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She laughed, the joy in her heart creating a heady ache that was still scary but so right. ‘I’ll sign anything you want, Mr Cade,’ she replied. ‘But only if you sign it too.’
He lifted her up and held her aloft, his gruff chuckle joining her laughter, then let her body slide down against his, making her tantalisingly aware of the hard ridge thrusting against her belly through their clothing.
‘Count on it,’ he murmured, then proceeded to strip her naked and seal the deal with the ruthless efficiency she adored.
EPILOGUE
One year later
‘DADDY,ISTHEbaby all cooked now, then?’ Ruby bounced on Brandon’s hip as he strode down the hospital corridor. His daughter looked as if she were ready to explode with excitement.
He knew the feeling. After leaving Lacey and his brand-new baby son in the exclusive private maternity hospital in Mayfair at 3:00 a.m. that morning, his heart had been ticking over so fast he’d been sure he might never sleep again this decade.
As it happened, he’d crashed out as soon as his head had dropped onto the bed he now shared with Lacey all night, every night—thanks to her unstinting love and support, and the hours of therapy he had finally admitted he needed to get over the fear of intimacy he had developed in childhood...
The same bed which had felt so empty over the past two days since Lacey had gone into hospital for observation. And their son had decided to put in a scarily hasty appearance three weeks ahead of schedule.
The glorious dreams of his son’s tiny mouth latching onto his wife’s breast for the first time had swirled in and out of his exhausted brain, chased by the terrifying nightmares of six far too fast, but also never-ending, hours of pain and fear as Lacey had laboured like a pro and he’d completely fallen to pieces inside while trying not to show it.
‘Yes, he’s all cooked and ready to meet you now, Rubes,’ he said, suddenly grateful he had not had to go through the labour experience twice.
His daughter meant so much to him—and he would always regret the four years he’d missed watching her grown into the bright, brilliant nearly six-year-old she was now—but her actual birth, not so much.
One thing was for sure—no way on earth was he touching her mother again until they had had a serious conversation about effective methods of contraception. He couldn’t get the picture out of his head of her in agonising pain as the contractions had hit in waves. Which should take at least a decade.
Funny to think he’d been desperate to get her pregnant when they’d first been married. But he had been totally okay with waiting, once their marriage had morphed into something real, beautiful and so full of promise and possibilities, it made him ache.
He told her he loved her now every chance he got but, much more importantly, he knew she believed him.
Lacey challenged him and provoked him, excited and fascinated him, always. But, as well as being a wife and a lover, she was also his best friend and the woman he couldn’t wait to share every new adventure with. She—and Ruby—filled up all the holes in his life he’d thought could never be filled for so long, and he couldn’t wait for the new baby to add another layer of joy and insanity to that glorious chaos.
He’d taken a back seat in his business for the last year—finally forced to acknowledge that so much of his relentless drive and ambition had been linked to the subconscious need to impress a dead man. He still loved his work, and he hadn’t entirely given up on expanding Cade Inc into the US market, but he didn’t work seven days a week any more. He took school holidays off now, and weekends, and happily played hooky from work to hang out with Ruby if Lacey had a feature to finish or an interview to do. He had even got into the habit of showing off his wife at the sort of media parties and society events he had once despised.
His life had become rich and full, something he would never have envisaged it being. Because for the first time ever he’d discovered what true happiness actually felt like. Not sealing a deal with a media conglomerate in Spain, or launching a new cable news channel in Kenya—but spending a sun-kissed day mucking about with his daughter on a beach in Bermuda, or snatching a make-out session with his heavily pregnant wife in the shower before his chatterbox daughter and her nutty dog bounded into his bedroom to turn the chaos right back up to eleven.
When Lacey had fallen pregnant by accident eight months ago—a result of a stomach bug messing with her contraceptives—he’d actually been more shocked than overjoyed. Had they really been ready to take this step now?
But, as he’d watched Lacey’s slim figure ripen with their child, he’d discovered the process was at least every bit as erotic as he’d thought it would be.
As he shoved open the door to Lacey’s hospital room, and Ruby wriggled out of his arms to dash across to her mother, he stopped in the doorway to take in the scene—and stamp it on his memory for ever. His wife cradled their new-born in a chair by the bed, the light from the window gilding her soft curls and the tiny bundle in her arms as she lowered them to introduce Ruby to her brother.
His heart took another direct hit—one of so many over the last year—and felt as if it had stopped beating for several seconds as he absorbed the tableau they made.
Doesn’t matter if you’re ready, Cade. This is it. This is everything. Scary, yeah—terrifying, even. But also the only thing that will ever really matter.
Then Lacey’s gaze connected with his as Ruby began chattering a mile a minute to her brother. Poor kid—he was unlikely to get a word in edgeways for the foreseeable future. Good thing he couldn’t talk.
His wife smiled, her expression tired but so happy. And his heart kicked back into gear and began to beat double time.
‘Hello, Mr Cade,’ Lacey said. ‘I hope you guys have come to bust us out of here, because Junior and I are ready to go home.’
Home. A word which had meant nothing to him for so long and now meant everything.
His heart expanded as he strolled to his wife and lifted the now fussy baby out of her arms—his son looked somewhat indignant at being so rudely awakened by his inquisitive big sister.
Welcome to my world, kid.
He leant down to whisper to Lacey, ‘Why do you think I brought my accomplice with me?’ Then—because how could he resist kissing that gorgeous mouth?—he touched his lips to hers.
She opened for him as she always did, tempting him deeper and taking the kiss to a sweet, sultry place. It occurred to him, as the familiar heat settled in his groin, that not making love to his wife again for a decade might be a bit too much of a punishment for both of them. Perhaps a year of abstinence would have to do.
They were forced to break the kiss when Ruby started making ‘yuck, yuck’ noises, and the baby in his arms began crying and fretting in earnest.
He chuckled as his wife’s smile turned into a knowing grin and the steady beat of joy, happiness and fulfilment—which he’d become so comfortable with over the last year—settled back into his heart.
‘Time to get our kids home, Mrs Cade,’ he murmured.
And let the chaos continue.
