I dropped to my knees. “Get naked, April.” I helped her disrobe and then I pushed her back on the bed, and lay my body over hers. I’d always loved how soft and warm her skin was. How it smelled of summer sweetness.
Her arms looped around my neck and she pulled me down for a kiss. My lips consumed hers, as my hands roamed her body, and I insinuated my hips between her thighs.
Only when my tip was perched at her wet entrance, did I break the kiss to look down at her.
“This is it, April. You and me.” I hoped she understood what I was saying. What I was asking. I needed her commitment. This couldn’t be just another fuck and then have her withdrawing from me because of some shit August was pulling. I wanted it all. I wanted her all.
Her fingers gently caressed my cheek. “You and me, Jude.” I studied her eyes to make sure she was saying what I needed to hear. Only then, with our gazes holding, did I press in, and join our bodies and our souls.
“I love you, Jude. I love you so much,” she said on a gasp.
Her words wrapped around me, making me feel whole finally. “I’m yours April. Always.” Then there were no words. Just our bodies moving in perfect harmony. Our sighs and gasps as pleasure surged through us. And finally, she called out my name, her body gripping mine and taking me with her into bliss.
I held her, my dick pulsing even as the rest of my body had gone limp. I kissed her cheek, her eyes, her lips. “I love you.”
“I’m so glad I seduced you.”
I laughed, lifting my head. “Eight years ago or now.”
She grinned, and it was so fucking beautiful. “Both.”
I nodded. As much pain and heart ache as I’d been through, I had to agree. I shifted my weight off of her, but kept her body flush against mine. I thanked God for bringing us back together. Finally, I was going to have what I’d dreamed of. Only this time it was going to be better because we had Maya. I was going from having no one, to having a family. I was the luckiest bastard in the world.
We’d been able to make love one more time, before August and Maya returned, and like the time before it, I made sure to pour out all my love. I wanted her to understand, even if by sexual osmosis, that this wasn’t a fleeting thing between us. I was here to stay. I was here to be her man and Maya’s father.
We were dressed and having wine in the living room when Maya came skipping into the apartment. “Daddy has the rock candy grown yet?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you go look?”
She trotted off leaving me with August and April.
August shifted uncomfortably. “Listen. I was thinking, April, you and Maya should take the house.”
I glanced over at April remembering she was going to ask him for it.
“No offence, Jude, but Maya needs her own room and a place to play. The house has been her home since her birth. I’ll move out so it won’t be…weird,” he said looking at me.
I rubbed Aprils back, partly to support her, but also, so he could see that she and I were now a unit.
“Thank you, August,” she said.
“There’s a two bedroom downstairs,” I told August.
August managed a smile. “Maya and I found a condo with a pool.”
“You looked at condos?” April asked.
“On the phone. When I realized she was missing the house, and I knew it was time to move on, she and I did a search on my phone. I’m hoping you’ll let her come visit me sometimes.”
April stepped close to August, hugging him. “Yes, of course.” Then as if she remembered that she wasn’t the sole decision maker where Maya was concerned, she looked back at me. I nodded. I didn’t love the idea, but I wanted Maya and April to be happy, so I’d go along with it.
“Perhaps you should take the two bedroom,” August said to me.
April and I had reconciled but hadn’t determined how things were going to work now. I wanted her with me, but I couldn’t very well invite myself to live in her home. At least not right now. But eventually, she and Maya and I would share a home. At least, that was my goal.
Maya came running in. “There’s no candy yet. When can we make slime, daddy?”
“In a minute,” I said, picking her up.
August watched me and Maya, and then April. “I should head out.”
“Bye uncle Auggie.”
He smiled. “Bye cutie.”
When the door shut, I realized I was standing with my family. My daughter in my arms and my woman by my side.
I looked at April. “Want to make slime?”
“Yes!” Maya squirmed out of my arms. Together, as a family, we headed to the kitchen and made slime.
The next day, April took Maya to day camp, and then said she wanted to go see August at the firm’s office before coming back to work for me and Cyrus. “I still want control of my trust.”
“You have a job and a home,” I said. I didn’t care one way or the other what she did, but I wanted to be sure she wasn’t doing it for me.
“It’s more about putting the exclamation point on my statement of independence,” she said. “August and I will always be joined by being siblings, but it’s time that my life was separate and that he understood that I was a grown woman who can make her own decisions.”
“Whatever you want, I’ll support.”
“Whatever I want?” Her eyes challenge me and I wondered what she was going to ask for that I might regret having offered her carte blanche to. Then again, I couldn’t imagine not wanting to give her the world.
“Whatever you want,” I confirmed.
She stepped to me, her hands pressing in my chest. I glanced back toward the bathroom, where Maya was brushing her teeth before leaving for camp.
“Don’t start something you can’t finish,” I warned.
She laughed. “What I want is for you to come live with me and Maya at the house.”
My breath caught, much in the same way it had when she said she loved me. “That won’t be weird? It’s your folk’s home.”
“It won’t be weird for me. If it is for you, then we’ll have to move in here with you.” She looked around the place.
“We know that won’t work.”
“I understand there’s a condo with a pool.” Her mischievous eyes danced up at me.
“The house is your and Maya’s home. I think I can manage to live there.”
April’s hand pressed on my cheek. “We can do whatever you want to make you feel like it’s your home too. It hasn’t changed much since my parents’ died, so it could use some updating. We can paint. Buy new furniture. Put in a pool. Whatever.”
“You’ll need your trust to do all that,” I quipped. I rubbed her arms. “All I need is you and Maya. The rest isn’t important to me.”
She lifted on her toes and kissed me. “It really was a great idea for me to seduce you.”
I laughed. “You always were the smart one.”
I was with April and Maya in the house that April and August had grown up in one night when I knew I’d be there forever. Or, I wanted to be there forever. Wasn’t that why I’d spent so much time there as a teen? The home had been filled with love and joy and laughter. Now I had a chance to create that with April and Maya.
Of course, I even with my certainty that I wanted April forever, I also needed to know for sure that August would butt out and that April would stick to her word. As such, we settled into a routine of driving to work together, first dropping off Maya at day camp. We went back to our usual roles, her at the front desk and me at my office. But there was an extra level of happiness and contentment at knowing she was there and that she was mine.
After the first night with April at the house, I’d explained the situation to Cyrus and my intentions. He was still concerned that something could go wrong, but he was supportive of me and April.
August had gone immediately to a hotel when he learned April was bringing me home. Within a few weeks, he was moved into the condo. He’d befriended a woman down that hall, a
nd I was hopeful that it meant he’d be distracted from fucking up my life again.
Life was good. Great. The business was growing like gangbusters. April and I were in perfect sync, like we’d been eight years ago. Maya was thriving and happy. I had everything I wanted. Or very near it.
A month later, I ran an errand I was going to run while April was on her lunch break with August as they hashed out the last details of her trust.
That evening, April and I drove to camp and picked up Maya, and headed home. I supposed for many, a life like that was mundane, but for me, it was like a fucking miracle. It was perfection.
“How about crazy cakes for dinner,” I asked as we pulled into the garage.
“Yay! Can I help?” Maya said from the back seat.
“Well of course. Only you can make crazy cakes,” I said.
April looked at me with suspicion in her eyes.
“What?” I asked. “We’ve got to eat, and breakfast is good any time of day.”
“Hmm. You’re up to something.” She looked at me and then at Maya.
“Who me?” I grinned.
“Are you in on this?” she asked Maya.
To her credit, Maya narrowed her brows. “On what, mama?”
Inside, April went to change, while Maya and I got to work on dinner. While Maya set the table, I pulled the flowers out of the trunk of the car, finding a vase and putting them on the table. They were a little wilted from hiding in the trunk, but still bright and beautiful, like my gals.
“Mama, come eat. It’s time to eat.” Maya jumped up and down, clapping her hands, giving away that something was up, but that was okay. I was just glad she was so happy.
“What’s all this?” April came into the dining room. “The flowers are…lovely.”
I pulled out her chair. “They need a little perking up, but—”
“I love them.” April patted my hand that I’d set on her shoulder.
Maya sat in her seat. “Do you like your dinner mama?”
“I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m sure I’ll—” April’s words cut off as she looked down into her crazy cake. She gasped. “Oh!”
I got down on my knee beside her chair.
“Jude.” She plucked the diamond ring from the middle of her crazy cake.
“Say yes, mama. Say yes.”
April looked at me.
“I love you April. Now. Always. Forever. We’re a family but I want to make it official. I want to stand before God and everyone and pledge my life to yours.”
“Jude.” She pressed her hand to my cheek. “Yes. Yes, I want that too.” She leaned to me, kissing me, and I felt like I’d just won the lottery.
“Yay! We did it daddy, we did it.”
I smiled and winked at Maya. “Thank goodness you were here to help me. Come here, baby.”
She jumped out of her chair and came to us. We scooped her into our arms. The three of us hugging and laughing and crying. All I could think of was how dreams really do come true.
Epilogue
April – One Year Later
I stood behind the woman sitting at my desk as I watched her work through the project management software we used to keep track of client tasks. I shifted on my feet, as the weight of my belly strained my back. Today was my last day and then I was out on maternity leave, so I was training a temporary replacement, although I suspected that when I returned to work, she’d be asked to stay on as our client list was long. Mr. Lassen was so pleased with the results of Jude and Cyrus’s work, that he’d referred other local businesses to us. Cyrus and Jude had even hired another of their Navy SEAL buddies as the work grew exponentially over the last few months.
A year since Jude’s return, and my life was even better than I imagined it would be eight years ago when Jude and I first made plans. Back then, my goal was to get an education and go to work for my father, while Jude intended to continue to work in construction, with a goal to earn his contractor’s license. I’d imagined we’d live in a little house with a few kids, and have a quiet, serene life.
Today, our lives were bigger than that. I’d invested some of my trust into the business, giving it the financial stability to succeed during its initial growth. It also meant I was a partner, not an employee.
Jude and my lives weren’t just joined in business. A month after Jude proposed, we had a small ceremony in the backyard of the house. August gave me away and he seemed quite proud to do it. Maya was our ring bearer and Petal was my maid of honor. Cyrus was Jude’s best man. Weddings are stressful, and with tension between Jude and August, the potential for more stress existed, but the event went off without a hitch. I had to thank Petal and Cyrus for that as they worked together to make sure we had a lovely day. It was nice to see my best friend and Jude’s best friend get along. I sort of wondered if there might be something more between them, but dismissed it as soon as I thought of it. Petal was an outgoing free-spirit whereas Cyrus, sweet and kind, was more serious. Still, I was glad that they could be friends. Jude was too because he said Cyrus would need to make new friends in Bismarck since Jude was going to be focused on me and Maya.
After the lovely wedding ceremony, August took Maya to his condo, while Jude and I flew to New York for a week on our honeymoon. I’d never been there before and I was blown away by the immensity of all of it; the buildings, the noise, the lights. Of course, we spent much of our time there in bed. We had seven years to make up for. On the last day, after making love, I lay, cuddled in Jude’s warmth feeling so perfectly content. I now had the family I wished for with him.
I ran my hand over his chest, wondering if Jude would want more children. We hadn’t ever talked about it. “Have you thought about having more kids?”
He tilted his head to look down at me. “Sure.”
“You have?”
He shrugged. “It was less of thinking about it and more assuming we would at some point. Why? Don’t you want more?”
“I do want more. We hadn’t discussed it so I wanted to ask.”
He turned us so we lay side-by-side facing each other. “What do you think?”
“Just that I’d like to have another child with you.”
“Just one?” His hand gently rubbed my arm.
“To start with.”
“When?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I suppose I don’t want to wait too long. I’d like Maya to have a sibling close enough in age that she can feel close to him or her.”
He grinned. “We should get started then.”
“Now?”
“Well, maybe not right this minute, but soon.”
I saw an excitement in his eyes that made me want to give him a boatload of children. “I’ll need to go off the pill.”
His hand caressed my cheek. “I love you so much.”
“So you say,” I teased.
“You don’t believe me?”
“Actions speak louder than words.”
In the next instant, he was kissing me and sliding inside me again.
Two months later, I was pregnant, and today, I was humongous with our second child growing inside me. I was uncomfortable much of the time, but when Jude would see me, when he would rub his hand over my belly like he was taking in every nanosecond of the pregnancy, I was so filled with love. And a little bit of sadness that he’d missed this with Maya.
Jude came out of his office and joined us at the front desk. “How’s everything out here?”
“Just fine, Mr. Mason,” the woman, Dina, said, keeping her eyes on the screen.
Jude reached out and pulled me into his arms. “How’s everything here?” He kissed me then, and like always, everything inside me buzzed to life.
I pulled away laughing. “That’s what got us in this situation.”
Dina's eyes widened as she looked at us.
“You need to watch out for him while I’m gone,” I said to her. “He’s handsy.”
Jude laughed. “Only with my wife.”
The woma
n smiled. “I didn’t realize you were married. That’s great.”
“It really is,” I said. “If you’d like a break, we can take one. It’s about lunch time anyway.”
“I am a little hungry.” She got her purse and left the office.
“How about you, my wife and child?” Jude kept his arms around me. “What do you want for lunch? Pickles and ice cream?”
I snorted. The cravings had gone away months ago, but he still liked to tease me. “I think I’ll be able to find something at the diner.”
“The diner it is.”
I bent over to pull my purse from the desk drawer when I felt a rush of water between my thighs. I jerked up.
“What?” Jude asked, his eyes narrowing in concern.
“I think my water just broke?”
“Water?” He blinked.
I nodded. “The baby.”
“Oh shit.” He started to the door, turned and rushed back. “You need to come too.”
I laughed. Jude was always so calm, cool and collected so it was funny to see him out of sorts.
“Hey you two,” Cyrus entered the front area. He stopped short when we saw Jude. “Everything alright?”
“Fuck no—”
“I’m having a baby,” I said, tentatively reaching down for my purse again.
“That’s obvious,” Cyrus said with a nod to my belly.
“Now, Cy, she’s having a baby now…Jesus fucking Christ…she’s having it now.”
“Oh shit. Should I call 9-11?” Now Cyrus looked like he was going to run around like a chicken with its head cut off too.
I shook my head. How were these two men Navy SEALs? I slung my purse over my shoulder.
“Take me to the hospital, Jude. I’ll call the doctor on the way.”
“Hospital. Right.” Jude held the door open for me. He grinned like a loon as I passed him out the door. “I’m going to be a dad again.”
I snorted, but tried to be sympathetic. He was doing all this for the first time.
“Keep me posted,” Cyrus called behind us.
In the car, I called the doctor who said she’d meet us at the hospital and then I contacted August to arrange for him to fetch Maya who was in her first week of summer camp that had a strong STEM program as well as all the other fun camp activities.
Eight Long Years: A Second Chance Secret Baby Romance (Heart of Hope Book 5) Page 17
