Oh, how I’ve missed this. This man made love like his alter ego destroyed…utterly.
By the time he found his release, my entire universe had shattered three times. I felt depleted of everything I had left, so much so, I didn’t protest when he stripped away the rest of my clothes and carried me to our bathroom where he ran us a hot bath.
I relaxed back against him as the warm bubbles rose around us, happier than I’ve ever been in my life. Holding my hand up I took in my ring. Gently he traced it with his finger.
“It’s so beautiful.” I told him, if I wasn’t so drained I’d be crying right now.
“I wasn’t lying, I’ve carried this around with me ever since I gave you the necklace.”
“Why didn’t you propose before now?”
He chuckled. “I was afraid you would say no.”
I lifted my head and turned in his arms. “What?”
He nodded. “See, I’m not as cocky as you accuse me of being. Even I doubt myself sometimes.”
I ran my hands gently through his beard before I leaned in and kissed his lips. “You don’t ever have to doubt when it comes to me.”
A sexy grin came to his face. “Dare I hope that you are finally going to say the three words my heart longs to hear?”
I bit my lip trying to tame my smile. “Maybe.”
A look of false hurt came upon his face that was so cute I held back my head and laughed. When my laughter died, I kissed his lips again.
“If tomorrow I wake up and this is not a dream, I will tell you that I love you. And not only that, I’ll tell you just how much I love you. But something tells me this is too good to be true and that I’m going to wake up and you’re not going to be there.”
He gently moved the locs that had fallen in my face behind my ears. “I’m going to be here tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that for the rest of our lives. You don’t have to worry about that.”
Joseph
The sound of my phone dinging woke me. That was a special ring that only meant one thing. My father had gotten into trouble and now emergency damage control was needed. I eased from underneath Journey. There were still a couple of hours until the sun came up and I was careful not to wake her.
My business phone was in the room next door that I had temporarily made my bedroom. Quietly, I slipped on my pants and left out gently pulling the door closed behind me. My phone stopped dinging for just as second, only to start right back.
F***
That meant something really bad was happening. I frowned down at the number. It was my father’s assistant.
“Tim, why are you calling me so damn early in the morning?” I growled into the phone, not even pretending to be civil.
“Mr. Warren, you have to come quickly. Your father has locked himself in his office with a gun. Your mother is afraid his going to do something to hurt himself.”
I was already moving to get dressed. I could hear my mother in the background screaming for my father to come out of his office.
“I’m on my way.” I said hanging up the phone to slide my feet in my boots.
Damn it!
Damn it!
Leave it to my father to pull some sh*t like this…
As I grabbed my keys and headed out the door, I dialed his number.
You bastard! You better not kill yourself!
Chapter Eighteen
In the Blink of an Eye
Journey
I woke up the next morning alone.
For a half second, I lay there and thought about that. And I guess I can say that was the first clue as to how my day was going to go, that and the fact that something was not right with me.
However, I was only allowed that half a second to ponder over it because I could hear Ayana talking to herself in her bed. Groggily, I used the bathroom and did my morning rituals before she started demanding my immediate attention.
“Jo.” I called when I left out of the bedroom to head to the nursery. Outside of Ayana’s babbling the house was completely quiet.
“Hmmm.” He must have had to run out for something.
“I guess it’s just me and you, baby girl.” I told her as I prepared a bath for her.
There was something off about me this morning, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Speaking of fingers, I took in my engagement ring.
“Your daddy asked your mama to marry him last night.” I told Ayana as I got her dressed.
She fingered my ring before she tried to bring it to her mouth. “No, sweetheart, you can’t eat that. Come, I will make you some breakfast.”
I picked her up putting her on my hip and had to clutch my stomach as a slight cramp shot through it.
Uh-oh! That explained that off feeling. My period was coming. It would pick to come now after not showing its face for three months.
As I stirred my daughter’s oatmeal, a thought came to me. The last time I felt like this, I had been pregnant with Ayana and didn’t know it, then right behind that, another thought came.
When was the last time I took my birth control pills? My hand slowed.
Oh God!
I couldn’t even remember the last time I took those pills!
This knowledge instantly caused my body to tense with stress, drawing more attention to the fact that something was definitely going on with it.
I told myself not to panic, but I couldn’t help but think that if I was pregnant, Jo was going to kill me. I mean, preventing pregnancy must have been something that was important to him or he wouldn’t have added it in the contract.
“You’re not pregnant; it’s just your period. Stop tripping.”
Yeah, I know what my lips said, but my body was telling me something different.
Now of course I
