She stirred in my arms and turned her face up to kiss me. It was nearly my undoing, but I had to stay sane for the moment. There was more to be said.
“I take it you met the statuesque, Dr. Hunt?” I asked and she nodded. “My father and Jervis knew me well. Not only was she the kind of woman I would normally have been attracted to, she was also in a position to bail me out. She was a staff doctor with a firm on the west coast. They approached me after the grand opening with an offer to buy me out. I refused. That’s when my father executed his next move and the letter and Hunt showed up. She was to be my partner, essentially taking up the share Jervis had sold to me. She had ruling control and if I screwed up again, she would see me barred from my profession. I found recordings from previous sessions with clients had gone missing from the server. Jervis had taken them for insurance. They were not illegal, per se, but definitely condemning because I overstepped my influence as a therapist to coerce patients into taking steps and actions they ordinarily would not have taken. In short, I chose to send some of them home still ‘broken.’ It would have never stood in front of a board of review, but I would have been disgraced and banished, nonetheless.”
Auggie hugged me tighter and I knew hope for the first moment in weeks.
“My father wanted me disgraced because he felt I had done the same to him. He knew you would see Hunt and leap to the worst conclusions. Why wouldn’t you? I was a known entity. So, all this time, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get rid of her, my father, and Jervis’ threats. I never counted you would leave me. Nothing mattered once you were gone. I’ve only been going through hell worrying about you, but your dad wouldn’t tell me where you were and there was no way I could find you. I gave up on fighting. I’ve just been going through the motions. My father and the west coast firm is about to leverage me out of the business entirely.”
“This is like a nightmare,” she murmured.
I swallowed, emotion clogging my throat. “Can you forgive me, Auggie? I’ll give it all to them and we can move somewhere else. We can just liquidate and start again somewhere. We’re not broke, we’re just broken,” I finished and waited for her reaction.
It was some moments in coming. “What about the baby?”
“Auggie, I want our baby and I don’t believe in aborting something that is live, and most especially a part of us. Will you marry me? Both of you?”
Auggie snuggled harder against me and I took this as an affirmative. I tipped her face up so I could kiss her. I was so hungry for the taste of her mouth upon mine. I remembered her scent, the feel of her skin. I couldn’t hold back and all the hell of the previous months disappeared in her touch. I devoured her face, her mouth, her neck and sucked the soft skin beneath her ears. Her clothing disappeared somewhere in the haze and I sought her sweet pussy with my mouth. I wanted to taste every inch and every bit of her juice.
Auggie spread her legs for me and I settled between them, opening her to my ingress. I feasted, my tongue sweeping her wet walls, needing more. I couldn’t get enough. I pulled her hips forward, resting her legs on my shoulders and she crossed her ankles, pulling me tightly into her. I wanted to drown in the wetness that was pouring out of her.
Auggie’s head rolled from side to side in her ecstasy. I knew she was ready to explode and rubbed her with my finger, increasing pressure against the tender skin. She came then, her bottom rocking upward and frantically seeking me. I did not disappoint. I was already rigid and needing her. There was no need to hesitate. I plunged into her depths and she cried out with the filling pressure.
I felt pure adoration of her. Her body was the perfect receptor to mine. We were matched in passion, in need, and in the intense relief we could only find in one another.
I looked down at her beautiful face, her hair spread across the pillow and realized that for the first time in my life, I loved someone else more than I loved myself. I would never again endanger her by exposing her to the darkness of my past. She now held our child, a creature that would only know the world because the two of us had come together in just this way.
Her breasts begged for my mouth and I kissed her sweet nipples, sucking at the rosy flesh that made her groan and pull me flat against her. I rolled so that she was atop me and lifted her down upon my hard shaft. I gently worked up into her. She threw back her head and I watched her beautiful long throat as she growled with the need to find her peak again. She rolled her hips as I thrust upward into her. I knew by the frequency of her movement that she was almost there. I bucked up hard then and she screamed, tears of achievement wetting her long lashes.
Three more thrusts and I followed her over the edge.
She collapsed on me then and together we clung and slept that entire day. My Auggie was back, the words had been said and nothing and no one would ever separate us again.
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
Auggie
Worth and I were married in a private ceremony deep within the woods of our new estate. He had gardeners bring in hundreds of potted tulips. Dad gave me away and served as witness while Carlos stood nearby with a wreath of white tulips wound around his neck. It was simple; it was perfect. The engagement ring was augmented by a band of red rubies representing the joining of our blood from that moment on.
My mother was not invited and neither were Worth’s parents. I know it saddened him that his mother couldn’t be there, but he said she had stood by her husband so long that it would be dangerous to ask her to relinquish that post while he still lived.
Afterward, we enjoyed a simple picnic and listened to the wind rustle the leaves while Chopin played from a small stereo. It was nothing like I’d imagined my wedding would ever be and that made it magical.
We had decided to resurrect our life. We were going to live it our way and that meant taking control of our own future.
Beverly Dexter had our new house almost complete. It still lacked the fripperies that were now my department and once again. I set about getting everything I wanted, but this time I brought in interior designers from Cincinnati, Atlanta, and Chicago and let them show me their ideas. I approved what I did and didn’t want, and the house was soon brought into shape.