Pleasure crashed into me from the heavens above, starting at the very core of my being and exploding outward in waves of absolute bliss. I heard shouting, and in the back of my mind, I knew it was me, but I was too far gone to try to keep it down.
Shuddering underneath him, I had no idea how long it took before we collapsed, both of us slick with sweat and completely breathless. He pulled me with him, rolling me until I was half on top of him and pressing a kiss to my hair as he wrapped his arms around me.
“I love you, Mrs. Westwood. Give me a few minutes and I’ll get back to proving to you exactly how much.”
I laughed, exhaustion already tugging at the edges of my consciousness. I cuddled into him, my eyes drifting shut. “Okay, husband, but you don’t have to do it all tonight. We’ve got the rest of our lives together, remember?”
“Yeah,” he murmured against my hair, sounding completely beat himself. “That was a hell of a way to start though, right? So why wait to do it all over again?”
I didn’t respond, only just managing a nod before I drifted off to sleep. He wasn’t wrong, though. We didn’t have to wait. We’d never have to wait again. Well, not for very long, anyway.
But I’d also never have to wait to fall asleep beside him again. Never have to wait to hold him, or kiss him, or tell him I loved him.
This right here was everything I’d ever wanted, a second chance to do first love the right way, and now that I had it, it felt better than I ever could’ve thought it would. Better than I ever would’ve been able to imagine—and it was all because it was him.
Zach Westwood, my husband, my best friend, and the guy who’d always had my back. Even way before I’d ever let myself believe something like this could exist between us.
CHAPTER 49
ZACH
The day after the big fake wedding wasn’t what I thought it’d be. For one thing, I wasn’t hungover, which was a miracle considering the amount of alcohol Dad and Mr. Morris had supplied. For another, the girls were worn out and calm for once in their lives.
It was late afternoon and Westwood Manor had settled into a rare kind of peace, filled to the brim but not chaotic or loud. It was just that everyone was home, lazy, and enjoying spending time together, but in a way we’d last done years ago, on Sunday afternoons before the start of another school week.
Sunlight streamed through the massive back windows while people drifted between rooms carrying coffee, pastries, and children. Some of whom weremychildren.
It had been two weeks since our actual wedding, but the thought that Jennifer and Lu were mine now too still hit me like a pleasant bolt out of the blue every few minutes. Adeline was blissfully calm, sitting with Charlotte, Eliza, Jane, Kate, and Jacqueline in the sunroom while Jennifer attempted to braid Emma’s hair and Lu lay on her back on the floor, letting Little J jump over her legs.
Every once in a while, Adeline looked up and smiled at me, and every single time, I forgot what I’d been thinking or talking about.It’s a damn good thing she doesn’t work in my office. We’d be broke in under a year.
This morning, my brothers and I had officially moved her and the girls—and Amber, for the time being—into Westwood Manor. Well, we’d helped, anyway.
I’d had an entire professional moving team packing their apartment for the last two days while another team unpacked everything room by room. Since the Westwood men specialized less in manual labor and more in supervision, we’d all shown up tohelp.
Including Trent, who’d actually done some heavy lifting when he’d complained that the movers weren’t doing it right, but the guy was a rancher. Manual labor was his forte.
“You were all just pretending to help when in reality you carried maybe one moderately heavy box,” he was saying now, still giving us shit for it even hours after the movers had left.
“That’s exactly what Alex did,” Jesse agreed with a smirk curving his lips as he tipped his beer toward our oldest brother. “Big ups for always managing to look busy, man.”
Alex huffed out an offended-sounding groan. “Icoordinated. Do you know how important that is? Otherwise, kitchen things end up in Lu’s room and you’ve got a box of stuffed animals in the buffet. How is that useful?”
“You pointed at things,” Will said, shamelessly having his twin’s back. Although they’d gone through a bit of a rough patch with the whole Eliza thing, it looked like it was business as usual with our very own Dynamic Duo now. “That’s not coordinating. It’s directing traffic.”
“Also known as leadership,” Alex argued, rolling his eyes. “I don’t like it when you guys team up against us. It’s not fair. Nate, Zach, how about a little help here?”
I snorted quietly from the couch where I sat, holding Tyler gently against my chest, absolutely refusing to even think of him asTiberius. “Don’t look at me. I’m not your twin, man.”
“Thanks for nothing.” Alex sighed and shook his head, then looked around for Nate, who was too busy watching Emma and making sure she didn’t take off on Jennifer.
Meanwhile, I averted my gaze to the tiny human lying in my arms. He really was unbelievably small but was apparently a perfectly reasonable and healthy weight. He was also weirdly judgmental for someone who couldn’t hold his own head up yet. In a word, he was adorable. Perfect. I loved him already.
Charlotte wandered past, narrowing her eyes at me when she realized I had her son. “You’re holding him correctly.”
“Why do you look so suspicious about that? I know which end of a baby is up.”
Alex scoffed down a laugh. “You were terrified the first time you held Cameron.”
