Epilogue #2
"Just need a taste," he says, voice rough with want.
Then his mouth is on me and I forget every single reason why we shouldn't do this right now.
Forget about dinners, about Grace and Damián waiting for us at the restaurant, about keeping up appearances and pretending we're functional adults who can control themselves for more than a few hours.
All I can focus on is his tongue working me over with devastating precision, his hands gripping my thighs hard enough to leave marks, keeping me exactly where he wants me.
The pregnancy has made everything more sensitive—nerve endings firing constantly, every touch amplified, every kiss sending electricity straight through my body like lightning in a bottle.
I'm coming apart in under a minute, crying out his name into the mattress as the orgasm crashes through me in waves that seem to go on forever.
"Good girl," he says, standing up. I hear his belt buckle clink, the rasp of his zipper cutting through the haze of post-orgasm bliss. "Now I'm going to fuck you properly and then we'll head out."
"Kade, we're going to be so late—" But even as the words leave my mouth, I'm already pushing back against him, needing him inside me despite my protests, despite knowing we're going to walk into that restaurant at least half an hour late looking thoroughly fucked.
He doesn't wait. Just drives into me in one hard thrust that punches the air from my lungs and has me seeing stars.
His hands grip my hips and he sets a brutal pace that I feel in my bones, in my teeth, in every cell of my body.
This isn't gentle lovemaking—this is claiming, possessing, reminding me exactly who I belong to and exactly how completely he owns me.
"Tell me," he demands, voice rough with need and something deeper, something that sounds almost desperate.
"I love you." The words come out broken, breathless, barely coherent. "I love you, Kade. I love you so much."
"Damn right you do." He thrusts harder, deeper, hitting something inside me that makes my vision blur.
I can't hold back anymore. Can't stop the second orgasm that tears through me like a hurricane as he follows me over the edge, groaning my name like a prayer, like a curse, like the only word that matters.
We stay like that for a long moment, both trying to catch our breath, his weight pressing down on me.
Then he pulls out slowly, carefully, and I feel his cum start to drip down my inner thigh.
Before I can move, his hand is there—fingers catching it, gathering it up with deliberate intent, then pushing back inside me with two thick fingers that make me gasp.
"I want my cum inside of you all night," he says, voice dark with possession.
The words send another bolt of heat straight through my core.
Then he's helping me with my panties, pulling them up gently, straightening my dress with hands that smooth over my stomach possessively—a gesture that's become automatic.
"Now we can go," he says, completely satisfied with himself.
"You're impossible," I say, but I'm smiling as I say it.
Can't help it. Six months ago I never imagined I could feel this happy, this safe, this genuinely loved.
Six months ago I was counting bruises and planning exit strategies.
Now I'm counting the hours until Kade gets home, planning our future, building something real.
We're definitely late now—twenty-five minutes instead of the five Kade promised.
I fix my makeup quickly at the bathroom mirror, trying to make myself look less like I just got thoroughly fucked.
Kade watches from the doorway the entire time, that satisfied smirk on his face that tells me he regrets absolutely nothing about making us even later.
The drive to the restaurant takes another twenty minutes through typical San Diego evening traffic.
Kade's hand rests on my thigh the entire time, thumb stroking lazy circles against the fabric of my dress that make me think about what we just did.
What we'll probably do again the second we get home tonight.
What he'll do to me tomorrow morning before I have to leave for school.
We walk into the restaurant hand in hand, forty-five minutes late and probably fooling absolutely no one about why.
The restaurant explodes with sound before we even clear the entrance. Grace's voice rises above the chaos—"Crap, they're here!"—and then the entire room erupts in a thunderous chorus:
"SURPRISE!"
My feet lock in place, body going rigid in the doorway as my hand flies to my chest. My heart hammers against my palm. "Oh my God." The words barely make it past my lips. "What... what is this?"
I turn to Kade, searching his face for answers, for any hint that he knew this was coming. He just shrugs, that infuriatingly satisfied half-smile playing at his lips. The same smile he wore watching me fix my makeup twenty minutes ago. "Don't look at me."
Grace and Damián’s sister Lo, appear in front of me like matching tornadoes of excitement, Grace's arms wrapping around me in a hug that has to navigate around my substantial belly. She squeezes tight anyway, careful but enthusiastic, her face pressed against my shoulder.
"It's a surprise baby shower!" Her voice sparkles with the same joy that lights up her entire expression when she pulls back to look at me.
The happiness radiating from her is so genuine, so pure, that my throat constricts with emotion.
"My little sobrina or sobrino is coming into this world in style. "
"You didn't have to do this," I start, overwhelmed by the thought and planning that must have gone into tonight.
But then my gaze sweeps the room—taking in the decorations, the familiar faces of MC brothers and their families, the cartel members who've become strange allies over the past months—and something catches my eye near the back wall.
My breath stops entirely.
Two figures stand near the back of the restaurant, pressed close together like they're seeking mutual comfort in unfamiliar territory.
They look completely out of place surrounded by leather cuts and expensive suits, by the rough-edged biker culture and the polished danger of cartel royalty.
Small-town Nebraska written in every uncomfortable shift of their bodies, every hesitant glance around the room.
But they're here. They're actually here.
I don't think. Can't think. My body moves on pure instinct, waddling as fast as my pregnant form allows, weaving between tables decorated with baby-themed centerpieces.
My hands steady myself against chair backs as I navigate the obstacle course of my surprise party.
My heart hammers so hard against my ribs I can hear my pulse in my ears.
Because standing there, looking uncertain and overwhelmed and perfectly, wonderfully familiar, are two people I never thought I'd see again.
Two people I believed I'd lost forever when I married Daniel.
Two people whose absence left a hole in my heart that I'd learned to live with but never stopped aching.
"Mama?" The word breaks on a sob I can't contain. "Daddy?"
KADE
I watch Fallon wrap her arms around her parents like she's afraid they'll disappear if she lets go, and something in my chest tightens. Different than I expected—this feeling watching the woman I love reunite with the family she thought she'd lost forever.
She's opened up more about them lately. How Daniel monitored her phone like a fucking warden.
How she wasn't allowed to talk with them very often—calls had to be scheduled, supervised, approved.
She texted her mom some, but everything fell apart after her first year of marriage.
By year three, they'd barely spoken at all.
Daniel isolated her so completely she thought she'd never get them back.
"Thank you," I say to Grace, meaning it more than she probably realizes.
"You're welcome." Grace gestures between herself and Lo, who's also watching Fallon with tears streaming down her face. Both of them are fucking emotional messes tonight. "We love Fallon."
The three of them have gotten so close over the past months.
I'm so fucking happy about it because Fallon's happier than I've ever seen her—and I've memorized every variation of her smile by now.
She has a new family with us, and now she's getting to reconnect with her old family too.
It's everything she deserves after surviving the hell Daniel put her through.
Fallon turns around suddenly, scanning the crowd until her eyes lock on mine. Her face lights up—that particular smile that still makes my chest tight even after months together. The one that says she found exactly who she was looking for.
"Kade!" She waves me over enthusiastically, bouncing on her toes despite the belly that throws off her balance these days.
"I've been summoned," I say to Grace and Lo, making my way through the tables toward her.
"Did you know?" Fallon asks the second I'm within reach, grabbing my hand and pulling me close to her parents. Her fingers lace through mine, anchoring herself against me.
"I suspected but I didn't know." I wrap an arm around her waist, keeping her tucked against my side where she belongs. "This was all Grace and Lo."
"Oh my God." Fresh tears spill down her cheeks, and I know the hormones are making everything hit ten times harder. "I can't believe they did this for me."
"They love you, Peaches." I press a kiss to her temple, breathing in the familiar scent of her shampoo mixed with her peach lotion she uses that drives me insane.
"I love them so much." She's full-on crying now, face pressed against my chest while her shoulders shake.