“What are you doing?”

  In the flashes of light, Katie noted the strange look on Holden’s face. She couldn’t decide if he was trying to hold something back or gathering up the courage to say something.

  “We’ve been through a lot, Katie. And now that all that is behind us, I want to know something. Would you let me take care of you and make your life as free from drama for the rest of your life? Will you marry me?”

  For a terrifyingly long five seconds, Katie considered his offer. Damn. He’d thought that would be a slam dunk.

  “Trevor’s not going to be happy. We’ll have to renegotiate the contract. And Mike is going to have to run a full background check of you and everyone you’ve ever met.”

  Holden’s heart cracked like a windshield getting struck by a spray of pebbles. It was just a small crack, but it was soon going to split him apart. “I understand if you want a prenup. Your assets and holdings alone, I mean…”

  Katie’s face fell. “Sweet, sweet Holden. I shouldn’t kid around with you. I don’t need a prenup. Of course I’ll marry you.”

  “You will?” Holden grabbed her up, wrapping his arms around her waist, lifting her feet off the ground.

  “Anyway, it’s you who should be negotiating a prenup with me. You made more in that last fight than I did all of last year,” she reminded him.

  She was right. Ever since the FBI had formally charged everyone involved with the boxing scandal, and, separately, the bribery scandal, there was a lot more money flowing directly to the boxers and coaches themselves.

  As for the bribery scandal, Ari Pitts had made the fatal mistake of stealing the phony blueprints, only to present them as his own to the city council months later. When the truth all came to light, things did not go well for Ari or for Barrett, both of whom were now facing federal bribery charges.

  “What are you saying? You want me to be your sugar daddy?”

  “It might be fun for a change.”

  Holden laughed and kissed her soft mouth, which warmed him against the cold air. “How about we just exist as equals instead and not worry about any of those games?”

  Katie’s wide smile squeezed his heart. “I love that plan. Besides, now that you’re going to literally be somebody’s daddy, I’m not sure the whole sugar mama or daddy thing is gonna work for me anymore.”

  Holden’s body stiffened in shock at what she’d just said.

  “Babe?”

  He closed his eyes and replayed her words. Now that you’re going to literally be someone’s daddy.

  “You’re pregnant?”

  She nodded.

  “How much?”

  Katie laughed and replied that she was two months along, but she’d wanted to wait and make sure everything was okay before springing the news on him because of her age.

  “Are you mad that I waited to tell you until tonight?”

  He then realized he’d been squeezing her far too tightly and gently set her down, releasing his grip. “How could I be mad at you about that?”

  “I love you so much. I honestly didn’t know you were going to propose, but I’m so glad you did. I was trying to think of a cute or clever way to announce the news to you, but I just couldn’t think of anything. I usually leave the cute and clever to my assistant.”

  Holden laughed and kissed her again.

  “I’m glad you didn’t leave it up to your assistant. I loved hearing it straight from those lips that I love.”

  It took some convincing and a special dispensation from the archdiocese of Newcastle, but Fr. O’Brien agreed to perform the wedding at the end of the pier.

  Katie had promised to keep it simple, but her simple definition was a whole other animal from Holden’s definition of simple.

  A white carpet had been rolled all the way from the boardwalk to the far end. The guests had a gorgeous view of the sunset over the water as the ceremony took place. From Katie and Holden’s perspective, the sun bounced off the most beautiful skyline they’d ever know. For Katie, it was home, and always would be.

  Epilogue

  Valentine’s Day

  Five years later

  "But Momma, look."

  Dolly, now age three, looked up at Katie with big sad eyes and blinked. In her hand was Holden's phone, and she was showing her the screen.

  Katie was resolute. There would be no more cats in this house.

  Belle and Sebastian were the latest adoptions to the Cat Condo, the loving nickname that Katie had given to the Murphy family’s Waterview home.

  The two orange tabbies joined the elderly Johnny Cash and June Carter, and calicos Carly Simon and James Taylor.

  Their non-furry babies, Elvis and Dolly, learned early how to take care of the cats.

  Six cats and two kids were enough. She stroked the baby's head whom she wore in her carrier after having just returned from a walk. Even though Elvis was fast asleep, she still rocked back and forth slowly as she held the phone in her hand.

  On the screen was a tawny cat with amber eyes looking back at her.

  Her old penthouse at the Ecco Tower had been turned into the offices for the Moss and Murphy Animal Rescue Foundation, which funded pet neutering, animal rescue organizations, and animal fostering groups. Yet, the condo at Waterview still seemed more and more overrun with cats.

  Katie twisted her mouth. "Daddy take you to the pet store while I was out?"

  Little Dolly danced around happily at the memory of it. She loved visiting the pet store, especially the wall of cats available for adoption.

  "He let you pet a homeless kitty again?"

  Dolly held her cheeks and bounced up and down as if she could hardly keep her excited little soul inside her body. "He's so soft. The softest kitty ever."

  No, Katie said to herself. We do not need seven cats. We're already the crazy cat family. This was already ridiculous.

  "Where's your father?"

  "I'm here." Her husband sheepishly appeared in the bookcase doorway that led to the room they'd converted into a playroom for Dolly. One that the little girl would soon share with Elvis, when he was old enough. Holden walked out wearing lounge pants and a loose white tee-shirt. Katie sighed. He knew exactly what he was doing. After five years, he could still get her to do anything while walking around in lounge pants.

  “Holden,” she said in a tone that was both scolding and teasing.

  Her husband held up his hands in surrender. “What was I supposed to do? Say no to a toddler who just wants to pet a homeless cat?”

  Katie lowered her chin. “Darling husband,” she said with a warning but also the whisper of a smile.

  Holden approached and stroked the top of his infant son’s head with his big hand. “Elvis, what are we to do in the face of these women in our lives? They know we can’t say no to them.”

  The muscles of her face worked hard to contain her smirk. “The problem comes when the two women in your life disagree, and one of them is the Momma.”

  “Here,” he said, extricating the sleeping Elvis from his carrier, both he and Katie wincing at the loud Velcro. But the baby did not wake up. “I’ll put them both down for their naps and we can discuss it.”

  Stripped down to her undies and tee-shirt, Katie waited for Holden perched on the bed. This was where all of their life decisions, large or small, were made. The windows' view showed a clear blue sky over the harbor, the sun glinting off the tall buildings uptown. The bridges were up from Haven Street all the way down the river to the suburbs, as an empty cargo ship was making its way back from unloading downstate.

  Her associates and colleagues had thought she had lost her marbles by setting up the animal rescue foundation. But as far as she was concerned, this was home, and this place had the best view of anywhere in the city. On top of that, the city had not only agreed to a total redesign of the entire Waterview mill district, but had helped obtain several grants because of her intent to make well over half of the units affordable housing, with the street-level units set up to be job-creating retail and offices. Harper Ross was still salty about it, and still wrote editorials about the evil corporation, but Katie rather enjoyed being kept on her toes.

  Holden strode into the room and closed the door. He leaned against it and watched her for a moment.

  Correction, she thought. This was the best view in all of Newcastle. In fact, Holden Murphy was the most magnificent sight in the entire world.

  He leaned his wife against the pillows and settled himself between her legs. Smoothing his hand under the hem of her shirt, the flesh of her tummy thrilled at the touch of his big, rough hands. Heat bloomed in the walls of her sex, and she felt her nipples grow taut.

  “Ready to negotiate?” His eyes leered up at her lasciviously from under his thick brows.

  The laugh she blurted caught him off guard, and he raised his head. “What?”

  “There’s no negotiating. We both know we’re going to get that cat.”

  Holden breathed a wheezy, delighted laugh that tickled the fine hairs of her upper thighs. With his nose, he nuzzled the thin fabric that covered her groin. The sensation scattered tiny shards of pleasure all through her sex, causing her breath to hitch and sigh with an audible hum.

  “That’s very generous of you, Cupcake,” he said, pressing a firm, wet kiss with tongue against the fabric. The pressure, the heat of his breath, threatened to undo her too soon. “But I still like the part where I please you to get what I want.”

  Her fingers weaved through his soft, dark locks while she caressed the back of Holden’s head. “I still like our little games, too.”

  “Good, let’s play,” he rumbled against her mound. She arched into him, her body eager for the pressure. “May I play?”

  Her already tight little buds responded to his question with an ache. Her breasts, her nipples wanted that. “Naughty,” she replied, because this was their little game. “That’s not for you.”

  “Please?” His voice had a slight tremble of longing. Her breasts were swollen, which meant Holden was asking this question a lot.

  She put on a show of considering the question thoughtfully. “What will you do for me?”

  He started, “I…” and then trailed off, instead showing her with his actions rather than words. Holden kept up his tongue’s attention to her drawers, and pretty soon they were soaked through.

  “When you put it like that,” she said, barely able to keep up this back and forth, “I’m almost convinced.”

  With a hungry growl, Holden rid her of her undies and claimed her swollen, aching lips.

  “That’s a p…powerful argument…oh my.” Her words came out in whispers.

  His tongue dove into her cunt. His mouth slurped every drop he pulled out of her with his expert maneuvers. When he covered her clit with his mouth, her whispers morphed into cries of pleasure. The quaking of her legs signaled she was close, which as part of this silly game, caused Holden to pause and look up at her, pleading.

  This teasing wouldn’t stop until she said yes. Her body screamed at her to say yes, but at the same time, she wanted to draw it out a little longer.

  “Please…please finish me?”

  He smiled, his lips glistening with her juice. “Will you let me drink some of that? You’re already leaking.”

  When his eyes roamed over her breasts, Katie bit her lip. “I’m leaking because you’re very naughty,” she said, her voice trembling with need. “Finish me and I’ll think about it.”

  Of course, she would let him; Holden had proven himself over and over again to be trustworthy and the most kind and generous lover she had ever had the fortune of knowing.

  But that wasn’t the game, and they both knew it. They still wanted the teasing to go on just a bit longer. With that thought in both their minds, he pursed his lips and blew air across her tight clit. This aroused Katie so furiously she almost laughed in frustration.

  She couldn’t take the teasing any longer. “Yes. Yes you can drink some, Just please, please.”

  With a wink, Holden dipped two fingers into her channel and gently sucked her clit into his mouth, drawing out a shattering orgasm. She stifled a scream for fear of waking the kids.

  The tightness with which he held her against him as she rode out her climax felt warm and right.

  He needn’t have asked again, but because Holden was Holden, he dragged his hand up her shirt, her shirt nudged out of the way to expose her nakedness.

  “There they are. My perfect round melons ripe just for me.”

  His fingers worked inside her while his mouth covered one nipple and sucked away. His other hand handled her other breast, dragging the pad of his thumb over the other erect nipple.

  Her husband drank from her, swallowed her milk with wild abandon. This was his kink that they had both discovered after she’d gotten pregnant. And who was she to deny him a kink that harmed no one and gave him so much pleasure?

  He pleasured her lady bits with one hand and then moved the other hand down to grip his own cock while he drank from the opposite breast.

  With his fingers inside her and the utter joy she witnessed in him, she came again around his fingers, pushing against him in the convulsions of her climax.

  Moments later, when he was buried inside her, filling her up with his thick cock, he cradled her body close as he stroked in and out. He massaged her everywhere his hands could reach. She felt so full and bound to him, she wanted to cry.

  Their little games did that to her: brought her to the edge and kept her there so long it made every fiber in her being nearly burst. And then when she would finally come, like she had just done then, the relief was so powerful she didn’t know where her body ended and his began.

  When he was buried inside of her in one of those moments, she couldn’t even speak.

  She was grateful that he spoke first. “My sweet Cupcake.”

  “What am I going to do with my naughty boy?” she teased.

  “Love me forever.” It was a statement, not a question.

  “As if I have a choice. You take such good care of me and Dolly and Elvis and all of the cats. That’s why I love you so much.”

  Holden smiled. “You love me in spite of all the cats?”

  “No. I love you because of the cats,” she replied. “Just as well I hope you don’t love me in spite of myself. We could have a hundred cats and it wouldn’t make me stop loving you.”

  Holden’s eyes got wide. “Really?”

  She spluttered, “Don’t get carried away, now.”

  “Too late, You said it. I have it recorded on tape.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “It’s true. I kept the listening device, the bug, you know, from the thing that went down five years ago.”

  Of course, Katie remembered all of that. How could she forget?

  “You do realize that thing is not hooked up to anything. There’s nothing, no other device out there recording us.”

  Holden blinked at her. “There’s no teeny tiny recording device inside this little…” He held up the bug.

  “Haven’t you ever seen the detective shows? There’s always someone in a van listening to what everyone is saying, through the device. Surveillance, that’s how it works.”

  “I don’t watch those shows like you do.”

  “My sweet, sweet Holden. Have you been thinking this entire time that the bug has its own internal recording device?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh my god. I love this sweet little brain of yours so much.”

  “For I am a bear of very little brain,” Holden said, paraphrasing their daughter’s favorite Winnie the Pooh book.

  Katie corrected him. “You’re a genius at the things that matter. Taking care of me and the kids, and his house.”

  “And you’re kind and generous, and you love more intensely than anyone who has ever walked on the earth, and that includes Mother Theresa.”

  Katie laughed. “You’ve lost your mind and I am still crazy about you, sweetheart.”

  “I may have lost my mind, but I found my heart,” Holden said.

  About the Author

  Abby Knox lives a dual life. Fantasy Abby would love to live on a farm with goats, bees, chickens, donkeys and alpaca, making her own soap, yarn, honey and cheese. Reality Abby has no desire to do actual farm work. So, the ever-pragmatic Reality Abby keeps Fantasy Abby happy by putting her into adorable little works of romantic fiction with her pretend hobbies. Both Abbies hope you enjoy her sweet, sexy — sometimes a little over the top and weird — storytelling.

  Keep up with the latest news with Abby’s newsletter!

  Say hello at

  authorabbyknox@gmail.com

  Also by Abby Knox

  Books One through Three in the newly revised five-party Big Easy Shifter Series, Taking the Belle, Having His Cake, and Chasing the Night, are now available!

  Need more stand-alone short reads and novellas?

  Check out Abby’s other titles!

  Butter Queen

  Pumpkin King

  Fighting For Dylan (book four in a six-author MMA series!)

  Hot Off The Press

  The Halloween Bet

  The Christmas Pickup

  From the Small Town Bachelor Romance series

  Take Me Home

  Game Face

  Written in the Stars

  Walk With Me

  Stay the Night

  Come and Get It

  Nephilim’s Captive: A Divine Giants Romance. (Book One of seven in the paranormal romance series Sons of Earth and Heaven. Book two is coming in 2021)

  Duets

  Pumpkin and Spice

  Comfort and Joy

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  Marrying Up

  Shacking Up

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  Maid for the Billionaire

  Made for Marriage

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  Doctor Dave

  Officer Max

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