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exhausted and saved every penny that he to make sure that his family would be well taken care of if anything ever happened to him. It was his job to provide for his family and to keep them safe, not Elizabeth’s. He wasn’t working day and night so that she could do that same. He wanted her well taken care of, happy and able to enjoy herself.
One of them should be able to, he thought with a resigned sigh as he gently placed her on the edge of the bed. Ignoring her muttered protests that everything was fine, he set about wiping her tears away, pressing a kiss to her trembling chin as he carefully undressed her. He knew that she was exhausted when she couldn’t even come up with the energy to argue with him as he finally slipped her chemise off and gently pulled on one of his old cotton shirt over her head, her favorite shirt to sleep in. She did however release an adorable little sniffle that had him biting back a smile as he pulled the covers back and helped her crawl between the covers. Before her head hit the pillow, her eyes were closed and she was softly snoring.
“Ah, minx,” he said with a small smile and a sigh as he leaned over and pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose. “What the hell would I do without you?” he asked no one in particular, not really expecting an answer because he already knew it.
He wouldn’t survive without her.
She meant everything to him, absolutely everything. She was his heart, his soul, the reason why he pushed himself so hard to make a better life for their family. He loved and adored his boys, but Elizabeth…
She was his everything.
And so far, he’d failed her. He’d taken her from everything she knew, gave her absolutely no choice but to start a new life whether she wanted to or not and now she was exhausting herself trying to prove that she could handle this new life. Tomorrow, things were going to change, but for right now, he was going to make sure that his wife got the rest that she desperately needed.
He pulled off his boots, shoved his pants down, and pulled off his shirt, tossing it on the chair in the corner and crawled in bed behind her, determined to make sure that she was well rested for their trip.
“You really are going to be the death of me, minx,” he whispered, half joking as he pulled her in his arms, kissed her neck and gave in to the exhaustion that had been plaguing him for months. He was just starting to fall asleep when the light scratching at the door caught his attention.
“Sorry, Mr. Bradford, sir, but Mrs. Kinnley just sent a messenger. It seems that there was a fire in her kitchen this morning and she has no way to heat the house or cook for the children until it’s fixed,” one of timid girls that Mrs. Brown had hired from town hesitantly announced from the safety of the other side of the door, making him realize that he was going to have to put off catching up on his sleep for a little while longer.
Chapter 4
The Next Day…
“No!” Noah said firmly with a glare as he folded his little arms over his chest and glared up at Robert, matching his brother Shaun’s glare exactly as Robert stood there, wondering why he’d even bothered to try and reason with his sons.
“She stays,” Shaun bit out before his eyes narrowed dangerously on Robert, “you can go.”
Biting back a few words that would have his wife going for his balls, Robert pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to ignore the headache that exhaustion and the leftover fumes from the Kinnley house had bombarded him with, and focused on the two little boys standing in front of him, making the warning very clear.
If he tried to leave with their mother, they would kill him.
Or at the very least, do their best to beat the shit out of him and make him rethink ever coming between them and their mother again. Robert took a slow, deep steadying breath, praying for patience this morning, but by the time that he caught his boys sharing one of their secret, and admittedly terrifying looks, it was too late.
“She stays,” Noah said with an evil little smile just as his brother’s lower chin began to tremble and his big green eyes filled with unshed tears.
Sniffle, “She loves us more,” Noah mumbled, getting into character as he reached up with his little tan hand and wiped away a single tear that rolled down his cheek while Robert stood there, glaring down at his sons and silently daring them to push him too far today.
“You don’t want to play this game with me today, boys,” he warned them quietly, but since they were his sons, they ignored the warning and focused all of their attention on the beautiful woman walking into the nursery.
The pleased smile that Elizabeth wore each morning when she greeted their sons instantly changed to panic as she caught sight of the twins, standing there in their nightshirts, suddenly looking lost and a little terrified as both the boys released matching sniffles and sobs that would have even the most heartless of bastards feeling bad for them. It just made him want to put them over his knee and spank the hell out of them for trying to pull this shit on him.
He’d been the one who’d taught them that trick to manipulate Elizabeth into making them extra apple tarts and they were trying to use it on him? Oh, they had so much to learn…
“Good morning, minx,” he said, smiling and letting her know just how happy he was to see her as he smoothly stepped in front of their sons and pulled her into his arms.
She looked better than she had last night, but he could still see exhaustion marring her beautiful expression. She needed this week away now more than ever and he wasn’t going to let anything, especially the boys that he’d trained a little too well, ruin this for her. So, pretending that he couldn’t hear his sons sobbing quietly in a ploy to gain their mother’s sympathy, he gave her a proper good morning kiss.
One of the boys, most likely Shaun, sobbed a little louder, trying to gain his mother’s attention, but it was pointless and they both knew it. As long as he had Elizabeth in his arms, nothing else mattered. Besides, she trusted him and knew that he would never ignore the children if they were really hurt. So, when she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him down and returned his kiss with a sweet little sigh that nearly had him sweeping her off her feet and bringing her back to their room, but just before he let his cock lead him around, he remembered that they had a purpose.
“Are you ready?” he asked as he pulled back, pausing only long enough to tease her lips with his.
When he caught her worrying her bottom lip between her teeth and shooting the manipulative boys standing on either side of him now a look, he knew that she was having second thoughts. It was something that he simply couldn’t allow. So, keeping his smile easy, he reached down, grabbed both boys by the back of their shirts and picked them.
“Kiss your mother goodbye,” he said firmly, ignoring the murderous glares that they were sending him as they crossed their arms stubbornly over their chests.
“She stays,” Noah said firmly as though his word was law.
Shaun seconded it with a firm nod that earned them both a subtle shake and a reminder of who they were dealing with. He might love his children more than his own life and do whatever it took to keep them safe and happy, but not at their mother’s expense and they knew it. She needed a break from this chaos and he was going to make sure that she got it.
“Fine!” Noah growled even as he reached over, grabbed onto his mother’s shoulders, used his hold on her so that he could kiss her cheek. With that done, his brother followed suit, Robert placed them both on their feet, ruffled their hair and just because he had a soft spot for his boys, he slipped them each a penny to buy sweets while they were gone.
“We’ll be back in a week,” he told the boys as his eyes locked on his beautiful wife, who was already starting to fret over leaving the boys.
“Yeah, see you in a week!” Noah yelled excitedly as he raced for the door, his brother hot on his heels, apparently forgetting all about them as they raced towards the sounds of Mrs. Brown in the kitchen, whom they would probably pester until she gave in, stopped what she was doing and brought them to town so that they could buy thei
r fill of sweets.
As he watched his boys, who were technically still babies, run out of the room to hunt down Mrs. Brown, he shoved the terror aside and told himself that the fact that they looked closer to three years old and acted like they were ten years old didn’t frighten him.
Nope, not at all.
