Page 262 of The Bonus

The scared kids shuffle to stand behind my and Gabriel’s legs.

Gabriel kisses the back of my hand and gives me a slow, sexy smile. “Home time, my love.”

30

Gabriel

Dominic and Lucia stand behind my legs, scared of the jet, and I smile down at them. “Come.” I hold my hand out and Lucia takes it, and to my surprise, Dominic takes the other one.

He’s holding my hand.

I want to jump in the air and scream it out loud, but I won’t… I’ll pretend magical things like this happen to me every day.

“Up the stairs.” I lead them onto the plane and we walk down the aisle. “Sit here.”

“I want to sit next to you.” Lucia beams excitedly.

“Me too,” Dom says softly, almost to himself.

Oh…

“I’ll go get Mom and be back in a moment.” I walk back down the stairs, pick up Grace and bring her onto the plane, and put her into her seat, then move back to the children. “For takeoff, we need to sit in these seats, and then we can move to the couch so that you can both sit beside me, okay?”

They nod.

“You sit here, Lucia, and you here, Dom.” I bend and do the seat belts up on the large cream leather seats. “It opens and closes like this.” I show them. “Mom and I will sit opposite you.” I glance over to Grace to see she has this worried look on her face, and I raise my eyebrow in question.

She smiles and gives a subtle shake of her head.

The stewardess comes out. “Hello, I’m Nala. I’ll be looking after you today,” she says.

“Hello, Nala. This is my partner, Grace, and these are my children, Dominic and Lucia.” I smile proudly.

“Hello.” The kids beam.

“Can I get you any drinks for takeoff, sir?”

“You get drinks and everything,” Lucia whispers, wide-eyed. “What even is this place?”

I chuckle and glance over to see Grace once again looking like she just swallowed a fly.

I take her hand and hold it in mine.

What’s wrong?

“We’ll have two glasses of Moët and two glasses of fizzy drink please?”

“Fizzy drink?” Nala frowns.

“Sprite,” I correct myself.

Grace smiles at me calling it fizzy drink, and I do too. The children bounce in their seats with excitement. This is a special day. Bringing my children and Grace home to New York means a lot to me.

My eyes roam over Gracie’s beautiful face and a sense of calm falls over me, never have I been so under the spell of a woman before. Her calm resolve and inner strength. The way she loves our children, the way she makes me feel. It’s as if all my pent-up feelings for her over the years have boiled over and I no longer have any control over them.

I am irrevocably hers.

There’s not a doubt in my mind now that she is the love of my life. She has always been the love of my life, long before I even realized it.

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