Chapter 24

24

I tookthe stairs two at a time up to Zane’s office. I still had work to do before I left and for the first time, I now understood why my teammates were so eager to skip out of work as soon as they were done. None of them lingered, not anymore. I’d watched each man one by one fall in love and when they did they’d found something more important than work, someone who they couldn’t wait to get home to.

Even though the door was ajar I still rapped lightly.

“You wanted to see me?”

Zane was standing in front of his window.

He didn’t bother turning around when he started, “Heard you talked to the guys.”

I knew this was coming but I figured he’d give me a little more time to process everything that had happened.

“Yep.”

“Is there any left?”

He was asking if there was lingering guilt.

“No.”

I still had Zane’s back when I saw him nod.

“There comes a time in a man’s life when he needs to decide what’s important. Who’s important and how much he’s willing to give up.”

Now he was talking about Melissa.

I shoved my hands in my pockets and settled in for a Zane style heart-to-heart.

“You lost seventeen years with that woman.”

“I did.”

“Don’t lose anymore.”

He was wasting his breath. I’d already made up my mind.

“I won’t.”

That was when Zane turned and when he did, he smiled.

“She healed you.”

“No, brother, you did. I thought it was her. I thought I couldn’t face it unless I had her by my side. But thinking on it, she was the motivation I needed to let it go. But those wounds? They’d already scarred over and they’d started to when you found me in Wyoming.”

Zane said nothing but that didn’t mean emotion wasn’t working behind his eyes. I lied when I told Melissa I was equally as close to all the men I worked with. They were my brothers. I’d fight and die next to each of them.

But Zane Lewis…

He was the man who’d found me at my lowest and refused to give up on me. Then he gave me what I needed to find peace.

“Don’t leave without saying goodbye.”

“Learned that lesson the hard way,” I reminded him. “I’ll let you know.”

“Copy that.”

I gave my boss a chin lift and headed to the door.

I looked back over my shoulder to find him back at his window.

“You know, right?” I asked.

“I know.”

“Bottom of my soul, brother.”

With that I went back to my office to finish up.

I had a family to get home to.

* * *

I walkedinto my house and for the first time I smelled food cooking. But more than that I heard laughter. Not Mellie’s, little boy laughter coming from upstairs.

I didn’t have to think about how I felt about that.

I wanted it.

Mellie, the kids, all of it.

Maryland or in Montana, it didn’t matter as long as I came home from work and she was there. As long as I woke up with her head on my stomach and went to sleep beside her, I could care less whose bed or what state it was in.

I wasn’t asking this time. I’d go where she went.

“Hey, son,” Jeremy greeted and rose from the sectional.

“Jeremy.”

“Mellie’s upstairs with the kids. Need a minute before you go up.”

I took in the man who I’d spent years resenting but who I’d grown to respect and tried to get a read on what was on his mind. If I had to guess it was Zane giving him a freebie. It would be awkward to explain to Melissa’s father what the Prophylactic Fund was and how it came to be. Further from that Zane would not budge and if there was a bill to be paid, I would pay it, not Jeremy. Family took care of family, something I thought I understood but somehow didn’t fully grasp what exactly that meant until it was too late.

“What’s on your mind?”

Jeremy swept his arm to my couch and I bit back a smile. He was inviting me to sit on my own couch.

Once we were both situated, he didn’t delay. “Katie found her time to talk to Mellie. I found mine and I wanted you to know we are doing everything we can to get Melissa to move out here with you.”

That was not what I thought the man was going to say.

“I appreciate the effort, Jeremy. But you should know, I’ll follow Melissa wherever she decides. Here, Montana, doesn’t matter to me. While we’re on the topic, you should know once we get the living arrangements settled, I’m going to ask her to marry me again.”

I heard a peal of laughter. My gaze automatically went to the stairs and my legs itched to take me to the sound.

I didn’t want to hurry Melissa’s father but I wanted him to hurry the hell up.

“You’d give this up and move home?”

“All due respect Jeremy, but this is my home. Would I give this up and move back to Montana to be with Mellie? In a heartbeat.”

Again, there was a beat of silence that went on too long for my liking.

“You had our blessing once, don’t suppose you need it again, but you have it all the same.”

He was correct; we were at an age where I didn’t feel I needed to ask. But it felt good to have it.

“Appreciate that, Jeremy.” I didn’t want to ask but I had to, “Was that all or is there more you’d like to discuss?”

I knew the conversation was over when Jeremy stood and offered me his hand.

“Also wanted to thank you for your hospitality,” he continued as we shook.

“Family. Our home is always welcome to you, Katherine, and the kids.”

A flash of something moved behind his eyes but it was gone before I could catch it. Any other time, I would’ve put in the effort to dig it out. But now, no. I needed to see Melissa.

I released his hand and with a lift of my chin I moved around my living room, up the stairs, and found Melissa playing Wii with Christian.

One day she’ll be playing silly video games with our boy.

One day I’ll come home and it’ll be her and our children laughing.

She looked up. “Hey. How was your day?”

I wanted to hear her ask me that for the rest of my life.

“Great.”

“Great?” Mellie repeated with a smile.

“Woke up next to you, baby. Doesn’t get much better until our day ends and you climb in next to me.”

“What about me?” Christian boomed. “Do I get to climb in next to you?”

“Absolutely.”

“Awesome. Your bed is huge!”

I was totally buying that kid a king-sized bed so he’d stay out of ours.

It was on that thought—or the thought of Christian sleeping between us again—I asked, “Do you have a few minutes?”

Melissa’s lips twitched.

“Just a few of them or…” she let that hang.

I tipped my head toward the boy. “Ask your mom to keep an eye, yeah?”

“Yeah, honey, I’ll ask.”

When I got to my room, in an effort to save time, giving zero fucks Mellie thought the unwrapping part was fun, I undressed and was naked when she walked into the bathroom.

“Whoa, sailor, what’s going on here?”

“Strip.”

I watched hunger creep in right before her lids went half-mast.

My house was well-insulated but still if the TV was up too loud in the loft, I could hear it in the bathroom we were in. The way I was planning on fucking Mellie there was no way her moans wouldn’t filter out into the other room.

Change of plans. I closed the door, locked it, went to the shower, and turned on the water.

I was right and Mellie was wrong; the unwrapping was not the fun part, it was the get-it-down-and-out-of-the-way part.

This was the fun part.

“You are so fucking beautiful.”

A pretty blush bloomed on her cheeks.

“Always were, Mellie. But now, Christ, look at you.”

From her full tits to the flare of her hips, absolute perfection.

“Get in the shower, Melissa.”

I followed her in, my gaze dropping to her heart-shaped ass.

Christ, hot.

“Hands on the wall.”

Mellie stopped just out of range of the spray and placed her palms on the wall.

“Good thing your shower’s big enough for ten people with room to spare.”

She wasn’t wrong. This shower was one of the many reasons I bought this house. It was over-the-top huge.

I dropped to my knees behind her, yanked her hips back, ignored my already throbbing cock, and kissed her left ass cheek before I moved to the right.

“Spread for me and arch your back.”

Mellie did as I asked, exposing her pretty pink flesh. Without delay I gave her a long swipe of my tongue from clit to ass. I meant to tease, to draw out her pleasure, but with that first taste I lost control. My hands slid to her ass cheeks and I held her still while I ate like she was my last meal. The last thing on this earth I was going to taste before I died, and I wanted every last drop of her excitement as it coated my tongue and leaked down my chin.

“Garrett.”

I spread her ass cheeks and slowed.

“Honey, I’m close.”

“Not yet.”

“Close,” she moaned.

Fuck it.

I got to my feet, guided the head of my cock through her wet, and surged in.

Christ.

I reached around, one hand going low between her legs cupping her pussy, fingers curling in so I could feel myself rooted in Mellie. I slid my other hand up her stomach, over the swell of her breast. My thumb and forefinger found her nipple and rolled.

“Oh, God.”

“Gonna fuck you hard, baby, and you gotta be quiet.”

“Can’t.”

I pulled out to the tip, bent my knees, and drove deep.

A low guttural groan filled the shower.

“Quiet, baby.”

“I can’t.”

Another slow glide out before a hard driving thrust.

Melissa’s head fell back on my shoulder, her top teeth biting her bottom lip, holding back her moan.

“I love you, Mellie.”

Her teeth released her bottom lip and a smile tugged up the corner of her mouth. The kind of sexy smirk a woman smiles when she knows she owns her man. Body and soul, I belonged to Melissa.

This time when I thrust in I didn’t stop. I kept at her until her pussy was clenching at my cock. Driving in rough, taking her to her toes. Bliss. Her sleek, tight cunt was pulsing, taking me closer and closer to the edge.

“I go, where you go,” I told her, my voice sounding jagged to my own ears. “You’re my home.”

“Garrett,” she whimpered.

I slid my fingers between her legs to her clit, pressed my thumb there, pinched her nipple, ground my cock deep, and stayed rooted while her spasming pussy milked my release.

It would be long moments before my brain came back on station. When it finally did I dropped my head forward and demanded, “Mouth.”

Mellie turned her head, but she didn’t give me her mouth—at least not how I wanted it.

“Would you really move back to Montana to be with me?”

No hesitation.

“Absolutely.”

“I love you, Garrett.”

My hand shot out and landed on the tile wall, balancing me while my legs shook.

Jesus fuck.

I was right.

Earning those words—happiest fucking day of my life.