Page 125 of Gilded Saint

Hard kisses rain along my neck and shoulders. His hands grip my ass, and my thighs squeeze his hips as he carries me around to our bedroom.

We reach the bathroom, and my back hits the wall. His grizzly beard scratches the tender skin along my neck and ear, and I squirm against him.

“Is this all right with you, Mrs. Watson?”

“Yes,” I breathe, drunk with lust.

He slows and pulls back, his dark eyes thoughtful. “You know, if you ever change your mind?—”

I stop his words by pressing my finger over his lips. I wish I could stop his doubts.

“I’m not changing my mind. I love you. This is where I want to be.”

My legs slowly drop to the ground, and I cup his bearded jaw in my palms.

“I love you. Don’t doubt me.”

He grips my wrist and places his lips against the pulse point on the inner side of my wrist.

“Don’t doubt us.”

His chest falls with a deep exhale. “How did I get so lucky?”

“You’re a good man who helped a stranger.”

“And fell in love,” he says slowly, reverently.

Goose bumps sprout along my skin, and I curl my arms around him, tracing my fingers over the muscular lines of his back, secure in the knowledge I’ve found my home.

Epilogue

The Next Day

Sam

My phone vibrates in the hospital waiting room. Sloane’s stern expression and her pointed gaze at the ‘no cell phones’ sign has me pushing up off the plastic waiting room chair and apologetically telling my wife I’ll be right back after I take the call.

“We’ll be here,” my Lily says with a reassuring squeeze to my hand.

I don’t miss the worry etched around her narrowed blue eyes. She saw the name that flashed. I don’t know why he’s calling, but I won’t keep anything from my wife.

With a jab at the elevator button, I push the defensive thought away. Jack wouldn’t expect me to hide anything from my wife. In fact, he counseled against such a strategy. It’s a piece of advice he gave me on the first day we arrived at his home in San Diego.

He’d said, “I can understand the instinct to keep her in the dark. And maybe it’s necessary to cloak the past. But if my one failed marriage taught me anything, it’s that trust dies in darkness.” I won’t forget his words.

Others crowd into the elevator, and I shoot Jack a quick text that I’ll call him back.

Once outside, I locate an empty bench in front of the hospital and press his name.

“Are you at the hospital?” he asks upon answering.

“I am. Sage is in labor. Knox is about to become a father.”

“It’s a little early, isn’t it?”

“It is.” I relax on the bench, as I’m more than willing to give him an update on my sister. “Doctor induced in an abundance of caution. The baby’s big, I guess, thanks to Knox.” It’s not due to my five-foot-nothing sister.

“Sage is petite.”

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