With These Four Rings - Book Five: Wedding Bonus (Billionaire Brides of Granite Falls 5) (21 page)

“I like my eggs scrambled,” his son said.

“No. I don’t want eggs, Daddy. I just want oatmeal, and ham and waffles. No eggs,” Elyse stated, beating her hand on his chest for emphasis.

“You can actually have oatmeal in a variety of ways,” Kaya said as she filled a bowl with oatmeal, garnished with nuts and raisins, and took it over to the table. “You can add walnuts, pecans, raisins, dried cranberry, cinnamon, and a host of other nuts and fruits. I hate to tell you, but you’re wrong, baby.”

“Yeah, Daddy, you’re wrong.” Elyse backed up her mother.

“Okay, okay, I’m wrong. It won’t be the last time.” Bryce grimaced in good humor as he filled the stainless steel coffee carafe and set it on the heat resistant coaster on the table.

As Eli climbed up on his chair, Bryce settled Elyse into hers, and helped Kaya take the covered dishes out of the oven warmer, and bowls of fruits from the fridge and placed them on the table. His mouth watered as she pulled the covers off to reveal a smorgasbord of banana waffles, baked Canadian ham, blueberry muffins, a cheese and bacon soufflé—his favorite breakfast dish.

If Bryce didn’t know better, he’d think his wife was buttering him up for something.
Wait
, she was. Bryce seated Kaya before taking his place at the other end of the table. He motioned for the family to hold hands in preparation to say Grace before they began to enjoy their delicious breakfast. “You cooked enough for an army,” he said.

“Mom and Dad are coming to pick up the twins for their grandparent outing with the LaCrosses and the Andreases. They weren’t sure if they’d make it to the café for breakfast, so I cooked enough just in case.”

Excellent!
He’d have her to himself for the rest of the day.

They were almost through their meal when the motion sensor flashed. “The rest of the brood is here,” Bryce said, wiping his mouth on his napkin.

“Lyssa and Stacia are home.” Eli and Elyse jumped down from their chairs and raced into the hall, calling out their sisters’ names.

Bryce appreciated the fact that the children got on well with each other. Anastasia was barely a year old when Eli and Elyse were born, but Kaya and Bryce had been worried that Jason and Alyssa would be jealous of them, especially Alyssa who was head-over-heels in love with Bryce. But their worry was in vain. His godchildren took to his children as if they all shared the same mother and father. Jason was the one who’d asked if they could call him and Kaya “Mom” and “Dad” so the twins wouldn’t start calling them “Uncle Bryce” and “Aunt Kaya.” They were one big blended happy family.

“When is Jason due home?” he asked over the rim of his coffee mug.

“Later. Duncan is taking him and Ethan to the racetracks, then he’ll bring him home this afternoon.”

“Thank you for giving us this special time alone with the twins. I needed that,” he said as voices and the clambering of feet approaching reached his ears.

“We both needed that.” She wrapped her slender fingers around her coffee mug. “Saturday is Alyssa and Anastasia’s time with us.”

He tilted his head. “Not Jason?”

“He opted out when the girls insisted on teatime at the Princes Palace.”

“I love you,” Bryce blurted, his heart hammering foolishly against his chest. “You can hire Desire.”

Her eyes and mouth opened wide, then she jettisoned from her chair and ran around the table to jump on him like an excited little girl on Santa’s lap. “Thank you, Bryce. Thank you.”

“I promised to make you happy. Undeniably so,” he said.

“I’ll go dress Eli and Elyse. We’ll talk later. Oh, I’m so happy. I can’t wait to tell the girls.” She jumped off his lap.

“We’ll be doing a lot more than talking,
ma petite biche
.” Bryce slapped her sweet little derriere. “You owe me now. Big time.”

“Hey, I made a deposit last night, or perhaps you made several, in which case, I do owe you,” she jested, moving out of the way as Alyssa and Anastasia brought their flirting to an end.

As four little arms went around his neck, Bryce enveloped the little girls in one big bear hug. “Hey, Little Ones.”

“Daddy. I missed you, this much,” Anastasia said, giving him a choking hug as her skinny knees poked into his overstuffed stomach.

“Did you bring me a present, Daddy?” Alyssa asked. “I’ll give you two-hundreds kisses if you brought me a present.”

“Me, too?” Anastasia bobbed her head on a pixie smile.

“And if I didn’t bring you presents?”

“Then you only get one hundred kisses,” Alyssa replied.

“Is that fifty, or one hundred kisses from each of you?”

“Stop trying to manipulate us, Daddy,” Alyssa said with cool authority.

“Yeah, it’s not gonna fly.” Anastasia shook her head and glared at him from beneath a pair of long black lashes.

Bryce stared, dumbfounded, at the seven, and three-year-old little girls. When did they start using words like
manipulate
, and phrases like
it’s not gonna fly
? And then there was Eli with
undeniably
. His kids were growing up. He only had one baby left—his darling Elyse.

“Still the master of negotiations, aren’t you?” Henry slid into the chair next to Bryce and placed a Mountainview Café coffee cup on the table. “Fifty each, girls.”

“Stay out of it, Henry. Let the girls think for themselves.” Lillian kissed the top of her son’s head. “Sorry we had to cut your bonding time short, but we have plans with the other grandparents.”

“So I heard.”

“Daddy, did you bring us presents?” Alyssa grasped his chin and turned his face back to her.

So bossy
, Bryce thought affectionately as he stared down at her. Or perhaps she had exceptional leadership skills. She was one daughter he didn’t have to worry about anyone taking advantage of. “Yes, Alyssa. I brought you presents.”

“Where is it?”

“Not even a thank you?”

“Thank you, Daddy. Thank you, Daddy.”

“Then we owe you two hundred kisses.” Alyssa’s said.

“I’ll take a rain check. Your presents are in your rooms.”

They left him, whipped away in the eye of the same whirlwind that had dumped them on his lap. God, he was already tired and the sun had barely made it above the horizon. Maybe he and Kaya
should
stop at five. “Where are you headed?” he asked his parents, grateful for their help with raising the kids. He doubted he and Kaya would manage without them.

“We’re hiking up Blue Hill before the sun gets too hot, then we’ll head over to the children’s theater for lunch and a puppet show. After that, we’ll just hang out at
L’etoile du Nord
for the rest of the day. Maybe take a couple canoes out on the lake later,” his father said.

“Sounds like a lot of fun. Can I come along?”

“Wouldn’t you prefer staying home with your wife?” His mother gave him a secretive wink, as she sat down on the other side of him. “Speaking of which, on her way out the door, Kaya told me that you’ve decided to let Desire do the wedding.”

“Good news travels fast.” Bryce emptied the coffee carafe into his mug and took a sip of the dark hot liquid.

“It’s the right thing to do, son,” his father said. “You’ve been carrying this burden for far too long. You need to free yourself of everything related to that period of your life.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Bryce watched Webster poke his head into the kitchen and when he was certain it was safe, he sneaked over to his bowl under a bay window and began nibbling on his dry food. Webster was getting on in years, and he tried to avoid the children as much as possible, especially since his kidney transplant last year. Webster was his one remaining link to Pilar. Webster had seen him through many sad, lonely nights following Pilar’s death.

“I’m not doing it for me. I’m doing it for Kaya. I want her to be happy,” he told his father.

His mother laid her hand over his. “You need to do this for yourself, Bryce.”

“You can’t do it halfway. It’s all or nothing,” Henry admonished. “You must have a conversation with the Summerses and end this animosity between our families. Think about your children.”

“What do my children have to do with anything?”

“Granite Falls is a small town, Bryce. I’m sure that at some point Desire Summers will have children.”

Bryce shrugged. “So?”

“Your kids will eventually run into each other on the playground, at school, little league, ballet. The thing is if you don’t take care of it now, this feud will continue for generations until neither the Fontaines nor the Summerses will know why or how it started in the first place. All they will know is that they’re supposed to hate each other.” Henry placed his hand of Bryce’s shoulder and leaned closer. “Is this the kind of legacy you want to pass on to your children, son? Do you want to teach them to hold on to grudges and not to forgive those who hurt them?”

“Son, your father is right. It’s not just about you. It’s about the future of your children, of the Fontaine family.”

Bryce closed his eyes at his parents’ poignant words. The last thing he wanted to pass down to his children was the burden he carried in his heart. It was his, not theirs. Both Jason and Eli looked up to him. They wanted to be like him. He had to make himself worthy of that honor. What they saw should be what they got.

The thought of sitting in a room with one member of that family was suffocating, but Bryce knew he had to do it for his children, even if it killed him.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Fontaine Estate – Thursday (same day) – late afternoon…

Even if it kills me.

Bryce plunged in and out of Kaya as she laid facedown, on the massage bed in their master spa, their bodies glittering and slippery from sweat and the oils they’d used to give each other full body massages. Massages that had steadily turned into a marathon of hot lovemaking session while Raheem DeVaughn sang, “Temperature’s Rising,” and scented candles flickered around them. It was a lovers’ nest, created by his crafty wife.

“Bryce. Oh yes. Deeper, deeper, baby,” she pleaded, arching her back and pushing her hips and derriere into him, as they now danced to the seductive sounds of Teddy Pendergrass and Stephanie Mills singing “Feel the Fire.” “Oh, God that feels so good. Oh yeah, baby, give it to me. I feel the fire. Make me come. Make me come, baby…” She reached behind her and curled her arms around his neck, leaving her chest bare and open to him.

Bryce cupped her firm breasts and groaned as her hard nipples grazed his palms. He pulled her closer and leaned into her back, pressing her into the soft mattress, going deeper and harder as she writhed and cried out her pleasure under him. When she began to quiver from her gusts of desires, and the hot wet inner walls of her sex gripped him so hard that he was incapable of moving an inch, Bryce exploded deep inside his wife, flooding her womb with his seed as she vibrated around him. He collapsed on her, trembling as she milked him.

“
Mon chéri
,” he whispered, jerking inside her as he felt her walls quivering on another orgasm, the sweet little “thank you” orgasms he’d grown to expect and love over the years. He wrapped her close to his chest as they both quivered in the aftermath. His balls ached.

A long while after, while they were still joined together, he lifted her from the bed, walked over to the whirlpool overlooking a courtyard, a green lawn with a water fountain in the center of it, and lakes and mountain ranges in the background. He carefully climbed in and sat down, straddling Kaya across his lap, facing away from him.

They both sighed in total satisfaction and comfort and sat quietly for some time, wrapped in each other’s arms as the warm bubbling water vibrated around their aching limbs, soothing the tired muscles they’d been overusing all morning.

“I like your penis,” Kaya finally broke the silence. “Thanks for showing it to me,” she added with a chuckle.

Bryce laughed as he cupped water in his hands and let it fall over her shoulders. He’d told her about his conversation with Eli. “At least I didn’t lie to our son.”

“No, you didn’t. Samantha said we should always answer his questions truthfully.”

“I can’t wait for him to forget he has a penis, except when he has to pee. Maybe then his questions will cease.”

“I’m sorry to tell you, Daddy, but he’ll always have questions. They’ll just change as he gets older.”

“Yeah, I can’t wait to remind him how he didn’t want his penis to grow.”

Their laughter was deep and jovial as they reveled in the sweetness of each other and the innocence of their children. Bryce was certain that his fraction of happiness just got a little bigger, and he was determined for it to keep growing, even if it killed him.

* * *

Bryce’s home office. A few hours later…

“Hey, Dad.”

Bryce looked up from his laptop as Jason walked into his home office. Jason had gotten home hours ago, and after Kaya left to meet with Desire in town, he and Jason had gone out to the tennis court to play a few sets. “Hey, Jase.”

“You busy?”

Bryce smiled at the handsome, tall-for-his-age teenager he’d been raising as his own for three years. Jason resembled his father so much that each time Bryce looked at him, it was like Michael gazing back at him through those piercing gray eyes. Bryce closed his laptop and set it on the table in front of the sofa. He patted the leather seat next to him. “What’s on your mind?”