Claimed By The Possessive Fireman - Flora Ferrari Page 0,31

release, the physical manifestation of our light-touched love.

She takes my hand and leads me from the room, heading down the hall to our bedroom, and I stare down at her breasts, my mouth salivating in anticipation for her milk.

And my soul thrumming in anticipation of just how much sweeter our perfect lives are going to get.

I love her.

And she’s mine forever.

Extended Epilogue

Nine Years Later

Lilah

I sit in the foldout chair in our garden, looking across the sunlit grass to the mockup stage that Samantha and Lacey built together after the food was done. Behind it, I can hear Charley and little Ryan giggling as they try to stay composed so they don’t ruin the play, and then Charley whisper-yells at his little brother to be quiet.

I hold Natalie in my arms, smiling down at my daughter as her eyelids flutter in sleep, feeling so small and precious I could just let a tear flow down my cheeks, but perhaps that’s just the post pregnancy hormones lashing out at me again, still potent after five births.

Samantha stands frozen off to the left, her blonde hair just like mine, hanging wild down to her hips as she eyes Lacey on the other side of “the stage”, really just the lawn in front of the cardboard cutout they hastily constructed.

“Mom,” Lacey says after a moment, trying her best just to move her lips and nothing else. Her hair is darker than her sister’s, and she’s taller despite being two years younger. “You know you’re supposed to say action, right?”

I giggle. “Maybe it’s just more fun watching you two stand there. Did you ever think of that? What do you think, Natalie? Shall I put them out of their mercy?”

Natalie is sound asleep, but as her lips twitch I like to think she’s smiling. She has her father’s smile, in that way, at least when we were first getting together. These days, Dom’s smile are as bright as the sun and just as hot, hotter even than the fire he saved me from, starting us on the path that would lead here.

To perfection.

To me being an Oscar-winning actor and Dom running several multi-million dollar businesses, with our three homes, one in Miami, one in LA, and one on the south coast of England, a picture-book life that I sometimes have to pinch myself to believe is real.

“Mom,” Samantha groans. “Like, seriously.”

“Stop saying like,” I laugh. “Or we’re never going to LA again. I mean it.”

She rolls her eyes – all she can do since she agreed to starting in a freeze frame – and then lets out a sigh.

“Okay, okay,” I laugh, feeling warm and content from the barbeque. “Action.”

Samantha struts to center stage with her hands on her hips, and I feel my body flooding with that pure love I feel every time I look at my daughter, struggling to believe I could hold her in my arms not that long ago.

“But what are we going to do about the monster?” she says.

“M-monster?” Lacey whispers, with real emotion in her voice, real pathos.

Pride swells in me.

“What monster?”

“Me monster,” Ryan giggles, leaping out from behind the stage, brandishing a tree branch that will serve as a sword.

Charley leaps out, tossing his curly brown locks and glaring at his two year old brother. “No, not yet,” he says, but he’s smiling. “We have to wait until Dad—”

Right then, Dom emerges from the house behind me, striding onto the lawn in his baggy shorts and nothing else, his hair an even deeper shade of steel than it was when we met. But his body – despite his transition from the fire service to business – is even more rippled with behemoth muscle than it was before.

His broad back catches the sunlight as he waves the broomstick over his head, making a growling noise.

“Did somebody say monster?” he roars.

Ryan ducks his head and toddle-charges at his father, waving his arms at his side and laughing like crazy.

Dom drops the broomstick and falls to one knee, catching him and lifting him into the air over his head.

Ryan flails his arms at him, his face a picture of joy as Samantha and Lacey roll their eyes and giggle, walking over like the big sisters they are and hooking their little brother under the armpits.

“You ruined it,” Samantha says, laughing. “But you’re still cute.”

“What about me?” Dom chuckles. “Did I do a good job as the monster?”

“Bestest, Daddy,” Ryan giggles.

“Yeah, you did awesome, Dad,” Charley grins. “It’s just crazy how, uh,