“That can be more than okay, Belle.” I kissed her soft and sweet. “I’m all in.”
Preston held her hand. “You know I’m not going anywhere, Cinderella.”
“Agreed,” said Carter. “This is another one of those things I’m going to get stubborn about.”
“I love you,” she said.
“We love you too.”
Epilogue
Ten Years Later
Belle
“Carter? Carter, will you call the kids in, please? It’s almost time for lunch.”
My love got up from the kitchen stool, clad in an open shirt and trunks. He was playing defender in their water balloon fight until they tired him out.
He opened the back door and let in a torrent of shouts and screams.
“Austin, Vicky, Princess,” he called. “Time for lunch.”
“Blow it out your shorts, Daddy!”
“Shit,” he cried. Carter slammed the door just as the water balloon burst on the glass. “Little savages,” he muttered. “I blame you.”
I laughed as I tossed the salad. “I believe that one was yours.”
“Austin is mine, but all of them are yours. Who is the common denominator?”
Walking past him, I swatted his butt. “You’re going to want to have sex with me later, so I suggest behaving yourself.”
“I’m going to want to have sex with you in the next ten minutes, so feed the savages quick and let’s go upstairs.”
I shot him a wink over my shoulder. “I can make that happen.” I stuck my head outside, watching the three beautiful children who were definitely all mine, running happily through our back yard. Austin Knight, six years old and more mischievous than his father ever was. Victoria Prince, our sweet, curly-haired beauty who turned five the week before today, and Phoebe Desai, who demanded all call her Princess, and at four years old, was quickly learning she could get what she wants.
“Kids, come inside for lunch,” I said, “and stop being mean to your daddy.”
They dropped their balloons and toys and came running. Phoebe only stopped to take Grandma Vanessa’s hand. “Come on, Grandma. Lunchtime.”
Nathan helped his mother off the chaise, holding her hand in one and our daughter’s in the other.
It was a long, hard road for Nathan to wrest guardianship from his grandfather. Court hearings, witnesses recounting the painful events of his childhood, and then the final twist of the knife.
A deeper dig into his parents’ documents and estate planning revealed Jameson Prince did state that his son would not receive his inheritance until thirty, unless something happened that left his mother unable to care for him. His grandfather knew this, having received all of their things when he assumed guardianship of Vanessa in the first place. With this information, she was removed from his care, restitution was ordered, and his reputation was left in tatters.
I kissed Vanessa’s cheek as they came inside.
But that was years ago. She was happy, safe, and loved with us. So was Nathan.
“Mommy, where is Daddy?” Princess asked. She looked so much like her father, it struck me every time. My little princess would break hearts with a look. The world had better get ready for her.
Picking her up, I snuggled her close. “Daddy is in his cave, baby girl. Go get him.”
I set her on her feet and she took off running.
His cave was what I called the room where he kept his favorite art pieces. It doubled as his office where he coordinated his family’s galleries and art collection.
Leaning against the doorframe, I looked out over my family. So much had happened in the decade since we left the cove.
Parsons, Juilliard, Yale, and Columbia.
Nights eating cold pizza on the floor and fights that brought down all of New York City. We worked hard. Traveled hard. And loved hard.
My boys saw me through the creation of my company and fashion line, Citrine.
I cheered Nathan on through his years at Juilliard, and his career as a film scorer that eventually led to his own studio and company. I supported Preston when he and Delilah fought back against August Winthrop. Their battle was finally won when Delilah convinced the board to oust him, taking over and giving Preston control of Desai Industries.
He promptly turned around and put it back in his mother’s capable hands. He only wanted half of his legacy, and we had made many wonderful memories touring those galleries he promised to take me to. I only trashed some of his favorite painters.
I flicked to Carter, my king of the sea and broken condoms. He got his hefty inheritance rather unexpectedly on the heels of fatherhood. Getting pregnant with Austin a few years out of college wasn’t our plan, and neither were our two little girls walking out right after him. But plans change in the best way. I knew that as Nathan rested his head and a diamond ring on my swollen belly, and told our daughter to kick me if I said no again. So I didn’t.
Now Carter’s environmental firm worked with companies big and small all over the country. We had three amazing kids. They were my husbands in all the ways they needed to be. My parents were thriving in their new life in England. And almost every other week, I passed a young woman wearing the eclectic, fun style only I could create, on the verge of discovering the amazing life that was ahead of her.
“We do have one hell of a family.” Arms slipped around my waist. “Don’t we?”
I smiled, holding the love who saved me—pulling me out of the garden again and again. “We do. The best.”
“No regrets?”
“A few.” Turning around, I draped my arms over his shoulders. “That I let Nathan walk away, walked away from Carter, and took so long to find you.”
“We were three people destined to find each other, Belle. That’s the thing with our kind. We’re deadly to everyone else, because we belong with each other.”
We kissed—for all of five seconds.
“Mommy. Dad.” Austin pushed through us, wetting us both up. “It’s time for lunch.”
He led us to the table.
“Shouldn’t we wait for Zion and Owen?” Carter asked. “I thought they were stopping by with the kids.”
“They called to say they’re running late,” I said. “They said to start without them.”
Nathan pulled me onto his lap as I sat down.
“A life drowning in you, Belle,” he said. “It’s better than I ever imagined.”
“It’s you three who claimed me. Saved me. Proved to me that fairy tales exist,” I said. “I wish I could go back and tell that little girl in the garden not to cry, because her Knight, her Prince, and her Preston were coming for her.”
If you’d like to read the first in the darkly tempting Raven River Academy series, The Angels, click here.
The Angels
My parents forgot something when they ran... me.
After scamming most of our town out of their life savings, my folks disappeared in the middle of the night.
Forced to take me in, my estranged aunt and uncle shipped me off to Raven River Academy the first chance they got.
In my town, the line between the haves and the have-nots is actually a twelve-foot gate that keep the unwanted where they belong. Nothing could unite the two factions until I set foot on campus.