Your Irresistible Love (The Bennett Family 1)

“What?” My chest tightens as I imagine doing this in front of all the Bennetts, but then I visualize Pippa’s dreamy expression and Logan telling us we still can’t have sex at the office, and I relax. The thought of seeing all of them again fills me with joy.

“They’d never forgive me if they don’t get to see the proposal. It’s almost as bad as a runaway wedding for them.”

Looking at the ring on my finger, I have to fight the tears threatening to spill on my cheeks.

“I’m a lucky man, Ava. There are a few things I’d like to say.”

“Mmm, don’t you want to wait until the vows?” I’m dying to hear him out, but there’ll be no stopping the tears if he’s his usual sweet, charming self.

“Nah, there’ll be too many people. I want to make you a few promises while we’re here, just the two of us.”

Cupping my cheeks in his hands, he pulls me to him, pressing his forehead to mine. “I promise I’ll cherish every moment with you—”

“I’m sure you’ll love having your pillow hijacked every night—”

“I will,” he assures me. “I’ll spoil you and take care of you, and our family.” With a smile, he adds, “That’ll include our many, many kids.”

Pulling back a notch, I ask suspiciously. “How many?”

He answers with a grin. “We’ll talk about that later.” Caressing my face with the back of his hand, his eyes linger on mine, full of warmth. “You’ll never feel alone again, Ava. I promise.”

A lump settles in my throat, emotions overcoming me.

“You’re going to make me fall in love with you more every day, aren’t you?”

“I’m certainly going to try. You deserve to be loved, and you have so much love to give. I’m happiest when you look at me like I’m your whole world, so I’ll make sure to work hard to earn that look.”

A knock at the door startles us both.

“Oh, it must be the movers.” Before I can utter another word, Sebastian marches to the door. Pulling it open, he tells the guys their service is no longer necessary and returns to me after they leave.

“I need to call the landlord of the other place to let him know I won’t be moving in. He’ll probably still keep my deposit. Then I’ll—”

“Shh. I forbid you to go on your autopilot, problem-solving mode.” His commanding voice spurts tendrils of heat through my body. Sebastian takes my breath away. He pushes a strand of hair out of my eyes, tilting my head up.

“Bossy fiancé,” I say.

“We’ll deal with everything later. Right now, I want to make love to my beautiful fiancée.”

He leans in to kiss me. I smile against his lips, lacing my fingers behind his neck. He’s right, we’ll figure everything out later. Together.

Epilogue

Ava

“We will not call any child of ours Seamus.” I stomp my foot, but all that does is make Sebastian grin and everyone else laugh out loud. We’re at his parents’ house, as are all his siblings. Pouting, I sit in Sebastian’s lap. “Let’s not talk about kid names anymore. I’m not even pregnant.”

Right after our engagement party a few months ago, Sebastian informed me that he’s planning to have as many kids as it takes to have a soccer team. I wasn’t sure how many players there were on a team, so I googled it. Eleven. I still hope he was kidding, but I don’t think so. He’s already talking about names. Alex, Seamus, and William are what he came up with so far. I’d have the Bennett family vote on names, but some of them look far too thrilled about Seamus, so I’m not too sure they’re to be trusted.

“I’m with Ava on this one,” Logan says. “Seamus is a no-go.”

I narrow my eyes at him. Logan’s trying hard to get in my good graces. We’ve butted heads at the office all week over some budget plans—again. The marketing department accepted me almost at once. They’d already warmed up to me, so they didn’t consider me an outsider anymore. A funny thing happened in New York after I left. The agency’s board fired Dirk. Sebastian claims he had nothing to do with it, but he averts his gaze when I ask him about it. Simone carried out her threat. She sued Sebastian for harassment. The result was stellar. Sebastian won, and Simone’s reputation was tarnished. One by one, she lost all her major contracts. Pippa bet Simone would be posing for Playboy instead of Vogue within six months. I gave her a year. Pippa won the bet after only three months.

“Why don’t we talk about the wedding?” their mother asks in a gentle tone.

“There are still a bazillion months left,” Blake says. “Besides, picking out names is more fun.”

Sebastian holds his hands up in defense. “I keep myself out of wedding preparations. Last time I offered my opinion, it was shot down before I finished speaking.”