I turn to look at her with surprised blue eyes. My head feels light, as if there isn’t enough oxygen in the room.
“Baby, are you really?” I ask. “You’re going to have my child?”
She nods tearily, and sniffles a bit.
“I am, Gray. We always used protection, but nothing’s perfect. You’re going to be a daddy in about seven months.”
With that, nothing matters anymore. I sweep Harlow into my arms, raining kisses on her face and neck.
“Sweetheart, this is a dream come true,” I rasp. “I never thought I’d be a father, but now you’ve given me the greatest gift.”
She cries and laughs simultaneously, throwing her arms around my neck.
“It’s our gift to one another,” she murmurs. “Ours to share.”
Meanwhile, Brent lets out a loud groan from his position on the floor. We turn to look at his collapsed form.
“Unnnnh,” he moans, looking worse for the wear. “Fuck.”
“You okay?” I rasp, although I don’t go over to help him up. “You deserve it, after the things you said.”
Brent manages to lever himself to a sitting position.
“Damn, you clocked me a hard one there, Gray. But I never thought I’d be a grandfather,” he manages while pinching his nose with his hands. “With you as the father.”
Brent’s anger has evaporated somewhat, but he glares at me nonetheless.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he warns. “If you so much as hurt a hair on my daughter’s head, I’ll kill you. But if you really love one another, then fine. Who am I to say anything? You’re my best friend and a good guy, even if you are a fucking sneaky bastard,” he says grudgingly.
“And the fact that you basically just called me a flea-invested manwhore?” I ask dryly, pulling Harlow even tighter to my big build. “Not to mention an STD-infested roach?”
Brent winces.
“Yeah, sorry about that. You better not be a manwhore anymore though. Like I said, hurt one hair on her head, and I’ll …”
“I know, I know,” I chuckle, pressing a kiss to my curvy girl’s cheek. “You’ll slit my throat. But thank you, Brent,” I say with heartfelt emotion in my voice. “I appreciate your support. I love your daughter, she loves me, and this is something I never expected in life. A woman. A child. A real relationship.”
With that, Harlow turns to me.
“Always, Gray Jamison. I’ll always be yours.”
And with that, I kiss her in front of her father, uncaring of our witness. After all, I may be Brent’s business partner, but I’m so much more than that to his daughter. I’m Harlow’s lover, her partner, her boyfriend, and now, babydaddy to her child.
Epilogue
Harlow
Two years later.
“If you had asked me that day in my office,” Gray muses. “I never would have believed Brent would come to our daughter’s first birthday. Or any birthday at our house, for that matter.” He’s combing his black hair one more time in the mirror as we get ready for our daughter’s party.
“Well,” I braid my curly locks tightly to keep them from Fannie’s baby fingers. “I think once the fact that he’d be a grandfather hit him, he knew he’d have to get over it.”
“Yeah, but still. This is Brent Marshall we’re talking about. CEO extraordinaire who never shows any mercy.”
I just smile.
“Everything changes when you have a family. Even you, Mr. Jamison. I’d say you’re a big, cuddly bear now.”
My boyfriend laughs.
“Oh really?”
“Yes, definitely. A big, cuddly bear who likes his honey,” I quip while straightening my dress. The material doesn’t sit well over my nursing bra, and I can’t stop twitching it back and forth.
My boyfriend watches my breasts jiggle as I try to adjust the material more comfortably. “I could watch you do that all day. Can we skip the party?”
I giggle, “Fannie only gets one one-year-old birthday party in her whole life. We are not fucking it up because we can’t stop fucking.”
He wraps his arms around my waist from behind and looks at us in the mirror, his big form completely dominating mine. “But it’s so much fun,” he murmurs hotly in my ear.
I wiggle my ass against his groin and giggle. “Oh, I remember. Just like it was so much fun this morning that the nanny had to take Fannie downstairs for privacy’s sake.”
My boyfriend nips my ear.
“I’m pretty sure Fannie had no idea what she was hearing.”
I make a face at him in the mirror.
“I don’t mean our daughter! I mean the nanny. It’s embarrassing Gray! We go at it like rabbits all the time, and I think the nanny knows.”
He merely nuzzles my neck.
“Good. I want people to know how much I adore my lush woman. You’re gorgeous, sweetheart.”
I laugh and pull away.
“Okay, enough is enough. We have to get downstairs, otherwise, even more people are going to talk. How do I look?”
Gray eyes me up and down, his eyes hungry.
“Fuckable.”
I giggle. “That’s not the right answer. What I mean is, how do I look for our child’s birthday party, where our cherished guests will be eating cake with our one-year-old daughter?”
He stands up straight, takes a deep breath, and says, “You look perfect, sweetheart. And you seem to be painfully immune to my charms. I’m not sure how I feel about this.”
“I hope you feel fatherly,” I say with a smirk.
I expect Gray to laugh, but instead he pulls me close once more, his expression serious.
“Actually, I think everything’s worked out amazing, Harlow.”
I smile up at him, fondly trailing one hand through his dark hair.
“How so?”
“Do you remember that
