Page 17 of The Billionaire Touch

“Kate Martinez, I told you that if you stayed I’d be playing for keeps.” He swept her off her feet and into his arms as though she weighed nothing.

Yes, he did.Kate loved the idea of that.

She buried her face against his neck. She was ready for Spencer Travis to claim her. So ready to be his person. “You were going to return to the kitchen after I fell asleep to wash the dishes, weren’t you?”

“As if you weren’t going to do the same thing, Kate.” His chest rumbled with laughter and the sound sent a pulse quickening directly between her thighs.

EPILOGUE

The holiday school play

Second Saturday evening in December

Kate

“Did you hear me play? Did you?” Amari’s face lit up. His shoulders arched and his chest puffed out his dashiki in pride.

“Are you sure your teacher wasn’t playing behind the curtains?” Spencer’s lips twitched.

“Unlike some people,” Kate said, elbowing Spencer. “I know it was you rocking out on those drums. Very cool.”

Kate, Spencer, and Amari stood in front of the stage waiting for the child’s family to say goodbye. Kids ran around the remodeled gym playing and saying goodbye to their friends until the next school season started.

Red, green, and gold decorated the pillars along the walls. Each post symbolized the spirit of different holiday traditions, and Kate liked that the school embraced all of its students, no matter what or how they celebrated.

“My drums are the best.” Amari drummed a few beats into the air. “You’re coming to my next concert, right?” he faced Kate.

She didn’t know how Amari jumped from topic to topic and kept all the strains of conversation together in his head, but tonight he was excited.

“Whoa there, Mr. Musician. When did we go from a middle school Kwanzaa show to concerts?” Amari’s father shook his head as his wife joined them.

“You being his Big Brother means the world to him,” the mom said.

“He makes being a Big Brother easy.” Spencer tussled the boy’s hair.

“It’s getting late,” the older man said, “and it’s way past someone’s bedtime.”

“Don’t forget you’re invited to Wren’s family’s winter solstice celebration,” Spencer said to the departing family before taking Kate’s hand and kissing her wrist. “Let’s get out of here.”

In the last month, they’d really gotten to know each other, and he had a way of making the simplest moments amazing.

He embraced solitude because he was happy with the person he was. He wasn’t easily swayed and neither were his friends. Kate knew he’d grown to care about her too, her family dynamic, and hadn’t tried to change her need to be with people.

Her thumb lazily caressed him on the drive home, and intrinsically his hands tightened in her grasp.

There was no doubt he was her person.

The moment he armed the security system after entering his home, Spencer pulled her close.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, Kate laughed when he lifted her into his arms and ran up the stairs. On their way to his bedroom, she toed off her heels, letting them fall to the polished hardwood floors.

She squealed when he dropped her onto the center of the bed. The closer it came to leaving Bourbon to visit her family, the more she realized she would miss their time together.

“Does the winter solstice mean I’ll finally meet Wren?” she asked mischievously.

He groaned, his right hand trailing a path along the slit in her dress to her thighs.

“I’ll have his mother lock him in the broom closet.”

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