And when I finished, my body felt like it could just give out. Not just from this sex. From everything.
From years of being a DOM agent and putting my life on the line.
From years of searching for Snake and finally having killed him.
From years of wondering if I would ever find the right woman for me—and then finally doing so.
Yeah, it wasn’t just the post-coitus feeling that I had right now. It was the post-everything. Fuck, I was tired.
“That felt amazing, Burke,” she said, slowly lifting up and leaving me with another grunt as my already-finished cock had one last brush against her pussy. “I think I’m going to keep you around.”
“I think I’m going to keep coming around,” I said as she went into the bathroom to clean up.
A minute later, she emerged with a towel, which she tossed over to me. I took it and wiped myself down, then let the towel drop to the floor, my naked body still spread out over the bed. If Emily thought it was dirty, I’d hire a fucking maid. All I cared about was just having a moment of peace.
For the first time in, essentially, my entire adult life, I felt like I didn’t have anywhere to be or anything to do. I was truly free. There were no lingering questions, no leftover missions, no forgotten duties. I had done it all.
I could finally be.
Emily curled up to me, pressing her breasts into my side while she wrapped an arm around me. I closed my eyes and smiled.
“If you can fuck me like that every time, you can take me anytime,” Emily said with a laugh.
I chuckled.
I fucking chuckled.
I didn’t do that very often, but I guess that was a sign of being free. Felt really damn good.
“I think I will,” I said. “In fact, if you don’t mind, I think I’m going to take you whenever I want.”
“You could most certainly do that.”
There was something left unsaid to that. For now, I just cuddled her. But fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long for that unsaid thing to be said.
“Am I crazy for asking if you want to be around for more than just sex?”
“Yes,” I deadpanned, “but only because I’ve already said as much for the last several days.”
Emily had to laugh at that.
“I guess it just seems surreal to me right now, you know?” she said. “Like first, I was so convinced you’d say yes. Then I was so convinced you’d say no. Then I was convinced you were an asshole. And now…I’m not sure what I’m convinced of.”
“Well, let me put it this way,” I said. “I’m not moving back north; one, it’s fucking cold, and two, you’re here. The biggest obstacle to me staying out of work is now gone. So…give it time. You’ll be convinced.”
“You sure?”
I smiled, leaned over, and kissed her.
“I’ll put it this way,” I said. “I’m not missing out on these kids. So whatever happens to us, you know I’ll always be around for them.”
Emily leaned over to kiss me again and cuddled me tight. Yeah, I had a feeling this one was going to be lasting.
Chapter 25: Emily
Eight Months Later
I sat up in the middle of the night.
I felt it.
Burke lay to my left, blissfully asleep. He had no idea. But he sure would soon enough.
“Burke,” I said, not a question so much as a command.
I didn’t want to jerk him awake. I knew how guys like him could react to violent jarring awakening them. It didn’t end pretty for the aggressor.
“Burke!” I said in a loud whisper.
“Huh, what?” he said, rolling over.
It didn’t take him long to go from half-awake to fully awake. When he came to, he sat up in bed. Under the moonlight, I could just barely make out the outline of his chiseled abs and body. I almost regretted becoming pregnant through technology.
Good thing we’d made up for lost time plenty of occasions since.
“My water broke.”
His eyes went wide. And for the first time since he’d moved in, I saw something on his face that made me laugh despite the moment.
Panic.
The poor dude could go to different countries and execute daring raids, and he could literally kill a man with his bare hands, but tell him that his girlfriend was about to give birth, and it was like he was a five-year-old tasked with landing an airplane.
“OK, so, hospital?”
I nodded. Despite it being my water broken, I was handling it with aplomb, and—
A contraction kicked in.
“Yeah, let’s go, its time.”
Burke nodded. He hurriedly got out of bed, looked like he was looking for nice clothes before he settled on joggers and a hoodie, and scrambled to get everything else ready. I got out of bed and got myself as ready as I could.
“OK, I think we’re ready,” Burke said.
God bless him, he sounded so flustered.
“Hey.”
I went up and kissed him gently on the lips.
“You don’t have anything to worry about,” I said. “The doctors are going to take care of me and the kids just fine. We just need to get there.”
“Right,” Burke said, but there was still a hint of panic on his face. “Let’s go then.”
A couple of hours later, I was lying on the hospital bed, in labor. The moment of truth wasn’t quite there yet, but I could feel it coming at any moment. And despite the intense physical pain, I felt pretty fine. Or, rather, I felt as fine as possible for the circumstances.
Burke, though, had only
