“That’s it,” he groaned, his hips beginning to move again.
Slow and shallow this time, but it was more than enough. We’d been going for what felt like forever, but for the way my body reacted, he might as well have been touching me for the very first time.
My release climbed within me, his gentle thrusts coaxing me higher.
“I’ve got you,” he rasped, the muscles on his back flexing as he surged inside me.
“Me and you, Clare.”
A second later, Heath didn’t just take another broken piece of my soul—he took them all.
And I gave them freely, knowing only he had the power to put them back together.
“Heath!” I cried as I fell apart in his arms.
My muscles pulsed around him as he twitched and jerked, emptying inside me, the deep groan of my name on his lips.
I was lying flat on my back as I came down from my orgasmic high, but I knew with absolute certainty that the Earth had tilted back on its axis, and when I stood up off that bed, I’d find solid ground again.
With Heath.
“That piece of shit,” Roman growled, pacing the back porch.
He’d been repeating the same phrase for nearly two hours.
I was doing my best to relax in one of our new rocking chairs while watching Tessa play in the grass with Loretta. My stomach ached as I clutched a glass of wine to my chest.
It was barely five o’clock and I was already a half a bottle in. Day-drinking had never been more necessary.
“What do we do now?” I asked, flashing Tessa a forced smile when she turned to make sure I was still there.
Tessa had been asking for her mom, but after the way Clare had exploded when the DNA results were read, I’d figured it was best to give her some time alone.
I understood. I’d wanted to explode too. It was hard enough to swallow that our embryos had been swapped. But to find out my egg had been knowingly used to create a totally different embryo had hit me like a ton of bricks.
“Now?” Roman asked rhetorically. “Now, I’m gonna find that son of a bitch and murder him.”
I swirled the Chardonnay in my glass as I asked, “He’s her biological father. What if he tries to get custody of her?”
Roman stopped and turned to face me, both hands planted on his hips. “He’s a wanted man, Lis. No judge is gonna give that coward custody. But, above and beyond that, he would have to pry her from my lifeless arms. And that’s assuming he was still breathing after Light got done with him.”
This was all true. Roman was…well, Roman when it came to Tessa.
And, over the last week, I’d seen just how much Heath loved both Clare and Tessa too. He tried to play it cool and kept his hands to himself for the most part, but his eyes told another story. He always watched them—studying Clare’s mood and anticipating her every need. It was really sweet to witness. He was such a hard-ass with Roman and the rest of the security team, demanding to be in on every decision and raising immortal hell when something didn’t go his way. But, the moment Clare entered a room, a wide smile would cover his face and his entire demeanor would shift, changing him into a gentle giant.
And Tessa? Forget about it. He was a lost cause for her. She had him wrapped around every single one of her tiny fingers—and probably even her toes. There was nothing Heath wouldn’t do for that little girl.
“You’re right,” I said to Roman, though my stomach remained in a knot.
“She’s your daughter too, baby.”
“She’s Clare’s daughter,” I corrected, staring down at the wooden slats on the deck, hating myself for wishing that were different.
He walked over and stopped my chair from rocking as he squatted in front of me. “I just meant, if Walter tried anything, you’re her biological mother. We’ll fight him.”
My vision swam as I admitted, “I don’t want to fight him. I want this to be over.”
His arms were around me before a single tear fell. “I know. And it will be soon enough. I swear.”
“It just won’t stop. All of this. It has to—” I was cut off as Alex opened the sliding back door.
“Leblanc, we got a problem,” he informed us, a murderous glint in his eyes.
I immediately scrambled out of the chair after Tessa.
“Elisabeth, chill!” Alex called, but my feet were already moving.
Whatever the problem might have been, she’d be safer inside.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Roman boomed just as I got to Tessa and scooped her up.
I spun around, my heart racing, and found Kristen, Cathy, and Rome Leblanc all standing on the other side of the glass door, their mouths gaping as they stared at me like I’d grown a second head.
And, as I glanced down at Tessa while she sat on my hip, I realized that, as far as they were concerned, I had.
“Shit,” I mumbled under my breath, anxiety ebbing from my body.
“You say shit!” Tessa giggled, oblivious to my near panic attack.