I move into action, gathering my people.
My seven has morphed into ten.
Ten people I would lie, steal, cheat, or kill for.
Jack’s already doing his best to turn my ten into eleven.
I suspect Lorelei and Ashton might do that before he does.
I’m putting up a good fight.
Birthing a child is no joke.
The only good thing about pregnancy in my opinion is that Jack was right: I wanted sex all the time for a while there.
Once I have everyone sorted, I head into mine and Jack’s bedroom to spray some last-minute perfume on and grab my clutch.
I’ve just sprayed Jack’s favourite scent over my skin when he moves behind me at the vanity and snakes his hands around my waist. His eyes meet mine in the mirror for a moment before he bends his face to leave a kiss at the nape of my neck. “Fuck, you look beautiful.”
His growly voice moves through me like it always does. I cover his hands with mine, wanting that connection along with every other connection we have right now. “I’m mad at you.”
His mouth curves into a grin. “Sweetheart, you’re always mad at me. I’d be worried if you weren’t.”
“I wanted Stone clean for tonight.”
More of that devastatingly sexy grin. “You had the first year of his life to fuss over him and keep him clean, baby. Our son isn’t going to be clean for the next couple of decades.” He kisses my shoulder. “But I tell you what, I’ll give you a daughter who you can fuss over and keep clean. Never let it be said I’m not a giving fucker.”
I roll my eyes and smack his hands away. “You’re too busy for another child.”
He reaches for my hand as I take a step away from him and pulls me back. “I’ll quit everything for another child.”
I stare up into those eyes of his that I could stare into for eternity. He would quit everything for another child. Jack loves being a father. He’s already started quitting things to spend more time with Stone.
“I don’t want you to quit the things you have coming up, baby.”
“Fuck,” he curses softly. “You kill me when you call me that. And”—he grazes his lips over mine—“you know I’ll give you anything when you say it. You’re a devious woman, Mrs Kingsley.”
“You’ve worked too hard to quit this movie.”
Jack has produced two films since we married and is working on his third. He made the book I loved into a movie, and then wrote a screenplay that he made into a movie. This third movie he’s producing is one his agent, Chase, found for him and has worked hard with him on. He’s also working on it with Burt Stoll, the Australian director he wanted to work with from the first day they met. It’s been a labour of love for the three men for two years. He has to finish what he’s started.
He nods, turning serious. “After, we’ll have a daughter.”
His tone, and the look in his eyes, and everything about him right now tells me how much he wants this. It all also tells me this isn’t something he’s going to let go of.
I cup his cheek. “It generally doesn’t work like that, Jack. You can’t just say ‘we’re going to have a daughter’ and poof, a daughter appears. A son could just as easily appear.”
His eyes hold me hostage as he says, “Jessica,” in the way I know means ‘sweetheart, we’ve reached the end of my patience here’.
Jack knows I’ll give him another child.
Hell, the man knows I’m full of shit when I argue and grump my way through complaining about birthing a child.
Nothing good in life comes easy and having Jack’s children is right at the top of my list of good things.
I move into him.
Right into him.
I curl my hand around his neck and thread my fingers up into his hair.
And I give him my heart.
“After, we’ll have a daughter.”
“Fuck,” he growls, giving me his heart right back. Then, he gives me his lips and finally kisses me in the way I live for. Long and deep and with every piece of himself.
When his lips leave mine, he says, “I want to sell this place. We don’t come here enough to keep it anymore.”
We spend most of our time in Sydney and Nymboida. We spent our second honeymoon, right after our first one, renovating our bathroom in Nymboida, and Mavis has taught me all her cookie secrets. When Jack travels for work, Stone and I travel with him. He refuses for us to ever be in two time zones and does his best not to travel for work too much. It means he’s almost a recluse in terms of how often he’s spotted for work things. His fans are good with this in a way he never imagined they would be.
Not that he cared after the shitstorm that happened when we got back together. After the day Jack gave the paparazzi a piece of his mind when I was in hospital, he stopped bothering with them. He instructed Rose not to even respond when shit was published. He decided that going forward, he wouldn’t be playing defence.
Jack was surprised at how many of his fans stuck with him when he transitioned from his action films to the serious dramas he makes now. So many came with him, and so many more discovered him. And he won his first Oscar.
“I agree,” I say. “We spend more time in Italy than LA. We should buy a house there. But, right now, we need to get going.”
He gives me a pained look. “You know how much I hate these things.”
“I do, but we’re doing them your way now, so I think you’re going to start enjoying them.”
Jack declared he was done with movie premieres after his last one. Rose told him to calm down. I agreed with her. This is his business after all. Following a long discussion, he told her he’d do them, but he’d do them his way.
He’ll walk the red carpet.
He’ll promote his film.
Afterwards, he’ll take the cast, crew, and their families out to dinner to celebrate their hard work. And he’ll spend time with those people who came together to make something with each other, going a little deeper with them, getting to know them. He’s done with not knowing the people he spends his time with.
He smiles. “You’re right. This is the beginning of something new.”
God how I love new beginnings with this man.
But what I love the most is turning these beginnings into traditions.
I love building a family and a life with him.
And knowing that at the end of every day, I get to come home to him and lie in our bed talking about all these things we’re working on together.
To the stars through difficulties.
I take his hand. “Come on, Mr Kingsley, let’s go and make some memories so we can get to the best part of the day.”
His hand squeezes mine. “I fucking love that I’m always your front runner.”
I smile at him. “Always, baby.”
Epilogue
7 Years After They Married
PRESS RELEASE
JACK KINGSLEY WELCOMES DAUGHTER
Jack Kingsley did what he does best today. He surprised the world with the announcement that he and his wife, Jessica, welcomed their new daughter, Camila (sister to Stone, 5), into the world. A photo of Camila’s tiny fingers gripping her mother’s appeared on his Instagram account. His fans went wild. They’re lucky to see an Instagram post from him once every six months. This one, simply captioned ‘camila kingsley. she’s got her mother’s fingers.’ sent them into a frenzy. No one knew the Kingsley’s were expecting another child. We’re happy for the beautiful couple. They finally had the daughter her daddy has talked about for so long.