Page 72 of Worth Every Moment (Hawkston Billionaires #4)

W e’re lying in my bed the morning after the London premiere of Taming the Beast .

Erica’s dress lies in a heap on the floor, alongside my black tie suit.

She wore one of the dresses Dominic DeLacey sent over for the occasion.

He called her a few weeks ago, profusely apologised for throwing champagne on her at the Tate Modern, and begged her to wear one of his designs to the premier.

He sent masses of flowers and more clothes than she could ever wear, as well as ten different ballgowns for her to choose from.

Erica, not wanting to hold a grudge, chose the one she liked best and wore it.

She looked incredible in it too. It was hard to keep my hands off her all night.

The film was better than I could ever have imagined, and Erica’s performance had me desperate to get her home so I could have her to myself.

Which I did, many, many times. I coaxed as many orgasms from her body as I could, relishing every tremor and whimper, eating them up like treats, before we both fell asleep in a tangle of sheets.

Erica, her hair mussed and eyes heavy with sleep and sated desire, kisses my hip, where there’s a tiny tattoo of an infinity symbol.

She traces it with her tongue, and a burst of arousal pumps through me, right to my dick, but we’ve already fucked twice this morning, so I try to contain myself.

I disabled all the cameras in here, seeing as Erica’s pretty much moved in and I no longer need to hide the huge picture of her in the bathroom from anyone anymore.

She teases the tattoo again with her tongue and my dick jerks. She looks up at me, brow rising as she deliberately looks between me and my dick. “You like that, huh?”

“Pavlovian response. You lick me, my dick’s gonna jump.”

She runs her tongue over the tattoo again. “I love this. I didn’t think you were a tattoo kinda guy.”

“I’m not. But I thought I was going to live my life without you, so I got it done to keep you with me.”

She smiles, then leaps up and slaps a hand over my bare chest. “Why not on your heart then?”

I chuckle. “Because I’m not a tattoo kinda guy. Besides, you were already in there. You’ve been in there since I first saw you in that high street catalogue. You don’t need to be on the outside too.”

“I still think you should have put it on your pec,” she says, her tongue sliding out and licking my nipple like she’s some kind of sun-soaked reptile.

“Nah. I should have got it on my arse. Then you’d be licking that all the time.”

She laughs. “You’re ridiculous.” She might be mocking me, but there’s an indulgent gleam in her eye as she dips and gives the tattoo another long, lingering lick. “But this is sexy as hell.”

I pull her up the bed, so our faces are on a level, and kiss her. “Maybe we should get you a matching one. The Hawkston logo, right here.” I grab her arse with one hand and squeeze.

She yelps, then rolls over. “Nope. What if you sold the business? I don’t want that logo on my bum if it has nothing to do with you.

” She nods at my hip. “I sold my half of my company to Arthur Knatchbull, so now you’ve got a tattoo that refers to him and my mother. It’s nothing to do with me anymore.”

“That’s not what it means to me. To me, it’s you. Forever. Also…”

She perks up at my tone. “What?”

“It wasn’t Arthur who bought it, it was me.”

She squeaks. “Really?”

“Yup. He just fronted the deal. I also bought your mother’s half—I offered her a price she couldn’t say no to.”

She bounces on the bed, looking as excited as a little kid as she slams her hands down on the sheets. “No! Did you? I knew Arthur paid a crazy price for it.” She swats playfully at my chest. “It was you all along. You idiot. I should have known.”

“Yeah, it was me. I also set your mum up with a new business. A modelling agency, based in Geneva.”

“Geneva?”

I shrug. “Yeah. Far away, but not too far. You know, in case you ever want to talk to her again. She seemed pretty happy about the deal to be honest.”

Erica’s eyes widen. “You exiled her.”

I let out a bellowing laugh. “No, I didn’t.

She went willingly.” I pause, reassessing.

“With a little encouragement. I don’t want anyone around who’s going to upset you, but if you want to re-establish contact one day, I know where she is.

” I press a kiss to her lips. “And now the entire Erica Lefroy company is under my ownership, so if you want it back… it’s all yours. ”

She leaps on me, smashing a sloppy kiss on my mouth. “You’re the best.”

“There is one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“You have to do a photo shoot with Diana for her social media accounts. She bloody loves that Taming the Beast book, and she idolises you. After everything that happened, and how essential her assistance was in taking Dad down, it’s the least I could do.”

“The least I could do, you mean?” she teases.

“The least we could do?” I suggest, and she smirks and kisses me again. “Without Diana, we might not be here. I’d do the photo shoot for you, but people would notice that I’m not Erica Lefroy. Your shoes are great, but they’re not really my style.”

She shakes her head at my joke. “Of course I’ll do it. Thank you. I was really sad to let the company go.” A cunning look whisks through her gaze. “You should do the shoot with me.”

I grin, remembering how she straddled me all those months ago for the cameras. “Not this time.”

“Spoilsport.” She sighs, stretching her arms over her head, letting out an ‘ eee’ that’s half yawn, half excited squeal. “Any news from your brothers?”

I roll over and grab my phone, checking the messages. I find one from Matt and another from Aries. “Yup. Baby was born last night.”

Erica leaps out of bed. “What the hell are we waiting for then? Let’s go meet your niece!”

“Nephew. They had a boy.”

Her smile widens, and as much as I want to go and meet the new Hawkston baby, I can’t take my eyes off Erica.

She’s a goddess, standing naked at the end of my bed.

I can’t believe she’s here. Every day she’s here, every night, every morning.

I fall asleep next to her and wake up beside her.

The reality of a life with Erica exceeds every hope and expectation I ever had.

“You’re even more beautiful than the picture in the bathroom,” I say. Erica’s been pestering me to get rid of it. She complains it freaks her out having to pee in the same room as a huge image of her, but there’s no fucking way I’m getting rid of it. It’s here to stay, just like she is.

She grabs a t-shirt from the chair and tosses it at me. “Move it, Hawkston. I want to meet this kid.”

Forty-five minutes later, we’re showered and dressed and standing outside the suite at the Portland hospital with Nico and Kate.

A midwife exits the room and allows us to pass inside, where Aries is propped up on pillows, a tiny newborn cradled in her arms. She looks tired but happy. Matt sits on a chair at the side of her bed.

Aries smiles at us, but her eyes only leave the baby long enough to murmur, “Hey.”

Nico and Kate enter behind us, and Kate coos and clasps her hands. “Oh, look how tiny he is.”

Nico smiles, wrapping his arms around Kate from behind, hands protectively cupped over her stomach. He whispers something in her ear, and I instantly know she’s already pregnant.

“Come here,” Matt says to me.

Erica, who’s been holding my hand until now, lets go so I can approach the bed.

“Do you want to hold him?” Aries says, passing the bundle of baby to me without waiting for a response.

I haven’t held a baby since Matt’s daughter Lucie was born, and that was years ago.

“He can’t hold his head up,” she reminds me, her own hand cradling his head until she’s confident I have him in my arms.

I stare at his little face, all scrunched up and swollen.

He's only a couple of hours old, and it blows my mind that the child we've all been waiting for is finally here.

His tiny hands escape the swaddle, exposing wrists that are soft and wrinkled.

Miniature fingers grip my index finger, and an unexpected sense of awe that sweeps through me.

I'm choking up out of nowhere. Adjusting my hold, I accidentally knock the little cotton cap from his head, revealing a shock of red hair.

“Wow,” I murmur. “Congratulations. You had a ginger baby.”

There’s a ripple of laughter.

“Yeah. I must have nuked Matt’s dark-hair genes,” Aries replies. “Pretty cool, huh?”

“He’s gorgeous.” I run my finger over his tiny nose and bend to pick up his hat and fit it back on his head. “Congratulations. What’s his name?”

“Seb,” Matt says.

My name sends a jolt through me. “Yeah? What?”

“No, stupid,” Matt replies. “We named him Seb.”

“Sebastian?” I ask.

“Nope,” Aries confirms. “Just Seb. We know you hate Sebastian.”

“We’d like you to be his godfather,” Matt adds.

“Me?” It’s a stupid question, which is appropriate given how stupid I’m sounding at the moment, but it’s a lot to take in.

I can’t believe Matt would offer me something like this, or call his son after me, and I can’t say anything sensible because my throat gets choked up again. “Oh, fuck,” I mutter. “I’m gonna cry.”

Nico steps up behind me, a hand on my shoulder as he peers around me to see little Seb’s face. “He’s nearly as wrinkly as Dad.”

The mention of our father causes a chill in the air.

The board ousted him after Diana and I exposed him.

He’s powerless. A lot of shit went down for Diana after that night at the Hawkston Mayfair, but eventually her father agreed to do the deal with Nico at the helm instead of Dad, and Diana didn’t have to marry anyone for it.

It was a win all round, for everyone but Dad.

He’ll still get the family name over the door, but his health is failing and whether he lives to see it happen is another issue entirely.

“Fuck off,” Matt says, but his eyes are bright and there’s no anger in the words.

In fact, he looks deliriously happy. In love , I suppose, is how he looks.

In love with Aries; with his kids, Charlie and Lucie; and now baby Seb too.

With his whole perfect life. He deserves it though, after everything he went through before he met Aries.

Erica puts her hands over the baby’s ears. “You all need to watch your language around this innocent soul.”

“Oh, it’s already too late for that,” Aries says. “He’s a Hawkston.”

“So you accept, then?” Matt asks me.

“Of course. I’m honoured. I might have to start going back to church, but yeah.”

Nico takes baby Seb from me, and he and Kate peer down, mesmerised by the tiny little guy.

We spend a few more moments congratulating Matt and Aries, and watching Seb’s tiny movements, before we leave the room and let them rest. Nico offers to take Erica and me to lunch with him and Kate, which we agree to, but before we go, there’s one thing I need to do before I lose my nerve.

“Erica?”

She’s walking down the corridor ahead of me and Nico, chatting to Kate. At the call of her name, she pauses and turns back. I sink to one knee, causing her brows to rise and her mouth to drop open.

I pull the ring box from my jacket pocket and flip it open. “Will you marry me?”

“What?” she blurts.

Nico’s looking down at me with an amused curl of the lip, and Kate’s watching too, her face lit with a grin.

“‘ What ?’” I repeat. “That’s your answer?”

Erica gives a little shimmy and bites her bottom lip to contain a smile that I know promises to be enormous. “Ask me again.”

“Will you, Erica Lefroy, make me the happiest man in the world and marry me? Spend your life with me? Let me keep you forever?”

“Oh, that’s so cute,” Kate mutters. Nico puts an arm around her shoulders and guides her away, so we no longer have an audience.

Erica sinks to the floor opposite me, throwing her arms around my neck. “In a hospital? You are the most unromantic romantic I’ve ever known,” she whispers. “What’s wrong with you?”

“It was the baby. He was so damn cute, and I didn’t want to wait to ask you to marry me. I want to make babies with you.”

Erica’s shoulders shake as she laughs. “You told me you loved me in a toilet and proposed in a hospital corridor. Where do you want to impregnate me?”

“How about the Hawkston NYC? I think it’s about time I took you to one of my hotels.”

She takes my face in her hands and kisses me. “Yes. The answer is yes.”

THE END