Epilogue

Epilogue

M ax

Ten years later

It turns out California was the right choice.

Our restaurant is thriving.

I eventually sold to Green Wave after a few more years of the buyers chasing me down with bigger and bigger offers. I ended up with enough money to buy up a huge amount of coastal land, which we’ve turned into a sanctuary and refuse to let developers build on it.

Pissing off the elite gives me almost as much pleasure as taking care of Talbot and our kids.

The twins, Maddie and Talbot Jr., are about to start middle school, and we also have Grace, 7, Josephine, 4, and Noah, who just turned one.

I’ve really enjoyed the three-year separation between all of the births of our kids, which we were able to do with a lot of luck and successful freezing of my eggs.

We’ve expanded the mother-in-law suite to include room for bunkbeds for all the kids.

The four oldest are staying overnight with Dianna tonight. The baby Noah, who is still nursing, is staying home with us. Even though we’re still not technically alone, comparing one kid to five hooligans running around, it feels like total freedom.

Talbot and I are cuddling on the bed in our underpants, watching Hallmark movies and he’s feeding me caramel corn.

It’s Thanksgiving night, and my parents are sleeping in the pool house. Sam and Jenna are with Jenna’s family for the holiday. Joy and her family are still in Chicago, but we’ll all be together the week of Christmas.

Just as the movie is getting good and the heroine is about to break up with her big-city high-powered attorney boyfriend to take up with the down-to-earth cowboy, my husband tries to simultaneously feed me caramel corn while feeding himself on my boobs.

“Babe, come on, I can’t see the TV.”

“I can’t help myself,” he growls. “They look so good tonight.”

“Excuse me?”

“I mean, they look fucking good all the time. Maybe it’s the bra you’re wearing, but they look extra tempting right now.”

Talbot nuzzles at my cleavage. His warm breath on my sternum as he speaks is making me heat up. “I think your body is trying to make me crazy.

He kisses his way down my tummy, pulls my undies down and nuzzles my bush.

I’m totally soaked for him.

“You smell so good,” he murmurs. “You using a new body lotion?”

“Nuh-uh,” I say, grabbing the caramel corn out of his hand that he’s about to drop on me.

“Babe, you are spilling the corn,” I say, but I’m not at all annoyed because he’s got his face between my legs. He strokes slowly with his tongue. Kisses my folds. Puts light pressure on my clit that makes me feel like I might explode.

I arch into him and he increases the pressure of his kisses and the strokes of his tongue.

Suddenly, he stops.

“Babe,” I whimper, “why are you stopping? If you’re going to spill caramel corn all over me you better finish me off.”

“You not only smell different, you taste different,” he says, diving back in, slowly working me back up into a frenzy before stopping again.

I cry out, but he’s not going back down. Instead he kisses his way back up my abdomen. When he reaches my chest, he eats up all the caramel corn that he spilled, and then kisses all the sticky areas, licking me clean.

“Why are you being so mean to me?” I ask.

Instead of answering, he puts the tip of his cock just inside my entrance.

It’s making me insane.

“What are you doing?” I sigh.

“Babe,” he says, “I know your body even better than my own, and you’re already pregnant.”

“No, I’m not,” I say. “We haven’t even scheduled a visit to the fertility doctor recently.”

“You might not be able to tell yet, but I can. You taste pregnant.”

“Are you serious?”

Talbot slides his cock all the way into me and thrusts.

“I just wanted to be face to face with you when I told you. We’re having another baby.”

I want to tell him he’s full of shit.

But it coud be true. My breasts are sore. My period is late. But I assumed it was perimenopause.

“I wanted to take a test first.”

“Babe.”

“I’m sorry, do you want me to go take a test?”

“No, don’t you dare go anywhere.”

In the next second I’m on my tummy and on top of Talbot, looking down at his face. “What the…?”

And then I figure out why he’s done that, because he administers a firm but playful spanking to my bare butt. It sends a spike of pleasure all through me.

“You can’t spank a maybe-pregnant lady,” I joke.

He covers my mouth with a passionate kiss then says, “You’re absolutely right. What can I do for you instead, my pregnant queen?”

I smirk. “Put me back down and let me finish watching the movie while I eat more caramel corn.”

Without a word he sets me back against the pillows and slides his length back into me, thrusting in a primal rhythm while sharing the taste of me and bits of salt and sugar with my mouth.

It is so beyond perfect that I come hard and fast. My release is so intense he comes at the same time.

“Fuck,” he grunts into my mouth. “Thank you for this family. Another baby or not, I’m so grateful for you and the kids. And I whatever happens, I want to sell the restaurant.”

“You what?”

“I want to spend more time at home with you and the kids.”

That’s a lot to consider. But I know we’ll work it out together.

Right now, I welcome the idea of having him home more often. I welcome more of his kisses, more of his sweet, more of his salty.

More of Talbot, every day.

And I’m oh-so grateful.