Epilogue
Braxton
Six months later
“Shh, baby, you have to be quiet,” I whisper hotly in Vanessa’s ear as I slide in and out of her tight heat from behind.
“Fuck, I’m going to come,” she says behind my hand as she’s bent toward a tree a fair distance from the wedding reception taking place on Ozzy’s lake-house property. Her hands against the tree are keeping her steady while I lean over her and fuck her like I’ve been dying to do for the last hour.
Ozzy and Freya finally tied the knot, and I couldn’t keep my eyes off Vanessa the entire ceremony.
I thought of her and me up there in front of a preacher and our entire family, saying vows and committing ourselves to each other for the rest of our lives.
When the “I dos” were finally spoken, the only thing I could think about was being inside the woman I wanted as my future bride more than I wanted my next breath.
“I’m so fucking close, baby. Fuck, your pussy is so goddamn tight,” I groan softly.
Vanessa’s teeth bite into the palm of my hand, and seconds later, the walls of her pussy are clamping around my cock, taking me over the edge with her.
Vanessa moans quietly, trying to hold back her screams of pleasure as the breath stutters out of me when I spill inside her. We still for a moment, both of us taking in lungfuls of air before I pull out and slide her panties back up her legs, then tuck myself back into my black jeans.
My woman turns toward me, and she looks like a vision.
Freshly fucked and all mine.
“Did I hurt you?” she asks, lifting my palm to her lips and kissing the teeth marks she left there.
“Come on, babe. I’m a little tougher than that,” I say with a cocky smile, but yeah, my hand does sting a bit. Totally worth the bite of pain.
“We should head back. Everyone is going to think we came out here and had sex against a tree,” she says.
“Um, that’s exactly what happened.” I lean down and take her mouth in a hard kiss. “And I doubt we’ll be the only ones tonight.”
When I stand straight, Vanessa rolls her eyes and grabs my hand, pulling me back to the heated tent where everyone is partying. Her legs are a little shaky, and that sends a jolt of male pride through me. Yeah, I fucking did that.
We weave our way around the tables and find seats next to Lucy and Jude, who is holding their four-month-old baby girl, Lilah, named after Jude’s late mother.
“You have something…” Lucy grabs something from Vanessa’s hair and pulls out a little dried twig and holds it up.
Vanessa blushes, and a self-satisfied smirk stretches across my face before she turns and smacks me in the stomach.
Jude laughs, which causes his daughter to stir against his chest, but she doesn’t make a peep. He says she’s the best baby in the world and hardly fusses, which, considering who her parents are, is a fucking miracle. So far, she hasn’t shown any signs of either of their tempers.
“God, Freya and Ozzy look so damn happy, it makes me want to cry,” Lucy says, looking across the tent at our prez and his new wife sitting at their table with their heads bent together.
Freya says something to Ozzy and he smiles, tucking a loose piece of hair behind her ear before he leans closer and kisses her.
“I’m glad her parents decided to come,” Cece says, sitting down next to her sister. “Freya tried to act like it didn’t matter one way or another, but I know it had to be hard on her.”
To say Freya’s parents were happy that she reconnected with her high school flame would be a gross overstatement.
She and her dad didn’t speak for months.
He looks at the club as just a bunch of criminals, which we are—there’s no denying that.
But his son-in-law would burn the world to keep Freya safe, and eventually, he saw that.
They won’t be taking any bonding fishing trips anytime soon, but at least he’s here, and he walked his daughter down the aisle.
“Even my twat brother ended up crashing,” Jude says, looking out on the dance floor to find Liam cutting it up with Tanya while Trick watches his woman from the sidelines with Gramps and his lady friend Elaine, Mia’s grandmother.
“Too bad Maggie isn’t here,” Vanessa says as she eyes Liam.
“The doc? Why?” I ask.
“I think there’s some history there,” she says. “And weddings have a way of bringing people together. All the love and happiness can be contagious.”
“The doc and my brother?” Jude asks. He considers it for a moment, then nods. “Stranger things have happened, I suppose.”
Cece turns to Vanessa. “How’s school going?”
When Vanessa told me about wanting to go back to school to get a degree in accounting, I couldn’t help the laugh that sprang from me.
Not because I didn’t believe she could do it, she’s told me she has an aptitude for numbers and I know my woman is smart as hell, but because it reminded me of when I told her I was an accountant the first time we met.
Ozzy, of course, was thrilled with the prospect of having an in-house accountant.
Someone in the family he can trust to take a few things off his plate.
I told him he better damn well pay her what she’s worth, even though it’s going to be a couple of years before she finishes her degree.
“It’s going great, actually. It’s fun being back in school.
” Vanessa smiles at me, and I give her a wink.
Though she doesn’t work at Midnight Rose any longer, we’ve had some fun when she puts on her little schoolgirl costume and I fuck her with her textbooks scattered around the living room.
Now, any dances she offers are for me and me alone, and I pay her in orgasms. It’s really a win-win all around.
Instead of staying at the clubhouse, we ended up finding that little house we talked about, less than a mile from her mom and sister.
Noel has loved having an actual backyard, and Irina has been adjusting to living on her own.
So has Vanessa. It was a little nerve-racking for her at first, with her constantly checking on her mother to make sure she wasn’t sliding into the depressive states that have plagued her for years, but Charlie hooked Irina up with a great therapist. Even Vanessa joins her sessions about once a month.
Vanessa doesn’t hold grudges toward her mother, but I think they both needed a safe space to work through the shit Vanessa went through growing up.
Now Irina has her own job at the diner in town. It’s not glamorous by any stretch of the imagination, but it pays her bills. The gratification she feels making her own money and not having to depend on her daughter has lifted a weight from both her and Vanessa.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the DJ says, and Jude and I snicker. “Ozzy and Freya have asked that everyone join them on the dance floor for their first dance.”
Ozzy stands from his chair and gallantly holds out his hand for his new bride, who smiles so wide you’d think the man hung the moon just for her. She slides her palm into his, and he leads her out to the floor.
Etta James’s “At Last” starts playing through the speakers, and the couple begins swaying to the music.
I stand and hold out my hand for Vanessa, and just like Freya, she gives me a dazzling smile that makes my heart beat a little harder.
We make our way to the dance floor, and I look around at my brothers and their women—the people I love, the people I would lay down my life for.
Cece and Cash sway as he dips his head, whispering something in her ear that has her blushing.
Linc and Charlie look at each other as though no one else is in the room.
Jude and Lucy dance while Lucy holds their daughter between them, Jude looking at them as though his entire world is in his arms.
Knox and Mia smile at each other while he holds her tightly against him.
Wyatt and Maizie laugh as Colby wriggles his way between them, wrapping his little arms around both their waists.
Barrett runs his hands up and down Camryn’s back as he sings the song to her.
I used to think I had it good—that my role in our family was to watch out for everyone we care about, and that was plenty enough.
That giving your heart to someone meant more responsibility, more worry.
And maybe that’s partly true. But then a fierce-as-hell blonde with a quick tongue and a big heart waltzed into my life and showed me that it was worth every second—that being with the person who makes your soul whole is so much more than worry and responsibility, so much bigger than anything I could have ever dreamed.
“What are you thinking about?” Vanessa asks me as we continue to dance to the music.
“Of how fucking lucky I am,” I reply, smiling down at her.
“Well, obviously,” she says, and I bark out a laugh.
“I fucking love you,” I tell her.
“I love you, too, Braxton,” she says, placing her head against my chest.
Yeah, it’s all worth it.
The End