I exploded around him, and my contractions set him off in spectacular fashion. He let out an almighty roar before spilling himself inside me, collapsing against my throat and kissing me tenderly.
I glided my hands through his hair and kissed his jaw, smiling when he sought my lips out with his. He was still inside me, and he made no move to leave this time.
“Say you’ll be mine, Harper,” he whispered against me. “I want to do this for real. With you.”
“You do?” I blinked up at him.
“Yes,” he said resolutely. “I’ve been thinking about it over the last couple of days. I haven’t been in a relationship since…”
He looked uncomfortable talking about it, so I put him out of his misery. “I know. You don’t have to explain.”
“I didn’t think I’d ever want it again,” he said honestly. “But you’ve changed that, Harper. I want you in my life. I want you in my bed. And I want to share everything with you.”
“Yes,” I answered without hesitation. “I want that too.”
“I’m going to take care of you.” He nuzzled against me. “That I can promise you.”
Epilogue
“You’re being awfully secretive about your Christmas cookie this year, Harper,” Julia noted.
“I know.” I laughed, peeking under the lid of the bakery box that was hiding my special confection. “But you’ll understand when you see it.”
As if on cue, Jameson strolled right into the kitchen as though he hadn’t already been told several times over not to. Julia crossed her arms and gave him a pointed glare while I laughed.
“See?” I said. “Now you know why I have to be so secretive.”
“Can you blame me?” Jameson pulled me into his arms and cradled my belly in his hands while he kissed my neck. “I only get a Christmas cookie once a year.”
“Yes,” I admonished, “but you get pumpkin spice cookies every time you ask for them. And don’t act like you don’t.”
He flashed me a boyish grin and shrugged. “So can I see it yet?”
I looked at Julia and she nodded. Even though I didn’t need her permission, she’d embraced her role of mother in law with open arms. But I didn’t need a certificate to tell me what I knew in my heart. The King family was now my own. And I’d never been happier.
Every year for the last three years we’d come home for Christmas. On the second year, Jameson proposed, and I said yes with an elated smile on my face. He was everything I could have ever wanted and more. And now, his family were my family.
His relationship with his brother had been repaired after some long and painful talks between the two. And after Lleyton told his family the real reason Jameson had stayed away, they stopped inviting Katherine for the yearly traditions.
It didn’t bother me either way because I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Jameson only had eyes for me. But Julia insisted that Jameson was more important than an old friendship and she wanted him to be comfortable in his own home.
So every year we’d come back, and next year, we’d be bringing a new addition to the King family. Jameson was so happy to be a father I couldn’t wait to tell him my other piece of news. Which I’d carefully written on my Christmas cookie this year.
I spun in his arms and stared up into his beautiful eyes, smiling from ear to ear. He was going to go nuts.
“Okay,” I said. “You can open it now.”
He released me from his arms and opened the box with a mischievous grin. But all the humor faded when he saw the dark icing and the words on top.
Congratulations Daddy.
He spun around and clasped my face in his hands while Julia and his sisters all crowded around to see what had made him go so serious.
“We’re having a boy?”
I nodded.
He squeezed me tighter and then lifted me up in his arms and spun me around, shouting out his happiness.
“I knew it!” he said. “I knew it would be a boy.”
Julia and Lily both shoved him out of the way so they could hug me, and we all started blubbering like a bunch of babies.
But I didn’t care one bit.
This was my home. This was my family. And I’d finally gotten my happily ever after.