“Precious, I know why. I could gather that. Just know that you will never have to again. I forbid it. It is my job now to take care of you and Tanner. You will move in with me and you will never ever worry about money again.” I held her chin up and watched as her lips trembled, her body shaking, the shame powerfully visible in her gaze.
“You still want me?” she said so lightly I could barely hear her over the sound of the shower.
I tugged her against my naked body, her arms wrapped tightly around my back. She pulled so hard against me it was as if she could meld our bodies into one by sheer will alone.
“I’ve told you before. I’ll always want you. I’m hurt, upset, and angry over what took place tonight but I will heal. We will heal together.”
Chapter 16
My life was perfect. An uneventful two weeks had passed since Nate caught me stripping at Gems. In that time, he’d moved Tanner and me into his newly redecorated apartment.
London pushed through the huge changes to make the place more inviting and conducive to a family. It helped her timeline considerably and allowed her a couple of free weeks between clients, which Collier appreciated.
Nate and I decided when the time was right, we’d get a house, something perfect for our little family with the room for growth.
My job at Jensen Construction couldn’t be any better. I was officially a full-time salaried employee with my own medical benefits. I made quite a bit more money with the raise. Now that I was living with Nate, I had extra going to my school tuition.
He had London set up his-and-her desks in the office so that I could work on my studies in the evenings while he poured over his current caseload. It was almost frightening how easily everything fell into place.
Tanner was adjusting well and adored Nate. Nate was teaching him how to swim and included him in anything we discussed. Currently they were building a giant battle base out of Legos for the new army figures Nate had bought for him. Everything seemed heavenly.
I thought about how much my life had changed over the past five years. From foster child to single mother to stripping to working in an office in downtown New York City, to going back to school and now living with the man of my dreams. The man not only loved me, but loved my son. Life couldn’t be better.
“Hey, Precious, I’ve got something for you.” Nate padded into our den barefoot, wearing faded jeans and a V-neck white t-shirt that stretched delectably across his muscled chest. I licked my lips and looked my fill. He leaned a hip against the bookcase and crossed his arms over his chest. That didn’t help my instant desire at all. The t-shirt rode up on his biceps and the fabric expanded over his bulky biceps. “You keep looking at me like that and I’m going to have to do something about it.”
I grinned. “Whatever do you mean?” I answered coyly and twirled a lock of my hair. I leaned back in the high back leather chair and continued my appraisal. Nate was a feast for the eyes and looked incredible in a suit, but casual Nate was something special. From the tips of his bare toes, to his messy finger swept hair, he could make any woman swoon. He looked that good.
His gaze held mine as he presented me with the sexy smile I coveted. “Come here.” He set down a file on his desk and pulled at my hands. In one tug he had me wrapped in his arms, with his lips devouring mine. His tongue swept in and licked away all thoughts of schoolwork and pop quizzes and replaced it with lust and need.
The man was maddening. He could take me from zero to sixty in the time it took to blink. One of his hands slid down my back, sending shivers skittering along my pores as he palmed and pulled me closer by the seat of my ass. I felt the steely ridge of his hardening erection and my core clenched, tightening, ready for anything he would give.
Nate walked me back to the big double sided desk. With quick movements he had my yoga pants on the floor and my ass on the desk, legs spread wide. “Tan Man is in the bath. We have a little time.”
Vaguely I heard Tanner down the hall, splashing away in the bath. We never filled the water high enough that he could hurt himself and always kept an ear to the door. “Mmmm, then I better be quiet.” I yanked at the button and zipper of his jeans.
Nate pushed his jeans down. His thick cock sprung out, deliciously hard and moist at the tip. I wanted to taste his excitement but that would take a lot longer than we had and I needed him inside of me. His lips covered mine, our tongues danced to our own sensual rhythm while he nestled his cock right at my entrance. He pulled back, held my legs wide and rubbed the tip of his cock over my wetness.
“Love to watch when I take you, Precious. Going deep in your body, coming out slick with your arousal, fucking Christ…nothing is better,” He moaned as we both watched him slowly press his thick cock inch by inch into me. The lips of my sex spread impossibly wide around his girth. Every time it felt and looked more beautiful than the last. When he was wedged so deep I swore I could feel him touching my heart. I shook with barely controlled desire. It happened more often when we were close like this, the emotions overwhelming me in their beauty.
“Oh, baby, I love how you feel me.” He gripped my ass. Nate instinctively knew what having us completely joined did to me. It was magical every time. He held me, buried deep, kissing my neck, hairline, chin until finally, his mouth landed on my lips. When he opened my pout with his tongue, he pulled out and thrust sharply. It stole my breath, forcing a weighted gasp that he swallowed into his own mouth on a growl. Nate slowly picked up the pace, pulling out, letting his hard shaft grate sweetly along every nerve inside me then plowing back home. Over and over he made quiet love to me, sucking down gasps and moans, preventing me from calling out like I usually did when we made love.
“I love to love you, Camille,” he whispered into my ear. His thrusts quickened, tipping up and slamming home at the edge of each ridged jerk of his hips.
“Oh Nate, it’s always so good. I love you so much, Baby. Oh God…” I whispered against his ear, the orgasm building between my legs fast and furious, spreading pleasure out my limbs, filling me with light, love and extreme pleasure.
“Don’t hold back…give it to me.” He bit down on the spot where my neck met my shoulder, brightening his mark from the other day. Pain shot through me as if lighting a stick of dynamite.
“Baby, now. Come in me now!” I yelled but he covered my words with his lips, softening the high pitched tone.
Nate gripped my hips and pulled me deep. The muscles in his arms tightened and his veins strained against tanned skin as he held onto me, digging into my flesh.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and held the back of his head, sealing our lips as we flew together over the edge into beautiful oblivion. Hot spurts of his essence poured into me in long washes of heat, warming me from the inside, matching the fire that prickled along the surface of my skin.
He held us together for long moments.
“Mom! Nate! I’m ready to get out!” Tanner screamed from the other room. Nate laid his forehead against mine and chuckled as we both tried to catch our breath.
“Perfect timing the lad has. At least we were finished this time.” He pulled out and looked down. His body went completely ridged and his fingers tightened against my hips.
“What’s the matter?” I followed his gaze to his softening penis. It was covered with smears of blood.
“I hurt you, Camille.” He sounded choked up as his eyes widened in horror.
“Baby no. No you didn’t. I was due any day but with our unprotected sex over the last three or four weeks, I wasn’t sure. Now we know.” I looked down, shrugged and hopped off the desk, not wanting him to see me have my mental freak out. Seeing the blood reminded me of my first time with Tyler. That experience tore a hole in my heart. He had roughly taken my virginity, rutted like a beast and then got up to shower, leaving me bleeding and in pain.
Nate’s shoulders slumped as he pulled up his pants.
“I’ll go get Tanner,” he said quietly.
I rushed to our master bath an
d pulled out the tampons. After washing up and taking care of my womanly needs, I put my mental state back in check and went to help get Tanner ready for bed.
We usually went through Tanner’s routine together. Nate had picked it up and added a few flares of his own, preferring to tackle my son into bed and tickle him until he called for help. Nate was unbelievably good with Tanner. He genuinely seemed to enjoy this new role of father figure.
I watched Nate clothe Tanner in pajamas and tuck him into bed with less exuberance than he had these past two weeks since we’d moved in.
“Baby, I got this. Why don’t you get us a drink?” Nate nodded and I caught a glimpse of something in his eyes. “Hey.” I grabbed his arm. There was something in his eyes I didn’t recognize. “What’s the matter?” I asked.
“Nothing, it’s fine. I’m going to get a drink.” He left the room.
I went through Tanner’s routine quicker than normal, wanting to find out what was going on with the man I loved. I kissed my little man, turned off the light and went to find my big man.
He was on the patio, the sounds of the city all around him. He had a large scotch in his hand and was sipping it. I sat down next to him in the two-seater lounge, sending a silent thank you to London for thinking of ‘couple friendly’ patio furniture.
Snuggling into Nate’s side, I blew out a nervous breath as his arm came around me and pulled me to his side. My knees were up on the lounger, leaning into his thighs. I sat and waited while he drank half of his drink.
“I wanted you to be pregnant” he said.
Those were the last possible words I expected to hear slip from his lips. “But it’s too soon. We just moved in. We are getting over some pretty crazy stuff and trying to learn to live together as a family.”
“That’s just it. If you were pregnant with a wee one, we’d be a family for real. I want that, Camille.” His hand tightened around my shoulder and he turned to look at me. His eyes were soft and so blue I could drown in them. “I want that with you. Marriage, a house, more babies, the whole kit and caboodle.”
I grasped his hand. “And we can have that. Whenever we want. When we’re ready.”
“I don’t want to wait. I’m ready now. I want you as my wife. I want you pregnant with my child and I want to adopt Tanner as my own son. And I want it all yesterday,” he said with the passion I thought he reserved for fighting a court case.
“Baby, it’s too soon.”
“Why? Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t make you mine as soon as possible. Make Tanner mine officially?”
I licked my lips and held his hand tighter. “Well, we’ve only been together for a couple months. Weeks really. It’s all so sudden.”
“When you know what you want, Camille and you feel what’s right, it doesn’t matter how long we’ve had it. We get to have it for the rest of our lives. He sighed. “I brought home the papers to start the adoption of Tanner. The moment Tyler’s rights are officially removed by the state of New York, I want my name on a fresh new birth certificate for our boy.”
Our boy.
Nate thinks of Tanner as his. He claims my son the way a dad should. The way a real father does. Tears filled my eyes and he held my face. Tanner was going to have everything I didn’t. And it was me giving it to him. Me and the most amazing man. It was a true justice for all the hell I’d gone through as a child and as a single mother.
“You really want Tanner to be yours?” My voice betrayed my emotions.
“Precious, he already is mine. The day I met him and looked into his eyes, I saw my future. In him and in you, the woman I was meant to love.”
“Okay.” I let everything go. The fear, the worry, the past. Nate and Tanner were my future and it was staring me in the face. For once, I wasn’t going to be scared. I was just going to fall.
“Okay what?” Nate cupped my face and wiped away my tears with his thumbs.
“Okay to everything. To it all. Marriage. A family but most of all to you being Tanner’s father. I couldn’t have picked a better man if God had given me the chance to mold you myself.”
Nate’s smile was the biggest I’d seen. He jumped up, pulled me into his arms and swung me in a huge circle. “You mean it, love?”
“Yes.” I laughed, meaning every word.
“You’re making me the happiest man. I’m going to treat you and Tanner so well. And we’ll have a baby of our own right away!” He squeezed me.
I laughed and hugged him back. “I’m actually rather shocked we aren’t already pregnant with as many times as you have “conveniently” forgotten to use protection.” I grinned.
“I didn’t forget. I just bloody didn’t use them. Nothing comes between me and my woman. If we get pregnant, all the better.”
My eyes widened. “You were trying to get me pregnant?” I smacked his arm.
“Not exactly trying. I just figured if you got pregnant with my babe we’d have a wee one and move things along. Now you’re saying we can anyway. Works smashingly for me!” He kissed away my response with a toe-curling kiss.
I moved out of his arms. “So, when do you want to start all of this?”
His look turned predatory. I knew that look. I saw it not an hour ago when he took me to heaven and back on our desk. Slowly I backed up. He followed. “No time like the present, Precious. You better run because I’m going to shag the shite out of you!”
“You can’t!” I stopped when my back hit the French doors. I found the handle behind me. “I’m on my cycle remember?”
“I don’t give a damn, my love.”
“What if I do?” I tilted my head to the side as he caught me around the waist.
“You’ll get over it.” He took my lips with his own.
***
“I’m going to marry Camille,” I said, entering Collier’s office. He was on the phone.
“Beauty, I’m afraid I’ll have to call you back. It seems as though my brother’s a stone’s throw from going off the trolley. Call you soon, wife.” He smiled and hung up the phone. “Now what is this about getting hitched?”
“I’m doing it. I picked out the ring this morning.” I laid the blue velvet box on the table and Collier grabbed it. He opened it and saw the princess cut diamond set in antiqued white gold with baguettes on the sides. A long whistle escaped his lips.
“That’s a mighty fine ring you’ve got there.” Collier looked at the ring then back at me. His lips twisted into a grin. “She pregnant?”
“No you old sod! She’s not pregnant…unfortunately,” I grumbled and took a seat across from him.
My brother’s eyes widened. “You mean you want her to be with child?”
“I wouldn’t be against her carrying my lad, no. With Camille, Colly, everything has changed. I want to be with her all the time. I need her to have my name and for every man on this earth to know she is taken. And I’m going to adopt Tanner, too.”
Collier’s hands steepled under his chin. “That’s a lot of change in a short amount of time. Why the rush?”
“Pot, meet kettle…would you like a spot of tea, brother mine?” Coming from a man who shacked up and married his woman in less than a year, I couldn’t believe he’d spit that weak argument.
“Touché.”
I grabbed the ring and put it back in my pocket. “It’s not a rush. I just know Camille is it for me. Something about her and her son drew me in and made me never want to leave. I have a fierce need to protect them. Did you ever feel that?”
Collier nodded and blew out a breath. “Right away, yes. I wanted to lock up London and never let her out of my sight. Only now can I go a day without speaking with her, but in truth, it’s still torture.”
I smiled and stood. “Well, I can’t wait to make her my wife. Only I’m going to give her the wedding of her dreams.”
“Bloody hell, please do. At least you’ll get mum off my arse. She says now that I’ve taken away her opportunity to see me get married, she wants a grandchild posthaste.”
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I grinned. “Well, brother, maybe I can take care of that, too.” I winked and he slumped back in his seat, shaking his head.
“My have you changed. It looks good on you.”
“It’s the love of a good woman. Makes me want to do crazy things.” I headed to the door. “You’ll be my best man, right?”
Collier walked over to me with a hand out. “Try and stop me.” He shook my hand then pulled me into a hug. “I’m proud of you, mate. Never thought I’d see the day that the great ladies’ man would fall for a sweet bird like Camille but I’m so glad you did. I like her. A lot. She’s a perfect addition to our family.”
“Now I just have to ask her and set a date. Best be on my way. I’ve got a woman to woo.”
“That you do. But don’t forget you have two cases in court to win.”
I laughed. “Shite. I almost forgot I had to work today. I’ll win those two cases with my bloody eyes closed!” And I could as on top of the world as I was.
Ring in my pocket. Two cases won. And the perfect location chosen. Everything was set and ready.
“Where are we going?” Camille asked for the hundredth time.
“Yeah, where we going?” Tanner asked. The lad was just as impatient as his mum.
I shook my head, finding it hilarious that these two could not handle a surprise. “You’ll just have to wait and see.” The limo pulled over to the curb. Camille’s eyes widened as we got out of the car. Tanner looked around at all the sparkling lights and started hopping up and down.
Right in the center of the theatre district sat a table with a red and white checkered table cloth. A red rope surrounded it with a bottle of champagne and apple cider waiting on the table that was set for three. I ushered Camille and Tanner into their seats. A pizza delivery man opened boxes and dished out cheese pizza onto Tanner’s plate and a couple loaded slices on mine and Camille’s.
Justice Falling Page 20
