“Just call me Lois,” she teased, tears sliding down her cheeks, and he swiped them away with his gloved thumbs. “Yes, Kasey. I’m going to marry you, and we’re going to love each other fiercely, and you’re going to give me lots of babies.”
“Starting now?” he asked, pressing another kiss to her lips.God how he loved this woman.
“Starting now,” she agreed on a reverent whisper, nodding. “You’re my forever, Kasey.”
“Glad you finally came around, darlin’,” he drawled huskily, teasing, as he dropped his mouth to hers for another heated, soul encompassing kiss. “You’re my forever, Shaun, for always.”
EPILOGUE
“Ahhh, get over here!” Jodi cheered and stood from her chair, extending her arms out to Shaun for a tight hug. Shaun laughed as she hugged her sister in return, squeezing just as tight. From over her sister’s shoulder, she watched as Free stood and shook her husband’s hand, and they performed the male version of a hug, that awkward back patting-side hug thing that seemed to be universal to all men. Free slapped Kasey on the back as they switched, Kasey leaning down to hug Jodi tight around the middle, lifting her off the ground while she stepped forward to embrace Free. “Oh my god, tell us everything! How was the honeymoon?”
They all took their seats at the small square table inside their favorite little dive bar. Billiard tables sat off to one side, and Kyle waved at them from behind the bar.
“It was wonderful,” Shaun sighed, smiling over at Kasey, who winked. “It was so nice to get out of the cold and just enjoy the sun. If you ever get the chance, definitely go to Cancun. Ugh thefood! So good!”
Kasey laughed and shook his head. “She lived at the breakfast buffet every morning. I don’t know how you didn’t turn into a pineapple.”
Shaun shrugged, laughing. “Baby wants pineapple, what can I say?”
Kasey stood, tapping Free on the shoulder. “I’m gonna go grab drinks. Shaun, water? Jodi, what would you like? A beer? Cocktail?”
Shaun almost missed the impossibly quick glance that passed between Jodi and her husband, before Jodi stammered, “Uhh, actually, I kind of have a uhh, a headache and I don’t like to drink when I have—”
“You stop it right now!” Shaun exclaimed, twisting in her seat to stare wide eyed at first her sister, then Freeman, then bouncing her eyes back to her sister, who had dropped her gaze to the tabletop in front of her sheepishly. Shaun bounced in her seat before reaching out to grab hold of Kasey’s forearm, shaking him with her excitement. “Stop it right now!”
Free leaned back in his seat and chuckled, placing his arm across the back of Jodi’s chair. “I told you we wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret from them.”
“If we’d gone out forbreakfastinstead of abar—” Jodi grumbled, giving her husband the stink eye before he clasped her behind the neck and hauled her close for a steamy, open-mouthed kiss that effectively shut her up. Shaun laughed.
“They would have known the second you declined a cup of coffee,” Freeman drawled when he released her mouth. Jodi grinned sheepishly and rolled her eyes.
“Ahhhh!” Shaun crowed, still bouncing with excitement. She had released Kasey’s arm, and he took the moment to tug Free out of his seat and whisk him away to the bar, leaving the two women alone. “Ohmygod! This is amazing! When are you due?”
“About four weeks after you,” Jodi laughed, smiling. “But I don’t want to talk about that, I want to hear about the honeymoon! I feel like the wedding was so quick, we barely got any time to plan or get really excited.”
“I did give us longer than Zoey and Chase did,” Shaun said with a laugh. “I at least waited two months, and the ceremony was exactly what we needed. Small, just our family and close friends up at Boyne Mountain… It was wonderful to have you and Free return the favor for us. That blue cocktail dress was stunning on you, by the way.”
“I wouldn’t have missed it,” Jodi said and squeezed her hand. “And thank you, Freeman thought the same. It didn’t come off all the way before—”
“Eww,” Shaun whined, but winked. “And now we get to have babies together. I couldn’t imagine doing this with anyone else.”
“Our kids are going to be pure hellions,” Jodi laughed as Kasey and Free rejoined them at the table, two beers and two tall glasses of ice water in their hands. “Pray for us.”
After a few beers on the guy’s part and several trips to the ladies’ room for Shaun and Jodi, they said their goodbyes. Kasey’s fingers on his left hand were draped loosely over the wheel of Shaun’s truck, black titanium wedding band on his third finger, his other hand riding high on her thigh as she sat in the passenger seat. Now that they were back from their honeymoon, he would be returning to the circuit and she would be traveling with him, at least for a while. He’d warned her that life on the road wasn’t glamorous, but she had insisted that she didn’t want to be away from him for that long. It hadn’t taken much convincing on her part.
“Do you know how badly I wanted to bend you over that pool table earlier?” he asked through the semi darkness, dusk falling rapidly out the windshield in front of them.
Shaun grinned, looking over at him. Her thighs dropped open, allowing him better access to between them and he squeezed the meaty part of her thigh, making her gasp.
“Delayed gratification, Kasey,” she whispered raggedly.
“Delayed gratification my ass,” he muttered as he pulled them into the driveway in front of their apartment. They would have to start looking for a new house, something bigger, more appropriate for their growing family. He climbed out of the truck and rounded the hood, opening her door and hauling her out. She laughed out loud, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck as he walked them into their apartment. As usual, they hadn’t made it more than a handful of steps inside before he’d set her on her feet, pulling her to the ground with him.
Her black leggings were shimmied off her legs, shoes tossed across the room as he unbuckled his belt and unfastened his jeans enough to lower them, before covering her body with his, positioning his hips between her already parted thighs. And then he was sliding inside, all the way to the hilt, and Shaun tossed her head on the carpeted floor behind her with a moan.
“Ohmygod,” she sighed, reaching for him even as he began to move, over her, in her, again and again.
One hand gripped her shirt, pulling it up and he used his teeth to pull the lacy cup of her bra down enough to allow him to clamp his lips around her pierced nipple, lashing and suckling greedily. He panted against the skin of her breasts as he moved, and he groaned, “Do you love being fucked by your husband, darlin’?”
