Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 136048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“Every day, huh?” he says, a cheesy grin pulling across his lips.
“For the rest of my life.”
Knight laughs. “I think I can manage that,” he tells me. “But what are the ground rules here? Does it have to be this exact position, or will you allow me to switch it up?”
“Switch it up?” I ask, lifting my head to meet his delicious stare. “Well, it would depend. What exactly did you have in mind?”
Knight grins, and the way his eyes sparkle sets my world on fire, and within seconds, he scoops me off the dresser until my legs are locked around his strong waist and my arms braced behind his neck.
He grabs hold of my arms, briefly kissing me before striding out of the closet and right back over to the bed. He throws me down, and as I suck in a breath, looking up at this glorious man of mine, his gaze darkens with hunger, sending a fiery shot of need pulsing right to my core.
“Get on your fucking hands and knees and I’ll show you,” he rumbles.
And with that, I do exactly what he asks, more than ready for this beast of a man to show me exactly what he intends to do with me every day for the rest of my life.
EPILOGUE
KNIGHT
Jogging down the street with Ace and Diesel as the summer sun beams down on us, I can’t help but get lost in the flood of thoughts tearing through my mind. It’s been a wild six months, and in the aftermath of my brother’s death and Mae’s imprisonment, our lives have changed for the better.
Every cent of Elias’s money came to me. Well over ten billion dollars, and there was nothing I wanted less. I had offered money to both Harper and Jonah, though neither of them accepted, and instead, I donated it all to women’s and children’s shelters across the country while also putting a large chunk into rehabilitation centers for victims of domestic and sexual abuse.
I won’t lie, I kept only a fraction for the sole purpose that we might have to drop a bomb on fighting for custody of one very beautiful and very tiny little girl.
It’s almost comical. Mae assumed that money was coming her way, but even in death, my brother still found a way to fuck with his wife. She didn’t get a thing, and while I haven’t had a chance to look for myself, apparently, there was an ironclad prenup, and Mae was so desperate to marry him that she didn’t bother to read the fine print that declared that even in the case of death, not a cent from the Slater fortune would be signed over to his wife.
It’s bittersweet, really. At least Harper thinks so. I catch her grinning to herself all the time.
It’s not as though Mae needs the money where she’s going. She’s been behind bars for six months, and apart from the occasional visit from her court-appointed lawyer, she hasn’t had a single visitor.
Actually, that’s not entirely true. She had one visit from Harper and me a little over four weeks ago when she gave birth to little Maddison, and apart from physically walking in, signing a custody agreement with the state, collecting the baby, and walking out, that’s about as much of Mae as we’ve seen since the night of the ship explosion.
Her trial is still four months away, but she doesn’t stand a chance. We have the best lawyers her dead husband’s money could buy, and as for Izzy, she’s ready to go in hard. She wants Mae to be put away for as long as possible. And she’ll succeed. From what our lawyers discussed, we could potentially go for a maximum of twenty years, but realistically, she’ll probably get ten, with the chance of early parole.
As for little Maddison? These past four and a half weeks have been a wild ride.
Who could have known that such a little thing could shit so far and wide? Shit, sleep, eat, repeat. I swear, these tiny humans have it all worked out. They have someone prepare all their meals, wipe their little asses for them, bathe them, and tuck them in at night. It’s fucking brilliant. If I were smart, I never would have grown up. But now, I get to be the man who that little person relies on. I get to be her father, and it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever experienced. Without Harper, I never would have had the chance, and I owe her the fucking world for giving me that.
The only hurdle we’ve had along the way was the baby’s biological father. The courts insisted that he be found. And I get it. Maddison is technically his child, and it would only be right to offer her to him first. However, the second he heard that Mae was pregnant, he made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with any of it. Not only did he not want his name connected to Mae’s, he wanted to pay us to make sure that news of this baby’s bloodline never got out. And while not claiming this sweet angel is the biggest mistake he has ever made in his life, I can’t help but feel grateful.