Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 103124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
“Sounds perfect.” He turns me so my back is pressed to his chest. “But this sea air is making me needy for my wife right now.”
He begins nibbling along my throat. Beneath his lips, my skin pebbles. “Here?”
His lips reach my ear. “Everywhere.”
His hands glide down my body to lift the hem of my dress. My legs part, and his fingers slide beneath my panties, making me gasp as they begin teasing my clit.
Up on deck, Massimo laughs at something Mateo said. Then they both laugh and start talking again.
While below deck, my husband conjures my orgasm with ridiculous ease.
He drags his lips up my neck to the base of my ear. “When were you going to tell me?”
“Tell you what?” I bite back a moan as his finger continues to torture the nub of nerves, rubbing it back and forth, bringing me to the brink. If he keeps it up, I’m going to come hard and fast.
“That you’re pregnant,” he says smoothly.
My eyes fly open. “How did you know?”
His lips brush my ear. “I know everything.”
Grinning, I reach backward to wind my arms around his neck as he continues to rub my pussy. “What gave it away?”
“The shine in your eyes. The glow on your skin. The way your hand moves to your belly.” His breath is hot on my skin. His fingers work frantically while I rock my hips to meet the much-needed pressure of his palm against my clit. “I want you to come now, and after that, I’m going to take you to the bedroom and spend the afternoon making you come again and again and again.”
My head falls back as my orgasm crashes through me.
“That’s it, baby, let go.” He circles my clit with relentless pressure, turning my bones soft and making me weak. “Goddamn, I love feeling you come.”
When I’m nothing but a rag doll, he spins me around and presses me to the wall, caging me in his arms and his intoxicating heat. My gaze falls into the molten heat of his as he asks, “So you’re definitely pregnant?”
“Yes.”
His lips twitch. “Is it mine?”
I shrug. “I mean, I suppose.”
He smiles, but then his eyes darken, and a possessiveness gleams in them.
“Tell me I’m going to be a father.”
His words make my heart swell. “You’re going to be a father.”
I watch his jaw tighten with emotion. And for the tiniest moment, I see a hint of vulnerability in his eyes. But then it’s gone and replaced with an unquestionable love.
He places his hands on my belly, his expression unguarded and emotional.
“Hello, baby. I’m your papa, and I’m going to make it my purpose in life to make you as happy as your beautiful mama makes me.”
And kneeling in front of me, he places a kiss on my belly.
EPILOGUE
Nico
The sand is as soft as powdered sugar between my toes, and the late afternoon sun is warm on my back. A gentle, salty breeze whispers against my skin and reminds me that a summer storm is supposed to blow in later tonight.
I hear a giggle and turn to see my four-year-old son trying to walk in my sandy footprints behind me, leaping from one to the other, and laughing when he gets the wobbles.
Sitting on my shoulders, my three-year-old daughter giggles at her brother.
I grin at my son, pride swelling in my chest. “If you keep growing up so fast, your feet will be bigger than mine in no time.”
He leaps onto a new footprint and falls onto his butt in the sand, laughing as a gentle wave rolls over him.
My wife walks beside me, her long, red hair tangling in the sea breeze. My queen. She’s dressed in a white summer dress, the floaty, thin fabric wrapping around her big belly and fluttering about her legs. Our second son is due any day now, and I have to kick myself to make sure this life is not a dream.
Sometimes I wonder if I deserve this.
If this is too good to be true.
But then I realize that is the old Nico talking because some habits are hard to break.
I will never regret my decision to walk away. To turn my back on the dark life and step into the light with my wife at my side.
We etch out a simple life. One that doesn’t need the sheen and sparkle of glamour and power.
One that doesn’t have us looking over our shoulders.
One that isn’t sheathed in the darkness of blood and murder.
Our home is carved into the white cliffs of the island, open-plan and breezy, with stunning sunrises and golden sunsets, and views for as far as the eye can see.
We etch out a life rich with art and knowledge, and gratitude for the peace that had eluded me all of my adult life. The outside world is just one laptop away, so I’m able to run businesses incognito. And when I feel the need for more space, I simply close my computer and walk away. No one knows I’m here. No one will ever know I’m here. I own this island and know everyone who steps onto its white sand shores.