Beneath the Stars (Falling Stars #4) - A.L. Jackson Page 0,137

Carolina George had become a household name.

But all four of them knew what was important. Their families were their center. The grounding that drove everything else.

“I wish I could have been there.”

He shook his head. “You had important things to do. I’m just glad you’re back now. Been missin’ the hell out of you.”

“That so?”

We’d started to sway.

That energy spinning.

Drawing us closer and closer.

He rocked his hips forward, rubbing my belly with his hard cock.

Shivers raced but still I managed to tease, “Oh, guess someone did miss me.”

He rumbled a chuckle, and then he was lifting me off my feet and into those arms.

Carrying me to our bed.

A place that was only ours.

A place where we met and loved.

Where he held me, and I held him.

Where we shared our dreams and held each other in our sorrows.

When life got heavy, and in the times when we felt like we were flying.

And he loved me there.

Wholly.

Easily.

Completely.

Those blue eyes gazing down as our bodies met in a tumble of need and devotion.

Giving.

Taking.

“Sweet Siren,” he murmured through our kiss, his hands in my hair and my heart in his fist. “What are you doin’ to me?”

“Loving you.”

Eternally.

This beautiful man.

My stallion.

My forever.

Rhys

With our heartbeats thrumming their content, Maggie and I lie staring at the ceiling, trying to catch our breaths while smiles rested on our faces.

“I guess someone really did miss me,” she said, shifting a fraction so she could press a kiss to my pec where she curled up in the well of my arm.

Was pretty sure that arm had been made to hold the shape of her.

“Warned ya.”

I glanced down and found those charcoal eyes tracing me. Writing me in her story. This girl with the greatest belief. One who I’d been terrified held the power to change everything.

Love nearly busted right through my chest.

Just lookin’ at her.

The fact that she had.

Her truth that I was worth so much more than just a good time, though I was all too happy to give her a whole lot of that, too.

“Sweet Thing.”

She sighed and kissed me in the same spot again, and then a tiny cry was coming from the monitor. “Sounds like someone else was missin’ you, too,” I told her. I dropped the peck of a kiss to her temple. “Why don’t you get cleaned up, and I’ll grab him.”

“Thank you.”

I slipped from the bed and into my underwear, then I crossed the creaking hall because when my girl said she wanted an old house, that’s what I’d delivered.

Walls aged to a glowing, thrumming perfection.

But it was the love livin’ here that did that.

I eased open Keaton’s door, and I knew he felt me approach, way his little spirit shifted from his distressed cries to the sweet little grunts coming from his mouth.

A nightlight that cast stars across his walls and ceiling lit the space, and I crept over to his crib so I could gaze down at my little man.

My chest squeezed tight.

Fierce and swift and with the greatest amount of devotion.

Every once in a while, God makes someone extra special. Someone who is more vulnerable than others, and it’s our job to protect them.

And I knew my daddy had meant his family then, too. That he’d passed that on to me. That it was our jobs to protect and teach and love somethin’ mad.

Keaton saw me and cooed, staring up at me with his charcoal eyes that matched his mama’s, his little feet kicking in excitement.

“Hey there, little man. You gettin’ hungry?”

Another coo, and he went to shoving his tiny fist into his mouth.

Love stretched like a bow, and I reached up and twisted the dial to his mobile. The one thing that seemed to soothe him other than being in my or his mama’s arms. The one that was made up of crudely folded horses and ducks and interspersed with a few misshapen stars and hearts.

His eyes bugged out when the melody of Sweet Thing filled his room, and he smiled around his fist.

My hand reached out and splayed across his whole abdomen.

Like I could shield the entirety of him with only my hand.

We stayed like that for a bit, just restin’ in the peace that I never thought I’d be afforded.

Every day of my life, I would cherish this gift.

Standing there in the shadows of my son’s room, I could see a vision of my daddy doin’ the same. I could almost feel the presence of him standing over me when I’d been the same size. And