Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 122(@200wpm)___ 97(@250wpm)___ 81(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 122(@200wpm)___ 97(@250wpm)___ 81(@300wpm)
“So good, Braden,” she whispers, her voice thick with sleep.
“You’re mine, Macy. Only mine,” I say, my voice husky, determined, needing her to admit it.
“I’m only yours,” is her response.
I pull away and look down at her again. I’m so fucking in love with this woman. I gather her into my arms, and after a few moments I can hear her breathing change. “I love you, Macy,” I whisper. She moves closer to me and I know she’s on the verge of sleeping. To know she’s tired because of me, because of what we just did has the possessive side of me rising again.
“I love you, too,” she whispers, and I feel a smile shape my lips.
I’ll never be that man who doesn’t worry about her, who doesn’t need to know where she is because it will give me peace of mind. But she accepts that, understands that she’s mine and I have to be a little on the caveman side where she’s concerned.
I am the luckiest bastard in the world.
Epilogue Two
Braden
Three years later
Mine.
That’s all I can think when I stare at Macy, when I realize I have her and no other man will ever lay claim to her.
Mine. All mine.
I can’t help but stare at her as she sits on the floor with our children, Xavier and Olivia. Twins, a little boy and girl, and the lights of my life. I never saw myself as a family man, never thought I’d have children or be married. But here I am, married to the woman I love, who has absolutely stolen my heart, and who has given me two beautiful children.
And then I glance over at Tabby, who sits in my oversized recliner, a book in her lap, and this look of amazement on her face. Her staying with us started as a weekend type of thing, but as time passed it became more frequent. It then ended with her living with us fulltime, my father and his bitch of a wife claiming she was getting too rowdy, that she was starting to give them a bad name.
That’s all I’d needed to hear to start the paperwork to adopt Tabby. I knew my father wouldn’t fight it. It’s not like he ever gave two shits about her. They paid nannies to take care of Tabby as they went on their cruises and European trips and when they went to their socialite dinner parties. She was nothing but a nuisance to them.
So here we are, Tabby officially ours, the relationship I have with my father nonexistent after all those years of animosity and hatefulness.
And the truth is … I’ve never been happier.
Tabby closes the book and looks over at me, this huge smile on her face.
“Good story?”
She nods enthusiastically.
“We’ll have to go to the library and check out some new ones this weekend,” Macy says, and I see the excitement practically shoot out of Tabby.
“Can we? Can we?”
“Of course,” Macy says and laughs as Tabby comes running over to her, tackling her with a bear hug.
Tabby is chuckling as she climbs off Macy and runs to her room. “I need to see what books I have to return.”
Tabby is more like our daughter at this point, and I know Macy feels the same way. She loves her like her own.
Macy and I are grinning as we watch her disappear down the hall. And as I stare at my wife, love and happiness … completion, rises up. Even all these years later, Macy makes my heart beat faster and harder. She makes my stomach twist up and has all my possessive instincts coming up like a beast inside of me.
Macy is mine.
Our children and Tabby are mine.
Forever.
Always. And I dare anyone to try and take them from me.
And as I stare at my wife, my woman …. all I think about is seeing her big with another baby. It’s so primal, so barbaric of me, but I can’t stop the thoughts and images slamming into my head. I can’t help myself when all I see is how gorgeous she looks swollen with my child.
Tabby comes out holding four books, the grin on her face contagious.
I may be successful, wealthy, and can get whatever I want. But the only things I need in life, the only things I’ll ever care about completely, are the four people in this room.
They make me complete.
I am one lucky bastard, and I know this is exactly where I am supposed to be, who I am supposed to be with. Funny to think this would have never happened if my little pickpocket hadn’t used her sticky fingers on me. If she hadn’t come into my life, I wouldn’t be where I am now. And damn is that a depressing thought.