Page 144 of Tempt Her

CHAPTERTHIRTY-SEVEN

Sometimes I can pinch myself. Like I’m living in a dream, a fantasy I conjured while I slept behind bars for years.

Because I’ve never felt this free. This proud and so goddamned loved.

Stacey holds my hand while we work the crowd at her opening party. She’s glowing like she’s done a dozen yoga classes, or how she looks in bed after we’ve satisfied her all night.

The silky short red slip dress she’s wearing looks simple. Simple enough to charm the devil out of hell because the back is draping open, exposing the dimples just above her ass. I keep glancing at the tempting view of the strings of crystals falling from her halter neckline down her tan back. Her golden hair swishes from a high ponytail, making her lavender-scented strands fill my senses.

Fuck, my woman is gorgeous.

And damn, I may have walked away, intimidated by her confidence and our crush when I was a boy. But this man is never leaving her sexy side. Not when I love her this damn much, and she’s squeezing my hand like she can read my mind.

Like she’s busy talking but thinking,yes, I love you too.

Her free hand reaches to hug her friend, Cade, who’s just arrived, while Stacey admires, “Damn, I want to look this hot a month after I havemybaby.”

“Oh.” Cade’s thick eyebrows shoot up. “Is there something you two need to tell me?”

I laugh. “At the rate we’re going, she’s gonna break our dicks off before she’s ready to have our baby.”

Stacey elbows me. “I don’t hear you complaining.”

I kiss her cheek. “Never, baby.”

Stacey scans the crowd, asking Cade. “Whereisthe baby?”

“Redix has her.” Cade points to the shop’s front doors. They’re open to the warm September night outside. “We can’t bare to leave her yet,” Cade says, “but I just wanted to come by real quick tonight to support you.”

The sight I behold through the open doors is my next dream. To be a dad. To be a husband.

Watching that famous actor, Redix Dean, bounce on his bare feet, cradling his newborn daughter against his chest, makes my heart hammer so hard. He’s standing outside on the piazza, content being on dad duty. Wearing dress pants and a dinner jacket with no shirt, his sleeping baby is drooling over his long hair and bare pecs, and I don’t blame her.

If I weren’t such a happily taken man, no wonder Redix Dean makes pantiesandboxers drop.

And if Redix and Cade weren’t so obviously happily married and in love, and if Cade weren’t such a badass who’d probably kill me, I’d be all about Redix. And Cade would be a gift too.

A hot actor with a former model? Damn, imagine their hot sex.

I can. I can imagine their happy life, too. Even what their daughter will look like one day.

I can imagine my daughter with Stacey. She’d be so cute. Or our son. Fuck, I don’t care.

There aren’t enough stars for the wishes I have for our lives together.

“Where’s Silas?” Stacey asks Cade while a tray of gourmet hush puppies passes by, and I grab one.

Everyone knows Redix Dean, Cade Bryant, and Silas Van de May are in a famous throuple. Between Redix’s fame and Silas’s billions, they can’t avoid the press. Not like they hide it. They’re proud of their love, just like we are.

Though I still sweat the press Stacey gets. I wish they’d leave her alone. Gentry’s trial is ending, and we’ll know the verdict soon.

GUILTY AS HELL.

But the press finally found Stacey, and they’re camped outside her store. It’s good for business, bad for security. That’s why she has those bodyguards who stand like stone mountains by the doors.

I thought Luke, Ford, and me had size? But damn, Grant and Jace eclipse the sun. They don’t seem like dicks, either. Though I still clock their side-eyes whenever Stacey sashays past them.

I ain’t mad about it.

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