EPILOGUE

One year later

‘D O THEY FUSS like that a lot?’

Cade smiled at the question from Zane deMarco as he stood in the bright, airy kitchen of his new home—a historic brownstone with a big yard and ten bedrooms he’d bought seven months ago—and tried to soothe his fretful son. Luke Adam Landry was not happy at having been detached from his mama’s breast five minutes ago—despite being fast asleep—and he was letting Cade and Zane and his uncle Adam know all about it.

‘Only at three in the morning, usually,’ Cade joked.

Zane’s eyebrows lifted, but he looked more fascinated than horrified when he said, ‘Seriously?’

Yeah, seriously , and at two and five and any time in between.

‘Not always,’ he said, deciding to give Zane a break.

Their small party had found out at the neighbourhood chapel only an hour ago, while they were baptising Luke, and Zane and Adam had been sworn in as his godfathers, that Zane and his partner, Skylar, were expecting. Seemed it had been a surprise for both of them, but a happy surprise, and Cade didn’t want to scare the guy too much. Especially as all the trials and tribulations of parenthood in the past three months had been far outweighed, in Cade’s humble opinion, by the incredible upside of meeting his son. And watching Charlotte blossom into the role of motherhood. She was magnificent, and he could not have loved her more if he had tried.

‘He’s just a little mad with me at the moment for interrupting his quality time with his mama,’ he said easily—and just like his mama, Luke was more than ready to let anyone and everyone know his mind, Cade thought, his chest swelling with pride. ‘And for letting the preacher dunk him in water. I’m not sure he’s gonna forgive me for that for a while,’ he added, remembering the indignant yelling in church which had nearly deafened them all.

Adam gave his new nephew a pat on the back. ‘Good boy, Luke. You tell your daddy when he’s out of order, and I’ll back you up.’

All three of them laughed, but as Luke finally quietened, nestling against Cade’s chest and dropping back to sleep with his whole fist shoved into his mouth, Cade remembered something he and Charlotte had agreed to that morning. ‘By the way, Courtney, I have a baptismal gift for you.’

Adam’s expression sobered. ‘A gift? For me? But I’m not the one getting christened,’ he said.

Trust the guy to be so damn literal.

But Cade only smiled. He liked Adam Courtney, a lot. All three of them had become much more than just squash buddies over the past year.

Although he found it hilarious now to think of them sat in their club sauna—the club they rarely had time to go to now—making that dumb bet to decide who would own Helberg Holdings, only to all end up winning something much more precious instead.

He liked Zane and Adam’s partners too—Skylar and Ella—who he and Charlotte socialised with now whenever all six of them were in the city.

‘Charlotte and I would like to give you Montague’s,’ he said, cutting straight to the chase.

The work to rebuild the Helberg brand in the past year ever since the buyout had kept him busy—while he waited for Charlotte to pop and they’d both got to know their new son. But he had decided to offload Montague’s and a few of the other assets. He’d wanted to gift the company to Charlotte, when he’d found out the connection to her mother, but she had insisted he give it to her brother instead. And he hadn’t had a problem with that.

‘Thanks,’ Adam said easily. ‘But I don’t need it.’

‘I’d really like you to take it, man,’ Cade countered. ‘Both Charlotte and I owe you—and Ella—big time for supporting us this past year.’

And helping give Charlotte the courage to realise our break-up was all my fault, not hers , he almost added, but didn’t. Because as much as he liked and admired his new brother-in-law, and considered him a good friend, they were still guys.

‘And she wants you to have it. She’s far too busy with Trouble Maker...’ His chest swelled again at the thought of how Charlotte had developed her business over the past year, mostly while pregnant. ‘And with this little fella...’ He kissed his son’s downy curls, breathing in the sweet scent he adored of sour milk and baby shampoo. ‘So she doesn’t have the time to give Montague’s the attention it needs.’

Adam looked non-plussed. ‘Okay, how about I think about it?’

‘You do that,’ Cade nodded, realising how important it was to him to pay his dues to Adam Courtney... Because the man was part of Cade’s family now too.

‘Glad you two got that settled,’ Zane cut in, the reckless twinkle in his eye something Cade remembered from a certain sauna meeting on last year’s Independence Day. ‘Now where the hell is my gift? Because I’ve got my eye on some prime realty in SoHo that belongs to Landry Construction.’

‘Go to hell,’ Cade joked back, and they all laughed.

Four hours later...

‘He’s finally back to sleep. I swear he is almost as much of a handful as you are.’

‘That’s my boy!’ Charley grinned at Cade in the bathroom mirror and popped her toothbrush onto its stand, unable to disguise her happiness at his exasperation...and the mouth-watering sight of his naked chest, the phoenix tattoo she adored highlighting his impressive pecs.

It was only ten o’clock, but they’d had a very full day, getting their son formally baptised and then enjoying some quality time with Adam and Ella and Zane and Skylar. She was more than ready for bed now. Especially when Cade wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and pulled her against him.

‘I think I should punish you for encouraging him to defy me,’ he murmured into her hair, his hands rising to cup and caress her breasts through the silk negligée she had worn specifically to get this reaction.

Excitement swirled alongside the joy as she felt the ridge growing in his pyjama pants to press against her bottom. They’d finally restarted their love life a month ago, and to her utter joy, it was as vital and exciting as ever...although they had to snatch their chances when they could now, because Cade wasn’t wrong—Luke was somewhat demanding.

Although she wouldn’t have had it any other way.

She lifted her arm to curl her hand around his neck, her mind floating on the delicious wave of arousal and all the happy memories.

So much had happened in the past year, all of it full-on and chaotic and challenging and exhausting.

They’d got married in a small ceremony in Baton Rouge just before Christmas, to coincide with the opening of the new Landry Helberg Department Store—with Adam giving her away and Ella, who Charley already considered a sister, as her maid of honour. She’d also expanded the Trouble Maker brand into a fashion line, and recently moved to new premises in the brownstone next door—which Cade had purchased for her as a wedding present, and then gutted and rehabbed into an amazing shop and workspace. She’d had to take a back seat on her business, though, once Luke was born, but taking the time to nurture and enjoy her son had been more than worth it. The fear she’d once had of being a mother had been well and truly conquered by the rush of pure, unadulterated love she felt for their baby the minute he had been placed in her arms, protesting about the ten hours of labour he had just endured.

What had surprised her much more, though, was how willing Cade had been to reduce his workload too. And spend as much time as he could being a hands-on dad.

‘Mmm...’ she purred as Cade’s questing fingers lifted her negligée to find her wet and ready for him. ‘I think maybe we need to take my punishment into the bedroom,’ she said, making him chuckle.

She swung round and leapt into his arms. And he caught her. Of course.

She shouldn’t be surprised, she realised as she peppered kisses over his handsome face, that Cade had become such a hands-on dad. Because he had been as good as his word over the past year in every respect. More than ready to prove how much both she and now Luke meant to him.

‘Do your worst, Mr Landry!’ she announced as he marched into their bedroom.

‘Count on it, Mrs Landry,’ he said, then threw her on the bed...and proceeded to punish her in the most delicious way possible.

Read on for an extract from RESISTING THE BOSSY BILLIONAIRE by Michelle Smart