Legend (Arizona Vengeance #3)(34)

Brooke is nodding before Bishop stops talking, her hand dropping from her mouth to cover her heart. Bishop opens the ring box and pulls out a gold ring with a marquise diamond. It’s beautiful from what I can see, and while I bet Bishop could afford way bigger, the fact that it’s his mother’s ring tells me that he couldn’t do better.

Even though Brooke has worn that ring before, she holds it up before her face while tears slip down her cheeks and looks at it as if it’s the most precious thing in the world.

Bishop stands up and then someone yells out, “Ten” and it takes a moment for us all to understand. Heads turn to the TV and we see the countdown to midnight has begun.

“Nine, eight…” the crowd starts to chant.

I whip back around to Bishop and Brooke, and I find that they’re kissing with their arms wrapped around each other so I take that to mean she said yes and that they don’t give a damn about New Years.

    Legend’s free hand slips into mine.

“Five, four…”

We look at each other as the crowd chants, “Three, two, one.”

Screams of “Happy New Year” reverberate around the room and people throw confetti and blow horns.

I tune it all out as Legend dips his face closer to mine and murmurs, “Happy New Year, Pepper.”

“Happy New Year,” I tell him back, just before he kisses me.

Slow, sweet, and full of wonder at what the new year has in store for both of us.





Chapter 15


    Legend


I tiptoe quietly down the stairs and find Lucy in the kitchen, unloading the dishwasher. She had stayed the night in one of the guest bedrooms while Pepper and I celebrated New Year’s at Erik’s house.

Last night was pretty awesome, hanging with Pepper. I found that the easy friendship that we had developed since Charlie landed on my doorstep didn’t waiver once we were put into a purely social situation as a couple. It was our first date together since Charlie came into my life, and I certainly anticipate asking Lucy to babysit on more nights in the future so we can go out.

“You don’t have to do that,” I whisper so my voice doesn’t carry up the stairs. I’m not worried about waking Charlie up. I just fed her half an hour ago and she’s sleeping hard again. In fact, I make it a point not to whisper around my daughter when she’s sleeping because I don’t want her to be sensitive to sounds when she’s in slumber. I think I read that in a book somewhere.

But I don’t want to wake Pepper up. After we got home last night, we didn’t exactly go straight to sleep.

This morning I woke up early as usual and felt refreshed. I considered waking Pepper up, but that didn’t last long when I heard Charlie starting to make sounds on the baby monitor. So I spent a fantastic hour early this morning just hanging out in the nursery. I fed my daughter, changed her, rocked her in a chair and sang songs to her. I then started teaching her about hockey, because you can never start your education too soon.

    When Charlie went back to sleep—just as I was trying to explain what offsides meant—I once again considered waking Pepper up. I even crept up to the bed and watched her like a creeper while she slept. She’s totally comfortable in her nudity and doesn’t get dressed after we fuck. She’s got no problem snuggling in and going to sleep, even as my cum leaks out of her. I fucking find that hot and so we sleep naked.

This morning she looked delectable as the sheets had come down to just barely covering her pelvis. One arm was above her head, the other flung out to the side. Her face looked like an angel in its relaxation and her tits bore scrape marks from my teeth.

Yeah…my dick started to wake up and I considered crawling in that bed, but then I had another idea.

Lucy has all the cleaned formula bottles lined up on the counter. She smiles at me and says, “I don’t mind helping out. I hate just sitting around doing nothing while Charlie sleeps.”

I nod at her as I look around the kitchen. “Think you can stay about another hour, and then I won’t need you the rest of the day.”

“Sure,” she says just as I find what I’m looking for.

“Aha,” I murmur and snag Pepper’s purse from one of the island stools. Without a second thought and certainly with no shame, I reach inside and pull out her keys. I look back to Lucy and dangle them. “I’m going to go over and wash Pepper’s car. I don’t think it’s seen soap and water in over a year.”

    Lucy grins knowingly. It’s a sweet gesture a boyfriend would do for his girlfriend.

“Charlie should stay asleep but if not, I fed her about an hour ago. Not sure she needs another bottle if she wakes up anytime soon.”

“Got it,” Lucy says and goes back to unloading the rest of the dishwasher.

“Pepper’s still sleeping,” I add on.

“I’ll be quiet as a mouse,” Lucy assures me.

With that, I head out of my house and across the yard. I boldly unlock Pepper’s front door and march in like I own the place. She has a security system but confided in me she never uses it because she kept setting the alarm off by mistake and it stressed her out too much. She always forgot her password and they’d have to send the police out, so she just stopped using it, hoping that the warning sign out front provided by the security company that installed her system would be enough of a deterrent.