A CONTRACT ENGAGEMENT

Their skin was slick with sweat, their heartbeats no longer slow and heavy but frantic. The tempo increased. Julian could feel Nina’s legs wrap around him, urging him even deeper, harder. The pinnacle came in a blaze of white light and pleasure so intense they both stopped breathing for a long moment, hung suspended in time. And then came the fall, tumbling down and down all the way, their bodies releasing and pulsing for an age as Nina accepted Julian’s weight onto her, wrapped legs and arms around him even tighter, binding him to her.

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EPILOGUE

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Nina relaxed back into the luxurious cushions of the huge, comfortable couch. The tiny baby suckling at her breast was inducing a deliciously soporific effect in her blood. A familiar flood of happiness and contentment made her smile as she looked up from her daughter and took in the warmly decorated open-plan sitting room, and the big windows that looked out into a large garden littered with toys. The hum of traffic barely discernible through the high trees guarding the property.

This had been one of the first elegantly palatial townhouses she and Julian had looked at before their wedding.

Her heart rate zinged up a notch when a familiar scent teased her nostrils and the couch dipped beside her. As if sensing her father’s presence, Bonnie’s head jerked away from Nina’s breast, big, brown eyes opening to seek him out. Julian came close and kissed the baby’s head before nuzzling a kiss to Nina’s neck, making exquisite shards of desire race through her blood. She marveled that even while she was breastfeeding, with her baby belly still evident, Julian’s attraction for her didn’t seem to diminish. It was the most heady feeling. It got even more heady when he growled into her ear, “How is it that I can be jealous of my own daughter?”

Nina turned her head to meet his mouth in a brief, searing kiss and then said dryly, “Well, it’s not as if you haven’t been through this before; I’m sure you’ll survive.”

Julian smiled wolfishly, but then took Bonnie from Nina to place her on his shoulder and pat her back with all the dexterity of someone well practiced in the art. Just then the fruits of his earlier practicing efforts exploded into the room.

They were two black-haired, dark-eyed miniature versions of Julian, one slightly smaller than the other. They were both pulling at a green rugby jersey.

The taller one wailed, “Dad, it’s my turn to wear the jersey, I don’t want to wear the other one today, tell Sam it’s his turn to wear it. Anyway, it’s too big for him!’Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

The smaller of the two boys clinging desperately to the jersey-three-year-old Sam stood with a bottom lip quivering and tears glistening on ridiculously long lashes.

Julian shot a wryly accusing look to Nina, whose mouth was twitching as she unsuccessfully held in a grin. She looked at him reproachfully, “What?”

She started to do up her bra and shirt and stood up from the couch, looking down at her husband sprawled before her with Bonnie successfully burped and falling asleep contentedly on his shoulder.

With her hands on the buttons of her shirt, and seeing the way Julian’s eyes were lingering there explicitly, she valiantly ignored his look and said, “They came to you. You fix it. Besides, they got all of that from you.’

She flashed him a cheeky grin and turned to go and deal with her sons’ spat, but Julian grabbed her wrist and she laughingly fell back as he pulled her onto his lap and claimed her mouth for a kiss.

On cue, the two boys forgot all about the rugby jersey and started making loud vomiting noises.

“Ugh! Gross!” declared Patrick as he dragged his younger brother away. “You two better not get all kissy at the match. So not cool.”

Nina finally pulled away breathlessly and smiled into Julian’s face. She imitated Patrick. “So not cool, but so much fun.”

“Hmm,” murmured Julian appreciatively, settling Nina’s into one arm while holding Bonnie with the other. “Have I told you yet today how much I love you, Red?”

She lifted her head to look at him and smiled coquettishly, running a finger down his chest. “I don’t believe you have, darling, but you could make it up to me.”

“How?”

Nina pretended to think for a second, her head on one side. “Let me see. As our lovely nanny has offered to babysit tonight, you could take me out for dinner….”

His eyes darkened and she felt his body grow taut underneath her. “Anywhere in mind?” he asked with a gruff tone, vivid images already filling his head.

“Oh, I’m sure I can think of somewhere…” Nina came close and pressed a kiss to his mouth “…nice and cozy.”

She moved down and pressed another kiss to his neck where his pulse beat fast. “Somewhere intimate…private…”

“Where we won’t be disturbed?” His voice became gruffer.

She pulled back and looked at him, and smiled, her eyes shining with love for him.

“My thoughts exactly.”

Julian felt his daughter squirm slightly against his shoulder, and felt his wife wriggle on his lap, making lust arrow straight to his groin. He heard the scuffle of his two sons playing nearby, and his heart swelled in his chest. The moment was huge, buoyant, and though his life was filled with such moments now, this didn’t diminish it in any way. Nina just looked at him with innate understanding in her eyes. She smiled and said simply, “I know-and I love you, too.”

And that was all that needed to be said.

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THE END

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