He explodes with a deep roar that ripples through the air in the room like a shockwave, his face contorted as he comes inside of me, his hips give two more long, hard thrusts. Every muscle in his sculpted body is strained and tense.
And then he relaxes. Fully lets go.
He’s breathing hard and so am I, delirious and sated.
He pulls out and then crawls next to me on the bed, glancing up briefly at my hands still tied above my head.
“Aye, I guess I should untie that,” he says, his voice coarse. He reaches up with what strength he has left and untangles my bra from my wrists. My hands are numb but it doesn’t matter, because the rest of me feels numb too, from my body to brain.
Only my heart feels immensely full.
And from the way Lachlan is looking at me, with passion and aching tenderness, I know he feels the same way too.
***
The next morning we both sleep in. Lachlan doesn’t have practice, and I already took the day off work knowing I’d be busy with his birthday party. After our sexcapade yesterday after everyone left, we both passed out. Then woke up, took out the dogs, made dinner, then fell back into bed together. I don’t know if it was in the air, but I had no complaints as my beast gave me orgasm after orgasm into the night.
Now, I’m worn out and sleepy and so is he.
I roll over and face him. His eyes are open, staring at me, a soft smile on his kissable, full lips. “Happy birthday,” I whisper to him.
He reaches over and grabs my hand. “Happy Valentine’s Day,” he says.
“I hope you know that my birthday and V-Day gifts to you were combined.”
“After last night, you don’t have to give me anything else for the rest of your life.”
I laugh. “And why would I torture myself like that. Here, you stay in bed, I’m bringing you coffee and breakfast.”
I get out of bed, shivering slightly from the draft that creeps in through the old windows, and slip on my robe and fuzzy slippers.
Of course when I leave the bedroom, I see Lionel and Emily waiting impatiently for me. Okay, I definitely have to let them out for a quick pee before I do anything else, poor pups.
I slip on my boots, and still just wearing my robe, I leash the dogs and grab some poop bags just in case, leaving the flat. I don’t care if anyone sees me dressed like this, since I do it all the time.
This morning, however, with all the snow, makes things pretty nippy. I run across the street to the small park and let the dogs quickly pee, and then I’m running back.
I stop in the middle of the road, dead in my tracks.
There’s a middle-aged woman standing outside of our building, wearing a thick brown coat.
It’s not just any woman.
It’s Lachlan’s mother.
My stomach sinks. This isn’t good. This isn’t good at all.
She spots me and raises her hand in a wave.
Oh no, fuck me.
This is the worst thing that could happen today.
I don’t return the wave or the smile. In fact, it takes all my willpower to keep from marching over to her and slapping her across the face.
I slowly approach her, stopping a few feet away.
“Ms. Lockhart,” I address her, folding my arms. The dogs stare up at her, wary. They’ve met her before. They remember. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s my boy’s birthday,” she says, frowning, a stiff smile on her weathered face, showing off her chipped teeth. “Why wouldn’t I be here?”
“He is not your boy anymore,” I snap at her. “You gave up your right to call him that when you gave him away. I thought we made it perfectly clear that you’re not welcome in his life anymore.”
Her smile turns evil. “No, my dear. You made it clear. I have yet to hear it from my son.”
“He’s not your son and he’ll never be your son again.”
“Kayla, right?” she says, as if she didn’t ruin our wedding. “Let me see him. He’s a big boy, he can decide for himself if I’m worth it or not.”
I shake my head. “Get lost.”
I push past her and go inside the building, leaving her outside.
I know it seems like I’m a stone-cold bitch to say all that to an older lady, particularly one who had a lifetime of bad decisions and absent luck.
But I’ve been down this path before. Both of us have.
Until our wedding, Lachlan hadn’t seen his birth mom since his orphanage days. He moved on. He was adopted by Brigs’ parents, they raised him the rest of the way with love and devotion. He got his rugby career, he fell in love with me, and our love story was just getting started.
But she showed up, back into his life.
He fell off the wagon. Started drinking again.
The weeks prior to our wedding and after our wedding were the worst we’d ever gone through as a couple. It rocked our new marriage, it tested our bonds and our love for each other. It was an awful, angry time and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. At some points it looked like the wedding would be called off, and other times it seemed like we might get it annulled.
It was far too much for any new couple to handle.
And yet we dug deep in our love for each other.
For better or for worse, those were the vows we took to heart.
And we came out of it stronger than ever.
But she’s got another thing coming if she thinks she can waltz back into his life again and turn it upside down. I’m not going through that again and I won’t let her destroy her son. What if he sinks even further than he did the last time?
So I run up the stairs with the dogs and into
