Page 85 of With This Ring

After he’s deemed the circulation is back, Carter rolls to the side, pulling me against him. He kisses my forehead. “We won’t be able to do that when we have kids. You know that, right?”

Carter and I have been discussing getting a surrogate for kids. Adoption is an option as well, if we can’t find someone we trust enough to carry our child. We’ve been going back and forth if we will have one or two. Carter says he’ll give me whatever I want, including two kids, but our lives are busy, and he wants to ensure we can give our kids what they deserve as far as love and attention. Something I never got enough of.

After the war, I learned more about Charlie. Turns out, he and my mother were in a relationship, but she wasn’t someone he wanted to marry. When she got pregnant, he paid her an obscene amount of money to get rid of me and to never darken his doorstep again. She obviously didn’t listen. But she didn’twant me after I was born, so she did what he told her not to do and left me with him.

I still have no desire to meet my mother. I’ve lived this long without her. She would in no way enrich my life.

In the year that he’s been dead, I’ve made more connections with our drugs and guns sales. It seems like Pop was content to only deal with the few people that he started working with decades ago, even though other people reached out to do business. It’s been hard making those connections, since most didn’t trust me because of Pop. But it’s worked out well. I’m making money hand over fist; and the Colombians I’m getting product from wholesale are happy campers with how much money they’re getting from me.

Making those new connections made it easier for me to pay off the debts Pop had. I didn’t get too many questions about paying the taxes too quickly because I was the owner of so many casinos and a construction company. I’m sure the IRS was eager to take the money and get me off their books.

Snuggling closer to Carter, I kiss at the side of his neck. “I know. But it’ll be fine. Parents with kids find ways to fuck all the time.”

The rumble of his chuckle makes me smile. “Yeah, let’s just hope they don’t walk in on me plowing your ass. They’d be traumatized.”

I laugh, burying my face in his chest. “I bet.” I stretch, feeling the drying cum on my back. “I need to get showered. I don’t want to walk around with jizz on me all day.”

Carter helps me out of bed and walks me to the bathroom. This bathroom looks just like the one from the other house, though it has two sinks instead of one. Carter drives me fucking crazy when he leaves toothpaste in the sink, and he bitches at me because he finds strands of hair in the drain. If we didn’t get two sinks, we might have killed each other.

He turns me around to the mirror, smiling widely. “See how good you look?”

I peek over my shoulder, looking at my red ass. Itdoeslook good. Handprints cover me, large and imposing. It’ll hurt to sit down for a few days, but I welcome the pain. It’ll be a reminder of how Carter owned me so thoroughly.

“Can’t wait to do this again,” he says, kissing my shoulder.

After I stare at my ass for a few more seconds, we hop in the shower. We have a big night ahead of us.

Indigo Arc Casino and Restaurants ribbon cutting is in a few hours.

The construction of the casino and all the rooms Carter and I added in addition took close to a year. We had a few snags, with inclement weather and teenagers being dicks and trashing the place. A few broken limbs made them reconsider fucking with other people’s shit.

But finally, it’s ready for its grand re-opening. It’s overwhelming to move into our new place as well as open the casino the same week, but I don’t mind. As long as I have Carter by my side, I can do anything.

I tip my head back when we get in the shower, letting the water cascade down my back. Carter will bitch at me for my hair being in the shower, but whatever. I’ve let it grow longer this past year, the waves tumbling half down my back. Carter told me plenty of times how much he loved my hair and takes great pleasure in tugging on it all the time. He does it even more now that it’s so much longer.

Turning me around, Carter washes my back, cleaning my cum off me. Then he dips down to my hole, washing me thoroughly.

“If we didn’t have plans tonight,” he says as he spreads me open more and runs my cloth over my hole, “I’d fuck you againstthis shower wall. Especially with your ass as red as it is from my swats.”

I shiver, wanting the same thing. But if we get started again, we won’t come up for air for the rest of the night.

We’ll only have a few weeks downtime before Declan is opening his own casino. When we got rid of the Fensters, we absorbed their territory, which encompassed a few casinos, their furniture store, and a few nightclubs. Their property helped expand our territory and give our family more sway over most other families.

In the year since our short war, we’ve rebuilt our ranks, swelling our men past what we had before and are now the largest family in South Jersey. We’re no longer seen as the St. Clair’s and the Whitlock’s separately; we’re the St. Clair-Whitlock family and everyone knows our names.

The Fensters had some distant relatives that tried to come down and make waves for us. We sent them all back in body bags, until they stopped coming. We have no more enemies on that front.

With the Russians gone for good, their territory went to the Reyes family. We have reach, but we’re not greedy. What we control is more than enough for us. Anything else would be too much and we wouldn’t have as strong a hold on it as we’d like.

Twisting my head, I kiss Carter quickly. “Make sure you put on a suit tonight. Dominic will give you shit if you embarrass him by wearing combat boots to the fucking opening ceremony.”

Since he turned over the family to Carter, Dominic has relaxed and started taking vacations. He’s been doing all the things he didn’t do while he was at war and dealing with his contentious relationship with my family. Now that the family is in good hands, he’s living his best life.

Carter chuckles and finishes washing me. “I will. Jesus. If you or Dad tell me that shit again, I’ll fucking scream.”

“I like how you look with a suit on. With your dark hair and your tattoos, you look like a sexy, professional bad boy.”

He gives me a droll look, making me laugh.

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