Page 16 of Endless Love: Novella

Miles and I exchanged a glance. I couldn’t speak for him, but I knew what my answer was. It took no thought. “Funny, but I’m really not interested. Not that I want to hold anybody else back,” I added. “You can go get your drink on. I’ll be fine with whatever is served at the rehearsal dinner.”

“We’ve changed,” Noah announced. “All I want at the end of the day is to be with Sienna. If I have to go out of town, I want her to come with me. Normally, she can’t since she has her own shit going on. But I miss the hell out of her during those trips.”

“Back in the day, that would have meant a fresh crop of women to work your way through,” I pointed out, thinking back on those days. It hadn’t been all that long ago—only a few years.

But it was long enough to change everything. Two of us were fathers, and all of us were either married, engaged, or about to be.

“You know what’s funny?” Lucian asked, lining up his putt. “Back in the day, when we were kids, our dads used to say the same thing. About how they were domesticated. Remember?”

“You mean the ‘hunkholes?’” Colton asked, making air quotes with his fingers. “All the stories about their glory days, fucking their way through Manhattan?”

Noah groaned. “Shit. Are you saying we’ve turned into our fathers?” He looked around, then glanced down at his polo shirt and khakis. “Shit. We’re starting to dress like them.”

“Personally, I hope not,” I pointed out, since my father was not somebody I was looking to emulate. Our relationship would never be more than tentative. We held each other at arm’s length, mostly because he didn’t know how to live any other way.

Thinking of him turned my thoughts to Isabel. I didn’t know much about being a good father, but I knew the father I didn’t want to be. My daughter would never wonder how I felt abouther. She would never ask herself if my work mattered more than she did. She would never see anything other than love and respect between her mother and me. That much was for damn sure. We would give her the same sort of loving, stable example Magnus and Evelyn had given Valentina.

All of that was on my mind long after we finished our game and drove back to the estate. Tonight, the guys and I would stay at Ari and Olivia’s house while the girls remained with Barrett and Lourde. They wanted to keep the whole tradition alive of the groom not seeing the bride in advance.

I wanted to make sure I had everything I needed packed up in preparation. More than that, I wanted to spend a little time with my family. The rush of last-minute fittings meant I didn’t have a lot of time with Valentina. She was stressed and distracted, and I hoped as I climbed the stairs that she would be able to enjoy herself a little bit tonight. But by the time we finished rehearsing and sat down to dinner, her worries about what she was wearing tomorrow would ideally be nonexistent. It would be a shame if, after all this anticipation, she couldn’t at least take a second to take in the moment.

The door to our guest room sat partly open, meaning I could hear what was going on inside. Soft giggles drifted out into the hall, making me tread quietly, creeping up to the door so I wouldn’t disturb anything.

There they were—my reason for living. Isabel was on the bed, looking freshly changed while Valentina tickled her feet. “Stinky piggies!” she squealed, holding one of Isabel’s chubby little ankles in one hand, touching her nose to the sole of her foot. “Pew! Stinky piggies!” Isabel dissolved in giggles, making Valentina laugh again.

She had always been beautiful. I would never forget the first day I set eyes on her and how she blew me away. Herpersonality, dry sense of humor, and sarcasm had solidified that. Everything about her had clicked for me from the beginning.

Now that she was a mother, I had the pleasure of getting to know this other side of someone I thought I knew so well—her sweetness, softness, endless patience. She was living, breathing love, and she had helped me find a side of myself I didn’t know existed.

A floorboard creaked beneath my feet and her head snapped up, her smile widening when she found me watching. “Look who it is,” she whispered to Isabel, whose face lit up when she saw me.

She clapped her chubby hands. “Daddy! Daddy, look!” I knew what I had to do when she held up a bare foot.

I owned ten properties and was on the verge of building a sprawling resort. Hundreds of people depended on me to make good decisions that would keep them employed. Yet when my little girl wanted me to sniff her foot, what was I supposed to do but inhale and collapse on the floor? When she squealed, it was all worth it. I would’ve done it all day long if it meant hearing that sound.

“I was just about to put this one down for her nap.” Valentina was still laughing as she stood and picked up Isabel, setting her on her hip. They shared the same clear, blue eyes that now danced with happiness. “Then I was thinking of taking a nap, myself. I don’t think I can make it through the rehearsal if I don’t.”

I followed her into the small room that connected our guest room with the one Colton and Rose had chosen. A pair of cribs were set up in there, and Valentina laid Isabel in hers before turning on a white noise machine. “Eloise will be here soon,” she whispered, stroking the baby’s curls. “You get a good nap.”

I took her hand and led her back to our room, closing the door softly while murmuring, “I’ll never get tired of seeing the two of you together. You know that?”

“I always feel the same way whenever you two are playing, or you’re rocking her to sleep.” She turned to me, wrapping her arms around my waist and kissing me softly, whispering, “I fell in love with you a long time ago, but seeing you as a dad has made me love you in a whole different way. Does that sound silly?”

“Are you kidding? Nothing could sound better.” I kissed her, deeper this time, cradling her head in my hands, my fingers sinking into her thick, brown waves. The most precious thing, and she loved me. She was going to marry me. My wife. The thought made me rock-hard in an instant.

“I hope you’re not too tired,” I managed between kisses as I backed her up against the bed. “Though this doesn’t have to take long…”

She blurted out a laugh, sat down, and reached for my belt. Watching her built my anticipation, promising good things to come as she unbuttoned my khakis. “Please. You know I’m no match for your powers of seduction, especially when you talk dirty like that.”

I took her chin in my hand, tipping her head back to stare into her blue eyes. Eyes I could have drowned in. “How about I tell you I can’t wait for our honeymoon so I can worship every inch of your body for two solid weeks?”

Her nostrils flared as she sighed, then lowered my zipper. “That’s an improvement.”

I closed my eyes at the first lap of her tongue against my hard, swollen cock. Sheer pleasure sizzled through me the way it always did. All I needed was her touch. “Do that again,” I grunted out, then groaned my approval when she did—just one thing of so many that set her apart.

She took pride in giving great head because she enjoyed it. She got off on every sound I made and the way my breath quickened.

“That’s right, suck my cock,” I whispered while she did just that—rolled her tongue around my ridge and plunged down again. “Take all of me. Let me feel you swallow around my head.” I hissed in a breath as her throat contracted, my thighs tensing with the sudden burst of pleasure that shot up my spine. “Fuck… is your pussy dripping for me? For my cock? I want to sink so deep inside you. Is that what you want?”

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