Chapter 31
TESSA
I moved the miniature Christmas village from the coffee table to the bookshelf, then back to the coffee table, then to the windowsill. The tiny ceramic houses looked wrong everywhere I placed them, but I couldn't stop rearranging. My hands needed occupation or they'd shake uncontrollably.
The knock at my door came at exactly seven o'clock. And I knew it was him, punctual as always. He'd told me he would stop by, and after that incident at the hospital, I didn't know what to think.
I opened it to find Lucian standing in my narrow hallway, still wearing his charcoal suit from another endless day at the hospital helping Elena recover. The exhaustion etched across his features made my chest tighten, but his pale gray eyes burned with an intensity that stole my breath.
"Hi," I managed, stepping aside to let him enter my cramped apartment.
He crossed the threshold and stopped, taking in the chaos of Christmas decorations scattered across every surface.
Red and gold garland draped the couch. Ornaments covered the dining table.
Three different nativity scenes occupied various corners of the room.
My home was always a Christmas explosion, but I'd gone and purchased more decorations this year to distract myself. I needed that much.
"I've been—" I started to explain the mess, but he moved toward me with such purpose that the words died in my throat.
His hands found my face, fingers threading into my hair as he backed me against the wall beside my front door.
The cool paint pressed through my sweater as his body caged me in, solid and warm and desperately familiar.
"My God, I've missed you," he said, breathing against my face as he pulled away. His forehead pressed against mine, pinning my head to the wall, and I didn't want him to move an inch.
"You came," I whispered.
"I'm so sorry about that scene. I should've come after you, but Elena woke up."
"She what?" I asked, suddenly shocked. "You should be there." It wasn’t right for him to be at my apartment when his daughter was still in critical care.
"They're doing tests and getting her a bath. She told me to go." His lips claimed mine again, and I let him invade my mouth with his tongue, joining him in the frenzied dance.
"I've loved you for months, Tessa," he rushed out. "I knew it that night in my penthouse when you fell asleep in my arms, and I knew it every morning when I watched you walk into my office wearing those pencil skirts that drove me insane."
His confession poured out in a rush, years of restraint finally breaking. "I never said anything because I thought I'd ruin your life. You're twenty-six, brilliant, with your whole future ahead of you. Why would you want an old fool who's already destroyed one family?"
My hands fisted in his suit jacket, pulling him closer. "You're not old, you're not a fool, and you haven't destroyed anything. I love you, Luci."
"How long have you known? Why didn't you tell me?" His hands started to search my body, pulling at my clothing.
"I was terrified to tell you how I felt," I gasped between kisses as his jacket hit the floor. "I thought you'd think I was trying to trap you or use the baby to—"
"Never." His shirt joined the growing pile of discarded clothing. "I've been going out of my mind wanting you, needing you, thinking you'd walk away the moment you got what you came for."
We stumbled toward my bedroom, leaving a trail of fabric behind us. His hands were greedy, taking what he so clearly desperately craved from me. And I let him. I helped him. By the time we collapsed on my bed naked, I felt physical pain in my groin as evidence of how badly I wanted him.
"I should've told you when I knew it," I whispered against his neck. "I should've been brave enough to say I was falling in love with you."
"We were both idiots," he murmured, his hands mapping the curves of my body with renewed worship. He hovered over me as if it were the first time he'd seen me. "Let's not make that mistake again."
Lucian’s mouth dragged down my throat, the stubble along his jaw scraping against my skin in a way that made me shiver. His hands were everywhere—cupping my breasts, skimming down my stomach, gripping my hips as if he couldn’t believe I was real beneath him.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he said hoarsely, kissing the swell of one breast, then the other. “Every day without this, without you, I felt empty.”
“You have me,” I whispered, arching when his lips closed around my nipple. “You’ll always have me.”
His tongue circled and teased until heat pooled low in my belly. I clutched at his hair, urging him lower. He didn’t resist. His kisses trailed over my stomach reverently, until he settled between my thighs.
The first stroke of his tongue against my slick folds sent a cry tearing from my throat.
“Oh, Luci!”
He groaned into me, vibrating through my core. His hands pinned my hips to the bed as he devoured me, savoring every gasp and tremor, then moved faster, hungrier, until I was writhing against his mouth.
“Look at me,” he demanded, lifting his head just enough for our eyes to lock. His lips glistened with me. “I need to see you fall apart.”
I couldn’t deny him. My thighs shook as he sucked my clit into his mouth relentlessly. The pressure built too quickly, and I shattered for him, crying his name as my release ripped through me.
My body lurched off the bed but he didn’t stop. He licked me through it, easing the tremors, then pressed two fingers inside me.
My body clenched around him, still sensitive, but he crooked them just right, hitting a spot that had me gasping.
“You’re so perfect,” he murmured against my skin. “So beautiful when you come for me."
His thumb found my clit while his fingers thrust deep, and I arched helplessly. The intensity continued as his mouth found mine. He kept me there on the edge, teetering between another release and relaxation.
“I love you,” I panted. “God, I love you.”
“Say it again.”
“I love you…” I whispered, aware that he was shifting, moving over me as I spread myself for him.
His hand guided himself to my entrance, and with one long thrust he filled me completely.
The stretch was exquisite, stealing my breath. He stilled, forehead pressed to mine, shaking with restraint.
“God, you feel like heaven,” he whispered. “I’ve dreamed of this.”
“Don’t stop,” I begged, lifting my hips to meet him, chasing the delicious friction.
He braced himself on his elbows on either side of my shoulders while his tongue tangled with mine again. I tasted myself until he pulled back.
“You’re mine,” he said against my mouth. “Do you hear me? Nothing will ever take you from me again.”
“I’m yours,” I vowed, clinging to him. “Always.”
The pace quickened, his thrusts more urgent, the sound of our bodies meeting filling the room.
My earlier release left me trembling and raw, but I reveled in the way he lost himself in me, every motion a declaration of love and possession.
His pace deepened and quickened, every thrust dragging me closer to another breaking point. I held him tighter, my body alive under his, every nerve strung taut.
He angled himself and drove into me with a precision that made me cry out. His hand slipped between us, his thumb pressing down on my clit in steady rhythm with his thrusts. The dual assault built a pressure I couldn’t resist.
“Come for me again,” he said, his voice hoarse. “I want to feel you.”
Heat surged through me until control slipped away.
My climax ripped free, tearing through me in waves so strong I screamed his name.
My nails dug into his back as my body clamped down around him, milking him with each convulsion.
He groaned into my neck, and drove harder to meet the spasms. His rhythm faltered as release claimed him, his body stiffening as he spilled inside me.
He held me close, his final strokes hard and driving until release broke through him.
He spilled inside me with a rough groan, our bodies jerking through the last waves before we sagged against each other, spent and shaking.
The orgasm left me trembling, my chest rising and falling against his. He kissed me hard, keeping the connection as strong as the grip of my body around his.
For a long moment, neither of us moved. His lips brushed my temple, his breath hot in my hair.
“I’ll never let you doubt me again,” he whispered. “You’re my future. You and the baby. Everything.”
I cradled his face, meeting his gray eyes through the haze of passion. “Then let’s never waste another day apart.”
He kissed me tenderly, sealing the promise as our bodies stayed tangled, as if neither of us could bear to separate.
We lay there for a few long minutes until our breathing returned to normal and the chill of the room kissed our skin.
"Dan called to say the board met again today," he said quietly, his voice still rough from exertion.
I tensed against him. "And?"
"They're split down the middle. Half want me gone, half think Viktoria is stirring up trouble for her own agenda." His arm tightened around me protectively.
"Are you worried?" I asked him, turning in his arms to look him in the eye.
"Now that I know you're mine, I will eat worry for breakfast and let it fuel me." Lucian pressed a kiss to my forehead.
"But Viktoria… and your kids?" My position hadn't changed. He should protect his family first and foremost.
"Elena heard everything at the hospital.
Vikki was so hateful. We bickered, and she went to the cafeteria to get Elena some ice cream.
" He paused and pressed another kiss to my forehead.
"I thought when she was out, she couldn't hear us, but she'd been listening the whole time.
" A small smile played at the corners of his mouth.
"She told me I deserved to be happy, even if dating my assistant was 'totally weird and kind of gross'. "
Relief flooded through me so suddenly, I had to blink back tears. "What? She really said that?"
"Word for word. She also said Viktoria needed to get a hobby and stop messing with my life." He chuckled, the sound rumbling through his chest. "My daughter has quite the vocabulary for someone who just woke up from a coma."
"What about Blake?" I asked, voicing the fear that had been gnawing at me. "And what happens if Viktoria doesn't back down?"
Lucian's expression grew serious, but not defeated. "Blake will need time. He's always been more protective of his mother than Elena. But if Viktoria keeps pushing, if the board forces me out, then we'll start over."
"Luci—"
"I mean it, Tess." He shifted to face me fully, his pale eyes fierce with determination. "I have enough saved and invested to start my own firm again. We'll build it together, make you our star analyst, prove to everyone what I've always known about your talent."
The conviction in his voice moved me to tears. Here was a man willing to walk away from an empire he'd built for the chance to build something new with me. It was more than I could ever think to ask for, and certainly more than I deserved.
"Wait," I said, suddenly remembering something I'd planned to give Lucian at some point yet undetermined. But now was the perfect time. I scrambled out of bed, not caring about my nakedness as I hurried to the living room.
"Where are you going?" he called after me, but I didn't even slow down.
I returned with a small, wrapped box, my heart hammering as I climbed back into bed beside him. "I have a gift for you."
He sat up against my headboard, accepting the package with curious eyes. "It's not Christmas yet."
"Close enough."
His fingers worked carefully at the ribbon and paper, revealing the plain white box underneath. When he lifted the lid, his breath caught.
Inside lay a tiny onesie with Daddy's Little Linebacker printed across the chest in bold letters.
Beneath it, a framed sonogram image showed the unmistakable profile of our baby.
"It's a boy," I whispered, watching his face transform as the reality hit him. "Or… It's looking like a boy. I'm fourteen weeks now and it's early, but the nurse said she thinks it's a boy." I beamed with pride while his sex still drained from me, anxiously waiting to see his reaction.
Lucian stared at the sonogram for a long moment, his thumb tracing the outline of our son's tiny form through the glass.
When he finally looked up, tears were streaming down his cheeks.
"Our boy," I whispered before he pulled me down for another kiss. And I had a feeling it was going to be a long night.