Page 26 of Jealous Bodyguard

The word on her lips sounding sweeter every time I hear it, and no, it’s never too soon for a baby. A child of my own is something I would never have considered. But like everything else Stacey touches, it’s all I wanted with her the second I laid eyes on her.

The sound of a heavy bunch of keys clanging on the bench makes us both jump.

“Jesus, Melinda,” I growl, giving my new head of security a stern look. I’ve warned her about sneaking up on us like a ninja, but she's so good at her job I guess old habits die hard.

“What’s happening?” she drawls, sniffing and hitching up her belt. Her son, Jayden, comes ambling in behind her. He’s still a kid really, but Melinda doesn’t let him out of her sight these days, not even when she's at work.

“I’m having a baby!” Stacey gushes but Melinda is deadpan.

“What, like now?” she asks, glancing at me for instructions before scanning the floor in front of Stacey for any evidence. More than ready to do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Like I’ve said before, Melinda’s a badass, and I wouldn’t have her heading my team if she wasn’t. My priorities have changed since Stacey came along. The only thing I’m securing is our life together. Nothing else matters.

“Notnow, Melinda. We just got the test result. Isn’t it the best news?! This is the happiest day of my life!”

“Happiest day ofourlife,” Stacey corrects me. Making Jayden groan aloud when I kiss my wife again.

“Gross...”

“Your time’ll come, Jayden,” Melinda explains. Giving the closest thing to congratulations she’s capable of.

“And when you find the one, you’ll never let go.”

Amen to that.

EXTENDED EPILOGUE

STACEY

Three Years Later

“Honey. We’ve been over this before, remember?” I ask Steve. Treading carefully because I know how he gets.

He gets like he is now. Impossible.

“I told you before,Honey...” he says with restraint, sounding like he’s growling with a diaper pin between his teeth as he changes baby Sadie. Baby number three, for those keeping count.

“The only man who’s putting anything in your mouth is me and that’s final.”

I screw my face up and poke out my tongue, determined not to lose my temper when Steve gets all... Jealous Bodyguard on me like this.

“He’s a dentist, Steve. It’s his job,” I remind him. Dreading my checkups because this is how it always goes.

Don’t even get me started on what we had to go through when the doctors delivering our first baby Samuel were all men. Jesus. But that’s a little different. This is just the family dentist. Been going to him since I was old enough to have teeth for god’s sake.

“Then you know what has to happen,” he replies stubbornly, making me close my eyes to avoid rolling them at him. Feeling the sting of never being able to tell my husband anything but the truth about anything.

Including going to the dentist, knowing full well what it means.

“Fine,” I tell him cheerfully, scooping up Sam as he scuttles past, huffing a breath at how big he's getting, how much like his dad he looks. But I can’t let it sway me.

I can’t give in. I know Steve’s perfect. I love him like nothing else. But enough is enough. Surely, I can be trusted to visit the family dentist on my own without a full security detail, having Steve cracking his knuckles as he looks over the guy’s shoulder?

A FEW HOURS LATER

“Blue one, you in position?”

“Copy.”

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