Page 17

Six Years Later

Scarlett

A sigh escapes my lips, a soft and contented sound that mingles with the gentle brush against canvas.

I’ve been painting for hours, lost in the world of color and texture, reveling every second of it.

A family portrait I’ve been working on for weeks is finally coming alive, which means I’ll finish it in time for my best friend’s birthday.

The painting will be ready to be framed with just a few more touches.

I push back to stare at the portrait with a sense of pride.

A few years ago, when I decided to quit my accounting major, I was scared that I was making a terrible decision.

Despite being great with numbers, some might even say talented, accounting never held appeal for me.

The main reason I picked the major in the first place was because I was terrified to go against my father’s wishes.

But a bigger part of me craved his attention.

I figured that if I was helpful and took the path he wanted for me, then he’d value me. It didn’t work.

Choosing art was for me. A passion I’d kept a secret and perhaps would have carried on hiding out of habit if my husband hadn’t confronted me with the truth.

The change was terrifying, but my decision was solidified when Gray dropped me off at the first class with a promise to support whatever decision I made.

With a smile, I brush my finger over the portrait, reminiscing about the memories that often come with every painting.

A deep happiness I didn’t imagine I was capable of feeling until I met Gray settles over me, bone deep.

He and our Chrome Rebels family didn’t just save me from my father but gave my life color.

I find my mind drifting to the man who raised me, though that’s being generous.

It’s bittersweet, grieving for a man that I’d wished he was while feeling relief to finally be out of the clutches of a man who never had a kind word for his daughter.

With his death, the Vipers who could, scattered.

Those who couldn’t were taken care of by the Rebels, with some hefty pay offs to the local police force.

The Vipers are no more. Haven’t been in years. I sold off everything belonging to the club since it was under my name and used some of the funds to turn the Den into a women’s shelter. I did everything I could to atone for my sins despite Gray’s constant reminders that I had done nothing wrong.

In hopes of being rid of thoughts of the past, I turn back to lose myself in the painting.

And I become so lost that I don’t see or hear him coming until suddenly, I feel a warm presence behind me.

Before I can turn around, I’m enveloped in an embrace, arms circling around my waist as my husband buries his face in my neck.

“Gray!” I exclaim, slapping my husband’s hand playfully. “You scared me. Jesus, you have to stop creeping up on me when I’m painting.”

“Old habit,” he says into my neck, his warm breath caressing my skin. Goosebumps climb up my body when he kisses my neck, his hands teasing over my dress. “I missed you.”

My heart swells at his words, and there’s that feeling again. The same feeling I had the first time I saw him on that terrace. It’s the same feeling I had when he came to find me in my father’s office, even though I was brokenhearted at what I’d thought was his betrayal.

It’s the feeling I had when I walked down the aisle to the man three weeks after the incident at the clubhouse because Gray wouldn’t have it any other way—and I wouldn’t either.

“I missed you too,” I answer, leaning back against his firm chest, basking in the contentment that comes whenever he’s close. “Where did you guys go this time?”

“Downtown. Saint has me training the new prospects on surveillance techniques.”

I smile at that. “Trying to create mini versions of you?” I tease.

From the moment we got married and decided to settle down, Gray cut back on his riskier jobs, picking those that didn’t require him to be gone overnight.

Now he is more careful with the kinds of gambles he takes and makes sure he was in bed with me every night.

“As long as the prospects don’t fall in love with our rivals’ daughters, they’ll be fine.”

“Hey!” I exclaim, playfully slapping his arms, but he simply laughs, his attention turning to the painting, and I turn my head to the side to watch him as he studies it.

“I’m in awe of you,” he says, turning his eyes from the painting to mine. “Your talent is exceptional.” His lips brush over mine, the move so soft and intimate it sends a shiver rolling down my spine. “Your beauty and that heart of yours. Everything about you is beautiful. One of a kind.”

“You’re one of a kind,” I return, my heart thumping unsteadily in my chest. “Do you think Brooke will like it?”

“I would bet everything on it,” he says, turning back to the painting. “How about working on our family portrait next?”

I shake my head, heaving a feigned sigh. “It’s going to take several months to complete ours.”

“Why?” His brows furrow in confusion. “You’ve only been working on this for a couple weeks, and their family is bigger than ours.”

“Well...” I bite back a smile as I get up from the chair and walk to the kitchen where I left my purse earlier. I dig around for the white envelope before passing it over to my husband. “This is why.”

Gray takes the envelope and opens it, his eyes widening in surprise when he sees what’s inside. He tugs out the black-and-white image of the ultrasound. “No way,” he exclaims, dropping his hand on the countertop. “Princess...”

“I’m two months along,” I say with a smile, grinning from ear to ear as I take in his reaction. It’s the same one I had when the doctor gave me the news that after years of trying for a baby, I’d finally conceived. “I can’t paint our family portrait until I know what we all look like.”

Arms circle my shoulders, and I am pulled into a tight embrace.

Despite our different upbringings, neither of us came from a loving home, and we shared fears that we wouldn’t be any different from the people who had us, but after becoming an aunt and uncle to the Rebels’ babies, we decided we wanted nothing more than to be parents ourselves, to have a chance to do what our own parents hadn’t and love our baby the way they deserved.

A part of me didn’t expect it to happen after so much time, and now, it feels fated.

“You’re everything,” he says shakily into my neck. “God, I can’t put into words what you mean to me.”

“Then show me.”

My lips move to kiss his jaw, slowly moving to his lips. Gray backs me to the kitchen counter, his palm warm as he moves it upward, lifting my dress as he goes. “I love you.”

“I know,” I say, reading the needy desperation in his eyes. “I want you.”

“Me too.” I reach between us and unbuckle his belt before twisting open the button on his jeans. His breathing grows ragged when Islide the zipper downward. My heart is racing with excitement when I take him into my hand, gently stroking his warm shaft.

“Christ, the things you do to me,” he grinds out through his clenched teeth, his eyes flooding with heat.

“Harder, baby. Stroke me faster.” I lean in and kiss his jaw, doing as he asks.

My hand moves faster, his need feeding into mine as I feel my underwear grow damp and sticky with arousal. “Fuuuck!”

His hand grips my nape before his mouth sweeps over mine in a hungry kiss. It’s wet and warm, incredibly obscene as his tongue glides against mine with the desperation of a starved man.

Gray combs his hand through my hair and grabs a fistful, angling my head before slamming his mouth back down on mine, deepening the kiss to such intensity it feels primal. So overwhelming it has my toes curling and sex cinching desperately. I wince at the emptiness.

“Gray,” I whimper, needing more. He jerks hard against me when my hand tightens around his shaft.

“I know,” he rasps, sliding his hand back under my dress before tearing my panties away in a violent jerk. He tears them completely off then hooks his arm under my ass cheeks and lifts me to the countertop.

“Please,” I sob against his lips, my sex pulsing so needily, I feel close to exploding. “Gray, please!”

“Fuck, Scarlett,” he growls, positioning himself between my legs. I whimper desperately when he rubs the head of his shaft over my wet hole, teasing but not quite giving in. He stops me when I inch closer, the hand on my waist holding me in place.

The cruel man!

“Gray!” I sob, clawing his shoulder, trying to force him closer. “Please, I need to feel you. Want you inside of me.”

“You beg so prettily; how can I say no to that?”

My thighs are practically trembling when he lifts my legs to his hips, and with his arm wrapped around my waist, he slams forward, sheathing his manhood deep inside me. Moving so hard, he knocks the air from my lungs.

“Oh!” A rough shudder rolls down my body, and I cry out at the blissful feeling of fullness, shifting my legs to take him deeper.

“Is this what you wanted?” he demands, pulling out and leaving just the tip of his massive cock inside before he slams back in. I cry out, my arousal coating his shaft when he starts hammering into me. “Fuck baby, you’re practically dripping, leaking all over me.”

“Hmm,” I moan, bucking up to meet his thrusts, breaths hitching as he picks up the pace. His cock strokes the sweet spot inside of me, and I find myself chanting, sobbing, begging even, for him to fuck me faster and harder.

“Mine!” he growls as his thrusts turn frantic and uncoordinated.

He grunts roughly, his hips punching forward before he changes his mind.

He slides out of me then pulls me off the counter.

I barely have a second to catch my breath before I’m spun to face the counter, then he’s slamming back into me.

“Oh God, yes,” I sob, gripping the edge of the countertop as he pistons his massive cock in and out of my dripping sex. Gray reaches his hand around my hip and a cry tears from my lips when his fingers expertly strum my clit in rough circles. “Close... Baby...”

I’ve never been able to do it myself. My fingers, soft and small, are no match for his. Those long fingers, rough and calloused, are the only ones that have ever brought me pleasure. Will only ever bring me pleasure.

Fireworks spark from the point where our bodies join before firing off to the rest of my body. I scream, knees buckling and sex cinching hard around the massive cock as I climax. Stars shoot behind my eyes as waves of rippling pleasure roar through me.

“Fuck! I’m coming...”

Gray goes stiff behind me, muscles tense before he releases into me with a deafening roar.

His cock jerks inside of me as he fills me with hot bursts of his seed, my sex pulsing hard around him and milking him to his last drop.

His thrusts turn slow until he stops, pulling out of me with a rough grunt.

“Woah,” I heave, struggling to stand upright, but my knees have turned to jelly. Gray doesn’t stop me when I slide down to the floor, but instead follows as well.

“The floor is cold,” he pants, pulling me on top of him, and I’m too weak and sated to protest.

“We should probably attempt to crawl to the carpet.”

“Later,” he whispers, hugging me tight to his chest. “For the record, I don’t regret falling for the rival’s daughter.”

“Damn right,” I say, weakly slapping his chest.

He laughs, and we lie still for a second before I feel him reach above me, and when he comes back, he’s holding the ultrasound pictures. “I can’t believe we’re going to be parents. You and me.”

“We’ll be the best parents ever,” I say, kissing his chest.

“We’ll love this little peanut the way we never were, won’t we, princess?”

“We will,” I agree. “And it’s not one peanut. Try two peanuts.”

I look up just in time to catch the surprised look on his face before settling back to laugh. “Two? We’re having two babies? At once?”

“That’s how twins work, honey.” I chuckle, burrowing into his chest with a contented smile. Any doubts or fears I had before all disappear, and I close my eyes, thanking my lucky stars for sending this man to me. To fate for bringing him to my doorstep. I plan on keeping him forever.

~The End

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