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My heart takes a massive blow at the hope shining brightly in his eyes. I ease forward and place a kiss on his lips. Soft and filled with all the love I have for the man I never intended to marry yet can’t imagine living without.
“He told me not to make the same mistake he made. He told me he kept my mother on the outside and by the time he realized it, it was too late. Her sickness stole her from him. I don’t want their cold marriage for us, Oliver.”
I don’t realize I am crying until he gathers a tear on his thumb and dashes it away.
“Neither do I, my jewel.” He pulls me into his chest, and I settle my ear over his beating heart. Strong and steady. I take Oliver’s hand and settle it over our growing baby.
“Promise me, promise us, you will never shut me out again. I’m stronger than you think.”
“And more resourceful than I thought.”
“The auction?” I smile knowingly.
“Yes, the auction.”
“I really thought I had messed up and sold myself to a stranger.”
Oliver grows quiet for a moment and I let him gather his thoughts. “I was wrong to think I had to handle the threat of the Callahans alone. It’s my family’s way of dealing with every problem. Keep the women out of it, keep them safe while the men deal with the danger. But I see it doesn’t have to be that way. Carmen was right to say I have the power to change the Stone legacy.”
“Carmen?”
An arrogant smile quirks the edge of Oliver’s mouth up. “You know her as headmistress. She’s an old friend.”
“Ahh. So I guess I never really was in trouble of selling myself to a stranger was I?” It’s not really a question I need an answer to. Not when his laugh tells me everything I need to know.
“Not really. But the enforcer who gave you the idea and helped you scheme against me?—”
I swat at Oliver’s chest. “—not scheme,” I interrupt. “Tomas helped me get you back,” I correct him, unable to hold back a laugh.
“Matter of perspective,” he counters.
“Don’t you dare do anything to him but give him a raise.” I shake a finger at Oliver and he takes it in his mouth, sucking and nibbling at the flesh.
“I love you, Oliver. I have since the day you took this bullet to protect me and I still do to this very minute.” All the humor leaks from my voice and I make sure he sees and hears the sincerity of my words. I stroke a finger over the puckered flesh. “Violence brought us together and then it nearly tore us apart. Don’t let that happen again. Please.”
He presses his forehead to mine and we stay like that a moment, simply breathing each other in. “I promise. To the day I die I will never let you out of my sight. I will love and cherish you, keep you at my side. We will rule over our kingdom together. We will not repeat your father’s mistakes or mine. I own you Amethyst and I want everyone—friend and enemy—to know you are the queen of the Stone empire. My jewel.”
“I am yours and you are mine, Oliver Stone. I put my ring on your finger, too, and now I carry your child. Our child. Your blood is my blood. From now until forever.”
He takes my lips in a kiss. When he pulls his lips from mine several moments later, I hold his face in the palm of my hand and say, “Take me home, daddy.”
And that is exactly what happened. We rebuilt our love, reclaimed our home and found peace in each other’s arms.
EPILOGUE
AMETHYST
My daddy was right, he never left me again. Not when a recent threat reared its ugly head and not when my father threatened to kill him if my husband let me call him daddy again.
I close my eyes and have to laugh. Fathers never like it when their baby girls grow up and have needs of their own.
I have to admit though, getting my father mad at Oliver was all my fault. I have been good at keeping our kinky ways locked away in the bedroom. All but this one. We were having my father over for dinner and then I slipped and called my husband daddy. It’s been a month since ‘the incident’ as I call it and I can still feel the slight pang of embarrassment.
But the look my Oliver gave me and the kiss he rewarded me with over the mashed potatoes that night made all the wrath and disgust my father leveled on us wash away to mere background noise.
But I still blush thinking about it.
Oliver moves my hair to the side and presses a kiss to my forehead. “He’ll be here. Or he won’t. Your father is a grown man. But please stop glancing at the door with that heartbroken look in your eyes, baby. Or I will go and find that sensitive stick in the mud and drag him in here. I don’t think that is what you want.”
