Page 15 of His Valentine

“I believe the words out of Briar’s mouth were,when you get married, will he be my daddy?”Kennedy turns around. Her beautiful deep and soulful hazel eyes stare up at me as happiness seeps from her. It’s damn contagious.

“Fuck, but I love her, and I fuckin’ love you, too.” I know as soon as she processes the words I said to her. She’s stunned silent for a beat. My eyes move from her, glancing at Briar to see what she’s up to. There’s a pile of adults here. Plenty of them have their eye on the only kid here making the most noise and the biggest splash. Still, doesn’t hurt to check for myself.

“You love us?”

“Yeah, babe. I love you both. You’re a package deal. Knew that from the very beginning. Might have taken me time to get my head on straight, but it is now. This is it, the real deal.” I dip my head lower to whisper in her ear, “Took you raw, Kennedy, planted my seed inside you. Love you and Briar more than life itself.” She lifts up toward me, hands going to the back of my neck and pulling me closer. I don’t give one single fuck that we are surrounded by her family and our friends. I’m taking her mouth, wanted it the moment I saw her standing near the pool, wearing a two-piece bathing suit, curves on full display. She’slost some weight, toned here and there, but she’s still got it going on. Ass, tits, hips, and a face that has any man walking past her sporting wood.

“I love you,” she utters before placing a kiss near my jaw.

“Fuckin’ right.” I move, taking her mouth with mine. My hands grip her waist, fingers digging into her flesh, and I kiss my woman like I haven’t had her mouth hours before. Tonight can’t come soon enough. I love being around everyone, but damn if I’m not craving some alone time.

“Get a room,” Luke interjects.

“Gross,” Jude states.

“Come on, man, that’s my sister,” Asher grunts.

“Nobody paid for a show.” Matthew lets out a low whistle after his comment.

“Another one bites the dust, brothers,” Crew chimes in. It’s probably a good thing Jagger is out of town. He’d run up to us and start dancing in the form of shaking his ass. He’s a pain.

“Damn, can’t say I didn’t see that coming.” Tysen must have just walked in, since he wasn’t here when I walked through the door.

“Leave ‘em be. It’s the honeymoon stage,” Lennie hollers.

“Got nothin’ but happiness for them,” Johnny finishes off the group talking. The catcalls quiet down after that, thankfully. They’ll disperse here and there, grab a beer, help grill, or hop in the pool. Then Briar will swim over, ask someone to throw her until they need a breather and repeat it again twenty minutes later.

“Later, we’ll continue this.” I pull back from Kennedy, knowing if I take this much farther, I’ll need to use her as a shield until my cock decides to settle down. Of course, her ass won’t do a damn thing, and it’ll be an endless cycle of staying hard. A damn shame we’re not at my house without anyone around, but that will come soon enough. If I had it my way,Kennedy and Briar would be moved in by next weekend, she’d be in Gran’s car tomorrow, my ring would be on her finger as soon as possible, I’d work on adopting Briar, which is going to be a pain in the ass with Chris being wherever he is. And Kennedy would have our child in her belly.

“Promise?” she asks softly.

“That’s a guaran-fucking-tee.” I lightly smack her ass. Her eyes flare with desire. I’ve got to shut this down, or Asher will do more than talk. No thanks on a broken nose; the man has a killer right hook.

“Okay.” I watch as she turns toward the pool and heads in Lennie’s direction. Asher’s woman is sitting under an umbrella, sipping what looks like a glass of lemonade and looking from Asher to Briar.

“You do not fuck around.” Johnny comes up beside me, handing me a bottle of beer.

“Nope, done that enough in the past. You good?” I ask. We all work a lot in our friend group. Johnny takes the cake, the club, both the upper and lower level, pulling his weight with Jagged Edge Builders. I’m not sure he ever fucking sleeps.

“Never better. Happy for you. Gonna grab a bite to eat.” He clinks his bottle with mine and moves away. Shit is bothering Johnny, a whole hell of a lot; he just isn’t saying jack about it.

“Couldn’t have chosen better myself, Trent. I know I give you hell. Won’t stop either. She’s my baby sister, and I’ve protected her my whole life with the help of everyone here. I’m glad she has you, but if you break her heart, friend or not, brother or not, I’ll break your fucking neck,” Asher states.

“I’d rather step in front of a bullet than so much as hurt a hair on their heads.” He quirks an eyebrow my way. “Whatever. Already apologized to Kennedy, not that it’s any business of yours. I thought I was doing the right thing. Clearly, I wasn’t, made mistakes along the way. Pushed her away when I shouldhave held on. I’m doing that now, never fucking letting her go. That good enough for you?”

“Yep. All I needed to hear. I hate you’re taking my niece away from me, though. I just got her close, but she’ll love your place more. Rest in peace to your wood floors. Glitter and glue are a bitch.” Asher stated his piece, I did the same, and now it’s done and over. This is what men do; they either hit one another to apologize or the other gets their point across until you tell them in no uncertain terms you’re not fucking around. Then it’s over and done with, and we all move the hell on.

“Trent! Come throw me,pleaseeee,”Briar summons me.

“Guess I better do her biding. The princess has spoken, so I’ve got a girl to toss around in the pool,” I tell Asher, finishing our conversation.

“You sure do. Better you than me, brother.” He slaps me on the back then goes his way, and I go mine. I hop in the pool using the side as leverage. Briar is already swimming toward me.

“I wanna go high.” She attaches herself to me, and we head toward the shallow end of the pool so I can have enough momentum for her to fly through the air. In all reality, it’s not too high that she could get hurt, but when you’re Briar’s age, it’s all a matter of relativity.

“You’ve got it.” I lift her up, her feet in my hands, and in a squatted position, I lift up, and she jumps as I throw Briar to the other side. A loud screech of laughter echoes around us before a big splash sounds. I watch her the entire time, making sure she comes up for air in a decent amount of time.

“She’s got you wrapped around your finger,” Kennedy says over my shoulder, her arms wrapping around my waist.

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