The Doctor’s Secret Bride (Billionaire Brides of Granite Falls Book 1)

Michelle jumped at the chime of the doorbell. “He’s here,” she said to Yasmine.

“That was fast,” Yasmine said. “You can just ignore him, you know.”

“You don’t know Erik.”

“Michelle, open the door!” Erik’s voice bellowed from outside.

“I heard that,” Yasmine said. “You want me to stay on the line, just in case?”

“No. I’m fine. I’ll call you later. Bye.” Michelle hung up the phone and stared at the door.

“Michelle, I know you’re home.”

Michelle bit into her bottom lip as it throbbed like her pulse. She didn’t know if he’d come for his child or for her. All Yasmine had told her was that he knew she was pregnant, and that he was furious. Ice spread through her belly. “Go away, Erik.”

“Not until we talk.”

“I have nothing to say to you.”

“If you don’t open this door, I will break it down. I swear.”

Michelle wobbled across the room and yanked the door open. Her black eyes met his grey, gold-flecked ones with a blaze of fury. “What do you want?”

Erik’s eyes bulged when he saw her big fat stomach. “Oh, my God,” he whispered as he stumbled into the condo and closed the door behind him. “You’re on the brink of giving birth.”

Michelle forced herself to hold his stare. It pained her to look at him, knowing he was now with someone else. He was dressed in a grey linen summer suit, pink shirt and striped pink and grey tie. He stood tall and proud—broad shoulders, straight back, with skin like suede, eyes like a tiger, and soft sexy lips she longed to kiss again.

“I see Dr. Ashley couldn’t keep her big mouth shut,” she said tersely as she watched him take a swift assessing glance around the room. She saw his nostrils flare and his lips tighten when his eyes landed on the photo of her and Ryan on the wall.

“You’re wasting your time, Dr.,” she said. “It’s not yours.”

His jaw muscles flinched and his eyes flashed flames of anger. He took a fuming step toward her. “Then whose is it? Who’s that man with his hand on you stomach? Is that Ryan? I know you were staying with him in South Carolina. Is it his?”

“It’s mine, Erik. Mine.”

He assessed her quietly for a moment, then the muscles in his jaw relaxed. “I know you, and I know you wouldn’t have been with anyone else, especially so soon after us. So it doesn’t really matter who he is. I know he’s not the father of that child you’re carrying.”

“Erik, just say what you came to say, and leave. You’re not welcome here.”

He shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it over the back of a chair, making himself comfortable as if he didn’t hear her. “I hurt you. I hurt you deeply, and I’m sorry.”

Michelle trembled where she stood beside the couch and forced herself into believing that she didn’t care, that nothing he said would change the fact that he’d left her when she needed him most. She fought the need to fall into his arms and tell him how much she still loved him and how empty her life was without him.

“Michelle, when I found out about your father, I needed somebody to blame,” he said in a feeble attempt to apologize. “I needed someone to feel the same agony I was feeling. You were there with your sweet love for me so I lashed out at you. It was a mistake. The biggest mistake I’ve ever made, and I’m sorry, baby.”

Michelle remembered the ease and speed with which he’d ended their marriage, severed their relationship. She remembered how she begged for his forgiveness, his trust, his love. He’d told her to forget him, and what they’d shared, and that’s what she’d tried to do. She was trying to build a life for herself and her child. She never wanted to know hurt like that again, be abandoned again. For all she knew, he could just be here to verify the child was his, then take it away from her so he and Bridget could raise it. His moment of déjà vu wasn’t happening.

“Okay, Erik,” she said on the verge of fatigue. “I accept your apology. Now please go.” She turned her back to him, afraid he’d see the truth in her eyes.

“Is that all you have to say?”

Michelle whipped around, months of suppressed hurt rushing to the surface of her soul. “What do you want me to say, Erik? You expect me to fall into your arms just because you said you’re sorry? I told you I was sorry, and you still tossed me aside. I gave my heart to you, and you crushed it in your mighty strong hands. I needed you, Erik, but you abandoned me, just like my…”

The truth about Timmy Gleason was still not public knowledge. Knowing it would send the media into another frenzy over Cassie LaCrosse’s death, she and Robert had opted to keep the news to themselves, at least for now.

People were already forgetting that she was tied to that case. She didn’t want Erik and Precious to live through the horror of Cassie’s death again. She just wanted to be left alone to live her life in peace. “I have just been through the loneliest, most difficult eight months of my life, and I’m really tired, okay? So, just go, Erik. Go, and leave me alone.” She pointed toward the door.

Erik’s eyes drank up Michelle’s loveliness as she stood before him in a flowery cotton maternity shift. Barefoot and pregnant. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. She sparkled with an inner radiance, a soft glow of warmth and tenderness. She was so sweet and gentle, like the most precious rose, subtle and fragile in the wind. How could he have hurt her so? How could he have turned his back on this delicate creature? He had hurt her more than anyone else on this planet ever could—simply because she loved him. His shame choked him into silence.

“I lay in bed, night after night,” Michelle said. “Needing you, crying myself to sleep while you were romancing Bridget Ashley, living your life as though I never existed.” Scalding tears steamed down Michelle’s face and she made no effort to stop them.

“That’s not true, Michelle. I wrote—”

“You took Precious from me although you knew how much I love her. That hurt more than everything else you did to me. I thought you would have at least left me that relationship.”

She was suddenly besieged with the memory of the night when she called Erik and Bridget answered the phone. He was sleeping with her, having sex with her in Cassie’s bed, the bed he couldn’t share with Michelle.

Michelle shuddered and ran her fingers through her hair. “Go home, Erik. I’m sure Bridget is waiting for you.” She was so tired that her nerves throbbed. Her muscles screamed from the weight of the child in her womb and from arguing with its father. She just wanted to be left alone. She fell weakly to the couch and covered her face with her hands.

Erik fell on his knees in front of her. He pulled her hands from her face. His heart ripped at the raw hurt glittering in her dark eyes. “Okay, Michelle. I’ll go home, but not before I tell you why I came here tonight. I listened to you, so now you will listen to me.”

She stiffened and pulled her hands from his grasp. Her arms went around her stomach in a protective maternal gesture.

The bewildered look in her eyes sent a chill sweeping through Erik’s bones. Dear God, she thought he was here to take her baby away from her as Bridget had threatened to do. Had her opinion of him changed so much that she’d think he could be so cruel? Think that he would take a child from its mother? She knew how he felt about his own mother not being able to raise him.

“Michelle,” he said softly, “I came here to tell you what a stupid fool, an absolute jackass, a class-A idiot, dull dimwit I am.”

She put a hand to her mouth and started giggling.

Now, that was his Michelle.

“Yes, Baby. You can laugh at me. Just hear me out,” he said when her giggles finally faded and she stared at him with misty wistful eyes. “When Cassie lay dying in my arms, I swore I would find the bastard and make him pay. When I found out it was your father, I felt guilty. I had to punish myself, and in doing so, I punished you.”

“Why did you need to be punished? What did you do?”

Erik cupped her face in his hands. His voice was rough and thick. “Don’t you get it, Angel? I’ve wanted you from the moment I saw you walking up my driveway hauling that suitcase behind you. I’ve loved you from the moment you made Precious laugh. You were a breath of fresh air, sunshine on a cloudy day. You were a better lover than Cassie. You awakened desires in me I never knew I had. You were awesome with Precious from the very first day. As I grew to know you, I realized how incompatible Cassie and I were. You are the one true love of my life. Then when the truth came out, I felt like a traitor for loving you more than I loved her.”

“Oh, Erik, I knew you loved me, but I didn’t know it was like that. I thought you came here to take my baby away from me.”

Erik placed his hands over hers that were resting on her stomach. “Michelle, I would never do that to you.”

“But you did. You knew I loved Precious like my own child, yet it didn’t matter. You hurt her, just as much as you hurt me.”

Tears stung Erik’s eyes. “I know, and I’m sorry, sweetheart. I promise that if you give me another chance, I will make it up to both of you. Just tell me that you still love me, Michelle. Please.” Erik dropped his head onto her stomach and gave in to the turbulent storm that had been brewing inside him for eight long torturous months. He’d missed her so much. He’d missed her touch, her voice, her laugh, her smell. Her love.

Her fingers gently stroked his hair as her hot tears fell against his cheek. “I do love you, Erik,” she said in a choked voice. “I never stopped. I can never stop.”

Just then the baby in her womb kicked. Once. Twice. Three times.

Erik slowly raised his head and gazed deeply into the turbulent depth of Michelle’s eyes. He held her hands in his. “That’s my baby in there. Tell me it’s my baby, Michelle. I want to hear you say it.”

“Yes, Erik. It’s your baby.” Her eyes were dark and stormy, sparkling in the light from the lamp. All the love and hunger she had suppressed for months spilled from their warm depths.

“Our son seems happy that his parents are back together,” he said with a wide grin.

She gave him a relaxed, happy smile. “You’re so sure it’s a boy.”

“Of course. We already have a daughter.”

The gentle motion of the pads of his thumbs stroking the insides of her wrists caused Michelle to catch her breath. We. He’d said we. She put her hands around his neck and drew him close to her. “How’s Precious?”

“Missing you, dreadfully. I have to apologize to her for keeping you apart.”

“Yes, you do.”

“How are you, Michelle?” he asked, filial concern hanging on the edge of his husky voice. “Have you been eating right, taking care of yourself?”

“From the moment I found out I was pregnant, I’ve been doing all the right things to make sure I deliver a strong and healthy baby.”

Erik smiled and stretched his arms around her as far as it would go. He caressed the curve of her back. He pressed his head into her chest, between her swollen breasts from which their child would be suckling soon. He inhaled deeply, drinking up her sweetness. “I almost forgot how good you smell,” he whispered, raising his head. “I used to go into your bedroom and close my eyes, and let your Moonlight creep through my skin. I missed you so much. I need you. I want our son to feel me loving his mother. I want to show you how much I love you.”

“What’s stopping you?” she whispered, bending her head.

Their lips locked in a kiss that was as slow, drugging, and sedate as it was exciting. The strong smoothness of Erik’s tongue flickered lightly, tantalizingly, across the softness of Michelle’s lips. He teased the curved corners of her mouth, exploring the fleshy, velvety inside as if it were a luscious ripe fruit, bursting with warm honey and sweet nectar. He wanted to savor her, love her, cherish her, forever. Finally, his tongue slid into the warm, dark recesses of her mouth and he swirled it around, stroking the sensitive ceiling and inner cheeks of her sweet cavern, slowly, seductively. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the (F)indNƟvᴇl.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Michelle moaned deeply and gave him full license to her sweetness. She tangled her tongue with his, twirling it around in a primitive, provocative dance before drawing back from him. Her eyes were laced with passion as they blazed into the murky depth of his. “Stand up,” she commanded softly, pushing on his arms.

He pushed to his feet, frowning in confusion.

Slowly, Michelle’s hands reached for his belt and unbuckled it. She unbuttoned his trousers then unzipped them carefully. As she pushed them off his hips, her lips came eagerly toward his groin. She kissed the rigid outline of his manhood through his black silk briefs.

Erik’s breath caught in his throat at the intimate contact. He cupped her face in his hands. “Michelle, you don’t have to do this.”

Her smile was the epitome of eroticism. “I want to.”

Michelle struggled off the couch and knelt on the floor in front of him. She drew his trousers very slowly down his thighs and legs, her lips pressing hot kisses against his hairy limbs as they became visible. She went as low as her fat stomach would allow her. She would have sucked each of his toes if she could. She unlaced his shoes and patiently held his legs, one at a time, as he stepped out of his shoes and trousers. She remembered the day in his bedroom in Granite Falls when he’d paid her the same service before lying down with her. She would lay down with him later. Right now, she wanted to give him something special. Something she knew Cassie had never given him.

Michelle’s eyes scanned down his body, clad in nothing but a pink shirt, striped tie, black briefs, and brown knee-high socks. He looked beautiful, virile, and very masculine. She trailed her finger along the outline of his erection, starting from the solid base all the way to the throbbing head.

Erik quivered and closed his eyes.

Bringing her face close, Michelle placed her mouth to the throbbing head and gently and slowly nipped and licked her way down the outline of his brief-sheathed shaft, then back up again. She repeated the tantalizing acts of love until he groaned and shivered above her.

Erik opened his eyes and gazed down at a very pregnant Michelle on her knees in front of him, her face bathed in rapture. The sight of her beautiful lips moving back and forth over his shaft was so erotic it sent bolts of fire surging from his toes to his fingertips. He should stop her. He didn’t want an embarrassing repeat of his honeymoon with Cassie. But Michelle had other ideas, he realized when she hooked her fingers in the waist of his briefs and pulled them down to his knees.

“Oh, Goodness. I don’t believe this is happening,” he exclaimed in a ragged voice as his erection jumped out and smacked her in the face.

Michelle gazed up at him, not believing it either. “You’ve never been loved this way?”

An embarrassed light flickered in his eyes. “Just once, on my honeymoon with Cassie. She gagged, bit me a couple times then threw up all over me. Doubtless to say, it’s been a turn-off since then.”

“Oh, baby.” Michelle pouted. “No wonder you stopped me every time I tried to pleasure you this way. I’ve never done this before, either. But I promise not to bite you or throw up on you.”

He gasped in pleasure as her fingers, warm and slender, closed around his flesh, pumping it lightly. His fingers tangled in her hair, pulling her closer. Michelle pushed the foreskin back and touched her tongue to the broad head. A drop of moisture, tangy and musky, washed over her tongue. She licked at it, enjoying the arousing masculine odor rising from his body.

How could Cassie, any woman not enjoy pleasuring the man she loved in such an intimate way? She’d never done it with Ryan because she was not in love with him. But Erik, she would pleasure him this way, any way, any time he wanted.

Erik bit into his lips and closed his eyes. “Michelle.” He moved his hips suggestively as her tongue flicked sensually over him. A long moan erupted from his throat when her hot wet mouth closed completely around the head of his shaft, and she began sucking him with a delicious sensuous rhythm that erased all purpose, but the one of completeness.

She worked her mouth over him, trying to take as much of him as she possibly could. It was pure rapture to watch her. He held her head steady and thrust into her hot mouth as she worshiped and loved him like no other woman had ever done, or ever would. Back and forth, up and down, she teased and caressed and tortured with her mouth and hands.

Erik felt his lungs constrict, cutting off vital air to his brain. His body tensed as divine pleasure exploded through him. “Michelle… I’m com…ing…”

His breath came in hard cutting gasps. He tried to push her head away and disengage from her mouth, but Michelle held him by his tight buns and locked her jaws around him. She sucked him urgently and vigorously until the volcano inside him erupted in a violent explosion.

Erik expelled a long, rumbling, animal sound that started way down in his belly then he emptied himself into her mouth. She glued her lips to him, milking him for all he was worth.

Some moments later, when all was quiet again, Michelle looked up at him and licked her lips with the satisfaction of a cat that had just eaten the unsuspecting canary.

Erik pulled her to her feet. “You greedy little minx. If I’d known you were so good, I would have let you go down on me a long time ago.”

Michelle smiled, kissed his lips, then her eyes opened in surprise when she felt him, still hard, pressing against her fat stomach. She had almost forgotten about his insatiable appetite. He was a multiple orgasmic man. One in a million. And he was all hers. She was the luckiest girl to ever walk the face of the earth. And to think she had almost lost him.

“Where’s the bedroom?” he asked in a strained voice.

“But you just—”

“I’ve just begun, my love. I plan to make love to you all night, Michelle Carter. We have a lot of lost time to make up. He bent and picked her up.

“I’m too heavy, Erik.”

“Never.”

Giggling against his shoulders, Michelle pointed the way.

In the bedroom, he stripped off the rest of his clothes then slowly helped her out of her dress, bra, and panties. He stared at her naked body. “You’re so beautiful.” He reached out and palmed her swollen, tender breasts, kneading them gently, twirling the hard peaks between his fingers.

“I’m fat and ugly.” She suddenly felt awkward and timid.

He placed a finger under her chin and raised her face to his. “You are more gorgeous than ever. And it’s because you carry a new life inside you.” His hand came down to caress her stomach. “This is the most precious gift a woman could give a man. To carry his seed inside her, to nourish it, love it, protect it with her life.” He sighed. “I’m so sorry I missed out on—”

Michelle placed a finger on his lips. “All that matters is that you’re here now, with me and our child. I have carried him, but you will bring him into the world. Yours will be the first face he sees. Yours will be the first hands that hold him. That will make up for anything you think you have missed out on.”

“I love you so much.” Gently, he lowered her to the bed and worshiped her body as she’d worshiped his. Only after he had taken her to the gates of paradise and back a few times, only after she clawed at him and begged him to take her, did Erik turn her on her side, position himself behind her, then slowly and carefully, entered her, one delicious, rigid inch at a time.

Their loving was slow, sweet, drawn-out, and intense. And when the waves of passion swelled beyond their control, they held each other tightly and rode the blissful currents to an awesome shuddering euphoric release.

A long time afterwards, while Michelle lay in Erik’s arms, she felt the need to have some questions answered. “Erik?”

“Yes, baby.” His voice was groggy, sleepy, his heart beating in a slow steady rhythm against the curve of her back.

“Were you sleeping with Bridget?”

“No. Never.” His arms tightened possessively and reassuringly about her.

“Then what was she doing at your house—”

“At midnight, five and a half months ago?”

“You knew?”

“Bridget just told me tonight. She recognized Yasmine’s number on Caller I.D.”

“I still don’t understand.”

His chest rose and fell behind her. “Mrs. Smith had come down with the flu. Mrs. Hayes was off visiting a friend in Florida. Mother was somewhere in the South of France. I had to go to Chicago for a conference. I was hard-pressed for someone to watch Precious. When Bridget offered to stay with her, I took her up on it.”

“You could have called me.”

“Michelle, I honestly thought of doing just that. It would have given me a reason to see you, talk with you, try to win you back.”

“Why didn’t you?” She rubbed her hands over his arms, loving the protection and security he offered her.

“Stupid pride and arrogance. Then when you didn’t answer my letter—”

Michelle tensed. “What letter?”

“The one where I poured my heart out and begged your forgiveness. I told you how much I loved you and wanted you back. I didn’t know if your feelings for me changed as time passed. So I wrote that if I didn’t hear from you, I would assume you couldn’t forgive me, that it was over between us.”

Michelle took a quick sharp breath. “I never got that letter, Erik.”

“You didn’t? I know I mailed it, and it wasn’t returned.”

“When did you send it?”

“After Christmas. The holidays were so lonely. Plus my parents were on my case about letting you go. I just wanted you back in my life. When I didn’t hear back, I just—”

“Jessica,” Michelle grounded out after a long silence had passed.

“Who’s Jessica?”

“Your rival. She lives next door to Yasmine and used to get my mail when I was still living there. She must have thrown it out when she saw the return address. She has a thing with rich people. Her wealthy father never acknowledged her. And she’s jealous of my love for Precious.”

Erik stroked his hands down her body, calming her. “Don’t be too harsh on her. She was competing for your love just as I was. It’s in the past now. We’re back together. That’s all that matters.” He paused for a long moment then said, “I heard about your father’s death. How are you handling that?”

Michelle took a deep unemotional breath. “That man wasn’t my father.”

“You’re right. A father takes care of his children. I don’t blame you for disowning him for treating you the way he did.”

Michelle struggled to turn around to face Erik. She smiled as she placed her hand on his cheek. “He wasn’t my father,” she said again. “Robert and I are not related to him.”

His forehead crinkled. “What do you mean?”

Michelle eagerly filled him in on the story about Timmy Gleason, and how he’d killed the real Dwight Carter, stolen his identity, and kidnapped her mother and Robert and brought them to New Hampshire.

“You mean to tell me that all this time your real father has been dead, and this man has been impersonating him?”

Michelle nodded.

“Why didn’t your mother say something? Turn him in?”

“Come on, Erik, think.”

“You’re right. He must have threatened Robert an—” His eyes narrowed. “You said Robert was born in Virginia, but you were born in New Hampshire. How can you be sure you’re not this terrible man’s child?”

“Mrs. Hayes told me that my mother was already pregnant with me when she moved to Manchester. But when I began this investigation, I wasn’t sure how long my mother had been his hostage, so when we found out that Timmy was an impostor, Robert went to see him in jail and came back with a couple strands of his hair.”

“You did a DNA test.”

“Yep. He’s not the father of either of us.”

Erik’s lips spread into a relaxed smile as his hands reached for her stomach. “Thank God. I love you, and I love this baby—my baby, growing inside you, but the thought of that man’s blood running through his veins was tearing me up inside.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about it, any more. I’m just happy he’s dead, relieved that he can’t hurt me or you and Precious ever again.”

“Why didn’t you call to tell me?”

“I was going to that night when Bridget answered the phone.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Robert and I kept it between us because we didn’t want to stir up the news surrounding Cassie’s death again. We just wanted to move on with our lives, and let you and Precious live yours. I’ve put it all behind me.”

His warm palm gently caressed her naked stomach. “But what about your real father? Don’t you want to know more about him, find out if you have family still living?”

“Robert is looking into that. It’s another story I suppose.” She sighed. “What about you, Erik? Have you put the tragedy of Cassie’s death behind you?”

He kissed her forehead. “I have. There’s nothing standing between us. No more doubts. No more anger. No more pain.”

“No more lies.”

“Just a bright and happy future with our daughter and our new baby.”

Michelle settled more comfortably into his arms again. “I really thought I’d lost you that night when Bridget answered the phone. I knew you would make love to a woman only if you were in love with her.”

“And that’s the honest truth, my angel.” Erik’s lips gently brushed the bridge of her nose. “I never touched Bridget Ashley.” He paused. “She told me what she said to you at the mall. I apologize for her unkind words.”

“You can tell her I say there are no hard feelings there. Everybody was competing for somebody else’s love. All’s fair in love and war.”

“Precious told me she had seen you that day at the mall. She showed me the doll you bought her. She also said you were getting fat, but I was too stupid to put two and two together. He smiled and pressed his palm against her as the baby leaped in her womb again. “He’s an active little fellow, isn’t he?”

Michelle chuckled and placed her fingers through his as she marveled at the constant thumping of their child inside her. “He’s happy to hear his father’s voice.”

“That must be it.” Erik smiled. “He probably wants to know what my intentions are towards his mother, and I don’t want to keep him waiting. We only have two weeks.”

“For what?”

“To get married before he arrives. I should also tell you that I’m returning to Granite Falls,” he said with a cautious tint to his voice.

“I know. Mrs. Hayes told me you put the Amherst house on the market.”

“It hasn’t sold yet. My parents want Precious and me to move in with them, but I went ahead and put down a deposit on a home in Granite Falls. I guess somewhere in the back of my mind, I was hoping we’d get back together eventually, and I wanted you to have your own home. Perhaps I should have waited since you’ll have to give it your stamp of approval before we make any final decisions,” he added.

“Tell me about it.”

“It’s three stories. The third floor is ours, and it’s soundproof.”

She chuckled. “We need soundproof. I don’t know how I’m going to face my neighbors tomorrow. They’ve never heard these kinds of noises coming from this unit before. Well, not since I moved in here.”

Erik laughed. “I’m sure they’ll understand. Anyway, the house is on Crystal Lake. In addition to the master suite, it has seven bedrooms and six bathrooms, a white picket fence and a huge back yard for our seven children to play in.”

“Sounds perfect.”

“Would you go with me, then? I know you have the center and the kids.”

“I’ll go with you.” Michelle brushed the pad of her thumb back and forth across his lips. “My work here is done. I got the kids a new center. I published my first book. My place is with you and our children. I love what I’ve already seen of Granite Falls. I want all our babies to be born and raised there. I’m ready for a fresh new start. Besides, their grandparents are there. I want Philippe and Felicia to play active roles in their lives.”

Tears filled his eyes. He drew her close and kissed her. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

“Erik, I need to tell you something, and I hope you won’t get mad at me.”

“Nothing could ever make me mad at you again.”

“Well, when we were in Granite Falls, I asked Precious about her maternal grandparents. She told me that her grandpa died before she was born, but that she doesn’t see her grandma because she’s sick. What’s going on?”

He was quiet for a long moment and when she thought he would never answer, he said in a gravelly voice, “Cassie’s mother is in a mental institution in Connecticut.”

Michelle closed her eyes and her mouth. Anything she said would sound trivial.

“She’s been there for several years, long before Cassie died. She hears voices. After her father died, Cassie had to commit her to keep her from hurting herself. Anyway, shortly after Cassie’s death, I took Precious to visit her. It was horrible. Being in that scary depressing place and seeing all those sick people was too much for her. She had nightmares. I’ve never taken her back. But I still go down to see Sarah from time to time, even though she doesn’t know I’m there. She has no other family. Cassie was her only child.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Life’s a crapshoot and we have to play the hand fate deals us. I mean, you had a horrible childhood, but you survived to be here with me, give me a second shot at happiness.”

“Erik, I know that a special part of your heart will always belong to Cassie. I’m not jealous of that. I just want to know that I have the best and the most of what’s left.”

“You do, baby. I love you with all the rest of me.”

A warm satisfied smile spread across Michelle’s face. She was blissfully happy, fully alive, wrapped in the silken cocoon of Erik’s arms and his love. This time forever.

***

One week later…

Clothed in her wedding gown, Michelle stood on the master suite balcony of her new home that overlooked Crystal Lake and the White Mountains in the distance. Her heart flooded with happiness as her ears were bathed in the soft music and lively chatter of the wedding guests waiting downstairs.

She’d had the choice of getting married in a church, but she’d chosen to exchange her vows in her new home—the place where her children would laugh and play and bring her joy beyond comprehension, the place where she would grow old with Erik by her side.

“You are an absolutely beautiful bride.”

Michelle turned at the sound of her brother’s voice. He looked dashing in his black and white tux, but she… “I’m big and fat,” she said, resting her hand on her stomach.

“Looking at you from the back, nobody can tell you’re pregnant.”

“So should I walk backward down the aisle?”

Robert chuckled as he stepped out onto the balcony beside her. “Backward, forward, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I walk you down the aisle. Pastor Dixon is here. Erik is getting anxious, and so are the members of your bridal party. They want to know if a wedding is really happening today.”

Michelle smiled. It was a family wedding with Robert giving her away, Philippe serving as Erik’s best man, Precious as her flower girl, Yasmine as her maid of honor, and Felicia insisting on being her bridesmaid. Their guest list was small, but it included the Rogers family who lived next door, and of course Erik’s childhood friends—the three remaining members of the Granite Falls Billionaire Bachelors Club—Bryce Fontaine, Massimo Andretti, and Adam Andreas. They had all readily accepted her as the newest member of their small circle.

“Let’s get the wedding started,” Michelle said, slipping her hand inside the crook of her brother’s arm. “I don’t want to be Michelle Carter any longer.”

“Then let’s go make you Michelle LaCrosse,” Robert said, planting a soft kiss on her forehead.

Just the sound of that name made Michelle tingle inside and out. She was once Erik’s secret bride. Today, she was his very public, happy, pregnant bride.

As she passed the huge bed where she and Erik would consummate their marriage later tonight, Michelle felt the familiar powerful throbbing in her body. They hadn’t made love since the night they’d found their way back to each other. They both wanted to wait until they were remarried.

In just a few minutes, they’d have full blessings to enjoy each other again as man and wife. For some reason it seemed to her that when a man and a woman committed their lives to each other, their lovemaking became so much more satisfying.