Epilogue
Oleg
I watched my heavily pregnant wife walk into her office. Her hand on her belly, she froze and breathed in. I felt everything inside of me go cold. Still. It wasn’t until she exhaled and walked to her chair and sit down that I was able to breathe again.
I hadn’t stopped watching her, and she didn’t mind. She simply opened her laptop, and the moment it came alive, she smiled right at the camera, right at me, and said she was okay. Braxton hicks. Braxton hicks, what fucking stupid name for just one more thing women endured. Watching Coral bloom and grow with our child had left me in awe. The things a woman’s body was created to do were extraordinary. The pain they went through, something I wished I could take from her. From morning sickness to heartburn to my babochka’s feet swelling, I wanted to take it all from her. Carry the burden, the pain for her to give her some kind of comfort of relief, but I couldn’t.
I was man enough to admit I was more than a little apprehensive about the delivery. I was freaked the hell out. If watching her throw up or not be able to sleep twisted me into knots, the delivery would kill me. The idea of seeing her in pain and only being able to hold her hand about put me into a panic.
She winced at the computer, and something happened. Something flashed through her eyes. My wife’s face paled, and she groaned. Loud.
“Oleg,” she whispered, looking around her office before her eyes caught the camera on her laptop. “I really hope you’re watching because this would be a bad time not to have your attention. I think she’s on her way.” She pushed her chair back and winced, her hand on her stomach. ”Oh!” she cried out, curling in over her belly.
I didn’t think. I grabbed my car keys, and the next seven minutes were a blur. I couldn’t tell you if I ran stop lights or hit curbs to get from our cabin out to her office in the main part of town.
“I was just about to call you!” one of the paralegals called out, but I didn’t stop to acknowledge her. I rushed to her office, where one of her coworkers was fanning her and the other was giving her water.
“Oh, thank god!” Kayla, the receptionist, said. “We were trying to call you.” I patted my pants and shirt but quickly realized that by rushing to the car, I’d left my phone.
“I got her,” I vowed and helped my wife up.
Without hesitating, I picked her up much like I did four months ago the night we walked into our place after our wedding and carried her out then rushed to the hospital. My heart felt like it was trying to compete with the speed of a hummingbird’s as it rattled in my chest. I stole glances at my wife, who was oddly quiet.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said to both of us, and she nodded.
“It’s too early,” she whispered. The fear in her voice clung to the air in the car. I shook my head.
“She’s good. We’re at thirty-six weeks,” I reminded her, feeling like a fraud by saying we . We hadn’t done anything. She had done it all. “It’s going to be okay,” I repeated, and I would tell her a million times more if that’s what she needed.
“We don’t have the bag,” she groaned as a wave of pain washed through her. “Or her car seat. We should have put the car seats in the cars,” she strained through her contraction.
“It’s going to be okay. I’ll go get the bag later.” Her eyes shot me a look that, if possible, could have killed me right then and there. “Or one of your sisters can,” I quickly corrected.
“Oleg…” she said my name when we parked, and I looked and smiled at her.
“It’s going to be okay, babochka,” I promised, seriously ready to burn the world down if I needed to just to make everything right for her.
Much like I had when it came to her ex. Jack had graciously moved away from Moonlit Pines one day out of the blue. He sold his dentistry to some other doctor about a month after we were engaged, and no one ever heard from him again. And they wouldn’t. I’d not only made sure of it but had kept my word to her dad.
“We got this, beautiful. I promise.” I nodded, and she blinked through the stubborn tears she kept at bay before I put the car in Park in front of the hospital entrance and got out.
The rest of the day was a blur of movement and waiting until about twelve hours later, our beautiful little Crystal, the gem of our eye, came into the world loudly. I’d never seen anything more beautiful than that little girl until I turned to look at my wife. Sweaty and flushed, exhausted from having to push and push until our daughter made her grand entrance, Coral was never more beautiful to me.
She was my everything. I was more than prepared to spend the rest of my days working myself to the bone to be the kind of man who deserved her.
My Wild Mountain Man is coming July 23rd!
Sebeastian ‘Bash’ Ledesma
Amazon
I walked into the backroom and rested my head against the wall.
“Fuck,” I growled, the sound of my voice deep as my eyes shut tightly. I tried to ignore the way my dick throbbed. The fucker had its own pulse behind my thick denim jeans, but I would be damned if he won.
Not today.
Not now.
I had all but thought the fucker had stopped working when I returned to Moonlit Pines after my time in the Marines. With my head screwed up, I had resigned myself to a life of bachelorhood. I didn’t mind. What kind of woman would want me anyways? Not only did my dick not work, I had a love for the extreme. An adrenaline junkie through and through.
For some fun here and there, I’d probably be okay for some. It wasn’t like my hands and mouth didn’t work. But for the long term? I wasn’t that man.
No. I didn’t need love and all the messy complications it brought.
My life was full enough. I might have had to leave the Marines earlier than I wanted after getting injured, but I was alive. I had good friends and opened a brewery with two of the best friends a guy could have.
I was fine.
Content.
I had enough to make me happy.
Brewing beer, running a spot in the town where I grew up where others came to have a good time, that was good enough.
I didn’t need hearts and flowers and a woman. Hell no. I’d had front row tickets to my parents’ tumultuous marriage and the disaster it had turned into before they cut their losses and split up. I didn’t want that. I didn’t need the headache or inconvenience. I’d been fine with what my life was going to be like. I was thirty and could see it all clearly.
But what’s the saying? Tell God your plans and he’ll laugh? Well, fuck, he must have had a good ole time at my expense when little Raven Trejo walked into my life six months ago and knocked me on my ass.
I’d met her a couple of times in the past when I came back from college and stayed with the Trejos on college summer breaks here and there. But she had been nothing but a kid back then. All I remembered was big glasses with braces and frizzy hair. The little squirt would sit at the end of the driveway when Austin, Onyx, and I would play basketball, her nose stuck in one book or another.
But when I came back, she’d been off to school, some beauty college in San Francisco. Onyx would tell me things here and there about her. Maybe because she was the youngest, he kept a close eye on her, worried about her being so far from home. Austin and he had even gone out to the Bay Area for her birthday, but I had chosen to stay behind.
Six months ago, I saw her again for the first time. I had been covered in saw dust, shirtless and sweaty, in the middle of the renovation for the brewery. She’d walked in, and when our eyes connected, it had felt like I had been sucker-punched. I’d climbed off the ladder slowly, wondering if I was imagining things. No one but the construction crew was allowed inside the building, yet there was this little fairy-like creature sauntering over to me with a knowing smile. And she didn’t stop until she was right in front of me. With the way the light filtered through, I remember thinking her eyes were the prettiest brown I had ever seen. Dark with swirls of caramel.
I hadn’t recognized her.
Who could have blamed me? She was about twelve the last time I’d seen her. The dark-haired beauty in front of me was all woman with soft curves and silky-smooth hair that made my hands ache to touch.
And just like that, my cock started to come alive for the first time in a year.
Everything around me stopped. The sounds of the construction crew faded away to nothing. The only hammering I heard was that of my heart beating against my ribcage trying to pounce out and land right in her delicate hands.
I felt like I had been struck by lightning.
Even more when she excitedly said, “Hi!” Her voice was sweeter than anything I’d ever heard in my life. She wrapped her little curvy body around mine with a big hug. A hug I returned as my head dipped down and I breathed in her scent. But before I could make out the notes, I pulled away. Her smile was so bright and beautiful as she stared at me, her hands still touching my bare skin, I wondered if I’d died. Was the angel in my arms the one who would walk me through the pearly gates of heaven?
But it wasn’t to be so.
I was about to ask who she was when Onyx walked in with a scowl on his face, yelling at Raven to leave me alone and stop bugging.
Raven. My best friend’s baby sister.
The door to the storage room opened, and Austin stood there, looking at me. “You okay, Bash?”
“Fine,” I gritted through my teeth.
“Yeah?” With his assessing gaze on mine, I knew he didn’t miss shit, but he had yet to call me out on anything. “That why you’re hiding back here?” he asked, knowingly pressing my buttons.
“Yup,” I clipped, pushing off the wall.
“Man,” he sighed, stopping me from exiting and hiding in the small office we shared. “You gotta get a hold of this.”
“Hold of what?” I dared him to call me out on it. To tell me to stop crushing on our friend’s little sister like some kind of perv. Jesus, our age difference alone was enough reason not to go there. To keep my hands to myself. Not to mention the fact she was my best friend’s little sister.
“You really think I don’t see what’s going on?”
“I don’t know what?—“
“That’s Onyx’ little sister, man.”
“Which one?” I pretended to act stupid, but by the way Austin stared back at me, I wasn’t fooling anyone. I sighed and swallowed. My Adam’s apple bobbed heavily as everything I felt for her stuck to me, clung tightly.
I tried to avoid her after that day, and it had hurt her feelings.
She had even skipped the New Year’s party we had thrown, claiming she was sick, but I had seen her that morning in the woods, in the spot where she liked to go sit and read. She had been fine. She had skipped it because she had come by to drop off something for her brother. Raven was gorgeous, but subtle wasn’t one of her strong suits.
I saw the way she watched me.
Looked at me with interest in her eyes. Like I could be one of the men in the books she liked to read. So, I’d stupidly flirted with the photographer right in front of her. It was bad enough how much I wanted my tempting little morsel. Knowing she wanted me back, I’d reacted stupidly. Afraid that she would make some kind of move, one I’d known I wouldn’t be able to resist. I’d needed to do something, and I had.
But it had backfired on me.
Now she hardly looked at me when she came in and made me feel like hell. I missed the way she would seek me out to talk here and there about shit she knew I liked.
I missed her.
“Earth to Bash!” Austin clipped. “Get your shit together and come back when that”—he pointed down at my crotch—“isn’t waving hello like a goddamn Walmart greeter.”
“Fuck you,” I clipped, shaking my head.
“Look, man.” He ran his fingers through his light hair. “I don’t want to come off like a dick?—“
“Then maybe you shouldn’t say whatever has you looking like that.”
“We’re all partners here.” He wasn’t going to take my advice, and I was stuck having to hear his. “If you go there and mess around with his sister? That could mess it up if it ends badly. You get what I’m saying?”
“Yeah, man,” I rasped, clearing my throat. “You don’t shit where you eat,” I clarified, and he nodded. It wasn’t something I hadn’t thought about.
“Yeah… exactly. Look, I’m glad the little general is up and working again, but don’t go there. Not unless you know it’s for real.” That took me by surprise.
“Unless I know it’s…” I chuckled and shook my head. “That shocks the shit out of me coming from you and spending how many years listening to you spew all that cursed in love shit.”
“I’m a Hart,” he reminded me, and I rolled my eyes.
“Curses aren’t real, Austin.”
“I don’t know, man… You’ve seen the men in my family. All of them cursed as fuck.” I rolled my eyes because no matter how much I tried to tell him that shit didn’t exist, he wasn’t going to listen to me.
“Just get your shit together, man. Okay? Keep your hands off little sisters.” He pointed at me, and I made a face.
“Man,” I groaned. “Don’t make it sound like that!” I grimaced, and the asshole laughed.
“I’m just saying?—“
“Say less. Just give me a minute, I’ll be right out there.”
“How about Wednesday, we go a couple towns over to Serendipity and find us some women we can have some fun with now that the general is up and saluting again? Which again, congrats.” He grinned.
“Austin.”
“What’s that saying Oli and Onyx are always yapping? The best way to get over someone is to get on top of someone else?” The guy was insufferable. Just the thought of touching someone else made my gut tighten and left a sour taste in my mouth.
I shook my head yet still agreed. “Sure.”
Not that my general, like Austin had called my dick, would wake up for anyone but Raven. Thankfully, that seemed to placate Austin enough for him to salute me and walk out. Left alone in the dark storage room, I shut my eyes, but that didn’t help. Not when all I could see behind my eyelids was Raven Trejo and her smooth tan skin with that honey-eyed gaze staring right back at me, with so much hope and feelings I felt it right through me like the best kind of whiskey. I shook my head and ran my fingers through my hair.
What the fuck am I going to do about my best friend’s little sister?