Page 97 of Wild Card

“You let me pay off the mortgage for your mom’s house.”

I shook my head. “No. It’s not your concern—you can’t…”

“Yet you’d lay down your whole life to follow me to New York?” She raised that eyebrow again. “Look.” She moved until she was straddling me, clasping my hands in hers. “One day, I’d like to move here…settle here with you, watch you mow that back yard while I cook something in that kitchen. I want this to be ours and our future. I know that’s probably rushing things a lot, but it’s one of my fantasies. So let me do this, please?” She moved against my growing hard-on, her chest heaving as she began to work me up. It didn’t take long.

Images of little kids playing in the yard, laughing, filling the space with life…it was beautiful and everything I hoped for one day, and I wanted that with her. I wanted her to be part of it. If that meant she paid it off or bought it then fine, she could, as long as she was at the end of that dream, living it with me, going to sleep at night with me.

“Deal,” I said softly, watching as she held me in her palm then slid down onto me.

She waited, adjusting to my length while catching that gleam in my eye. Yeah, I’d made a new deal with her.

“Move your hips, baby,” I whispered, placing my hands on hers.

Rolling forward, she let out a tiny moan. “I need to make a quick phone call.”

“Yeah, you can get right on that.” I pulled her against my cock.

“You’re interfering,” she murmured, biting her lip.

“Fuck, baby. If this was interfering, we have a lot of interference in our future.”

She eyed me, leaning down to kiss my lips. “Promise?”

It was what I’d asked her that night in my bed.

“Yeah, I promise.” I jutted my hips up while pulling hers down. She came again, groaning her release while I watched her fall apart. It made my chest swell.

If this was what it meant to play the wild card, it had to be the luckiest card in the deck.

I was done for.

But I’d been finished for a long time. I realized as I watched Mallory crawl off me and move around my space that she was always supposed to be in it, always supposed to be pulling on my t-shirt after sex, always in my head, her lips at my beck and call, her body in my bed at night.

I realized I would follow her anywhere. I’d been trying to make pieces in my life fit ever since my dad passed, but now all of them belonged to her. Wherever she was, as long as she was with me, I’d be okay. I’d fit.

Her smile as she pulled out her phone and talked to her dad, her face as I grabbed her hand and just held it—she completely undid me. I knew then that for the rest of my life, this was all I’d want.

Epilogue

Two months later

“Taylor!”I set my purse down on the entryway table, knowing Gareth would likely move it as soon as he realized I’d entered the house. He hated when we didn’t use the doorbell.

Dad’s house was bright, the summer sun highlighting the lush gardens outside. Taylor had been living here the entire summer so far, although now that I think of it…it had only been about two months since I left our townhouse. I hadn’t left Decker’s side since that day he helped me carry my luggage into his trailer. We had lived blissfully in a little sex cocoon where all we did was sleep, eat, and fuck. We did occasionally stay in the main house and eat meals with his Mom and Kyle, but otherwise we were like bunnies, without the procreation part. Now we were headed to New York, officially taking things over…and as a married couple.

We didn’t have to get married. Dad had convinced the shareholders to back off the marriage clause, but it was Decker who’d swayed me. We’d gone away for the weekend; he wanted to try to replicate that camping trip I’d gone on with my dad when I was a kid. So, Dad had told him the spot, and we found out there was an entire Airbnb setup with tiny cabins along the river.

We rented one, and while out back under the string lights that hung over our little patio, he’d gotten on one knee and said I could either wear an engagement ring for however long I needed to be comfortable, or I could marry him and not stress him out any more about whether or not I might change my mind.

I decided to put him out of his misery.

We married a week later inside a tiny chapel with only ten people present. It was perfect, exactly what I wanted, and I couldn’t have been happier—even without officially working for Kline Global yet, although they’d called and offered. I asked if they’d be willing to keep the offer open while I started this new chapter of my life. They agreed, and even offered to allow me to write for them in my free time, if I had any.

Things were good, except for the fact that my younger sister kept dodging my calls.

“She’s upstairs, girl,” Bev said, walking past me toward the laundry room.

I jogged up the steps, wondering why my sister had texted for me to come after ignoring me for a week. She had almost missed my wedding, although she refused to explain why. I had been too busy then to really focus on it, seeing as Decker had planned a weeklong honeymoon for us, but now—now I wanted answers.

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