“Hi.” I blinked away happy tears.
We stared at one another, our breaths colliding, and I would bet our hearts were in sync, racing and fluttering.
“You’re more beautiful than I remember. You’ve been in the sun.” He swiped his thumb over my cheek, my scar, my lips. “I want to hear all about your new job and learn everything about you, if you’ll still have me.”
I gulped down my emotions despite the tears flowing down my face. “I don’t ever want to let you go.” I threw myself at him.
He wrapped his arms around me and sighed, burying his nose in my hair. “I love you, Fallyn. I want to marry you. I want to make babies with you.”
I giggled and cried. “Are you asking me to marry you?”
“If you’ll have me,” he said, seemingly holding his breath.
“Of course I’ll be your wife. But I think we should practice making babies first.”
He laughed, wild and free, picking me up and twirling me around.
I freaking loved his laughter, the happiness bleeding through it, and him. I had no idea where the road would take us, but I was willing to travel it with Duke Hart—the man who had my heart and soul, my soon-to-be husband, and, I hoped, one day, the father of our children.
EPILOGUE
DUKE
August on the North Carolina coast was hot and humid and the perfect climate to enjoy our honeymoon. Fallyn and I had gotten married several weeks ago, but we couldn’t celebrate properly until I’d gotten permission from my parole officer to travel out of state.
Leaning on the railing, I twirled my wedding band, gazing out at the breaking dawn, where yellows and oranges streaked the horizon in the distance. In the nine months since I’d walked out of prison, life had been a whirlwind of chaos.
It had taken me time to adjust to a new normal. Checking in with my parole officer, living with Fallyn, and finding a job had been odd. Luckily, I had enough money that I’d stashed away for emergencies to keep me on my feet. In the meantime, I was helping Dillon at his shelter, training battered women in how to protect themselves from the assholes who’d beaten them.
My plans for a boxing gym were in the works, but I didn’t want to rush into it, and I wanted to wait until my parole was up in another year before I opened a gym.
“Duke?” Fallyn asked in a sleepy, sultry tone.
I turned around, and my breath lodged in my throat, my heart sputtering the way it did every time I laid eyes on my beautiful goddess. The humid weather suited her. She had sun-kissed skin, hair up in a messy bun, hazel eyes that sparkled with happiness, and, the best thing of all, a growing stomach.
Yep, she was five months pregnant, and I was freaking out. One of the reasons I couldn’t sleep. Would I be a good father? Was Boston the right place to raise kids? Would I get any blowback from my former life as a front man for the cartel?
With the Alvarez brothers six feet under, they weren’t a threat anymore. As far as Rosario, she had nothing against me. When she and I had planned to rescue Grace and her daughter, Alexa, we both knew the potential consequences. Still, Rosario was serving ten years behind bars. The charge of murdering Mateo had increased the length of her sentence. But she could’ve gotten life if it hadn’t been for the fact that she had a good lawyer. He’d argued that Rosario had only been protecting Fallyn and me.
But Brian and Vince weren’t taking any chances. Brian had sold his dealerships and moved with his daughter to Tennessee, where he enrolled Fran in a private school while he opened a restaurant, of all places. Vince, on the other hand, had whisked Amber out of Boston and settled in Colorado. I suspected, though, with Rosario out of the picture, the Mexican cartel would be taking over the gun and drug trade in Boston.
“Did you hear me?” Fallyn’s sweet voice penetrated through my haze. “You have that worried look. What’s going on?”
I kissed her palm. “Just thinking about where’s the best place to live for us. With our daughter growing inside you, her safety and yours is of the utmost importance to me.”
She dragged a hand over my two-day beard. “Duke, breathe. No one is going to come after you or us. If they do, we’re both pretty good with how to handle any situation.”
I sighed as I admired her sapphire wedding band. Fallyn didn’t want a rock, just a simple band with a few stones in it. “I still can’t believe you’re my wife,” I said, switching the subject. “You’ve changed me in ways that I’d never thought were possible.”
Now wasn’t the time to worry but to enjoy my new life, free from the seedy criminal world, with a beautiful woman who was both my partner and the mother of our soon-to-be child. I couldn’t ask for anything more.
“You should be proud of yourself. I would like to think that I had something to do with the new Duke, but it was all you. And redemption looks good on you.”
“You look good on me,” I retorted.
She gave me a blinding, flirty smile. “I would look better if you were inside me.”
I chuckled, blood pooling in my dick as if he’d heard her.
