Page 70 of Dr. Stone (Billionaires’ Club #9)

Once the house was locked up for the night, I jogged up the stairs to our room, eager to take my woman in my arms and show her how much I’d missed her today.

When I reached the top step, Andie was walking in from the wraparound deck, the breeze still drifting in through all the open sliding doors, cooling the entire upstairs.

And damn, if she didn’t take my breath away.

Hair loose and wavy, wearing one of my T-shirts and nothing else.

She looked like the perfect ending to the best night of my life.

“Hey, handsome,” she said softly, voice a little shaky.

I walked to her and pulled her into my arms, hoping nothing was said to her outside of my presence that may have upset her. “You okay, gorgeous?”

“I’ve never been happier,” she smiled at me, but I saw concern in her eyes.

“We’ve already discussed your cute ass not saying what’s on your mind,” I said, reaching my hand up to her face. “What’s bothering you? I can see it in your eyes, baby.”

She leaned into me, lacing our fingers over her stomach.

“Well, I’m pregnant,” she said in a tone that was equal parts excited and worried.

“Holy shit,” I answered in complete shock. “Pregnant? As in?—”

“As in four months pregnant,” she said, smiling, but she still had that damned worried look on her face.

“Four months?” I repeated, grinning. “Are you telling me Sebastian and Darcy’s wedding is the reason for this?” I laughed, feeling more happiness in that moment than I ever had before.

She laughed, and tears filled her eyes as she nodded. “Yes, it had to be during that time.”

“When did you find out?” I asked, doing the math in my head. “I mean, how are you four months along and just now telling me?”

“I just found out too,” she said before continuing as if she was explaining herself.

“So, I—I didn’t skip my period, not really.

They’ve been spotty and sporadic, but I thought it was irregular from stress or something.

It’s not that unusual,” she continued nervously.

“Lately I’ve been overly tired and feeling really bloated, or so I thought, but nothing like when I was pregnant with Brandon, so it didn’t cross my mind at all.

Then, when I was due for my annual exam at the OBGYN, that’s when my doctor came back with the unexpected reason for me being tired. ”

I covered my mouth in happiness and shock, and I shook my head in awe that this was happening.

“It’s my fault,” she sighed, looking defeated. “I missed a couple of days or more of taking the pill while we were broken up, and I think it didn’t have time?—”

“Baby, stop. You’re telling me this like you’re explaining why you made a huge mistake,” I cut her off. “Don’t ever apologize to me for a gift that is so beautiful, amazing, and completely unexpected.”

“I know, but?—”

“Andie, I’m not him,” I reminded her, knowing this situation must be triggering her fears of being walked out on the last time she told her boyfriend she was pregnant.

“I know that situation was traumatizing for you, but I’m not him.

I want this, I want you , and I want Brandon.

This is the most beautiful miracle we could ask for. ”

I pulled her tightly into my arms when she buried her tears into her hands, and I just kissed the top of her head and held her.

After a few moments, I turned her gently in my arms. “This is our life now. I swear to God, since you and Brandon have been in my life, I’ve never felt more complete.

I never asked for any of this because I never knew I needed it.

” I smiled into her glassy eyes, “Yet here I am, the happiest mother fucker on the planet, and I just leveled up with this amazing news. You’re a gift to me, and now,” I placed my hand over her stomach, “you’re giving me another gift.

” I exhaled, “You know, I wanted to do this differently, but the plan I had—no matter how beautifully romantic I’d planned—wouldn’t compare to how you and I seem to just work so effortlessly and perfectly. ”

“Jace, you don’t have to?—”

“I want to, more than anything in this world, gorgeous,” I said, taking her left hand and kissing her ring finger. “Marry me, Andie. That is all that’s left to complete this whirlwind of a perfect romance and life.”

She shook her head, crying and smiling.

“No?” I said with a laugh.

“Yes!” she answered through tears. “Yes. You make me so happy, baby. I swear, if someone had told me before I met you that this would be my life now, I would’ve never believed them.”

“Those days are over now, beautiful,” he said.

“You’re mine now.” I smiled and ran my hand over her stomach again, “This beautiful baby growing inside of you is mine, and that handsome baby boy was born so he could be mine too.” I reached for her face, kissed her perfect lips, and smiled, “You’re the best thing I never knew I needed, and I’ll spend the rest of my life proving that to you.

” I scooped her up into my arms, “Starting right now.”

My lips found hers, claiming them and thanking her with a heated kiss that said everything.

She embodied the very essence of who I was, and my excitement for our future together nearly overwhelmed me.

So, I planned to channel that energy by pulling my fiancée into my arms and worshiping her goddess-like body until she begged me to stop.

Andie

Brandon and I were moved into Jace’s place within the month, and if I didn’t stop calling it Jace’s place , I was starting to really believe he wasn’t lying when he said we’d be buying a new place together, so that I would fully understand the house was mine, too.

It was surreal, though. Most relationships didn’t work as effortlessly as ours seemed to.

That made it both exciting and unsettling at the same time.

I tried not to dwell on that because I wasn’t a fool.

I knew every relationship was different.

And Ash practically demanded I finally accept that Jace and I were soulmates and stop comparing us to anyone else. But damn, it was hard.

Reality hit when we officially moved Duke into Jace’s house the week after Brandon and I moved in.

We used the same determination to make our relationship work to help Duke adjust, too.

Sometimes it was as hilarious as it was frustrating, like when Duke got passive-aggressive toward me whenever Jace even tried to hug me.

And having sex? That was a whole other challenge that Jace was determined to conquer with the little guy.

Instead of letting Duke’s barking from his crate across the room bother him, Jace found a perfect, almost hypnotic thrusting rhythm that matched each bark.

However, it was all becoming too obnoxious, so I wasn’t surprised when Jace told me he’d found a guy like Cesar Milan to help all of us get to the bottom of Duke’s issues, and maybe the problems between us that were fueling Duke’s possessiveness over women and their men.

About an hour after Brandon fell asleep, Jace joined me on the lounge chairs to watch the last of the sunset. “This is the guy…”

I took his phone and studied the website he’d been looking at for the past hour when I thought he’d been reading a medical article.

“Okay,” I said as I stared at the website on his phone.

“It seems this guy might have the extra magic we need,” he said with humor.

The background was a looping video of waves crashing against a lavender coastline, except the water ran in slow motion and reversed every few seconds, as if time itself obeyed this man.

My eyes scanned the website, reading about the man that Jace had discovered might help with Duke’s dominance issues:

Canine Behavioral Harmonizer

“Because your dog isn’t disobedient… he’s misunderstood.”

For over thirteen years, Orin Rhylor has guided both humans and their companion animals through energetic realignment and behavioral reintegration using nonverbal intuitive feedback, vibration-centric dialogue, and elemental recalibration practices.

He does not train dogs. He communes with them.

Orin holds certifications in Emotional Resonance Therapy, Human-Canine Harmonic Tuning (HCHT), and is a Level III Reiki Facilitator for Mammals.

He is currently developing his own proprietary method of Bark Frequency Interpretation?, which involves attuning the client’s aura to their canine’s unresolved ancestral distress.

Sessions often include:

—Breathwork with your canine

—Sage-assisted leash detachment

—Grounding rituals through mindful paw contact

—Behavioral pattern decoding using touchless cueing and ancient tonality

—Optional cacao ceremony (for humans only)

“At our core, dogs are not meant to be trained. They are meant to be trusted.” —Orin Rhylor

Beneath that was a portrait of Orin, standing barefoot in a stone circle surrounded by four wolves, one of whom wore what looked like a hand-beaded crystal necklace.

He had long, copper-streaked hair pulled into a half-knot at the crown of his head, layered with a sand-colored robe and thin leather sandals.

His eyes were glacier gray and intense as fuck.

“Jesus,” I said, laughing and handing Jace back his phone. “How’d you find that guy? Through Ash?”

Jace chuckled and looked at the image of Orin again, “One could easily assume that, but no. The damn guy pops up everywhere on these dog specialist searches I’ve been doing.”

“Well, there’s the reason he’s popping up under the keywords you’re giving the search engine,” I laughed again. “We don’t need a dog specialist, just someone to help us train him to be more obedient and listen to us.”

“Nah,” Jace smiled with almost a little wickedness in his eyes.

“Duke needs something more, especially with our baby on the way. He’s been so damn unhinged lately that we need a dog guru like that guy,” he pulled the phone close to his face to look at the guy’s picture again.

“His eyes are so intense he actually looks like he could hypnotize squirrels.”