Chapter 22
Marshall
Holy fucking hell!
This woman was definitely going to be the death of me, but at least I’d die the happiest idiot in existence because I was with her.
I held Emma tightly as my heart rate slowed back to normal.
We might be older, but the chemistry between the two of us hadn’t changed.
As far as I was concerned, she’d just sealed her fate by letting me touch her and get inside her beautiful body.
She was mine.
She wanted me.
I wanted her.
It was a done deal.
Okay, she hadn’t exactly made me promises for a future, but she’d agreed to never make me walk away from her again.
I knew I wasn’t fucking going anywhere, so I’d find a way to make damn sure that we had a future.
“We’re sweaty and I feel like a total mess,” Emma murmured against my shoulder.
“Don’t move,” I demanded. “I like it when you’re a sweaty mess.”
I’d forgotten exactly what it felt like to be with Emma this way, and I wanted to stretch this moment out a little longer.
My dick was finally content, and I was actually…happy.
Hell, I’d forgotten what happiness felt like, and I wanted to reacquaint myself with that particular emotion as often as possible.
I’d been a restless, discontented asshole for almost fourteen years.
I didn’t have that many days left when I’d be sleeping in the same bed with Emma, and I wasn’t going to take those nights for granted.
I’d rented a vacation place down the street from Emma, and I’d be moving to that location before Wren got home from San Diego.
While Emma had insisted that I could stay with her, I knew it wasn’t going to make a good first impression on my daughter if I was sleeping with her mother.
I wanted to get to know my daughter, but she didn’t need me in her face every moment of the day.
She’d need some space, and I was going to give her what she needed.
I planned on staying in Cherry Cove for a few weeks until it was time for Wren to start high school.
Emma and I hadn’t really discussed what would happen when the summer was over, but I’d figure it out after I’d gotten to know my daughter.
“What are you thinking about?” Emma asked as she lifted her head to look at me.
“You and Wren,” I readily admitted truthfully.
“You’re nervous about meeting her,” Emma stated.
Hell yes, I was nervous, and I didn’t like it.
I was a guy who could handle stressful situations and always had all of the answers.
For the first time in my life I had no idea how to handle a situation.
I couldn’t control how she’d feel.
I couldn’t control whether or not she actually wanted her father to stroll into her life at the age of thirteen.
I didn’t like not having complete control over every detail of my life.
“In general, I’m not really a likeable guy, Emma.”
“That’s not true,” she protested. “I like you.”
“Yeah,” I grumbled as my arm tightened around her waist. “I never really did understand that.”
“Once you let your guard down and allow someone to really know you, it’s impossible not to like you,” she insisted.
Well, that was a little problematic since I almost never let my guard down.
“Social relationships have never been easy for me,” I admitted grudgingly. “Give me a problem to solve, and I can do it. Put me in a social situation and I suck at it.”
“That’s because your intelligent brain is always working to solve problems,” Emma said softly as she ran a soothing hand over my chest. “Wren has the same struggles sometimes, but she’s adjusting.
She’s not going to need you to solve her problems, Colin.
She’s a smart girl and getting more independent every day.
She’s going to want you to care about her. ”
“I already do,” I replied in a frustrated voice. “I’ve cared since the moment I knew she existed.”
I cared about a lot of people and a lot of things. I was simply an expert at reining in those emotions.
However, I knew I was going to have to change that particular trait.
I just wasn’t sure how to do it.
“Everything will be fine,” she said reassuringly.
“I’m going to tell Wren and my mother about the kidnapping the night before Wren leaves California.
I’m also going to tell her that she’s going to get to meet her father.
I don’t want to completely blindside her when she comes home.
I will tell her that you participated in my rescue, but I won’t mention Last Hope or your top-secret job.
Those are your secrets to share when and if you want to do it.
I know my daughter. She’d understand the need to keep those secrets quiet if you choose to tell her, but that’s your decision, Colin. ”
“She’ll probably have to know at some point,” I mused. “I plan on being part of her life, and my life isn’t normal. Hostage situations evolve quickly. They don’t happen from nine-to-five. She’s a smart girl. She’s going to know that my life isn’t normal, and I’m not going to lie to her.”
“She’s going to want to see the headquarters,” Emma warned in a teasing tone. “If you have all of the high-tech equipment you’ve told me about, she’ll be all over that.”
“I’d take her there if she really wants to see it.”
“I’d really like to see it myself,” Emma said hesitantly. “I might not understand every piece of equipment, but I know that Last Hope is a big part of your life. You do important work there.”
“I’ll take you there,” I answered in a heartbeat.
It suddenly hit me how much I wanted to share my life in California with Emma.
I was proud of everything we’d accomplished with Last Hope.
“You’ll probably run into my partners and their wives,” I added. “You know they’re all involved as volunteers. I think you’d like all of them.”
I’d already shared a lot about exactly how my billionaire partners’ wives had gotten involved in Last Hope.
“They’re younger than me, but I’m sure I’d like all of them.”
“They’re not that much younger,” I countered. “And I think they’d want to pick your brain about raising kids. Wyatt is a mess right now because Shelby is pregnant.”
Emma would be forty-six shortly, so she was a lot closer to their age than I was.
“He’ll be fine once the baby is born,” Emma said thoughtfully. “Pregnancy can be a crazy time. All I could think about was how to make sure I didn’t screw up as a mother. It sounds like Wyatt is just worried about Shelby.”
“He’s obsessed,” I told her drily. “I can’t say that I blame him now. I wish I could have been there for you when you were pregnant, Emma.”
“We can’t change what happened in the past,” she said gently.
Maybe not, but the thought of Emma pregnant, vulnerable, and alone made me completely insane.
“I had my mom,” Emma explained. “She was so supportive. Once I got over the shock of being pregnant, I was happy. I was also glad that I’d never gotten pregnant with my ex.
I turned myself inside out to make him happy, and I never could.
I would have loved any child I had, but it would have been miserable with him.
I blamed myself for my marriage failing and him turning to another woman because I wasn’t able to get pregnant.
I don’t think I realized how ridiculous that was until we met.
I had no concept of what a real man should be until we met in Virginia Beach.
You might think that you’re awkward with people, but you listened to me.
You made me feel…important. That brief encounter made me feel like I was worthy of something better than I had in my marriage. ”
Anger flooded through me at the thought of anyone not treating Emma like she was the most incredible woman in the world.
I rolled her under me and searched her face. “Did he hit you, Em?” I asked hoarsely.
Fuck! I’d find the bastard if he had.
I didn’t care how long ago that relationship had happened.
She shook her head slowly. “No. But the emotional abuse was probably worse than getting punched. He gaslighted me for years. By the time we divorced, I felt like everything that went wrong in our marriage was my fault. He was my first really serious relationship, so I was probably easily manipulated. I had very little relationship experience to compare it to. Our time together was short, but you showed me things I’d never experienced before. ”
“You are important, Emma,” I growled. “Hell, I felt like the luckiest bastard in the world when you agreed to be with me for a while. He was a fucking idiot not to feel the same way.”
She stroked my cheek lovingly. “He wasn’t…you. He was a huge mistake that I didn’t realize I’d made until we met. That short period of time together changed my whole perspective. Maybe we weren’t together, but I was glad that you were Wren’s father.”
Hell, I was damn glad that she was my daughter, too.
“What can I do to make you understand that you’re important to me?” I asked.
She smiled at me. “You’re here with me right now even though everything else that’s important in your life is in California.
You want to know our daughter. Every single thing you do tells me that we matter to you, Colin.
You don’t have to prove anything to me. That relationship was a long time ago.
I’m not that silly woman anymore. I moved on and I was grateful that I came to my senses.
In the last fourteen years, I’ve never settled for anything less than the way you made me feel in Virginia Beach.
I guess I just want you to know how significant that time together was for me, and how much it changed my life.
We may have called it a fling, but it was pretty important in a lot of ways to me. ”
“Even though I got you pregnant and walked away?” I asked.
“That wasn’t your fault. We both agreed to something very temporary. Getting pregnant wasn’t something that was even in the realm of possibility for me. Wren was my miracle child, and I wouldn’t change what happened for any reason.”
“I’d change the fact that I just walked away,” I said grumpily.
Fuck! That was and probably always would be the biggest regret in my life.
“It wasn’t just you,” she informed me. “I could have said something before you left, and I didn’t. Let it go, Colin. We’re here together now. I think I just got a second miracle in my life, and I’m not about to wallow in regret when I have you with me now. I want to take advantage of every second.”
The last of the ice around my heart started to thaw.
She was right.
Emma and I were given a second chance, and I’d be damned if I was going to take that for granted.
Maybe I didn’t believe in fate, but the chances of Emma and I actually crossing each other’s paths again were beyond astronomical.
“Exactly how do you plan on taking advantage of every second?” I asked as I stared down at her beautiful face.
She pushed her hips up until she was wriggling against my aching cock.
“I think I’d like to take a shower so we can get sweaty together all over again,” she said with a happy sigh.
Emma squealed as I rose from the bed, picked her up, and carried her toward the bathroom.
That sounded like a good idea to me.
From this day forward, I was going to make sure that my woman got everything she wanted and deserved.