With These Four Rings - Book Five: Wedding Bonus (Billionaire Brides of Granite Falls 5) (19 page)

Erik’s temperature broke its own record. He could say it was because he hadn’t made love in over three weeks, but he knew it was more than that. It was because of the woman with whom he was making love.

Two hours and thee sessions later, Erik lay replete on his back with Michelle sprawled on top of him, her cheek against his steady beating heart, their sexes still joined in a hot sticky muddle. “Untie me, wench,” he murmured.

She giggled and reached up to release his wrists from the scarves she’d used to restrain him to the bedpost while she loved his brains out.

His wife was the sexiest woman in the universe. She loved to tie him up and have her way with him and he loved to indulge her fantasies, even more. “I have a present for you,” he said, kissing her forehead. He ran his hands up and down her damp warm body, reacquainting his fingers, his palm with the silky feel of her skin.

“You just gave me four.” She giggled again, causing the walls of her sex to grip his semihard shaft. “What could be better?”

“Not having to wait for this.” He groaned and thrust up into her, making her sigh in pleasure. He fought against the desire to take her again. “It would be nice to do this every single day and night, wouldn’t it?”

She raised her head and gazed at him, her black eyes full of expectation and hope. “What are you saying, exactly?”

“I’m saying that I’m giving up traveling. I’m staying home.” He traced her eyebrows with his thumbs.

“No more missions.”

“No more. I don’t want to miss any more of my children’s childhood milestones. I need to be here for you and them, every day. I spoke with Clayton and he’s happy to take over as CEO of the foundation.”

“Erik, this is so, so…” At a loss for words, she rained kisses all over his face. “Thank you. It was tough trying to explain your absence to the kids every single day. Especially Little—JP. He needs his dad.”

“And his dad needs him. I need all my children.”

Her face clouded and she slid off him to the mattress.

“What is it?” He turned sideways and cradled his head in his hand so he could look at her. “What bad news do you have to tell me? Is it about Precious? Something’s going on between the two of you.”

“No,” she said almost too eagerly. “Well, yes. It’s about Sarah.”

“What about her?”

“She died, Erik.”

The news hit him like a big truck. He collapsed on his back, breathing deeply and sharply for a few seconds. “When? What happened?” he asked when he finally caught his breath again.

“Monday.”

“Was she ill? I mean apart from the—”

“Mrs. Beck said she was fine for breakfast and lunch. After lunch, she went to her room for her afternoon nap. Her nurse found her when she went to wake her for her medicine. She apparently died in her sleep. I guess her heart just gave out.”

Tears stung Erik’s eyes. When Michelle’s arms closed around him, he turned to her and wept his sorrow into her neck.

“I’m sorry I had to hit you with such bad news as soon as you got home. But it’s been three days and we have to make plans for the funeral before we go away next week.”

“Where is she?”

“Still at Cape Hill. They were keeping her until you got home. Mrs. Beck wants to know if you’d like to order an autopsy.”

“I don’t think there’s any reason to cut her open. We’ve known something like this could happen.” He eased out of Michelle’s embrace and stared at the ceiling, a horde of conflicting emotions racing through him. He’d put Sarah on an experimental drug that came with a lot of side effects. He had consulted with many specialists before he’d made the decision. In the end, everyone had agreed that it was better for Sarah to have a few quality years with her granddaughter than to spend the rest of her life in a deteriorating state. It must have been the drugs that caused her heart to stop. “As insensitive as it may sound, it was the best way for her to go. Peacefully.”

“I agree.”

“At least Precious was able to enjoy her for three years. They had the chance to know each other, and she learned a lot about her mother from Sarah. It was worth it.” He paused to absorb the pain in his chest—pain for his little girl’s loss. “She’s taking the news well.”

“She doesn’t know yet. I thought you should be the one to tell her.”

“I’m not looking forward to breaking her heart, but the sooner the better, I suppose.”

“I’m here for Precious, Erik. I’ll do everything in my power to help her through the grief of losing her grandmother. If it weren’t for you, Sarah probably would have died a long time ago, and Precious wouldn’t have gotten to know her on such an intimate level. You’re a great father. Your love for and devotion to Precious was one of the main reasons I fell in love with you five years ago. I wanted my children to have a father just like you. And now they have you.”

As Michelle’s arms closed around him again, Erik expelled a deep long groan. “Thanks baby. I hope I never disappoint you. And thanks for being an exceptional mother to my daughter, to all our children. I love you so much, Michelle, my darling.”

“I love you, too Erik. More today than I did yesterday, and not nearly as much as I will love you tomorrow.”

Erik tightening his arms about her. This was heaven. Just before he left on this last trip, they’d celebrated their fourth “public” wedding anniversary on their private island of
Michelle
in the Seychelles. The entire family was headed back to the island next week so he and Michelle could spend some quality time with the children before the wedding and honeymoon. The timing was perfect for him to reconnect with his children and let them know that Daddy was home to stay.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Meanwhile at the Fontaine Estate – Thursday morning – same day…

Bryce dropped his smart phone on a table in the sitting room of his third-floor master wing and glanced down when a warm furry ball brushed against his legs.

“Webster,” he whispered, picking up the cat and burying his face in his glossy black coat. Webster purred in contentment as Bryce walked over to the glass door, that led to a balcony and gazed out at the sunrise bursting with vigor and color across the sky.

Nothing Erik had said was news to him. He’d come to the same conclusions since Kaya approached him on Monday. He knew that allowing Desire to plan their wedding would please the wives. Trouble was, it came with a price—the torture of revisiting the most painful place in his past.

He’d said goodbye to Pilar when he’d finally admitted to himself that he loved Kaya. He’d moved on and built a life with her and their children. He was happy, and he owed a lot of it to Erik who’d reamed him out three and a half years ago when he’d been hovering between choosing a life with Kaya and staying in the past with Pilar.

Erik had called him in his hotel room in Chicago and told him to get over himself and get his ass home to his wife before he lost her like he’d lost Michelle. Bryce never told Kaya about his conversation with Erik because he didn’t ever want her to think that his decision to return to her was influenced by anyone. He never wanted her to doubt his commitment to their vows or his love for her, because deep in his heart, he knew he would have come to that decision without Erik’s intervention. It might have taken him longer, but he would have chosen Kaya in the end. Nevertheless, Erik’s admonition to him, and Michelle’s advice to Kaya to take him back without hesitation, had spared them months of pain and regret—the kind of pain and regret his friends had lived through, and that had afforded them the authority to counsel others.

A husband is only a fraction as happy as his wife. You’re going to have to decide if your anger is more important than your happiness.

Bryce sighed as Erik’s words echoed in his mind. He was happier now than he’d ever been in his entire life, but was it a fool’s happiness like Erik had said? Could he be even happier? Could his fraction be greater if he’d just let go of his anger?

The thought both thrilled and scared him, but he’d promised Kaya that he’d do anything to make her happy. And if that meant raking his soul over hot coals one last time, then that’s exactly what he would do. As if reading his mind, and agreeing with him, Webster meowed, jumped out of his arms, and headed toward the bedroom, his bushy tail twirling behind him.

Chuckling softly, Bryce followed the wise old cat. He eased the door open, stepped into the room, and tiptoed over to the bed. Kaya was still fast asleep on her tummy under the covers—in the same position he’d left her when he’d snuck out to call Erik. She didn’t even budge when Webster jumped up on the mattress and settled down at her feet.

She was so lovely, so tempting, with her long brown curls spread out above her head on the white pillowcase, and her dainty little mouth parted in sleep. Fire shot through Bryce’s body at the recent memory of Kaya’s lips clasped around his shaft, and her passion-filled brown eyes gazing seductively into his as she pleasured him with her tongue.

Even though their last lovemaking session had ended a little over an hour ago, Bryce would love nothing more than to crawl back into bed, wake her up with a gentle poke, and make love to her until the town’s clock rang out the noonday hour. He would never stop desiring more and more of her.

He leaned over and kissed her warm cheek. She stirred, stretched, and then burrowed deeper into the covers with a deep sigh. Bryce stood erect again, and with an insatiable smile on his lips, and the sweet taste of Kaya still in his mouth, he tiptoed into his bathroom and dropped his robe on the floor.

Ahh, not a cold shower
, his burgeoning erection seemed to scream as it twitched restlessly against his thigh.

“I’m sorry, buddy, but I do have a conscience,” he said as he entered a series of timed temperatures on a remote control pad on the wall before stepping into the shower stall. He raised his face and gritted his teeth as the cold sprays automatically pelted him from several angles of the marble stall.
Yeah, that will do it
, he thought on a sigh as his mind wandered back to his homecoming yesterday.

He’d returned from Philly to find Kaya and the twins waiting for him at the airport. Alyssa and Anastasia were with his parents, and Jason was spending the night at Ethan’s house—Kaya’s idea. It was nice to come home and bond with just his wife and his youngest children. After playing with the twins in the playground, and then a picnic dinner in one of the gazebos on the estate, he and Kaya had handed them off to their nanny, and locked themselves in their bedroom.

They’d been making love since, and he knew she was probably as worn out as he was, maybe more so because she’d been taking care of their five kids alone while he was away. Three and a half years ago, when he and Kaya had become full-time parents overnight, he’d quickly come to realize that the profession of parenting was far more physically and emotionally exhausting than any other in the universe.

It was one thing when he was acting as godfather to Jason, Alyssa, and Anastasia, but after he and Kaya assumed the roles of substitute parents, Bryce’s respect and appreciation for parenthood had shot up to the top of his profession-rating chart. He’d thought he’d figured out the science of taking care of children until it became a twenty-four/seven job.

Gone were the days when he came home from a rough day at the office to a quiet, orderly home. There’d never been a dull moment with his godchildren at
L’etoile du Nord
, and there were even fewer at his three-hundred-acre estate now that he’d been blessed with his own little bundles of joy—Eli and Elyse, named after Kaya’s father, and Bryce’s grandmother.

Bryce had begun appreciating his parents more, even though they’d practically shoved most of the responsibility of raising him on to his grandmother. But his grannie hadn’t minded one bit, Bryce thought with a pleasant smile as he held his washcloth under the soap dispense and lathered up his body. His parents were now behaving like his grannie—always dropping by unannounced to see their grandkids, and wanting to take them out and show them off.

He’d thought them overly obsessive with Jason, Alyssa, and Anastasia, but they’d gotten worse after Eli and Elyse were born. It had gotten so bad, he’d had to curtail their visits, and asked them to take the older kids so he and Kaya could have quality time and bond with their infant children. Thus, Grandparents’ day was instituted. Every so often, his parents would alternate between taking his godchildren, and the twins, and once in a while, they took all five—well four now that Jason thought he was too old to hang out with his younger siblings. He never passed up spending time alone with his grandpa, though.

Bryce was grateful that they gave his adoptive kids as much attention as they gave his biological children.
His progeny
. Affection welled up into Bryce’s throat as he thought of his two-and-a-half year-old-miracle twins. Kaya had been so ill when she was carrying them that the entire family had lived on the edge for six months of her pregnancy. Several times, they’d thought she would lose them, but with lots of prayers, tender loving care, and the skills of the best OB/GYN money could afford, she’d delivered two healthy babies—the most beautiful babies Bryce had ever laid eyes on.

His heart rocked as he recalled the day he and Kaya found out they were having twins—a boy and a girl. It was as if God was blessing him twice for the one he’d lost with Pilar. For nine months, Bryce had talked to them, read to them, sang to them, while they grew inside their mother’s womb. And each time he felt them kick against his palms, his stomach, or any other part of his body, his love for them increased. From his experience with his godchildren, he thought he’d been prepared for the swarm of emotions that came with holding them in his arms for the first time. But he was wrong. It was a million times more intense. His expression of joy was so great, Dr. Walsh and Erik had cried along with him.