Epilogue #2
I smile back. “Margaret, and Graham,” I add, nodding to her father. “Payden agreed to move in with me at my apartment until we can find a house together.” I clear my throat, really fucking bad at public displays of affection as much as I am speeches, like the one in progress. “I love her.”
I feel my brothers’eyes on me. Both of them. It’s obvious I’m crazy about her, but I’m not sure they realized the extent of it. So now they do.
“Oh my godddd!” Nova squeals, clapping her hands together excitedly. “I predicted this! I’m telling you! Right Sawyer?”
Sawyer thumbs to my beaming cousin. “She has a knack for instincts, brother.” He slaps me on the back.
I glance at my girl and she mouths, ‘I love you, too.”
“Well,” Graham, Payden’s dad says, his smile a little stiff. “We just both want Payden to be happy, and we’re more than grateful for what you did for her. You saved her life, in my book that’s more than we could ever ask for.”
“I’ll protect her with my life,” I reiterate. “Over and over again.”
Graham nods, an understanding passing between us. He knows I’ll never let anything happen to his little girl, but she’s my princess now. Mine to protect. Her mom? Well, she might take a little getting used to.
“I know you would,” Graham says. “And we’re both happy to hear that news, congratulations.”
Margaret nods her head, but I’m not convinced. She’ll come around, and if she doesn’t, well, that’s too bad. Nobody is keeping me away from Payden.
“That’s great news!” My mom, however, looks as pleased as punch. Of course, she was ecstatic when we got together and adores Payden. Now all of her boys are settled, she’s happy. Brew and Erica’s new baby will distract her for a while. “Have you picked out a place yet?”
Olive is holding Iris at the table while Erica gets a bite to it.
She looks down at her baby sister adoringly.
I smile to myself. Seeing my brothers both happy is all I’ve ever wanted for them.
I’ve been tough on them over the years, but never like my father.
I’d never lay a hand on them, aside from a slap upside the head when they mouthed off.
Not saying we haven’t had our moments, but we’re there for each other.
“Ma? I only just asked her half an hour ago,” I say, rolling my eyes. “So no, we haven’t picked out a place yet.”
“But we’ll let you know when we do,” Payden pipes up, squeezing my hand.
“I could help house hunting, what with the two of you being so busy with the bar,” Mom goes on.
She’s always happy to help where she can, and I don’t deny her.
She gave us life, everything. Sacrificed her hopes and dreams so we could have a better life.
Of course, she always reminds me that it was because of me standing up to Dad that day she finally got the courage to end it for good. And none of us have looked back.
“We’d love that.” Payden says, nodding enthusiastically.
“Maybe Mom could just pick the house out for you?” Brew smirks, taking the baby from Olive when she starts to cry.
If you’d have told me I’d ever see my brother soothing a baby, I’d have laughed in your face.
But she immediately stops crying as he soothes her while still managing to snark at me at the same time.
“That kid has some lungs on her,” Haze says, ringing out one of his ears.
“Just like her daddy,” Erica laughs.
“Oh, I could tell you some stories,” Mom, ever the storyteller from hell, joins in. “You see all this gray hair here? Because of these two.” She points between Brew and Haze. “Never Logan.”
“Awww, isn’t he just the golden boy,” Haze mimics a girl's voice, then flicks a pea at me.
I glare at him.
Olive points at Haze and says, “Mom, Haze is throwing food.”
“Austin,” Willow chastises, refusing to call him by his biker name at the table. “Behave yourself or you’ll go to the naughty corner.”
He waggles his eyebrows. “Promise?”
“Ew, gross.” Olive screws up her nose.
“Were you a golden boy?” Payden asks in a low voice once the others move onto another topic.
“Never.”
She nudges me. “Not even a little?”
I shrug. “Maybe a little.” I lean down and kiss her chastely. I can’t help it. Everything is just as it should be.
The past is staying in the past. All that shit is behind us now.
Everyone got what was coming to them. Payden deserves some peace.
She’s decided to have a career break, and I’m a hundred percent behind her.
The after effects of the trauma she suffered have been irrevocable, but she gets stronger every single day.
“I think we should have a toast,” Amber says, holding up her glass. “To the new baby, new relationships and awesome apartments that are yet to be found.”
“Here, here!” Bronco chimes and everyone clinks glasses.
“Not so loud,” Brew grumbles. “Just got the baby to sleep.”
“She’ll literally sleep through a hurricane,” Erica laughs. “Let me take her so you can eat.”
Brew shakes his head. “I’m good, you finish up.”
Payden turns to look at me. “That was quite a speech.”
“Gotta get your parents to like me somehow.”
“They do like you.”
I narrow my eyes. “Debatable, but you know the only thing I’m interested in?”
“What’s that?”
“You.” I kiss her again, not caring who sees or what they think.
“Sweetest man ever,” she mutters and I grin against her mouth.
“If only that were true.”
I roll my hips over and over as Payden grips my ass. Oh, she loves it like this. Me on top, my hands pressed into the mattress as I thrust slowly, nice and deep.
She’s so fucking beautiful beneath me. “Oh, don’t stop, please, Logan…”
I don’t have any intention of stopping. I also don’t change the pace when she’s about to come.
She’s already voiced to me how annoying that is, and while I appreciate the honesty, I’d never do that.
I know my way around a woman’s body, and I especially know my way around hers.
Thinking about her with another man, poor in bed or not, makes me wanna hunt down every one she’s ever been with and sink them into the bottom of the bayou. Maybe I will, just for kicks.
“This sweet little pussy is made for me, Angel,” I mutter. “So goddamn tight.”
We’ve been at it for a while. I couldn’t keep my hands off her when we got back from dinner.
We started fooling around in the car, then Dozer had to pee, then we barely got in the door and she was trying to yank my jeans down.
We fucked in the hallway, then on the top of the stairs, until finally we made it to the bed and got naked.
Apparently her hearing me tell the entire room I loved her made her feral for me.
Hey, I’m not complaining. I’ll take anything she has to offer.
“So big,” she groans, arching her back. “So good.”
I love it when she mumbles incoherently. It means I’m doing my job properly.
“Grippin’ me like a vice, baby.” I speed up my thrusts, knowing I’m not gonna last much longer.
“Hustle,” she cries out, but I keep pumping, my hips pistoning as we bang hard.
“Fuck. Feels so good, I’m close, Payd. Take Daddy’s cock like my good little slut.”
My words are enough to make her groan, her hands gliding over my pecs. I love it when she touches me.
“Your slut,” she breathes.
“Don’t forget it.”
“Never.”
I watch as she tips her head back and moans some crazy version of my name as she comes undone. I’m there, too, stilling as I empty everything I have inside of her.
I collapse on her body, completely spent. I kiss her neck as she wraps her arms around me.
“So good,” I mutter.
“No, it’s fucking fantastic.” Her pants are sharp and fast and I grin to myself.
Dozer is asleep in his bed next to me. Luckily, he’s not a light sleeper.
“Glad to be of service.”
She grins, cupping the sides of my face. “So damn handsome.”
“You know it.”
We kiss, long and hard. It’s hard to imagine my life without kissing Payden. I don’t know what I was missing out on all these years, but I’m here now. Ready and willing. More than willing.
The future is ours to take, ours to build on, and that’s exactly the way I want it.
With her.
My Angel.
Forever.
THE END