Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 16561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 83(@200wpm)___ 66(@250wpm)___ 55(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 16561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 83(@200wpm)___ 66(@250wpm)___ 55(@300wpm)
“Are-are you sure?” she mumbles.
“Yes, I’m more than sure. You know why my girlfriend dumped me yesterday? Because I wanted kids and she didn’t. After everything that happened today… I’ve never had a better sign of who I should be with,” I whisper the next words against her lips, “you and that baby are it for me.” I kiss her just like I should have years ago.
“How… how do we save my mom? How do we go against my father?”
“Your father is nothing compared to mine.” I smile, knowing damn well that I’ll make certain that her father never has a chance to hurt her or her mother again.
“We’ll call him first thing in the morning, and we’ll get everything figured out. Don’t worry. Right now, you need to get some rest. Are you okay staying here, or do you want to go home?”
“Home? I don’t have a home anymore.”
“I meant your new home, silly.” I gently kiss her on the forehead. “My home, which is now your home as well.”
“You want me to move in with you?”
“Did you not hear anything I said? You’re mine. The baby you’re carrying is mine. Why would you live anywhere else besides with me?”
She curls herself deeper into my chest, burying her face in the crook of my neck.
“I think I’m in love with you,” she murmurs against my skin.
“Good because I know I’m in love with you.”
Epilogue
Daisy
Six Weeks Later
“Are you sure this is what you want?” I ask Carter for the hundredth time.
“I wouldn’t have asked you if it wasn’t.”
I look down at the giant engagement ring on my finger. “Are we not being crazy for doing this so fast?”
“Fast? It took me years to build up to this. I am one-thousand percent sure. I want you. I’ve wanted you for a long time, and I am going to want you and that baby inside of you for the rest of my life. Marrying you is just the start of that journey. I want you and our baby to carry my name, so everybody knows who you belong to.”
Crawling across the couch, I climb onto his lap. Straddling him with my legs, I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him close.
“I love you so much, and I can never repay you for what you did for me. My dad is in jail, I’m free, my mother is finally recovering.” Thinking of my mom still breaks my heart. It turns out I was right, he did drug her as well. He’d been adding it to her coffee every morning for the last twenty years.
My whole life, I thought my mother was ill, but it was the drugs my father gave her that made her that way. She is better now, but because he gave it to her over such a long period of time, she will never be the same again. I was luckier in that respect. The doctors told me that I will most likely not have any long-term issues.
“I love you too, and please stop saying that you owe me. I will never be able to make up for how I treated you in high school.”
“How about this, can we just agree on the past being the past? Can we start our future today and not look back?
“I can do that,” he nods, leaning forward to place a soft kiss on the tip of my nose. “Maybe we could celebrate our new beginning?” His voice turns low and seductive.
“Mhm, what did you have in mind?”
“Maybe we could go on a little trip… a trip upstairs to the bedroom?” He doesn’t even wait for my answer. He pushes himself up to stand, picking me up with him.
I giggle the whole way up the stairs. When we get inside the room, he gently throws me onto the bed, making me bounce against the mattress twice before he pounces on top of me, tearing off my clothes like a starving man.
My sex clenches with anticipation as he kisses me with both passion and devastating need. Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would be my life, but now I can’t picture myself living without Carter.
“I need you,” he pants against my skin as he kisses me feverishly, his lips trailing over every inch of exposed flesh.
Arching my back, I hold his head to my chest as he swirls his hot mouth over one of my hardened nipples.
“You make me crazy,” I gasp, my heart is thundering inside my chest. Everywhere that he touches, burns, my body humming with foreign energy. I’ve never felt this way before, never been so crazed with need for someone.
“No, you make me crazy,” he drags his hands down my body and cradles my stomach before moving his mouth lower, pressing soft kisses against it. “And I’ll spend the rest of my life showing you how crazy you make me.”