I pull her hard up against my body. “You give me more.”
“I don’t think so.”
“You gave me back my work.”
She pulls a face as if what she gave me was nothing when it was everything. “I just helped you shuffle your staff around and took on a few shifts myself so you could take that job on, that’s all.”
“That job just happens to be the second best thing that’s happened to me in a long time.”
“Drawing buildings is your happy place. I would do anything to give you your happy place. We both got lucky with our work.” Publishing books looks good on Callie.
“You love my son as much as I do. You gave him a stable family.” I eye Sean dancing with Mum. Now that he has both Callie and his mother back in his life he’s the happiest I’ve ever seen him. The fact he gets to spend time each day with his mother is the icing on the cake. Thank God she won her appeal.
Her lips brush across mine. “He’s easy to love,” she murmurs and then adds with a wicked glint in her eyes, “Maybe more so than you some days.”
I press my lips to her ear. “You bring your A-Game more than I deserve.”
Her hand grips my chin and angles my face so our eyes lock. “That’s because I love your cock so damn much.”
I groan. “I should have known your dirty mouth wasn’t far away.”
She grins. “It never is. And that’s one of your favourite things about me.”
I grip her ass harder. “I don’t have favourite things about you, baby. I love everything equally.”
“And you said you weren’t romantic. You, Mr Hardy, are a big softie underneath all this moody bullshit.”
“And you, Mrs Hardy, are a pushover under all this argumentative bullshit.”
She sighs. “That’s only because I finally found a man worth letting boss me around.” She kisses me long and deep again, before giving me everything. “I finally found the man who stole my breath, and I will always let him boss me around.”
Bonus Chapter
4 months later
Callie
“No, Chelsea!” I quickly reach for her hand, pushing it out of the way. Kissing her chubby cheek, I say, “You are a real handful. Did you know that?” Babysitting Avery’s baby girl has exhausted me today, physically as well as mentally. I’m fairly sure I just saved myself from the wrath of her father. She was about to knock a glass of water off the table; I can imagine what Tyler would have to say about that if he knew. The man has become completely too much since the birth of his precious daughter. Any little incident becomes a huge thing he needs to know about.
“Well, look at you,” Paris says when she enters the lounge room. “Auntie Callie practicing for when she becomes a mummy.”
I shake my head. “God, no. That is not happening anytime soon. I don’t have the energy for this job.”
She laughs and sits next to us on the couch. Reaching her arms out, she says, “Come here, baby girl.”
Chelsea grins and flaps her arms in the air. These two adore each other.
After I hand Chelsea over, I stand. “I’ll be back.”
Paris frowns at me. “Where are you going? I just got here. I’ve got shit to tell you.”
I hold my finger up. “One minute. I promise I’ll be back.” Without waiting for her response, I head out of the lounge room in search of Luke.
My husband is
in the office and glances up from the paperwork he’s been doing for the last couple of hours. Throwing his pen down, he leans back in his chair and says, “Thank fuck. I need a break.”
I nod in the direction of the lounge room. “Paris is home.”