Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 28488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 142(@200wpm)___ 114(@250wpm)___ 95(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 142(@200wpm)___ 114(@250wpm)___ 95(@300wpm)
“Whether it’s just these two or a whole houseful of children, I think this is the start of a beautiful family, my love.”
He holds me close, our children secure in our embrace.
What a wonderful life.
EPILOGUE TWO
SEBASTIAN
TEN YEARS LATER
“The Huntsman chased the big bad wolf through the forest, making sure he was good and far away from Red Robin Hood before returning to her.”
“Then what happened?”
It’s bedtime for my youngest daughter, and that also means it’s story time. She looks up at me from under the covers, so excited and inquisitive about what’s going to happen next in the story, even though I’ve read this one to her a dozen times before.
“Then the Huntsman and Red decided that living in a forest all alone was kind of boring. They moved out, and headed to Texas to join the rodeo. Red became a bull rider and the Huntsman juggled axes as a rodeo clown. They lived happily ever after.”
I think I invite her to want repeat readings because I keep changing the ending on a lark. Little Becca giggles up a storm as I close the book and place it on the nightstand.
“Nighty night, sweetie pie. Sleep well and dream of cotton candy and lollipops.” I kiss her on the forehead.
“But isn’t cotton what our clothes are made out of? How can it be candy?”
I shake my head with a smile. “I’ll show you what I mean next time the carnival's in town.”
“Okay, Daddy. Goodnight.”
I step out of her bedroom and close the door gently.
Outside is the woman who’s made all this possible.
“You’re such a darling of a storyteller, Sebastian,” she says. She’s still looking sexy as ever. More than when I first met her, to be totally honest. Five pregnancies and she’s an absolute vixen.
“Gotta shake it up. Besides, she has the cutest laugh. It makes it all worth it.”
“So Wade and Cade are in bed as well as Becca?”
I nod. “Are Tessa, Summer, and the triplets all asleep?” Eight kids. One set of twins, three singles, and then she surprised me with a set of triplets. It was quite overwhelming at first, having them all, and the triplets made me consider a vasectomy. Clara and I have discussed it extensively, but we haven’t gone through with anything yet. There’s still time for nature to spring a brood of octuplets on us.
She nods back. “That’s all of them. So the only ones left to put to bed are you and me.” Her smile turns from motherly to seductive.
“Are you going to read me a bedtime story?” I saunter up to her, wrapping my hands around her waist.
“Oh, I’ve got a story for you, about a dark knight. One who’s brooding in his castle. And a fair maiden who comes to him to change his life.”
“I think I know this one. I know it all too well.”
I’m the luckiest man in the world. And she’s told me she’s the luckiest woman in the world. I remember that dark time between when I discovered my father’s world and when I met her. Lots of sitting around feeling sorry for myself. Lots of escapism. Never knowing that there was anything better, and not thinking I deserved it if there was. It’s a wonder that I made it through all that.
Then Clara came into my life and brought sunshine into it. She changed everything and gave me hope for the future. Hell, she is that future.
We walk side by side toward our bedroom, our sanctuary and something private we keep to ourselves. We’ve kept the kids from coming into the bedroom without us, not desiring to explain Daddy’s handcuffs or our countless other toys.
I close the door behind us and double check the baby monitor to make sure it’s working. It’s Mommy and Daddy time, yes, but no parent is ever fully off duty.
Turning back to my love, she’s standing next to the bed, looking sexy as hell in her nightgown, with her hands behind her back.
“Are you suggesting you want me to tie you up tonight, lovely?”
“Oh, no, I have other plans for you. If you’d like to try something a bit different, anyway.”
“And what would that be?”
She pulls out the handcuffs and they clink. “How about we put them on you tonight?”
I raise an eyebrow. “Kinky. I love it.”
“Strip for me, lover boy.”
I obey my mistress with a smile on my face. My shorts and t-shirt soon hit the ground and I’m naked before her.
“Bed. Now.” She points.
I lie flat there, and she takes each of my wrists and cuffs them to the bed posts. I made sure they were reinforced to cope with just such a thing. Clara as more physical strength than she realizes, and they should hold up for me too unless I summon some freak strength of my own.
I’m spreadeagled, my cock hard at merely the thought of having her, even if it isn’t in the traditional way. She pulls off her nightgown, not wearing anything beneath it, showing off her body. It’s not the same as when I first met her. It now tells her story, and I know that story all too well. It’s sexy as hell.