Epilogue
ONE YEAR LATER
“... a nd here is your son,” the nurse said to me as she handed him to me.
I quickly held him against my chest as I stared down at the most perfect little face. Granted, he was less than an hour old, but I’d already felt as if I could see some of myself in him. It was quite surreal because a year and a half ago, a child was the last thing I had wanted. Marriage, too.
As I looked over at Ekaterina, I now couldn’t imagine wanting anything less.
My grandfather had forced my hand, but in doing so, he made me grab everything I never knew I wanted.
Thankfully, I had matured over these last sixteen or so months, and I could finally appreciate my wife, and now son, as the blessings they truly were.
I turned my attention back to my son. He already had a head full of hair, but unlike his mother’s dark mane, his was as light as spun gold. Blond males ran in our families, and the newest Brannington was poised to carry on that tradition.
“You look like a natural already, Daddy,” my wife said to me, and I grinned.
“He’s absolutely perfect,” I said to her before moving closer to her bed.
She’d had a long labor, which culminated in Dr. Kane performing an emergency cesarean on her.
With the lack of progress, as they called it, and her worsening blood pressure, the decision had been made, and she’d been put under general anesthesia.
I was truly glad to see her awake, and knowing she’d not yet had a chance to hold her son, I took a seat in the chair beside her bed.
“Allow me,” I said to her when she reached out for him. I could see her grimace, and I suspected she was still in a great deal of pain. “I’ll help. You just need to take it easy.”
“Okay, okay,” she said to me, then smiled wide as I set our son in her arms.
As if he already knew her, I watched his tiny hands ball up into small fists as he snuggled against her chest. I imagined she would want to feed him soon, but for now, mother and baby were content to just be together.
And I was content as well. The flurry of activity as they’d readied her for delivery had scared me more than I would ever admit, but everything turned out for the best. Our son was here, and neither mom nor child were in distress any longer.
With both of them doing well, I felt the huge weight as it was lifted off my shoulders.
“I imagined this moment so many times,” she murmured to me.
“I have, too. I thought labor and stuff would go by much easier, but you’ve always been difficult on your best days, so of course our son would inherit that attribute from you, too.”
She smiled. “We have to be difficult to put up with you.”
I gave a shrug, but never stopped smiling at her. “So, have you given thought to a name yet?”
I knew we had discussed several of them, but the medical staff had already asked once while she’d still been out, and I hadn’t known what to say.
There were so many things in our lives that I took control over, but this was something I’d wanted us to do together.
I once thought I would get rid of her once my son was born, but that had been before I’d known the truth.
..Before I had broken a foolish vow...Before I had fallen so completely in love with her.
“I have some ideas,” she said to me, and I arched my brow as I waited for her response.
When she didn’t say anything, I cleared my throat. “So, who is he going to be?”
“A Brannington, first and foremost,” she said before adding. “I’m thinking Kieran James Brannington. Do you like that one?”
“I do,” I said as I brushed my hand over her cheek, then did the same to Kieran as he slept.
“I love you,” Ekaterina said to me.
“Is tú mo ghrá!”
A yawn escaped her, and I knew she needed her rest. I suspected the nurse knew it too because she came to retrieve our son and return him to the nursery.
Ekaterina went to sleep right after, but I lingered around for a short while before sending out the announcement of my son’s birth to my grandfather and cousin.
Not long after, I received a series of congratulatory text messages from others within the organization.
It had been a long time since the birth of the last Brannington, and if I had my way, I intended to have as many kids as my wife wanted to provide to me.
Daughters...Sons...It didn’t matter as long as all were healthy.
I did have some work to handle while here at the hospital, so I slipped out of the room and soon made it downstairs to my car inside the parking garage.
After returning a few calls, I sat there for several minutes as the adrenaline from the earlier excitement began to wear off, and reality hit me.
I not only needed to protect my wife, but I had child who would look to me for guidance, protection, and most of all, love.
The latter was something I knew my grandfather felt.
It just would’ve been nice had he shown it more.
Eventually, I yawned and decided to go back inside.
With any luck, the next time I left this place, it would be with my wife and son in tow.
Once I reentered the hospital, I made my way back to the maternity wing, and soon joined my still sleeping wife.
“Rest up, Sleeping Beauty,” I said to her before placing a soft kiss on her cheek.
T hree days after his birth, Ekaterina and Kieran had gotten the ‘all clear’ and I’d taken them home.
It was only when we’d gotten there that I was glad to have had the foresight to upgrade our existing one-bedroom loft to a two-bedroom one.
It had enabled our son to have his own room, although just as I’d suspected, I’d been made to share ours with him for some time.
He was now ten weeks old; however, it felt like we’d had him for so much longer.
Or maybe that had just been every day spent without touching my wife was longer than the one before it.
Tonight, that would all change, and I could hardly wait.
Just thinking about being balls deep inside of Ekaterina again had me hard all day long.
Now, all I had to do was wait for Kieran to go down.
Once he did, I could replace his crying with something else, although she would have to keep her voice down or else risk waking him up.
Worried that I would inadvertently do that myself, I’d showered as quickly as I could, and now I was lying in bed awaiting my wife.
A half hour later, she finally stepped through the door, and not a minute too soon. She smiled when she entered, then saw my state of nakedness as I lay across the bed, and I watched her eyes widen. Her nipples followed by peaking through her tight tank top.
“You waste no time,” she said in an amused tone.
“With a newborn, we need to take advantage of every second we can.”
“Let me freshen up, then I’ll join you.”
I growled, but motioned toward the bathroom.
She quickly disappeared inside of it, and I heard the sound of the shower right after.
I had half a mind to join her. It had been a while since I last pinned her against the tile to eat her pussy or fuck it hard.
As the water grew louder, so did the rapid beating of my heart in my ears.
I fisted my cock, then closed my eyes as I pictured all the things I planned to do to her.
This would be her first time since having Kieran, and I didn’t want to hurt her.
Usually, during sex, she’d beg for the pain only I could deliver to her, but this was different. Our entire lives were now different.
The water was turned off, and I started to stroke myself while keeping my eyes closed.
The imagined sight of her dripping wet with rivulets of water sliding down her lithe frame made me groan out loud as I pumped my cock.
If she didn’t either join me soon, or I didn’t stop touching myself, I’d bust all over my damn hand.
Thankfully, Ekaterina emerged a minute or two later. ”Started without me, eh?”
“What can I say? The very thought of you makes me hard as fuck.”
“Mmmm, I like you being hard,” she said to me as she crawled onto the bed. My eyes opened up as I watched her climb up my body, then stop midway. “I can take over from here.”
I released my hand from my cock, then groaned out loud as her soft one covered it. She always liked to toy with me, and every flick of her fingers on the metal piercings made me want to flip her underneath me to fuck her to a screaming orgasm.
Soon, she brought her mouth to the tip, and I could feel my precum leaking from the head as she closed her lips around it. Her tongue...Her teeth...The general warmth of her mouth did things to me. And as she continued to stroke me as she licked the tip made me clutch the bedsheets for once.
If you keep this up, I’m going to bust in your fucking hand.
As if she sensed that, Ekaterina finally moved her hand lower to my balls, then took my cock to her throat. “Fuck, puisín!”
She had always known how to suck me off, and she wasted no further time doing so. It wasn’t long before my restraint broke and I came.
“Fuck! Swallow it all.”
She licked every drop of my cum from both my cock and my balls before moving farther up my body.
When she was face to face with me, I quickly flipped her underneath me.
I wanted to tongue every inch of her, and I ordinarily would’ve any other time, but it had been far too long for us, and we were on borrowed time.
Spreading her legs wide, I found and kept her gaze as I swiftly thrust into her. This time, she was the one to grab the bedsheets as her own mouth opened in a silent cry. She was so goddamn beautiful... “And you’re all mine,” I said to her before I started to move.
“I’ve always been yours,” she whispered back before her mouth fully opened into an ‘O.’
“And you always fucking will be. I’d made the promise once in Ireland, then in your homeland, and I make it once more here in the home we share. I love you, puisín. You. Will. Always. Be. Mine. Now. Take. This. Fucking. Dick. And. Come. For?—”
“Kingston,” she cried out as she clamped down on me. “Come with me,” she pleaded.
“With you...In you...Because of you...It’s nothing you ever have to ask for. Anything you need or want, it’s yours.”
And as we came together, I realized what had once been nothing more than a merciless promise was now a solemn vow. Loving, protecting, and cherishing her was a promise I could make, and one I would keep for all of my days.
“I love you,” she finally said as I slowly pulled out.
“And I love you,” I said before looking down at our combined fluids as they dripped from her.
Gathering up as much as I could with my fingers, I pushed it back inside of her.
“Kieran will need a sibling,” I said, and she smiled drowsily at me.
There was plenty of time for that later, and after I rolled over onto my back at her side, she turned and snuggled against me.
All was right in my world. And with her by my side, it always would be.