Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 21858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 109(@200wpm)___ 87(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 109(@200wpm)___ 87(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
Aaron shut his mouth and nodded before helping me into the truck for what would hopefully be a quick ride to the hospital. Luckily, Leyton had nerves of steel because he had to put up with my screams the entire way there. The only time he’d seemed rattled was when a nurse ran out of the hospital to help me into a wheelchair, barely noticing him.
It was a good thing she was hyper-focused on me because she was able to get me in a room with a doctor to help deliver our boy only minutes later.
“You did so good, sweetness. Andrew is perfect,” Aaron murmured, running his hands over our son’s cheeks, looking even smaller against his large fingertips.
His birth might not have gone how we expected, and I was pretty sure we scared Leyton out of ever wanting to get someone pregnant, but he was here.
As I watched my mate look down at our little boy with so much love, I knew there was nothing wrong with timing. It was all about how you made it work. And we sure as heck had done that to the point of perfection.
EPILOGUE
AARON
Icurled my arm around my mate and tucked her closer against my side before placing a soft kiss on her temple. She smiled up at me, and just like every other time, my heart thumped, and desire shot through my body.
I wanted to hop right back in the car and take her to the nearest bed, but I’d promised her a date night. Andrew and our one-month-old baby girl, Cassie, were with my parents. We were headed into Timber Treasures for dinner, but then I was taking her home to ravish her beautiful body until we picked up the kids tomorrow.
“Aaron?”
I stopped short at the sound of my name in a vaguely familiar voice.
Turning my head toward it, I had to think for a second why the woman looked familiar. Then it hit me. She was the human woman who had rejected fate. I expected to feel a rush of hatred flow through me, but instead, all I felt was relief. Nothing else. Not even the tiniest flicker of desire. How could I when I had the most amazing woman in the world in my bed and my heart?
I was grateful that fate had given me a second chance. The chance to meet my real mate. The woman I could never live without.
I’d thought I’d been devastated when she rejected me. But it was nothing compared to what I would feel if I ever lost Cressida. That would destroy me.
“What are you doing here?” I grunted, holding my mate even closer.
The woman’s eyes darted between me and Cressida a few times, filling with confusion. “I…I left Ralph. I wanted to find you. You were right about life being empty without passion if I married him instead of being with you.”
Cressida gasped, and I glanced down to see her staring up at me. “That’s her? The bitch who rejected you?”
She sounded so offended that I almost smiled.
“I’m his fated mate,” the woman snapped. “Or whatever it was that he called me the day we met. I thought he was crazy, but even after all these years and the many men I’ve slept with, not a single one of them has sparked any desire in me like he did back then.”
Cressida laughed and shook her head, her expression sympathetic. “What’s her name?” she asked me softly.
I shrugged. I didn’t know or care.
My mate chuckled again before focusing on the woman staring at us with a petulant expression.
“Let’s get a few things straight,” Cressida said tartly. “This man is my mate. Totally and completely mine. I don’t know if fate knew you were a bitch and would do the worst thing a person could do by rejecting their mate or if there was some other plan that we don’t know about. Either way, Aaron and I were always destined to be together.”
“B-but-but he can’t even feel desire for you if what he told me was true!” the woman sputtered.
Cressida’s next smile was smug. “The many, many orgasms he’s given me over the years would beg to differ.”
I buried my face in my mate’s hair to muffle my laugh. Damn, she was a spitfire, and it was hot as fuck.
“I don’t understand. He can’t possibly want you! Not when he can have me!”
My head popped up, and I snarled at the woman. “Even if I didn’t feel any physical desire for Cressida, given the choice, I would mate with her over you a thousand times over.” Cocking my head, I gave her a sympathetic sigh. “Honestly, you should be grateful that you didn’t mate with me.”
“Grateful?” Her tone had turned icy, and I could see that she was about to work up to a childish tantrum.