Page 175 of Felonies are Forever

He’s silent for a moment and I turn my head to see him raise an eyebrow and give me that crooked smile.

“Remember when I told you it made me feel better buying things for you?” He sniffs. “I’ve had that ring for a year. Since last Christmas, actually. Wasn’t sure when, but I think deep down I knew someday it would be on your finger. I couldn’t imagine life without you, so I just started preparing.”

His fingers twirl on my nipple, making me sigh as the smile I’ve been wearing since this morning is making my cheeks ache.

“All these years.” I fiddle with the round gold band, watching the princess cut diamond sparkle in the low candlelight of the bedroom. “We were both thinking about the other one. It all seems so far away now, like we’ve always been this. Now. Together. Isn’t that strange?”

“I’ll take strange if this is what strange is, baby. All I know, is I get to wake up next to you every Christmas morning for the rest of my life, so you will never need to get me another gift. I have everything I could ever want, and then some.”

“Me too, Daddy. And you know what else?”

“What?”

“You were my first noel.” I chuckle, wiggling myself back onto his cock, hard again already, making my tummy flutter.

“Your first and your last, Candy Cane. Your first and last. I love you, baby. Always and forever.”

THIRTEEN

Thirteen

Holly

Epilogue One

Six months later…

“Happy six-month anniversary, baby.”Cole holds out a little box with one hand, his other hand rubbing my belly through the thin fabric of my maternity dress.

“I didn’t get you anything, you big dummy.”

“You’re slacking, Candy Cane.”

I reach over and smack his shoulder. “That’s not what you said this morning when your cock was three inches down my throat.”

He leans back in the chair as we sit around the new pool in the back yard of the house, the early summer sun just drifting lower in the sky, casting a beautiful mixture of violet and orange.

“True, but I don’t care if you got me anything anyway. Every day I wake up next to you is a gift. So just open it.”

I flip open the lid on the tiny wooden box and gasp when I see the tag, my heart practically leaping from my chest.

“Really?” I throw my arms around his neck. “Where? Is it here?”

“No, baby. Tomorrow we’re going to the rescue and you can pick out any puppy you want. Two, if you can’t choose just one.”

There’s a dog tag in the box, left blank, but I’ve been begging for a puppy for months. I want to get one now so when the baby comes it will be already close to house trained and it can grow up with our son or daughter.

“Thank you, Daddy!” I’m up out of my chair and straddling him in an instant, sitting on his lap and kissing every part of his handsome face.

Since spring, Cole’s been putting in a metal fence around the entire ten acres of property in preparation for the baby, but now I know it was in preparation for this as well.

Since we’ve been together, he’s wanted to know anything and everything about me, including all the things I’ve wanted in my life but never had.

One was a pool. I always envied all the kids who had a backyard pool. I feel so good in the water and Cole’s had the most beautiful lagoon style pool installed, with all the safety and security measures in place to keep our little one safe.

Now, it’s the puppy. Or puppies...we will see. Henry was allergic to any sort of animals growing up, so combine that with my mother’s sort of base lazy nature and dogs—or any animal, for that matter—were a no go, no matter how much I begged.

I’ve taken to volunteering at the local shelters. Taking beautiful, artistic pictures of the animals up for adoption and posting them on a blog I started, as well as on their own sites,and the adoption rates for the pets photographed by me is up fifty percent.

---