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‘What would have happened if you hadn’t given me a second chance?’ Lukas had replied softly. ‘I would have stayed bitter and lost, seeking revenge and destroying myself in the process.’
‘But now...?’ she had prompted gently.
‘Now I’m happy, contented. I’m fulfilled. Driven by the love of a family who I love, rather than driven by revenge for a man who I don’t even waste a thought on any more. Just as you told me would happen.’
‘So I should give him a second chance?’
‘That’s your decision.’ He’d laughed, dropping a kiss onto her lips. First one side, then the other, as she’d sighed and silently prayed their baby son would give them an hour of quiet to themselves. ‘But I will support any decision you make.’
As he had done. And in all the years since. They had supported each other, and together they’d set up the Woods Foundation, offering not just a financial boost to any number of charities, but advice, experience and services. From setting up cold storage facilities to store vaccines for medical camps or desalination plants providing fresh water to desert communities, to local community projects like planting trees in parks, and setting up centres for children who acted as carers for their parents.
But as they snuggled together, their four children miraculously all asleep at the same time, Oti turned her face up to her husband’s.
‘You really have made me happy,’ she whispered.
‘I told you that I would,’ he deadpanned, lowering his head to claim her mouth with his before she could object. A deep, stirring kiss that made promises for the rest of the night. Five years after their first kiss at the altar, he still had the same power to set her heart thumping and leave her feverish for more.
Even so, she managed to punch his chest lightly.
‘I think you’ll find it was me who said that you would,’ she managed when they finally surfaced.
‘Are you quite sure? I seem to remember it differently.’
‘You really are the most aggravating man.’ She laughed.
‘Yes, I think that was what you were lamenting this morning into the pillow, when your legs were draped over my shoulders.’
‘You’re impossible.’ Oti batted him as he offered a wicked smile that shot straight through her body.
‘I am,’ he agreed. ‘And I love you, Lady Octavia Woods, just as I love our family. My only goal is to make you the happiest family alive. It always will be.’
And then he lowered his mouth to hers and set about proving it. Right until the stars began to twinkle in the inky blue sky. Then again, just before the sunrise began to turn the sky a welcoming yellow, and the first of the Woods brood began to roar at the top of his lungs.
* * *
