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  I pay the guy, and when I turn around after shutting the door, Katie is walking down the stairs in one of my shirts and nothing else.

  She looks crazy sexy.

  She may have something on underneath, or not. There is definitely only one way to find out, though.

  “That smells good. I’m starving.”

  Me too, I think, but definitely not for food. I set the bag down on the coffee table before crooking a finger at her. “Come here.”

  She smiles playfully, knowing where my mind is and fully intending to mess with me. “Mr. Grant, I believe I was promised dinner. Is this how you treat all your dates? With seduction before the meal?”

  “Well, madam—” No way in fucking hell am I calling her Mrs. Taylor again, ever. “Most of my dates don’t show up in only a t-shirt after a three-month absence.” I take a step into her, like a tiger stalking its prey. “And they certainly aren’t nearly as sexy as you are right now.”

  The hands folded against her stomach are shaking, but it’s not in fear. It’s in anticipation. I can see it in her eyes as they darken the closer I get to her.

  I haven’t been with anyone since Katie.

  Couldn’t stand the thought of it, really.

  So now, I’m going to fucking devour her and we might not come up for air until I have to go to work on Monday. First, I have to clarify something.

  “Are you working this weekend?” She mentioned she has a job and I know nurses work odd hours.

  She shakes her head, sinking her white teeth into her plump lower lip.

  “Do you plan on going anywhere anytime soon?”

  Another shake of her head, the damp ends of her hair making rings of water on the cotton of the shirt she’s wearing.

  “What if I never let you leave again, Katie? What if I demand you stay here with me forever?”

  Her eyes widen at the thought, and I wonder just how ready she really is. But then a smile spreads across her face, lighting up her eyes, and it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. She steps into me, gliding her small hands up my chest, her eyes watching the motion until they find mine. Holy hell that’s hot.

  “Then I guess I’m your prisoner, Master.” Fuck. She crooks a finger at me, asking for me to bend down so she can whisper in my ear. “I’d very much like to be yours forever.” Her sweet breath brushes against the shell of my ear. “I love you, and I’m yours if you’ll have me.”

  My arms wrap around her in an instant, and I pull her tightly against me, taking her mouth like a starving man who’s found the best tasting food in the world.

  Dammit, I’ve missed her lips, her taste, her smell, her touch.

  I’m dizzy. I’m lost. I’m never coming up for air again. Everything I need to survive is in my arms right now, and I’m never letting go. Ever.

  “Katie,” I breathe, and she shudders.

  “I’ve missed you so much, Ryan. I’m so sorry for everything I put you through.”

  “I’ve missed you too, and you have the rest of the night to make it up to me,” I wink. Scooping her up in my arms, her legs wrap around my waist as I carry her upstairs to our bedroom. I’m going to need time with her. Hours and hours, and days and days, and months and months, and years and years.

  Forever. That’s what I need.

  I set Katie down on the bed gently. Despite how rough I want to be with her, I’m holding myself back. I can be rough with her later, but the first time we’re together again, I want it to be everything she wants it to be.

  “Ryan. I need you. Now.” She reaches for me, grabbing my shirt and pulling me on top of her.

  Well, on second thought. Fuck gentle.

  I ravage her. Taking her mouth hard, I rip my shirt off her small curvy body, only to find that I was right about nothing being underneath, other than her panties. A guttural groan comes from my chest and I can’t get enough. Can’t touch her enough, taste her enough, kiss her enough. I need more.

  “More,” she moans, reading my thoughts exactly as she arches her back, her lips parted. So fucking hot. “Oh god, Ryan. More.”

  And that’s exactly what I give her.

  Because she’s more.

  She’s so much more than anything I’ve ever experienced. Nothing will ever feel as good as being inside Katie. All of my fantasies and memories and thoughts about being with her have not done the real thing justice. She’s incredible. We come together, her nails raking down my back, only adding to the pleasure of it.

  Katie is wrapped up in my arms, her back to my chest, my nose buried in her hair. It’s hard to believe that this is real. That she’s back and in my arms without any plans to leave.

  “I’ve missed you so much, Katie.” I feel like a broken record saying that, but I can’t seem to stop.

  She nuzzles against me. “Me too, baby. Me too.” We lie like this for a few more moments, our breathing evening out again when she says, “Ryan? I’m really hungry.”

  I laugh. She’s always hungry.

  It’s one of my favorite things about her. “Then let me feed you.” We get dressed again—she’s only wearing my shirt, which I love—and I reheat the now cold Thai takeout. “Thai food?” she smiles as she crunches on a spring roll. “I should have known.”

  I pause, food suspended in midair. We’re sitting on the floor eating in front of the fireplace with our backs against the coffee table. “Is that a problem? Because if it is, I may have to rethink this whole loving-you-forever thing.”

  She laughs, slapping my arm playfully. “I have no problems with Thai, but I can’t live on takeout, Mr. Grant.”

  I frown at her. “Then how will we eat?”

  She blinks at me. “Cook?” Her eyebrows raise up like she doesn’t understand how I didn’t automatically draw that conclusion.

  “I don’t cook.” I’m not being an ass or anything. I really do suck at it, and beyond that, I have zero interest in learning when there is someone who will do it for me, like a restaurant.

  “Well, I do, and since I enjoy it and am rather good at it, I guess it’s going to fall on me to sustain us.”

  “You cook?” I can’t handle this. “And not only do you like doing it, but you’re good at it?”

  She laughs at my expression. “Yes.”

  “How did I not know this?” I ask more to myself than to her. “If it’s possible, Katie, I may love you more now than I did moments ago.”

  “Pathetic,” she shakes her head, feigning dismay. “I was a wife and a mother, cooking sort of came with that.”

  I cannot believe how casually she just said that. The flash of pain still flies through her eyes—I suspect it will always be there—but she’s not letting it control her anymore. It’s not running her life, she is, and she’s kicking ass at it.

  I’m feeling brave, or stupid, or both. “Do you want that again?” She knows I’m not asking about the cooking.

  She just stares at me for a long beat, my heart rate increasing with each second that ticks by. I’m suddenly wondering if I’ve pushed her too far. But I have to know. Finally, she nods once, but no words come with it. I don’t know if I had asked her that question months ago if she would have given me the same answer.

  “Do you?” Her voice is so soft it takes me a moment to realize what she asked.

  I look over at her, her sweet face shining up at me, so vulnerable and beautiful. “Yes, Katie. With you, I want everything,” I tell her, leaving no doubt as to what I’m saying, because as much as I need to know, so does she. “But first I want you to move in with me.” There, I said it.

  “But you don’t know me that well.”

  She’s kidding me, right? “Katie, I lived with you in a car for almost a month. I’d say I know you pretty well, and we can learn the small stuff as we go.”

  She smiles softly, her shy smile. “Are you sure that’s what you want? I mean, it’s been so long since we’ve been actually together. Longer than we were together.”

  I put down the container of noodles
and reach for her, laying her body on the floor and hovering my long body over her short one. I love how she feels beneath me. I love how perfectly she molds to me, how she feels like she was made to be in my arms.

  “I don’t care about any of that, Katie. I want what we had in that car. I want the excitement and the laughing, the teasing and the fun, the lust and the love.” Her heart is hammering against my chest. “I want our adventure.”

  Her smile is dazzling. “Okay, Ryan. I’m in.”

  Epilogue

  Two and a half years later

  * * *

  “Can’t you drive any faster?” Katie yells at me as I try to get us around midday traffic in Seattle. The fact that it’s also the last day of Bumbershoot—which is where we were when this happened—is only making it worse. I’m freaking the fuck out. My heart is racing a mile a goddamn minute and I’m sweating like a fat man running up a mountain.

  “I’m trying, sweetheart.” Fuck, I can’t even sound calm. “I’m going as fast as I can.”

  “Ryan, love, I’m not delivering your children in my Prius.”

  I look over at her, feeling my eyes turning as wide as saucers.

  She’s beet red, her brow slick with sweat, and her eyes are…in control. “How close are you?”

  “My contractions are three minutes apart and I’m having twins. None of this is good. I should be in the hospital by now.” She’s talking so fast I can hardly keep up. “My fluid was clear, so that’s good. But these babies weren’t supposed to be delivered for three weeks, and even that was early, so you need to get me there now.”

  “Just breathe, sweetheart. Breathe.” Isn’t that what you’re supposed to say when your wife is in labor? That’s what they always say in the movies, but she’s shooting me a look that says she’s about to pummel me. Out of freaking nowhere, she folds into herself, grabbing her round, tensing belly and yelling so loudly that the windows shake.

  “Fuck,” I hiss out.

  “Ahhhh. Ryan, drive this car to the goddamn hospital!”

  “I am!” I shout back over her screaming, but I realize I slowed during her last onslaught of pain.

  Shit. Crap. Shit.

  The navigation pops on telling me to take a left, and I do that at the speed of light. The Prius can really corner; I’ll give it that.

  “You doing okay? Hanging in there?” God, everything I’m saying feels wrong.

  “They’re early, Ryan. Early even by twin standards.” Shit. She’s crying. “What am I going to do if they’re not okay?”

  I reach out and grab her hand to squeeze, but I quickly have to put it back on the wheel since I’m weaving like a bastard around cars.

  “It’s going to be fine. Our babies are going to be perfect, just like their mother, you’ll see.” She’s right, though; she’s only thirty-four weeks. “The last ultrasound looked good, baby. Remember that.”

  “Ryan, if something happens to me, you’ll protect our babies with your life, right?”

  “What the fuck?” Yeah, I said that out loud, but seriously?

  “Promise me,” she snaps back with a force I didn’t know she possessed. “I need you to promise me. Not only am I a nurse who’s seen the worst of the worst, but I’ve lived it too.”

  She’s thinking about Maggie and Eric.

  Of course, she is.

  I soften my outrage. “I promise, Katie. I will always protect my family. You included.”

  She doesn’t say anything, but her eyes close and she begins to hum as her hands run rhythmically over her large belly.

  We got engaged about a year after Katie moved in with me, and we married a few months later in a small ceremony. Nothing fancy.

  Katie said she didn’t want to do that again, and I didn’t care either way. I only cared about making her mine forever, so I went along with whatever she needed to get through it.

  That included taking off her precious pendant.

  It was her therapist’s idea and I supported her no matter what she chose.

  Small fact I did not know: that pendant contained some of both Maggie and Eric’s ashes, which is why she clung to it. Even though that did creep me out a little—sorry, I’m only human—I understood her desire to have it. The pendant didn’t go far, though; it sits in a fireproof case in her nightstand.

  We also flew to Boston—with me heavily sedated—after the engagement, so she could tell Eric in person and talk with him about it.

  It was emotional as hell, and even I got in on the action by asking his permission to take his wife as my own. I half-expected him to reach out from beyond the grave and grip my balls in a vise, but he didn’t.

  He was very understanding.

  At least that’s what Katie said when I told her my concerns.

  So I married her and we ended up buying the house I was renting because it’s an awesome house with a good-sized backyard and has three bedrooms, which we’re going to need very, very soon.

  My software hit the market and my company has grown exponentially. I put Luke in charge of its release, including dealing with the press. When our company makes a public statement, it comes from him. We have some of the biggest corporations in the world as our clients, and I’ve even had to occupy an entire building since we now have over two thousand employees and are still growing with a shit-ton of hardware to house.

  Luke and I also single-handedly saved Tommy’s company.

  He had been hacked hard and didn’t even notice it.

  Loser.

  We still don’t know who was behind it, and that’s a bit of a concern. But we fixed it and locked his shit down with my new, very expensive software, and since then, he’s been good. So good in fact, that the measly twenty percent he gave Luke and me is now worth a quarter of a billion dollars.

  And that’s not even cracking the shell of what my company is pulling in.

  But none of that means anything without Katie and our family that’s about to begin.

  She’s my world, they’re my world, and I’ve never been happier or felt more complete in my life.

  Adding to that, my brother Kyle, my newest corporate lawyer, moved out here around the time Katie and I found out we were expecting twins. Unfortunately, I think he’s got a thing for my little redheaded assistant, but I’m not going there right now.

  I pull into the emergency room turnaround, slam the car to a stop and press that stupid parking button. Racing around to the other side, I yank open the door. Katie can barely walk or move, that’s how much pain she’s in.

  Thankfully, a doctor taking a smoke break outside—really?—comes to our aid and grabs a wheelchair. The security guard runs over, yelling at me to move my car, but I toss him the keys and tell him that either he can have it towed or I’ll give him a hundred dollars right now to park it for me.

  He shuts up and gets in the car.

  Like there was any chance I was leaving my wife right now.

  “Take me upstairs,” Katie is yelling and crying. “I don’t want to deliver where I work.”

  “Kate, you’re delivering these babies now,” Dr. Clarkson, her boss and chief of the ED, says. “You’re fully dilated, and I’m afraid if I try to bring you up, you’ll deliver in the elevator.”

  “This is so humiliating,” Katie covers her face in between contractions as she props herself up on the gurney in the trauma room. “Everyone I work with is going to not only know what my vagina looks like, but what the inside of it looks like as well.”

  “Then they’ll all be jealous it’s not theirs,” I add, running a hand down her sweaty blonde head.

  She looks up at me with wide, tired eyes. “They will, won’t they?” God, I love her.

  “Okay, Kate, I feel a contraction coming.” Dr. Clarkson is shielded head to toe in protective gear like she’s going into a hazmat situation, and is poised at the foot of the gurney between Katie’s open legs. We’ve also got two nurses in here who are friends of Katie’s, so it’s all good. “Get ready to push, Kate, we’ve o
nly got a small window to get these babies out. I’ve got the NICU on standby and Peds is on their way down.”

  Katie nods, looking up to me quickly with tears glassing-over her beautiful eyes.

  “It’s going to be fine, sweetheart.” I lean down to kiss her forehead.

  Katie cries out, and Clarkson yells push, and then everything goes into fast motion. More doctors and nurses come rolling in with machines and incubators, all wearing masks and hats.

  I’m suddenly terrified.

  I need my babies to be okay. I need my Katie to be okay.

  I position my body behind hers, helping her to sit up to better improve her pushing angle or some bullshit like that, and I hold her to me, vowing never to let go.

  Katie screams and yells, and seconds later, the smallest slimiest human being I’ve ever seen is pulled from her. The baby is a gray-bluish color, and before I know what’s happening, everyone is rushing around again. The baby—whose gender I couldn’t even see—was passed off to the doctors in masks with machines.

  “Is it breathing? Oh god, I can’t hear it,” Katie cries out.

  “It’s a boy, Kate. You have a son,” Dr. Clarkson says calmly, looking both of us in the eye in turn.

  I sob and so does Katie, my body covering hers as we embrace. I’m shaking and crying like I never have before, so completely overwhelmed by everything. We whisper words of love to each other.

  I have a son, but the fact that he’s not crying and has six people working on him is not good.

  “What’s going on?” Katie yells out, trying to see around the doctors. So am I, but I’m being held back by someone who tells me I have to let them work. I’m about to pummel the rather large woman when a small pissed off wail pierces the chaos, and everyone freezes before they sigh in relief.

  “Five minute Apgar is seven, Kate,” one of the doctors says to her. “He looks good. His weight is excellent for a thirty-four weeker.”

  “That’s because he’s got a large penis like his father,” I whisper to Katie, but apparently not quietly enough because others around us laugh. She smacks at me playfully before arching her back and crying out in another contraction.