The Beast (Black Dagger Brotherhood #14) - J. R. Ward Page 0,210
various beds.
Naturally, that meant that she and Rhage and Bitty ended up in the kitchen.
“So, Bits, this is my pride and joy,” he said as he led the little girl over to a hallway just outside the pantry. “This is my ice cream freezer.”
Leaving them to it, Mary made quick work getting out three bowls, three spoons, and three napkins, and she just had to sit back and smile at the setup after she’d put them out on the oak table. Humming to herself, she waited to see what came in from the cold, so to speak, and felt grateful that with Fritz’s anal-retentive sense of organization, all the food for the ribbon ceremony had been cleaned up hours ago—
“Okay, wow,” she said with a smile. “That is a load.”
Four gallons, no, wait, five.
“We have chosen wisely,” Rhage said with great gravity. “I present to you this afternoon…”
Bit took over from there in the same pseudo-deep voice. “Rocky road, coffee, mint chocolate-chip, raspberry chip, and your favorite, chocolate chocolate-chip.”
As the two of them bowed at the waist to her, Mary clapped. “Very well chosen, very, very well chosen.”
“And now,” Rhage Darth Vadered, “I shall commence the dispensing.”
Bitty parked it next to Mary, and the pair of them watched the show, Rhage doing all kinds of tricks, throwing scoops of oh-God-please-catch-that in the air and, in fact, catching them in the bowls. When everybody had what they wanted, they dug in.
Or rather, Rhage and Mary dug in.
As she noticed that Bitty wasn’t eating, Mary frowned. “You okay? You have too much of the cakes that were put out?”
It was a while before the girl spoke. “What do humans call their mahmen? What is their name for a mahmen?”
Mary flicked her eyes over to Rhage’s as he froze. Then she cleared her throat. “Ah … we call them Mother. Or Mom.”
“Mother.” Bitty stared into her ice cream. “Mom.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
After a moment, the little girl looked right into Mary’s eyes. “May I please call you Mom?”
Abruptly, Mary found herself not able to breathe, her throat tightening up to an unbearable extent. Leaning in, she cradled that face between her palms and looked over the features that she suddenly knew, without a doubt, that she would watch grow and change into maturity.
“Yes,” she whispered roughly. “I would like that. I would like you to call me that.”
Bitty smiled. “Okay, Mom.”
Andjustlikethat, the girl went in for one of her hugs, wrapping those skinny, but oh, so strong arms around Mary and holding on tight.
Mary blinked hard, but the tears came anyway, especially as she held Bitty’s head to her chest and met Rhage’s own watery eyes.
Her hellren gave her a thumbs-up and mouthed, Way to go, Mom.
Laughing and crying, Mary took a deep breath and thought, Yes, indeed, miracles most certainly did happen …
And she could just thank God, the Scribe Virgin, whoever you liked, for that.
She … was a mom.
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Paradise, blooded daughter of the king’s First Advisor, is ready to break free from the restrictive life of an aristocratic female. Her strategy? Join the Black Dagger Brotherhood’s training center program and learn to fight for herself, think for herself … be herself. It’s a good plan, until everything goes wrong. The schooling is unfathomably difficult, the other recruits feel more like enemies than allies, and it’s very clear that the Brother in charge, Butch O’Neal, a.k.a. the Dhestroyer, is having serious problems in his own life.
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The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Black Dagger Brotherhood delivers the first novel in an enthralling new series set amid the shifting dynamics of a Southern family defined by wealth and privilege—and compromised by secrets, deceit, and scandal …
For generations, the Bradford family has worn the mantle of kings of the bourbon capital of the world. Their sustained wealth has afforded them prestige and power—as well as a hard-won division of class on their sprawling estate, Easterly. Upstairs, a dynasty that by all appearances plays by the rules of good fortune and good taste. Downstairs, the staff who work tirelessly to maintain the impeccable Bradford façade. And never the twain shall meet.
For Lizzie King, Easterly’s head gardener, crossing that divide nearly ruined her life. Falling in love with Tulane, the prodigal son of the bourbon dynasty, was nothing that she intended or wanted—and their bitter breakup only served to prove her instincts were right. Now, after two years of staying away, Tulane is finally coming home, bringing the past with him. No one will be left unmarked: not Tulane’s beautiful and ruthless wife; not his older brother, whose bitterness and bad blood know no bounds; and especially not the iron-fisted Bradford patriarch, a man with few morals, fewer scruples, and many, many terrible secrets.
As family tensions ignite, Easterly and all its inhabitants are thrown into the grips of an irrevocable transformation, and only the strongest will survive.