Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 182075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 182075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
And it was a happy-ever-after that even the stars couldn’t have dreamt up for her.
EPILOGUE
Slade turned down a long drive leading to Spencer’s family estate.
Bloody hell.
Was this a good idea? She didn’t really know how to interact with normal parents.
“Baby girl? Everything all right?” Quaid asked.
“Yes, of course.” She looked out the window so he wouldn’t see the lie on her face.
That would get her into trouble. She squirmed as she remembered the spanking she’d gotten last night when she’d started to freak about Spencer’s parents not liking her. Which had spiraled into her speaking badly about herself.
A habit she still hadn’t kicked.
Slade had spanked her until she cried. Then the guys had all taken turns reassuring her.
“Look at me,” he ordered.
Shit. That was his Dom voice.
Quaid had stopped tip-toeing around her. As her trust in him grew, he’d loosened the tight grip he’d had on his dominant side. It was hot when he got all bossy in the bedroom. Outside of the bedroom . . . well, sometimes it wasn’t always great for her bottom.
But he wasn’t going to spank her now, right?
“Yes?” she asked, turning to him with a smile.
“You’re lying. Slade, stop the car.”
Slade stopped the car in the middle of the drive and they all turned to her.
Sheesh.
That was a lot of frowning.
“What?” she asked.
“You’re not okay and you’re lying about it,” Quaid told her. “That’s unacceptable.”
“I’m just nervous. That’s okay, right? To be nervous when you meet new people. Especially when those people are important.” She gave Spencer a shaky smile.
But he just looked concerned. “Princess, they’ll love you. Who wouldn’t love you?”
Her mother.
Spencer reached back from the front passenger seat to squeeze her hand and Rock reached over from the back to touch her shoulder.
Quaid gripped her chin in his hand. “Everything will be fine. Do you think we’d allow anything else? We will always protect you. No one here will judge you or hurt or reject you.”
She swallowed and nodded. “Sorry.”
“No need to be sorry for being nervous,” Slade said.
“But there’s a price to pay for lying,” Quaid added in a deep voice.
Oh bollocks.
“You can’t spank me here!” she protested.
“Why not?” Spencer asked with a cheeky grin. “Plenty of quiet, secluded spots around here, and I know all of them.”
She was in trouble now.
They all gave her a final squeeze of reassurance before Slade started driving again.
It had taken a couple of hours to drive here. The guys hadn’t been sure about taking Hope this far, but she’d handled the trip so well. They’d been home for six weeks now, and Hope was continuing to thrive. She’d gained weight and was starting to smile and had even lifted her head up yesterday while doing tummy time.
Surprise filled Indie as she saw that there were Christmas lights set up in the trees along the driveway.
“Do they leave their Christmas lights up all year around?” she asked.
“No, they’ve left them up for you,” Spencer said.
“What? Really? Why?” she asked.
Spencer turned and gave her a gentle smile. “So you could celebrate a proper Christmas.”
Wow.
“Mum wanted you to have a real Christmas. Even if it’s very late,” he said as Slade pulled up in front of the manor. “I told them all to be calm, but they’ll probably ignore me.”
There was a note of exasperation in his voice, but she could tell how much he loved them. It wasn’t something she had a lot of experience with.
Suddenly, her door opened and Rock was there, eyeing her with worry.
His fingers moved fluently.
Are you all right?
She nodded. Nervous.
He gave her a nod back. He understood her. They are good people. They will love you.
She smiled. She wasn’t sure she believed that, but she knew that they’d been really good to Rock.
So that made her grateful to them.
Indie glanced over to see that Spencer had lifted out Hope. He grinned over at her. He’d been on cloud nine for the past few days, full of energy, excited to introduce her to his family.
“Come on, let’s go,” he said. “Hope, want to meet Granny and Pop-Pop? Yeah?”
Hope stared up at Spencer, then blew a small bubble. Indie guessed that was a yes.
They stepped through the front door. The hall was gorgeous inside, filled with comfortable furniture and lots of photos on the wall. She’d study those later.
“Hello! We’re home,” Spencer called out as he wrapped his free arm around her. Suddenly, they were surrounded by people. It was almost overwhelming. The noise. The touching. The excitement. She leaned against Spencer, wondering how Hope was handling it all.
But when she checked on her, Hope seemed perfectly content. An older woman with Spencer’s smile approached them.
“My baby!” she cried. Reaching up, she drew Spencer down to kiss his cheeks. “And my other baby!” She turned to Rock, reaching up to tug at him until he bent down so she could kiss him as well.