Epilogue 3 months later
IRINA
“Your belly is so big!”
I mock-scowled at the six-year-old who was patting my baby bump like it was a pet. “Thanks, Polly! I wouldn’t have realised I accidentally swallowed a bowling ball if you hadn’t said anything.”
Polly giggled. “It’s not a bowling ball! It’s a baby!”
“Oh! My bad. Now, you need to practice your big strong arms, so give me the kickboard. Remember, rocket arms to start, and then use those hands to scoop the water.” I demonstrated freestyle arms for her then stood to the side as she launched herself off the edge.
She was a little firecracker, Polly, and sometimes I wondered if her parents were paying for an hour-long private lesson just so they could have a coffee in peace.
Thankfully, she was easy to redirect, and by the end of our lesson, she was so exhausted even the nattering had faded away, and I handed her back to her tired parents feeling like I’d really accomplished something.
“Ri!” Martin, my new boss, called out as I left the staff changeroom. “Remind me again. You can’t pick up any shifts tomorrow, can you?”
I shook my head. “Nope, I’ll be living it up in San Francisco by this time tomorrow, getting all dolled up to be arm candy for my brainiac husband as he wipes the floor at the Appies.”
Martin looked confused—not unusual for him—but nodded anyway. “So … when are you back again?”
I stifled a sigh. “In a week. I’ve put it all into the roster, and my shifts have already been covered.” I patted him on the shoulder. “I’ll see you next week, okay?”
He smiled. “Have fun in San Diego!”
I didn’t bother to correct him as I headed to the carpark, where Stefan was waiting in his brand-new black SUV with the darkest window tint known to man.
“Thank fuck for private jets. Imaging flying commercial at six months pregnant!” I whined, stretching the seatbelt over my belly. Stefan let out a chuckle, heading into the traffic towards the airport, where Henry was waiting for me.
“Pretty sure you’d cope in commercial first class,” he mocked gently.
I rolled my eyes at my own behaviour. “I sounded like such a princess just now, didn’t I?”
“You’re the princess carrying my nephew. And we want the best for him, don’t we?”
“Or niece,” I reminded him with an elbow jab. “I’m still sure it’s a girl.”
“You could just let your midwife tell you and put us all out of our misery.”
“No way! All that gender reveal crap is so cringe! I like not knowing for sure. Even though I’m ninety-nine percent sure, anyway.” I adjusted the seatbelt so it wasn’t pressing right on the bladder that Tiny Human had a fetish for kicking. “How are things with TCS?”
To the shock of all of us—himself more than anyone else—Lucian had almost immediately formed a bromance with Stefan, and they’d gone into business together.
Two Cousins Security, TCS for short, was not only responsible for Tickle HQ and the personal security of Henry and me, but they were branching out into contract security for celebrities and other high-profile personalities when they visited Australia.
Stefan shrugged. “We just onboarded another three staff yesterday. And word on the street is that Lilah Jay wants local security for the Australian leg of her world tour. Lucian’s already sent off an expression of interest.”
I raised a brow. “Lilah Jay, huh? Didn’t you have a secret stash of her albums under your bed when you were fifteen?”
Stefan grunted, refusing to meet my eyes.
I giggled. “You’ve been spending too much time with Lucian; you’re starting to sound like him.”
“Well, I’m starting to understand why he finds you so insanely annoying.”
“He loves me, deep down.”
Stefan snorted. “Must be very deep. And it’s only because Henry loves you.”
I winked. “No, it’s because I’m the only one who will stand up to him when he’s being a dick. Well … and Liv, I guess.”
Lucian had moved off the yacht last month and into an apartment with Liv. And I was the only one who knew that he’d been shopping for rings. Because he reluctantly asked for my help to pick something out for her.
Was he rushing into a commitment? Maybe. But I was hardly one to talk. I’d married a man I barely knew, and we’d have our first child around our first wedding anniversary.
And I couldn’t have been happier.
“Catnip, you don’t need to—oh, fuck.” Henry braced himself against the wall, his free hand tangling in my hair, still damp from my shower.
He stroked fingers through it as I hollowed my cheeks, taking him into my throat.
I moaned around his cock, fingers digging into his butt to hold him right where I wanted him.
“Catnip, I was joking when I … oh God, your mouth is so hot… when I said we should join the mile-high club.”
I glanced up at him, all flushed, his glasses slightly crooked, and felt such a rush of love for him that I had to release his cock to grin up at him. He wasted no time, tugging me to my feet and carrying me through the cabin to deposit me gently on the bed.
“Touch yourself for me,” he begged as he kicked his trousers off and reached for the neck of his T-shirt. “Show me how wet you are for me.”
“So wet,” I panted, dipping my fingers between my legs, flicking my piercing before pressing one finger inside my slick entrance. And then he was there, tugging my hand away, closing his lips around my finger. My pussy clenched emptily when he groaned as he sucked my arousal off it.
“My favourite meal,” he rasped, hands covering my bump possessively as his mouth dipped to my pussy. And he feasted, pressing his tongue into me, then sliding up to my swollen clit, expertly driving me up and up and—
“Hubby!”
My body exploded in violent, blissful spasms. But Henry gave me no reprieve. He held my legs wider and continued to lick and suck at my clit, and I was climbing again. I clawed at the coverlet, my bottom lip clamped between my teeth as my body crested a second time.
Once I was limp and loose, he crawled up onto the bed, lying on his side and tucking me up against his body, his cock pulsing hotly against my back.
“Your turn now,” I breathed, arching back invitingly. With a groan he adjusted himself and slipped inside me.
“I will never, ever, get sick of the feel of you, tight and hot and slick around me,” he rumbled against my shoulder, pressing hot kisses into the juncture of my neck. He started a slow, perfect slide in and out, his hands caressing my bump reverently.
“And I will never ever not want you like this. Slow and lazy … or hard and dirty, or any way, really. As long as it’s you.”
“It will always be me … always be us, Catnip.”
He buried his face in my shoulder, his teeth grazing me there as his pace picked up, his thrusts more erratic, and I gripped his hands, moving them to my breasts. One pinch of my nipples between his fingers, and I was falling apart on him, and he followed, one breath behind me.
If anyone had told me when I was a little girl, locked away in a palace full of fears and secrets, that this would be what I would get for escaping that place, I would have told them they had a vivid imagination.
But here, right now, with my husband nestled against my body, arms wrapped protectively around me, pressing gentle kisses on my sweat-slicked skin. With our tiny human wriggling inside me, I knew it, deep in my bones.
This was my happily ever after.