“Daddy, you can come play with Miss Parker,” Kenny said. “We’re going to watch Hotel Transylvania: The Series, now.”

  “Oh yeah!” Lyric chirped.

  “You said we can watch the entire first series, dad.”

  “Did I?” Aric said. “When I checked, there are 26 episodes; there’s no way I’m going to let your and Lyric spend 10 to 12 hours watching TV.”

  “I agree,” Candace chimed in. “You’re allowed to watch 4 episodes, and that’s my final answer.”

  “Will do, Miss Parker,” Kenny said with a smile. “I was just pushing my luck.”

  “I could tell, honeybee,” her dad said, “but it won’t always work.” He smiled at both girls. “Now, off you go.”

  “Yayyyy!” Lyric couldn’t contain her enthusiasm.

  That was his cue, he thought even though his daughters had no idea what he planned. He had banked on exactly this moment when they’d go inside to watch one of their favorite kids’ shows. He swam to the trio and did his best to salute them with a straight face. “Yes, your highnesses, always at your service.”

  Lyric giggled and Kenny rolled her eyes at him.

  “Take care of mommy, Mr. Simmons,” Lyric said as he helped them out of the pool. “And don’t let her stay in the water too long; her skin gets wrinkly and then you won’t like her anymore.”

  “Lyric!” Candace exclaimed but the girls were already running barefooted in the direction of the house.

  Aric laughed at the look on Candace’s face. She looked a bit chagrined, though she was grinning good-naturedly. “You know I am beginning to think Lyric is becoming more like Kenny every day.”

  Aric grinned, too. “And we both know we can’t possibly survive two Kennys.”

  Candace pretended to glare at him as he folded her into his body as soon as the girls were out of sight. “We can deal with four Kennys and four Lyrics if we have to.” She smacked his arm playfully. “They are wonderful children.”

  “Hey, hey, mother hen,” Aric said dramatically. “Nobody said they were monsters.” He tweaked her nose. “You can cease fire, okay?”

  She laughed and plastered a kiss on his chest. “Shut up!”

  “Gladly,” he said.

  In another second, their lips were locked in a passionate kiss and their bodies dared even the water to come in between them. As was always the case, Aric got hard just by having her within breathing distance from him. Her hands slid across his body and found his shaft, hard and ready for her.

  “Look at that,” she murmured as she caressed his length. “Been wanting to do this all day; you look foine in a pair of trunks, Mr. Simmons.”

  He smiled into her mouth. She was never shy with him, not his Candace. It was one of the many things he loved about her. When she wanted him, she never hesitated to let him know it.

  When she brought him out of the confines of his trunk, he forgot to breathe. Her slim fingers splayed across his entire length in the water even as she deepened the kiss.

  “The girls…” he started.

  “…are not going to be out of the house until Hotel Transylvania is over,” she said with a wicked grin on her face. “I have never done it in a pool, you’re going to be my first,” she added in such a sultry voice that he knew he was lost.

  “And I hope I’ll be your last,” he drawled. He’d said it jokingly, but by god, he wanted to be her first, last and forever.

  She was wearing a thin strip of a bikini which came off easily under his adept fingers. His eyes feasted on her breasts. Candace was endowed with the perfect size twins, which stood at attention and filled his hands just right. They were soft, full and delicious. Groaning, he teased a nipple in between his thumb and index finger, enjoying the way her eyes glazed over at the same time the nipple hardened beneath his touch. Her lips slightly parted and he leaned in for a quick kiss. She would have captured his lips with hers but he was too quick for her; he trailed kisses down her neck to her shoulders. He heard her sharp intake of breath as he went past the swell of her breasts. He deliberately stopped and began working with his fingers. He touched her everywhere and, yet, nowhere in particular. His fingers grazed over her skin, enjoying the silky smoothness that was her.

  “Stop playing, Aric.”

  He could hear the frustration beginning to build up in her voice.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said innocently. “Remember that your pool experience really has to count for someth—”

  He never finished the sentence.

  Somehow, he’d forgotten she had a grip on his dick and when he felt her squeeze him, he almost jumped out of his skin.

  “You were saying something about lessons?” It was her turn to sound deceptively innocent.”

  “You never play fair,” he moaned as she began to move her fingers deliciously around him.

  “All is fair in love and war,” she quoted.

  Well, she was right. He grabbed her butt in one hand, gently pried his dick away from her touch and pushed into her heated center. She took him readily.

  When she finally came, he covered her screams with his lips but did not stop his own release which was just a mere breath away. He continued to pump into her, holding her against the wall of the swimming pool and protecting her with his arms behind her so the tiles would not hurt her skin. Her legs were wrapped snugly around him, giving him more room to make her his own in every way.

  “Marry me, Candace,” he said when the last of the stars began to clear. “I don’t want to spend another moment of my life without you. I want to wake up every morning beside you, grow old with you, make up for the lost time when I wasn’t worthy to step in shoes. I still am not worthy of you; I never will, but you’re everything I ever wanted in a woman, Candy and I swear I will spend the rest of my life proving it to you. Please, marry me.”

  At first, he was certain she was going to refuse him. Her body, limp from sex suddenly went stiff and alert and she stared at him in a way that scared him. In the past week, he had become adept at reading her moods from one look at her face, but at the moment, she was really staring at him like he completely lost her. He couldn’t even begin to guess what she was thinking.

  “Candace, I really want to be with you, I swear on my life, but if all you want is…”

  His last words were lost—drowned in her throat. By the time they came up for air, he was grinning from ear to ear. Her face had lit up like a Christmas tree. He mentally pumped his fist in the air.

  “Is that a yes?” he whispered even though his heart was doing loud circus jigs in his chest.

  “Yes, Aric, yes!”

  “I love you, Candace Parker.”

  He hadn’t rehearsed what he was going to say during the proposal, but somehow, the words he said felt and sounded just right. He knew he had been waiting a lifetime to say how much she meant to him and how much he wanted forever with her.

  And he saw in her eyes that she had been waiting a lifetime to hear him say the words. With shaking fingers, she touched his face as if to assure herself he was real. He pulled her to him and hugged her.

  “I love you too, Aric Simmons,” she whispered into his ears.

  Those six words were like the sound of heavenly music; calming, soothing and cleansing to his soul.

  Chapter Ten

  She was basking so much in the unexpected thrill of Aric’s marriage proposal, that it took her a full week to realize something wasn’t quite right.

  After saying ‘yes’, they’d made love some more in the pool until she was weak. She was delighted in the way they fitted so well, anticipating each other’s moves while she accepted him like a vessel – like she was made for him and him for her. Then, they’d proceeded to tell the girls the good news right after he presented her with the most exquisite engagement ring she’d ever seen.

  Nothing, absolutely nothing, could have compared to the sheer love and joy and beauty on the girls’ faces. At first, they looked like they thought their parents were pulling their legs. Kenny, in particular, had turned up her nose and squinted threateningly at them and said, “It is not April Fools’ Day.”

  But Lyric, ever the firm optimist and observer, had been watching her mom and cried out, “They are telling the truth, Kenny – look at the ring on mommy’s finger; it wasn’t there before! We are going to be sisters!”

  The girls hugged each other first and then leapt into their parents’ arms with such force, they all went crashing onto the floor, laughing.

  Candace didn’t think she’d ever been this happy..

  “Thank you, mommy,” Lyric kept telling her all through the day. “Thank you for making Kenny my sister.”

  At dinner, before she left with Lyric, Aric had cornered her to say he thought they should tell the girls they were biological sisters. But Candace didn’t want to do so, just yet. It was obvious the girls were happy to know their parents were getting married and, to her, that was enough news for the day. They still had a lifetime to know the truth, a life time to get used to each other.

  And she did, too.

  She had a lifetime to be with Aric, a lifetime to love him and be loved by him. Sometimes, the thought brought on a giddy feeling of excitement; at other times, it brought on a feeling of gratitude because she’d never for one moment thought they’d ever be reunited, or be on the brink of marriage.

  Aric was a great lover, a splendid father to the girls and an amazing companion who loved her completely. What more can a woman want or ask for? They complemented each other in and out of bed and she knew she was going to savor each day in his company no matter what. She was no fresh-eyed girl with stars in her eyes – she knew marriage was not a guarantee of lifetime happiness especially with Aric being married before and all the hurts they’d both been through. But she trusted her instincts like she trusted herself those years ago when she decided to be friends with the new scruffy boy in class when everybody else laughed at him. She also knew Aric well enough to know that whatever he had faced in his last marriage, he was a better man for it. Hell, she was a better woman and mom for it, too.

  In the end, it all boiled down to the irresistible pull of their love for each other and the family they’d unwittingly created. After leaving Aric and Kenny that night, Candace had called her parents to tell them the good news.

  “Well, it’s about damn time,” was all Nate said, his booming voice filled with happiness for his daughter.

  Ellen had declared she preferred to have a Christmas wedding so they could spend the New Year together as one family. Her mother was already planning a large Thanksgiving where her daughter’s wedding would formally be announced.

  Kyra had wanted to know every tiny detail of the proposal. When she heard Candace had accepted to be Aric’s wife in the pool, her eyes had gone wide and she shook her head at Candace. “Who would have thought you had it in you?” she fairly screamed. “Remind me never to underestimate you again,” she added before going on and on about wedding plans and bouquets and guest lists and how she hoped to get a rich catch at the wedding.

  Because her mother, Kyra and the girls had her hands – and head - so full she didn’t notice that somewhere along the line before the week ended, she had lost Aric. They still communicated over the phone and she still took the girls from school throughout the week while he was at work and he came for Kenny in the evening, but he never stayed for dinner and he certainly didn’t kiss her goodnight on her front porch.

  At first, she thought he was being decent since they were getting married soon and by Wednesday night, she thought he must have a lot of work on his mind. But when she picked the girls up from school on Friday and both burst into tears, even while they informed her that Aric didn’t want them to do a sleepover this weekend – a sleepover they’d planned days before, she knew something was definitely wrong.

  Kenny told her that she had reminded her daddy to pack her bag this morning but Aric wouldn’t, no matter how hard she cried and pleaded with him.

  He would never deliberately hurt the girls, which meant something was going on, something she’d been too blind to see all week. She placated the girls as best as she could and apologized for Aric and promised he would make it up to them somehow.

  While they attended dance class that afternoon, Candace thought about what they told her. She remembered Aric didn’t call as often as he normally would and had not taken her out on a date at all. Of course, he’d hinted weeks ago that the NFL season was usually the most hectic time of year for him, but she didn’t believe he could be so terribly busy as to forget he’d proposed to her just about a week ago. More so, his engagement at work couldn’t account for his refusal to allow the girls to spend more time together.

  On Monday he’d volunteered to pick up the kids from school and take them to their dance class. He brought a sleeping Lyric back home about 8:30 that night, which wasn’t unreasonable since they’d done their homework for the next day over at his house.

  When he’d lifted Lyric out of the car, she’d muttered something that sounded like, “We did it, daddy…” but Candace wasn’t too sure, and the little girl had nestled her head deeper into his chest. With barely a nod of his head, he bid Candace good night, leaving her to undress her daughter and tidy her up so she’d be clean for bed.

  That was about it. She hadn’t seen him, though thinking about it now, he’d sounded a bit tense, which she’d thought was him being a bit tired. At least, that was what he’d said to her when she’d enquired.

  What was she missing? Did he regret asking her to marry him so soon?

  Unable to bear the direction of her own thoughts, she snatched her phone from off of her desk and dialed his personal mobile number. She started to twist the engagement ring around her finger as she held her breath while the phone rang. There was no answer on the other end. She called again but, still, no answer. Then, she called his office line. His assistant, Jessica, picked it up on the second ring.

  She’d chatted with Jessica a few times and seen the petite young woman on one occasion when Aric gave her a tour of his office. Jessica hadn’t hesitated to let her know she must be something special because her boss had never brought any woman to his company before. Candace had instantly liked the woman.

  “Hi, Jessica! Is Aric in? I’d like to talk with him.”

  She could sense the other woman’s hesitation on the other end of the line, and the hairs on her skin rose.

  “Ah, yes he is, but he’s in a meeting,” the assistant said. “I will let him know you called, or would you rather leave a message if it is terribly important?”

  Candace stammered over her excuses and disconnected the call. Somehow, she knew Jessica was lying and had been uncomfortable doing so. Aric wasn’t in a meeting. He simply didn’t want to talk to her.

  Doubts assailed her and she had no idea what to do. She didn’t have any reservations when he said he loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. How could she when his eyes had been full of love and desire for her? How could she question his sincerity when he showed her how much she meant to him every time they made love and in the little things he did to show her that her happiness was his main priority?

  She didn’t have cause to doubt him then, but there were plenty of reasons to do so now.

  She needed to think. And she couldn’t do it behind her desk in her shop. Quickly, she grabbed her purse and headed out even though it there was still another hour before the shop was closed for the day.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said to Paula even as she strode out of the shop. She didn’t want the girl to notice how upset she was.

  Although she didn’t mean to, she found herself parking in front of her house. Feeling a little bit disorganized, she let herself in, tossed her handbag and whatever else in the sofa in the living room and made her way to the kitchen where she promptly plopped her behind in the wicker chair. Her thoughts were muddled. She looked around the kitchen as if she were a stranger trying to figure out what in the world she was doing here. She’d left Aric and Kenny in the best of spirits last Saturday. They’d chatted on the phone until midnight and nothing had seemed wrong, at least not to her. So what should she do?

  She could go to his office, demand to see him… But what would her next option be if he refused to see her, or told his assistant to put her off like she did over the phone?

  Break into a thousand tiny pieces, that’s what.

  Had he been leading her on all along?

  For how long she sat there, she didn’t have a clue until she heard a loud banging on her front door.

  What the hell?

  Someone was making such a racket, the entire house reverberated with the noise.

  “Candace, I know you’re in there! Your car is parked outside.”

  Aric?

  It’s Aric!

  Her heart sped up immediately and her feet pushed her out of the chair on a run. A million thoughts flashed through her head as she dashed to the door. She wanted to hug him, scream at him, ask him why he was so distant, demand to know why he wouldn’t let the girls have their sleepover but one look at his face as she flung open the door and everything dissipated out of her head.

  He was pissed off. It was the first thought that came to her. The second was that he hated her.

  She had never seen Aric this way. His face was contorted in a hateful sneer that made her skin crawl as he stared down at her. His eyes pierced her heart with frozen shards of ice. She felt cold all of a sudden, cold and alone. Involuntarily, she took a step back into the house.

  He followed.

  “How could you do this to me?” His voice was that of a stranger, it cracked eerily, lashing out at her mercilessly. “How could you?”

  Her chest tightened.

  He took a step forward for every one she took backward until her back was against the wall and he was standing in front of her oozing malevolent animosity.