her hands, but managed it perfectly. I knew she could still be the best CFO and an amazing mom to another one, she had this magic about her that struck me from day one.
“We’ve got plenty of space for more,” I mentioned, thinking of our home that we shared. There were still other bedrooms to fill with our little chocolate-vanilla swirls. Our beautiful family was all I needed. Brielle, was all I needed, the love of my life. I was blessed to have her. It was fate, a fate that never slept, that brought us together and kept us together.
THE END
About the Author
Sleepless Fate is the second novel from Contemporary Romance Author, Janae Keyes. Janae published her first novel, Broken Politics, in March of 2016.
/> Janae Keyes has been writing for as long as she can remember. Janae works part-time and spends her days chasing her toddler around when she isn’t working on improving her craft. Though originally from the California Bay Area, Janae currently lives in a suburb of Brussels, Belgium with her husband and daughter.
There is so much more from Janae coming in the near future.
Visit Janae’s website and social media pages for more information on Janae and her works:
www.JanaeKeyes.net
facebook.com/JanaeKeyesAuthor
twitter.com/JanaeKeyesWrite
goodreads.com/JanaeKeyes
Acknowledgements
This whole experience has been a wild ride, from Broken Politics, to here. I am amazed at the love and support I have received over the last months. Sleepless Fate became my other baby and I want to thank everyone who lent support in anyway.
To my hubby, Olivier Bockstal, you always rock. You are the first person I come to with ideas and even if you don’t have anything to add, just your support of my insanity is enough.
To my daughter, Gabrielle, I hope one day you can not just be an outspoken and independent woman, but find the love of your life as well.
