think that’s a coincidence.
“Well, the place we got him from doesn’t do refunds.”
“Did you get him cheap?”
“No, I don’t think so,” he says with a chuckle. “At least, the cost didn’t come cheap for your mother.” Our eyes meet then as he glances my way, his expression brimming with love. Our new baby boy was born five short days ago by emergency C-section. Totally unplanned. Totally loved. We hadn’t exactly practised safe sex for most of our relationship, leaving it to fate, I suppose. But when your heart is so full and you’ve promised your husband you’ll consider a houseful of kids, and you really are no match for the sweet-talking beast, you can’t ever regret anything.
We married shortly after arriving in France in the garden of Remy and Rose’s beautiful chateau, nestled between the mountains, the Mediterranean and Monaco. My dad gave me away and though Lulu was ecstatic in her role of flower girl, she held my hand as we’d walked down a verdant green and flower-draped aisle. Mum had cried. Rose, too. And Rocco had dashed about after the first new addition to our family; Mimi, Lulu’s new puppy. Although, I think at that point she was planning on calling him Trevor.
“You’re sure you didn’t get him cheap?” Lulu asks again. “He’s very wrinkly.”
“You know we didn’t buy him, Lu. Your mommy and I made him with love.”
“You mean S-E-X.”
I’m definitely not interrupting this little tête-à-tête.
“Lulu Hayes, where are you getting your information from?”
“Well, I didn’t ask Siri, if that’s what you mean. I saw lions doing it on Animal Planet. Babies come from rubbing butts! Oh, look, Daddy, he’s opening his eyes.”
“So he is. And he’s looking at you.”
“Hello, little baby. I’m your big sister,” she whispers with a touch of awe. “His eyes are blue, like yours and mine.” Her little head swings around as she lays her little hand on his cheek.
“They’re blue for now. But Mommy says they might change.”
“I don’t think so. He’s going to be just like me and you.”
I watch as a range of conflicting thoughts flicker into existence in Carson’s expression before fading away. What’s left there is love. Just love. Carson is Lulu’s father in every way that counts, including legally, thanks to the French courts. He’s not yet her adopted father, but her guardian. But it’s only a short matter of time until we can rectify that. The paperwork is already in place.
I suppose there will always be a chance that Simon might decide to fight us for access to Lulu, but Carson assures me that won’t ever be a problem. It might seem wrong to many that we choose to fight lies with lies, but I don’t feel one bit of guilt about it.
It seems Simon had been trying to join Ardeo for years, though his application had never been approved. But that didn’t matter because the guys there made it look like he had, all of them offering to swear they’d seen him attend. In lurid detail, if it ever came to that.
If he was going to blacken Carson, then they’d do the same. In public. In courts. Whatever it takes. The ammunition helps me sleep better at night, anyway.
We didn’t run away from New York. At least, I don’t think so. I’d moved there to learn about business and ended up learning a lot more about myself. Mine and Rose’s plans for a clinic are still going ahead though it will no longer be exclusively for women, but for families instead.
We’ll help them all find their self-worth.
“Look! He’s holding my hand,” Lulu whispers delightedly, her hand reaching into the bassinet. “You know, Daddy? I don’t want to send him back.”
“You’re sure?”
“I think we should keep him. He’s my baby, you said.”
“Absolutely,” he says, enveloping her in a hug. “I’ve got all the baby I need right here.”
The pair tiptoe out of the door, though it isn’t long before Carson is back holding a bottle of water and a couple of painkillers.
“Did I say thank you for giving me a perfect family?” he says, crossing from the door to the bed.
“Only about ten times today.”
“Well, thank you again.” His lips brush my head, allowing me to inhale his scent before he seats himself on the edge of the bed.
“Open wide.” He waggles his eyebrows comically.
“Ha. Good try. Don’t you know I’m indisposed?” I answer, pushing myself up on my elbows. His expression creases in concern until I’m settled when I get the saucy answer I’d anticipated.
“But not at this end.” He pops two tiny white tablets on my tongue as I poke it out to receive them. “No rubbing butts for at least six weeks. Those were the doctor’s orders. He didn’t say anything about rubbing mouths.” His eyes are dark and smoky as he angles his head, brushing his mouth over mine.
“Funny man.” Not so funny is the effect he has on my body. “So we’re keeping him, I hear?” I incline my head in the direction of the bassinet and our sleeping bundle.
“It’s a lady’s prerogative to change her mind,” he intones, as he reaches to scratch the back of his neck. “Though I might’ve also promised she could help choose his name.”
“We are not calling him Trevor, Carson.” I don’t even know where she got that name.
“I might let you tell her that.”
“Oh, God. I feel so grotty,” I say, stretching and then wincing as I experience a round of stabbing pains.
“Angel, you look so beautiful, it makes my heart ache.”
I narrow my gaze in his direction. “You are so full of it. I’m going to need plastic surgery after this, I just know it.”
“Ha! As if I’d ever let you mess with this face. Or this body,” he adds with a gleam. I purse my lips and refrain from mentioning that when he looks at me like that, it’s not good for my blood pressure. Or other things.
“I’ll at least need a facial before I run the gauntlet of the dreaded yummy mummies at school gate.
“A facial? Now that’s an idea I can get behind. Or, I should say, in front of.”
“You’re such a pervert.”
“Where you’re concerned,” he murmurs, laying his head on the pillow next to mine. “I’m guilty as charged. But as long as I’m your pervert, and I get to sleep in our yurt next to you for the next fifty years, I really don’t give a fuck about anything else.”
THE END
WANT MORE?
Not ready to be done with our lovebirds Carson and Fee?
Jump ahead and take a glimpse into their fabulous future with this gorgeous extended epilogue
(Drop Donna an email, available from 25 Feb)
You can also check out Remy and Rose’s story in Liar Liar
HERE
Also by Donna Alam
The following are all standalone titles written in relating worlds. You never know where your favourite character might pop up!
Liar Liar
LOVE IN LONDON
To Have and Hate
(Not) The One
The Stand Out
PHILLIPS BROTHERS
In Like Flynn
Down Under
Rafferty’s Rules
GREAT SCOTS
Easy
Hard
Hardly Easy Boxed Set
HOT SCOTS
One Hot Scot
One Wicked Scot
One Dirty Scot
Single Daddy Scot
Hot Scots Box Set
Surprise Package
AND MORE
Solider Boy
Playing His Games
Gentleman Player
About the Author
Donna Writes dirty stories, according to her family. She hopes you find them funny, too. When not bashing away at her keyboard she can usually be found hiding from her responsibilities with a good book in her hand and a dog that looks like a mop at her feet. She likes her humour and wine dry, her mojitos sweet, and her language salty.
You can join in all things Donna by signing up for her mailing list or by becoming part of Donna’s Lambs, her Reader Group over on Facebook, who are, quite frankly, the best bunch of peoples on the interwebz. She might be biased.
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Acknowledgments
A HUGE thanks to Elizabeth, Lisa, and Michelle.
As always, this would be a sows ear of a book without your help.
To Michelle C & Annette (good cop and also good cop) for trying to get my bum in some kind of order. Yeah, I wouldn’t bother, either. .
Thank you to the Lambs for hanging out in my corner of Romancelandia. You rock my socks! Also, thank you to you lovely people who pick up this book, the girlies who read my stuff religiously and those giving a Donna Alam book their first whirl. You both amaze and humble me. I just don’t possess the words to say exactly how much.