Epilogue
MIKA
“Story time!” Amos, our five-year-old, exclaims.
“Yeah! Are we going to finish it tonight?” Aiden asks. He just turned nine last month, and he’s an even more ferocious reader than his father.
Shadow is about to answer, but I speak first. “Brush your teeth and then it’s story time,” I remind our boys, the same as every night before bed.
Our kids rush off to the bathroom, and I turn to my husband.
“If it were up to you, they’d never clean up or brush their teeth.
You’d read to them well into the early hours of the morning if you could,” I tease.
Wrapping my arms around Shadow’s neck, I pull him down for a kiss.
“You might be right about the first part, but I definitely want to be next to you in the early hours of the morning,” he whispers into the shell of my ear.
“Oh, yeah? And what would we be doing?”
My husband grips my hips and pulls me into his chest, kissing a line down my neck, pausing to scrape his across my pulse point.
I breathe out a soft moan as my fingers tangle in his hair.
“I’d tease you until you’re trembling for me, your body desperate to be filled.
” My breathing grows erratic as I picture the scene he’s painting.
“When you can’t take it any more, your pussy dripping with need, I’ll slide inside your tight heat and fuck you nice and hard. ”
I gasp at his filthy words, even though they shouldn’t still surprise me. “Promise?”
“Hell yes,” he grunts, taking my lips in a passionate kiss.
“We’re done!” Amos announces from the hallway.
“Yeah, where are you guys?” Aiden demands.
Shadow and I break apart, smiling at each other in anticipation of the evening’s activities after the kids are asleep.
The four of us get settled on the couch in front of the fireplace, like we do most nights before the boys go to bed.
Amos crawls up in his father’s lap, nestling his little head against Shadow’s chest. I sit next to my husband, beaming over at him as he grabs one of my favorite books, The Secret Garden.
Aiden curls up on the other side of me, his head resting on my lap while I comb my fingers through his hair in a calming gesture.
Shadow clears his throat and begins right where we left off last night.
Both boys are asleep by the end of the chapter, but we stay on the couch for a little bit longer.
Shadow sets the book down and wraps his arms around my shoulders, leaning over to kiss my forehead.
We watch the flames dance in the fireplace, the shadows flickering across our kids’ precious sleeping faces.
How did I get so lucky to have a family of my own?
Shadow is the most attentive, loving father, and he treats me like the goddess he always says I am.
Our house has expanded to accommodate the growing family, and we both have a few gray hairs from the last several years of raising two boys.
But our love has remained the same. In fact, it’s stronger every single day.
Shadow has kept his promise to me from all those years ago. I’ll wipe away every painful memory and replace it with something good, something beautiful, something you can trust and build upon.
Moments like this, surrounded by my boys and the love of my life, bring everything into perspective. We had to endure hardship growing up, and we fought hard for our love in the beginning, but it was all worth it in the end.
THE END