‘Daddy!’ Scout squeaks, racing across the living room toward Tate. ‘You’re home!’
‘Daddy!’ Gemma screams, throwing her blocks and running after Scout as fast as her little legs will carry her. Like her adopted big sister, she’s tiny. Unlike Scout, our three-year-old more than makes up for it in volume. Scout tends to be on the quiet side. Not Gemma. She’s fearless. You hear her coming from a mile away.
‘Quiet, Gemma,’ I remind her. ‘Your brother is sleeping.’
‘Sowwie, mommy!’
I just shake my head, smiling. She’ll be yelling at the top of her lungs again in five minutes. Her baby brother, Quade, is only three months old. I think she still forgets that he’s here most of the time. She got used to him being in my belly.
She hits Tate like a tiny missile, latching onto his right leg like a Koala.
Tate laughs and reaches down to scoop her up and out of harm’s way. As soon as she’s secured, he kneels, scooping Scout up too. They both throw their arms around his neck as if they haven’t seen him in four years. He’s only been gone for an hour. He was dropping his mom and dad off at their hotel. They’re in town for the week, though Tate won’t tell me why.
He’s up to something.
Then again, he usually is.
The ridiculous man spoils me and our babies rotten. He is so good to us. Had anyone told me five years ago that this is how my life would turn out, I wouldn’t have believed them. I don’t think I was capable of believing them then. For most of my life, I didn’t know what it meant to be loved by anyone but Siobhan.
Losing her was, hands down, the most devastating loss I’ve ever suffered. But it also brought me to the greatest blessings in my life. She put her baby in my care and changed my entire future. She brought me to Tate and Silver Spoon Falls. I lost a sister that day. But I gained a family.
I will always miss her. I will always grieve for her. A piece of my heart will always be missing. But for the first time in my life, the rest of it is full. I know what it’s like to have a place in the world now, one where I truly fit. Not just with Tate, but with his family, and the MC, and our friends, and our babies. Silver Spoon Falls isn’t just the place I landed. It’s my home.
‘Shouldn’t you two be in bed?’ Tate asks the girls.
‘Mama said we could wait for you, daddy,’ Scout says.
‘Uh-huh,’ Gemma agrees. ‘Her did, daddy.’
‘I did,’ I confirm. ‘Which means it’s time for bed now, girls.’
‘No!’ Gemma pouts.
‘No pouting, sweet girl,’ Tate says, giving her a stern look.
She immediately stops pouting, giving him big, innocent eyes. I swear, all he has to do is look at her and she instantly behaves. Not so much for me. Tate says it’s because I’m a big softie and she can smell weakness like a baby shark, but he’s the one who always gives the girls anything they want! All they have to do is bat their lashes at him and he just says yes. His brothers do too!
They were the worst with Scout. They spoiled her rotten when she was a baby. Her little feet never touched the ground when we were at the clubhouse. Scout is hard to spoil though. She’s such a sweet little girl. She is so full of love, and wise beyond her years. I couldn’t blame them for wanting to hold her all the time when I did too. She was so snuggly! She still is. I love nothing more than when she crawls into my lap and wants me to hold her.
We officially adopted her when she was two. She calls me her mama and Tate her daddy, but she knows Siobhan gave birth to her. We haven’t told her everything, but she knows that Siobhan is in heaven and that she’s a hero. When she’s old enough, we’ll tell her everything she wants to know and get her into therapy to help her work through her feelings about what happened. It’s going to be a lot for her to process. It would be for anyone.
For now though, we shower her with love every single day and make sure she knows how much Siobhan loved her. On the rare occasion she asks about her real dad, we tell her that he loved her too. It kills us both to have to tell her anything about him, but I don’t want to lie to her or make her feel like she isn’t allowed to ask about him or miss him or think about him. Regardless of how we feel about him and the horrible things he did, he kept Siobhan locked up instead of killing her because she was pregnant. I have to believe that’s because he loved Scout to some extent.
As for the Savages, well, terrible men usually get what they deserve. The Savages did. Thanks to an undercover cop and a rival MC, the Savages fell one by one. Some didn’t live to tell the tale. Others landed behind bars where they belong. If they ever see freedom again, most will be too old to enjoy it. It’s justice. As much as men like that will ever see.
The important thing is that they’ll never hurt anyone else. They’ll never come after Scout. And Scout…Scout is thriving. She’s a special little girl with a special little heart. One of Tate’s close friends is her doctor now. He takes good care of her. So far, everything has been great. Sometime in the next year, she’ll undergo another surgery to extend the tube Tate used to construct her second vessel.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about it because I am. But I’m not afraid. Our girl is a warrior, and she’ll be just fine. With Tate watching over her, how could she not? That man would go to war for her without even batting an eye. I know because he’s done it before.
I don’t think I really understood just how sick she was back then or just how risky the surgery was. Jules told me long after it was over how close they came to losing her…and how hard Tate fought. She said he wasn’t just a surgeon that day. He was a father. He’s been a father to Scout every single day since. She idolizes him. Both of the girls do. But he and Scout share a special bond. I know they always will. He’s her hero…but I think she might just be his too.
‘Will you read to us, daddy?’ Scout asks Tate, her hazel eyes wide and hopeful.
‘Yeah, baby girl,’ he says, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. ‘Go up and brush your teeth. I’ll be right up.’
‘Yay!’ Gemma shouts, flinging herself out of his arms.
‘No running on the stairs!’ I call after her.
”Kay, mommy!’ she yells back.
Scout stops to give me a big hug and then hurries after her.
‘Come here,’ Tate murmurs, rising to his feet to pull me into his arms. He kisses me hard and deep. ‘I missed you, angel.’
‘I missed you too,’ I whisper, snuggling up against his chest. We haven’t had much time together since Quade came home. Between his job, three kids, and my job, quality time is hard to come by. I miss him like crazy.
‘Go get ready for bed. I have a surprise for you tonight,’ he says, kissing me again.
‘Your banana isn’t a surprise, Tate,’ I say, snorting.
He swats me on the ass, shaking his head. ‘Go, smartass.’
‘Bossy.’ I bite my lip to hide a smile, kind of hoping my surprise is his banana.
‘Be quiet before you wake the kids,’ Tate growls, smacking my ass as he thrusts into me from behind. His balls smack against my pussy hard enough to sting.
‘I can’t be quiet!’ I cry, grabbing fistfuls of the sheets. My nipples drag across the bedding in the most delicious way, driving me higher. With my ass in the air and my chest pressed to the bed, all I can do is take what he gives me. Every powerful thrust sends a bolt of pleasure through me, each one rising in intensity. I feel like I’m going to crack apart.
‘Bite the pillow, angel,’ he orders me. ‘Don’t make me gag you.’
My pussy clamps down on him, his threat making me wetter, hotter. I swear, his filthy mouth should come with a warning label. It does things to me that should be illegal. He does things to me that should be illegal. After five years, there is nothing this man hasn’t done to me, no way he hasn’t taken me.
He even paid Finn an ungodly amount of money to create a VR version of one of my games. Only every character looked exactly like him. Four different versions of Tate made love to me at once that night. I’m still not entirely sure which one was real. He was everywhere at once. It was incredible. I couldn’t look at Finn for a month straight.
Six weeks later, we found out I was pregnant with Quade. We haven’t tried the game again. I’m a little afraid I’ll end up pregnant again if we do. With Scout’s surgery coming next year, I want to wait before we have another baby. There’s no way I can juggle two babies, Gemma, and Scout’s heart surgery.
‘Fuck,’ Tate growls, gripping my hips in his hands and yanking me back onto him. ‘I love the way I look disappearing into that juicy cunt, Samara.’
‘Tate,’ I whine.
‘What do you want, baby?’
‘More,’ I demand.
‘Greedy girl,’ he chuckles. His hands tighten on my hips, yanking them up higher. The change in angle is exactly what I need, but that’s not enough for Tate. Oh no. He gives me everything he has, driving his hips into me until I’m biting the pillow, trying to cover my screams of ecstasy.
My orgasm rips through me like a bomb blast, detonating again and then again. I’m locked in place, pinned exactly where Tate wants me. He pounds into me, groaning about how good I feel coming all over him. How tight I am. He says the filthiest things as he comes with me.
And then the sweetest.
‘God, angel,’ he groans, falling forward. His head lands against my back. ‘Every day, I find a new reason to fall in love with you. Five years, and the list keeps growing.’
‘Tate,’ I whisper, melting into the bed beneath him.
‘You’re my world, you know that?’ He presses his lips to my back. ‘I love you, Samara Grimes.’
‘I love you too.’
He stays where he is for a moment and then reluctantly rolls to the side. We both groan when he slips out of me. I hate that part. When he’s inside me, I’m complete.
He hooks his arm around my waist, rolling me onto my side. He plasters himself to my back, wrapping himself around me. His face nuzzles into the crook of my neck, his lips touching my shoulder. ‘You can’t go to sleep yet, baby,’ he murmurs.
‘I like you better when you’re being sweet to me.’
He laughs quietly. ‘I am being sweet to you.’
‘Not if you’re not letting me sleep.’
‘You can’t go to sleep because you have to pack, angel.’
I frown. ‘For what?’
‘We’re leaving in the morning,’ he says, smiling against my shoulder.
‘For what?’
‘A trip.’
‘Tate.’
His smile grows. ‘We’re going to Angel’s island for a few days,’ he says. ‘Just you and me. Mom and dad are going to stay with the kids.’
I flip around to face him. His dark emerald eyes are soft, his smile wide. ‘Seriously?’
‘Mmhmm.’ He taps my nose and then tucks pieces of hair behind my ear. ‘Everything is planned. All you have to do is throw your shit in a bag.’ His brows furrow. ‘On second thought, don’t pack anything. I plan to keep you naked and on my cock for the next three days anyway. You won’t need clothes for that.’
‘Oh, goodie,’ I whisper, perfectly fine with this plan.
‘You like that, huh?’
‘Mmhmm,’ I hum, snuggling into his arms again. ‘It means I get to go to sleep now.’
He throws his head back, laughing loudly. ‘You really know how to stroke a man’s ego, don’t you, Sleeping Beauty?’
‘It doesn’t need stroking, Tate. It’s big enough already.’
‘That’s not the only thing that’s big about me, angel. So is my c–’
‘–erebellum?’
I squeal with laughter when he flips me over onto my back, coming down over me. His eyes meet mine, full of wicked intent. He pries my legs apart, fitting his body between them. My core clenches, heating for him.
‘No sleeping for you,’ he growls.
‘Yay for me,’ I breathe, chasing his mouth with my own. I’d give up sleep in a heartbeat for another minute with this incredible man. No, that’s not true. For him and our kids, I’d give up everything, down to my soul.
