by Dani Collins
Chapter 18:
“I do.” She couldn’t hold it in any longer. “I love you so much. But I— Oh!”
She was on her back on the mattress, his athletic frame caging her beneath him.
“I love you, too,” he ground out, expression fierce with triumph, yet so tender, he brought tears to her eyes. “Don’t cry.” It was command and plea. “Enough with hurting each other.”
“I never meant to.” She cupped his jaw in her palm. “I’m not used to relying on anyone. On having someone I can rely on. I didn’t think we had enough to build on or trust in. I’m not anything, Ben. Even the degree I worked so hard for is useless now.”
“It’s not. We’ll come back to your opportunities when you’re not cooking a baby. I promise you there will be plenty because you are amazing, Henriqua. Smart and brave and so independent it’s a tiny bit annoying for a man who was raised to hold doors and carry a woman’s bags for her.”
She pursed her mouth around a smile that was trying to take hold, afraid to believe he was really saying these wonderful things.
“This baby is accelerating what would have happened naturally if things hadn’t gone off the rails. When you asked me if I hated you, I thought I should, but that’s the moment I knew I loved you. Genuinely loved you. Because I couldn’t bring myself to call the police or anyone else. I just wanted you back in my life.”
“That’s how I felt when I realized I was pregnant. I wanted to forget everything that had happened and just tell you.” Her mouth wobbled. “I was sure you’d be happy.”
“I am. I’m astounded and excited and so smug. Like we did it on purpose after trying our hardest.”
She chuckled and touched her mouth to his. “We can still, you know, go through the motions of trying.”
His expression sobered and he drew back slightly. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize immediately that you were innocent.”
“Vincent went to great lengths to make me look guilty. I don’t blame you, Ben.”
“Thank you. I love you.” He came back to their kiss with proper intention.
The spark was still alive between them, flaring quickly out of control the way it always did. They kissed passionately, moaned freely. He swept his tongue into her mouth and she dragged his towel away, filling her hands with every inch of his naked butt while he growled in frustration at all the clothes she was still wearing.
They laughed and tussled and caressed and got down to the serious business of pleasuring each other, wringing moments of near-shattering pleasure from each other. When the anticipation became too much to bear, he tenderly slid into her, both of them releasing a long groan of joyous reunion.
Chapter 19:
“You said we were meeting some of your family. Do they live above the shop?” Henriqua hung back to glance at the narrow windows above the blue awning that read Barsi on Fifth in silver lettering.
“When they were raising my father and my aunts, my grandparents lived up there. Now it’s workspace for designers. Rozi and Gizi are both leaving so I imagine my father will bring in some new blood.”
A bell chimed as they entered. Ben’s sister greeted them with a warm hug. “Dad’s in the safe with Grandmamma. I’ll tell them you’re here.” She disappeared.
“I came here after school every day when I was young,” Ben told her. “My first job was polishing the fronts of the cases. Come here.”
“It’s all so beautiful.” Henriqua was in awe as she perused the icy sparkle and shots of emerald and amethyst amid gold and platinum.
“Which one do you like?” he asked, gazing on her with the most tender expression she’d ever seen. “I can’t propose properly until we have a ring.”
Henriqua’s heart began to beat faster. “That’s not necess—”
“Benjamin,” his grandmother said, coming out from the back of the shop. “I have something for you.” She pressed something into his palm as she kissed his cheek.
He seemed taken aback as he looked at the ring and band she’d given him.
“This is the set Grandpappa made for you.
“They’ve been in the safe since I came out of hospital last year. I want you to have them. Your father made your mother’s set, but your talents lie in other directions,” she teased him as she scrubbed her thumb on his cheek, erasing her lipstick. “You carry his name. It’s right that you have them.”
“I don’t know what to say. Except…” He turned to Henriqua. “You’re the love of my life, Henriqua. Will you marry me?”
She had her hand slapped across her mouth, incapable of doing anything but standing there moved, with tears in her eyes.
“I feel as though I’ve done nothing but cry lately,” she managed to choke out. “I would be so honored to wear them, but please realize these aren’t rings you’re giving me. Your big, loving family is the kind I’ve wanted all my life. I know you wouldn’t offer that lightly, Ben.”
“I would not,” he agreed, and cupped her jaw. “In fact, only the very best people are chosen to join us. Marry me and be one of us.”
“That would also be my honor.”
He threaded the diamond solitaire onto her finger. It was too pretty to be modest, too classic to be showy. It was a timeless statement of love, one that fit perfectly and felt exactly right.
As they kissed, she heard Eszti Barsi sniff and say to Ben’s father, “Not the first proposal this store has seen, but definitely one of the most touching.”
Chapter 20:
Five years later…
“This might be the dumbest idea I’ve ever had,” Ben warned Henriqua when he suggested taking the kids to Alaska for the summer.
At four and three, Louisa, who was named for Henriqua’s mother, and BenBen, as Louisa had tagged her younger brother, were a handful.
Henriqua went along with it, mostly because she was as stir-crazy to be in the field as he was. They each managed a few short trips a year on behalf of KVB Minerals, the exploration company Ben had established in partnership with Kaine and Viktor, but they rarely went away together and had never taken the children. Henriqua actually headed KVB because Ben was making too much money for Viktor. Every time he tried to quit so he could devote more time to exploration, Viktor gave him a raise and talked him into “one more year.”
Expecting to spend more time parenting than sampling, they brought a full field team with them, but the kids were surprisingly game for long walks over terrain where glaciers had receded and human feet had never trod. Today they’d found their way to the shoreline of a glacial lake of silty blue.
“BenBen, if you go in that water, I’m taking you straight back to camp to dry off and you’re staying there,” Ben warned.
The kid was like a Labrador retriever, magnetically drawn to water and didn’t care if it was only a few degrees above freezing.
“Can I pan?” Louisa asked, mirroring her mother as Henriqua crouched to sift sand through her fingers.
Ben’s heart wanted to burst whenever he saw his wife in his children, whether it was their melted chocolate eyes or their inquisitive, tactile natures or even their stubborn streaks of independence.
Panning would get them all soaked for sure, but Ben said, “It’s on my pack.”
He stepped away for one second, his antennae already telling him it was a mistake to turn his back on—
“BenBen, no!” Louisa cried, even as little splooshes sounded.
BenBen was up to his knees, straightening with a rock in his hand, scowling as he said, “It’s cold.”
“It is,” Henriqua said, already on him, wrinkling her nose at the one foot she’d stepped into the lake to scoop BenBen out of it. “We’ll all go back,” she said, exchanging a fatalistic look with Ben as she set their son on his feet.
“BenBen is right, Mommy. It’s gold,” Louisa said.
“What? Oh—!”
Ben glanced at the filling-sized nugget in the boy’s still-dripping hand and almost said a word that shouldn’t be said in front
“Trow it?” BenBen started to pitch it back into the water.
“No!” Henriqua cried, grabbing his hand and making the boy tear up at being shouted at.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she said, hugging him and laughing and trying to make up with him with loving kisses as she handed the nugget to Ben.
The weight was unmistakable.
“You put that there for him to find,” Ben teased his wife.
“I did not.” She shot him a scolding look while keeping her arms wrapped tight around their son.
“Next time, show me first and ask me to get it,” Ben said, squatting to kiss BenBen’s forehead. “We still have to go back to camp for dry clothes, but it was a good find and guess what? You get to dig some sand first.”
He handed the kids shovels and empty sample bags then stood to exchange an incredulous look with his wife.
“People spend their whole lives prospecting and our kid is a human dowsing rod.”
“Got it from both sides, it would seem. For the record, this was the best idea you’ve ever had.” She looped her arms around his waist and leaned on him, mouth tilted up for a kiss.
“I was thinking hiring you was, but I’ll take it.” He kissed her smile with his own.
THE END
If you enjoyed this story, look out for Gisella’s story, A Virgin to Redeem the Billionaire, and Rozi’s story, Innocent’s Nine-Month Scandal in Dani Collins’ amazing Innocents for Billionaires duet out now!
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