Our Forbidden Love

Prologue

“Daddy,how did you and Momma fall in love?” Two pairs of identical, blue eyes peered up at me, wispy locks of blonde hair framing their rosy cheeks.

This was the question I had hoped my girls would never ask me.

I heard Summer’s soft giggle from the doorway of the twins’ bedroom, and I turned my head to look at my wife.

Big, blue eyes framed by a pair of thick, turtle shell glasses gazed affectionately between me and our girls. Her blonde hair was piled on top of her head in a big, messy bun, a smudge of pink icing on her cheek.

“Tell them, Colt. I do love this story.” Her laughter filled the air, causing our two girls to burst into a fit of giggles.

I opened my arm for her, and she stepped into my embrace, sinking onto the mattress beside me. Our daughters peered at us, identical, curious gazes on us.

“Oh, Daddy, please!” they begged in unison, bouncing on the bed.

“Alright, I’ll tell you, but on one condition.” Freezing, their eyes went big, rounded with innocent curiosity.

“What?” they asked.

“I get the first piece of cake tomorrow.” They shook their heads profusely, their hair swishing back and forth. Summer laughed again, her hand going for mine, tightening her grip, her thumb tracing one of my scars on instinct.

“No, Daddy! No!”

“It’s our birthday cake – not yours!”

“Silly, Daddy. You should know better.” Summer looked at me, her eyes bright, happiness oozing off her expression.

“You got some icing right here.” Swiping it off her cheek, I licked my finger, causing her cheeks to flush the prettiest shade of pink.

“Colt,” she whispered my name like I did a bad thing, but I couldn’t help myself. I just grinned at her.

“Alright, girls. Storytime.” After tucking the twins back into the bed, they watched me with big, excited eyes.

“Start at the beginning, Daddy,” Lacey whispered, pulling the covers up to her chin.

“The very beginning, Daddy – the moment you saw Mommy,” Harper mimicked her twin, cuddling closer to Lacey, no space left between the two.

“The very beginning, you say? Hmm . . . that sure was a long time ago.”

“Daddy!” they squealed.

“I had just started working for Grandpa when I met your momma. She rolled into the parking lot in her fancy car and stormed into the showroom of her daddy’s dealership. She didn’t even say hello to me as I cleaned a car.”

“That is not true,” Summer huffed, rolling her eyes.

I turned my head to face her, flashing her a grin. “Who is telling this story – me or you?”

“You,” she sighed, leaning into my chest, her eyes on the girls. “But I wasn’t that rude – your daddy is exaggerating.” The girls nodded, their gazes switching between us.

“As I was saying,” the girls all giggled at my long, drawn-out sigh, “your momma was acting like a bratty, spoiled princess, and I was the peasant who didn’t deserve her attention.” Our identical, twin daughters gasped together, and their blonde brows furrowed in concern.

“Oh, no, she didn’t!” Lacey looked at her mother in shock. “Did you really, Momma? You thought our daddy was a peasant?”

Summer shook her head and scowled at me. I ducked my head just as she went to smack me, a playful grin beginning to tug at those gorgeous lips I had kissed so many times and still dreamed of.

I was one lucky son of a gun.

I heard movement behind me, and I quickly craned my neck. My eyes swept the room until they landed on my oldest daughter. Heather hovered by the door frame, her arms wrapped around her chest. She was biting at her bottom lip, and she looked extremely unsure of herself.

“Come sit with us, squirt.” She took a few timid steps into the room and then sat on the pink rug near the edge of the twins’ bed. Summer’s attention immediately shifted to her, concern settling across her face.

“What’s wrong, baby?” Heather shook her head, her black hair swishing back and forth in her ponytail, her glasses sliding down her nose. Wrapping her arms around her knees, she settled her head on top of them and watched us with big, blue eyes.

“I wanted to hear Dad’s story.”

Summer turned back to look at me, a deep sadness filling her beautiful, blue eyes. Her hand squeezed mine, and I swallowed thickly.

“Did you always love Momma?” Harper asked, drawing our attention back to the twins. They clasped each other’s hands in pure excitement.

Laughter bubbled up from my chest, and I braced myself for the slap that I knew is coming. “Of course not!”

Summer’s hand connected with my head seconds later, and the girls all laughed, even Heather.

“Of course, he loved me at first sight, darling. He didn’t have a choice.”

“How about I finish the story?” I asked her. Summer raised a brow.

“You mean your version of it?”

I was in so much trouble.

Of course, I wasn’t going to tell them the real version. My girls didn’t need to know that their special daddy used to be a pig and that their mother knew how to play dirty.

No. They certainly didn’t need to know that.

“As I was saying, since your momma decided to ignore my existence, I decided to chase her inside the shop. I demanded her attention, and boy was she surprised to have one of Grandaddy’s workers demanding anything of her.”

Lacey sucked in a gasp. “What happened next?”

“I stuck out my hand – like this.” I leaned away from Summer and stuck out my hand, waiting for her to shake it as I had all those years ago. She grinned and looked at my hand funny, the exact same way she had fifteen years ago.

“And then, I looked at him and rolled my eyes before rushing off to find my daddy.”

“You blew him off!” Harper laughed, falling back on her pillows in a fit of giggles. “Oh, that’s awesome!”

“You bet, baby girl. I didn’t talk to the workers, and I wasn’t about to start for your daddy.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off my wife. She had given me a run for my money. She had fought our connection every step of the way. But despite pushing me away at every given chance, we had only fallen more in love.

There was nothing that could keep us apart – not our age gap, not her boyfriend at the time, not my fiancée, and not her daddy’s rules that employees couldn’t date each other.

When I saw her for the first time, I just knew she had to be mine.

I knew she was made for me to love.

And so, she became my forbidden love.