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But Bruce shakes his head curtly, moving one step closer. He’s so big that his shoulders block out the light, and I go weak inside.
“No, not as co-parents. As parents, and as lovers. I want you, Annemarie. I spent the whole trip back trying to figure it out, and I think now I finally have. Annemarie, I’ve fallen in love with you, and I want the three of us to be a family.”
I stare at him with wide eyes. Am I hearing this correctly? Bruce Crown, billionaire playboy, is in love with me?
I try to think past the fear in my soul, remembering the heartbreak I felt when I thought it was over, and hope flares in my heart. Could this whole silent treatment have been him sorting out his feelings for me? Did I misread the situation?
“Mark my words, this isn’t how I anticipated things happening. I wanted to court you slowly,” Bruce says in a low voice. “Make you fall in love with me gradually. I had it all planned out. But this…” He nods down at sleeping baby in his arms. “Seeing my son in person, and seeing how much you love him, made me realize that none of what happened in the past matters. All that matters is that we love one another, and that we’re together going forward. All three of us, as a family.”
The air rushes out of my lungs, and I stare at the handsome man with tears in my eyes, but they’re tears of joy. “I love you too, Bruce,” I say softly. “And I want that too. All this time, I was thinking we were over, but I see I was wrong.” He reaches out to brush the wetness from my face. “I’m so sorry for everything that happened,” I add in a broken voice. “For betraying your trust by not telling you about Riley sooner. For making you think–”
But the handsome man cuts me off, his blue eyes fierce.
“No, Annemarie, I’m the one who’s sorry. I shouldn’t have continued paying you while we were dating. It’s just that I didn’t want you to go out on any more City Girls assignments, so as always, I used money to solve the problem. I had the best intentions, but it must have made you think that I still saw you as an escort, and that fucked everything up. After all, why would you tell me anything if you were only an escort? Why would you reveal that you’d had my son, if you were only a paid professional? I’m the one who’s sorry, Annemarie,” he continues in a choked voice. “I should have found some other way to make my intentions clear. At the very least, I should have stopped paying you through City Girls because you’re not an escort,” he says fiercely. “You’re my woman, and the woman I love.”
That only makes my tears come harder.
“I know,” I sob. “I love you too, Bruce, and I’m … well, I’m afraid.”
“Afraid of what, honey?” he asks in a husky voice, putting Riley in his crib before pulling me close to that big frame. “I’m with you now, Annemarie. There’s nothing to be afraid of ever again. Not on my watch.”
But I shake my head, my hand going to the gentle swell of my stomach. “Bruce,” I begin in a hesitant voice. “I can’t believe this is happening, but I want to be open and honest with you, given our shared past. I’m pregnant again. I know you didn’t plan on this, but Riley’s going to be a big brother soon.”
Bruce stares at me, unable to speak, and I quickly dash tears from my eyes.
“I know we’ve been using protection, but accidents happen, and it seems like a cruel twist of fate, seeing that this is what happened the first time too –”
But Bruce cuts me off with a hard kiss to the lips.
“This is not a cruel twist of fate,” he rasps, pulling me close and leaning his forehead against mine. “This is the good kind of accident, and I couldn’t be happier, Annemarie. Thank you for this gift, sweetheart, because it’s the best gift a man can receive.”
With that, he kisses me passionately and my heart soars with love and hope. After all, maybe we met during a wild night out when I was nothing but a teen girl, but Bruce Crown has made me into a woman, and with this man at my side, anything is possible.
Epilogue
Annemarie
It’s a strange feeling to go from living in the dankest, dingiest of shoebox apartments to living in a penthouse at the top of one of New York City’s most prestigious buildings. It feels incongruous, and almost ridiculous, seeing that once I was a penniless single mother working as an escort to put food on the table for my child. But it turns out that anything can happen in life, if you just open your heart to the possibility.
