Taming Her Beast Read online

  “Okay …”

  He takes my hand and strides toward the doors, this man I’ve given myself to, body and soul. He’s wearing a clean shirt and a jacket draped over his sling side, his face covered in smattering beard from where he hasn’t shaved, his black-silver hair swept casually to the side.

  He became a beast when he was defending me, but now he looks like a man, like my man, and my heart flutters when the doors open for us and we walk out into the winter sun.

  “Why do I feel like this isn’t random?” I laugh as he leads me through the forest.

  I’m glad I changed into a hoodie, sweatpants, and sneakers as Crystal Lake comes into view, shining even brighter than the last time we came here. It’s bright but cold, and I huddle close to Markus for his warmth.

  “Because it isn’t,” he says, turning to face me. “I had big plans about how I was going to do this. But sometimes life gets in the way and … well, after everything that’s happened, I don’t want to wait a second longer. I should’ve told you this the first time we came here. I should’ve told you the night I brought Lava home.”

  “Told me what?” I whisper.

  My hands are on his face, just like they were at the restaurant, his beard tickling me softly. His free hand is curled around my hips, bracing my lower back, his eyes burning into me.

  “I love you, Millie,” he growls. “I love you so much it hurts. I love you more than I ever knew I was capable of. I was so cold, colder than the deepest winter before I met you. But you’ve changed me. So there it is—I love you. I fucking love you.”

  “I love you too,” I gasp. “Oh, God, I’m so glad you said it. I thought I might be crazy.”

  “Oh, you are,” he smirks. “But so am I.”

  With that he slides gracefully onto one knee, moving so fluidly for a man his size it’s almost difficult to believe. He reaches into his jacket pocket with his free hand and deftly opens the ring box, the ring carved out of winter dreams, the band ice silver and the diamond glittering like an icicle, inlaid with tiny snowflakes.

  I gasp, tears pricking my eyes, my heart catapulting and a song of pure joy lighting up my insides.

  “Millie Green, will you make me the happiest man in the world and be my wife?”

  I squeal and jump around and somehow end up at the edge of the frozen lake before returning to him, no idea what I’m doing, fueled by the absolute craziness of the moment.

  “Millie,” Markus chuckles. “Get over here and give me an answer, dammit.”

  “Hmm,” I tease.

  “You sassy fucking queen.”

  “Yes, yes, of course, it’s yes, Markus!” I yell.

  He takes the ring from the box and brings it to my hand. I put my ring finger out for him, welcoming the coolness of the piece of jewelry as a physical reminder that this is real, it’s happening.

  “It’s beautiful,” I whisper, holding it up to the sun. “When did you even get it?”

  “The ring or the idea to marry you?” he says, rising to his feet and pulling me close to him, our bodies melting with heat, boiling hot against each other.

  “Both,” I laugh.

  “I got the idea to marry you one night when I found this lost dog on a dark road …”

  “Seriously?” I whisper.

  “Seriously,” he growls. “Maybe it scared me at first, but I knew it. You were the one for me. And when a man loves a woman as fiercely as I love you, he has to make his claim known to the world. Like in the wild when a lion claims his mate. You’re mine, Millie, and this ring shouts it loud and goddamn proud. I bought the ring the morning after the hotel. I just knew I had to make it official. I knew I’d regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t.”

  “I love you,” I say, standing on my tiptoes to reach my giant’s lips.

  “I love you more,” he breathes huskily.

  EPILOGUE

  THREE WEEKS LATER

  Markus

  I set another log on the stump and heft the ax, aiming and bringing it down with a satisfying thwack.

  I purposefully use the arm that took the gunshot, because in the end a SEAL is a SEAL and I’m not going to let this injury tiny slow me down for even a few goddamn seconds.

  I smile broadly as I work, the midday sun shining down. Lava sits just off to the side, watching me with his tongue hanging out, curiously tracking my movements.

  Jackie and Millie are in town … doing something.

  When I asked her this morning, she got this cute-as-hell look of mystery in her eyes.

  “Maybe I’ll tell you later,” she said, tossing her hair in that way that makes it dance around her shoulders in a captivating heavenly whirl.

  “We’ve got a lot to smile about, eh, boy?” I say, putting another log onto the stump. “Although, maybe you’ve got more to smile about than me right now.”

  The day after the craziness with Finn, Lava somehow found his way onto the neighboring property half a mile up the forest and had his way with Juniper, a gorgeous Dalmatian female. She’s pregnant, and already Millie and I have agreed to take one of the pups.

  Lava grins.

  “I’m jealous,” I tell him, my chest becoming warm and light every time I think about Millie and I having children one day.

  Whenever it happens, I’ll be ready.

  I split the log and then turn at the sound of my Chevy, Millie guiding the old girl skillfully and coming to a stop just beyond where Lava and I wait.

  Lava leaps to his feet and lopes up to Jackie when his owner steps from the car, and – with a secretive sort of smile – Jackie leads him inside.

  I turn to my fiancé, wrapped up in her pink winter coat and her thick boots, and yet still curvy as a fucking treat for all that. Her smile shimmers as she approaches, her eyes flitting here and there.

  “What is it?” I ask. “Millie?”

  “It’s … good,” she says. “I’m just stunned.”

  “Tell me.”

  I feel my lips trying to tug into even more of a smile, a proper ear to ear grin, but I need to be careful because perhaps I’m misreading the situation.

  Maybe she isn’t pregnant and I’m going to smile myself into a damn happiness coma and then be disappointed, and then …

  Wait a goddamn second, I’m pretty sure she just said it, she just fucking said it.

  “I’m pregnant, Markus,” she says again. Maybe she can see how lost in thought I’ve become. “I did four tests, just to be sure. I’m one hundred percent pregnant.”

  I let out a cheer and wrap my arms around her, ignoring the slight tinge in my arm. I lift her up and spin her around and around, and then find her lips in the mayhem of our embrace.

  “I love you,” I gasp between kisses. I break it off and lean down, kissing her belly over her coat. “And I love you, little bump.”

  I straighten and kiss away the tears from Millie’s cheeks, and then hug her to my chest, resting my chin on her head and breathing in the scent of her.

  “Home,” I whisper.

  “Hmm?”

  “You smell like home,” I say.

  “That’s because I am your home,” she murmurs sweetly. “And you’re mine, right?”

  “Forever.”

  EXTENDED EPILOGUE

  ONE YEAR LATER

  Millie

  I stand in the kitchen, letting out a long relieved breath when I look around at the shining metal surfaces and realize everything is as it should be.

  Tomorrow night we open, and when I think about the place being full, a wonderful mixture of excitement and nervousness whispers over me.

  I run my finger along the shininess of the counter as I walk out the side door and into the bracing winter air, gazing at the ocean that crashes and sings below. I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful view, the sea an icy and vibrant blue, a lighthouse blinking out a few miles to the north, it’s light barely visible.

  “I’m so proud of you,” Markus says from behind me.

  I turn with a smi
le already causing my cheeks to ache, the same way I always do when Markus sneaks up on me.

  “Hmm,” I say, teasing as my gaze moves over him.

  He stands there in a sea-colored suit, a solid firm dependable handsome maelstrom of a man. Every time I lay my eyes on my husband, I have to tell myself all over again that he’s mine. He says the same about me, constantly, cradling me to his chest at night with his hands running through my hair.

  Rocket walks at his feet, our Retriever-Dalmatian cross grinning widely as we approach each other.

  And the sweetest piece of it all cooing softly in Markus’s arms. We named her Jackie after the friend that brought us together, and raising her is already becoming the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done.

  I’ll never abandon my career – being a chef still means the world to me – but little Jackie is my world.

  We meet as the snow falls lightly. I lean over Jackie and brush my lips against Markus’s, savoring their rough realness. Then I lean down and tickle Rocket under the chin, in the special place he likes.

  I stand back up and lean over our sleeping daughter, my heartstrings tugging and plucking and singing a song I never want to end—that never will end as long as we have each other.

  “I mean it,” he says. “You worked your ass off getting this place ready. Sure, maybe you couldn’t go as quickly as you wanted. But that’s pregnancy for you. And now it’s going to be a massive success. I just know it.”

  “I couldn’t have done it without you,” I whisper. “I don’t just mean the money. I mean … everything.”

  He wraps his free arm around my shoulder, cradling our daughter in one giant hand, holding her close to his chest as he pulls me in closer. Rocket snuggles between our legs and it’s like the four of us are fused, warm against the winter cold, a pocket of safety amidst the uncertainty of the world.

  “Meeting you was the best thing I’ve ever done,” he whispers, lips pressed against my forehead so that his breath bathes me warmly. “I love you so much it hurts. I only have one regret, though.”

  “What’s that?” I murmur.

  “That Rocket and Jackie are here. You look damn fine in that chef’s outfit.”

  I laugh, shaking my head. “You’re insatiable, you know that?”

  “As if you’re complaining.”

  A tingle dances over me, the truth of his words dancing in my chest, make my heart feel light and airy. All through the pregnancy, he was never been able to keep his hands off me, a carnal look creeping into his eyes right up to the very end.

  Even now, with me all sweaty from work and still with a little baby weight clinging to me – or maybe more than a little – I can feel his burn lust for me.

  “I love you,” I whisper. “I love our family. I love our life. As crazy as it sounds, I’m so glad Lava went wandering that night.”

  He chuckles, kissing me softly.

  “This is just the beginning, angel,” he says softly. “We’ve got so many bright days ahead of us.”

  EXTENDED EPILOGUE

  TEN YEARS LATER

  Markus

  “We’re making souffle,” Charley says, grinning gap-toothed up at me, his little chef’s hat askew. He leans against his plastic kitchen set, wearing his superhero costume, cape flapping behind him. “That’s right, Jack-Jack?”

  Jackie smiles at her little brother and then gives me a little eye roll. The scent of my wife’s dinner comes drifting in from the kitchen, which is quite a feat considering it’s on the other end of the ground floor. But even our six bedroom house is no match for Millie’s cooking prowess.

  I swear to God, her chili con carne gets better every year.

  I listen past the sound of Charley and Jackie to the baby monitor, little Isaac making a cooing noise in his dreams that makes me smile like my damn face is going to set on fire with the happy heat of it. Past that, I can hear Micah’s video game from the nook in the room, the screech of car tires and a comedic high pitched voice, and then his carefree laughter.

  It’s all warmth and closeness and safety in the walls of our household, the cold of the world a separate thing beyond the winter crusted glass.

  It’s time like these that I almost shed tears, the joy is so overwhelming—almost. I’m still a SEAL, after all.

  “Daddy,” Charley says, tugging on my hand, pulling me back to the moment. “You gotta help.”

  “Alright, little man,” I laugh, kneeling down and letting him guide my hand over the plastic burner.

  “Ow,” I yell, leaping back.

  Charley falls into a fit of giggles like he does every time I do that, his eyes going wide, his hand slapping down on his knee. He finds the knee-slapping thing hilarious, ever since I did it once not as a joke. But now every time he laughs he makes himself laugh even more by slapping his knee and throwing his head back.

  “You’re a crazy one, aren’t you?” I chuckle, scooping him up under his arm and flying him around the room

  “Airplane chef, airplane chef,” he giggles, holding his arms out to the side as I run behind the couch, to the nook – Micah looking up with a grin – and then back to his game station.

  “Uh oh,” Jackie says, looking so much like her mother as she stands there with her long dark hair. “The dinner’s going to be ruined, Char, unless we act quick.”

  “Uh oh,” Charley says, imitating his big sister. “What’d we do, Jack-Jack?”

  “We have to close our eyes.”

  “Yeah,” Charley says, closing his eyes.

  “And wish really hard.”

  “Yeah.”

  “And hope and pray that everything’s going to be okay.”

  I smile warmly at my daughter, and she smiles back as Charley closes his eyes, wishing that everything’s going to be okay. When he opens them, his laughter lights up the room, joining the warm crackling orange from the fire.

  “It worked, it really worked,” he cries. “Everyfin is better’n okay!”

  My heart feels like it’s melting, and then it does melt when Millie walks up behind me, laying her hand on my shoulder.

  I turn and face her, as beautiful as the day we met—getting even more beautiful, somehow, with the added years of motherhood and experience. Pride whelms in me every time I drink in the sight of her, my Michelin-star wife.

  I love you, I mouth.

  She smiles and then mimes hmm. I laugh and then she leans close, and whispers just so I can hear, “I love you so much, my beast.”

  She’s right.

  I am a beast.

  And just because I’m tamed for her, it doesn’t mean I’ll ever stop protecting her, our family, and everything we’ve built here.

  Because that’s what a man does.

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  A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS

  Book 1: Baby Lust

  Book 2: Veteran

  Book 3: Built

  Book 4: Bambino

  Book 5: Rescued

  Book 6: Leader

  Book 7: Professor

  Book 8: Burned

  Book 9: Worldly

  Book 10: Pistol

  Book 11: Policed

  Book 12: Driven

  Book 13: Lucky 13

  Book 14: Lumberjacked

  Book 15: Protector

  Book 16: Carpenter

  Book 17: Italian Stallion

  Book 18: Gardener

  Book 19: Budapest Billionaire’s Virgin

  Book 20: Billionaire’s Babysitter

  Book 21: Cocky CFO

  Book 22: Fireman’s Filthy 4th

  Book 23: Mechanic

  Book 24: SEAL’s Secret

  Book 25: Police, Pooch, and Smooch

  Book 26: Fireman’s Fake Fiancée

  Book 27: Billionaire’s Virgin Ballerina

  Book 28: Bitcoin Billionaire’s Babysitter

  Book
29: Veterans Day Daddy

  Book 30: Cowboy’s Christmas Carol

  Book 31: Police Officer’s Princess

  Book 32: Statham

  Book 33: Bodyguard

  Book 34: Greek God

  Book 35: Billionaire Single Dad's Babysitter

  Book 36: Mountain Man

  Book 37: SEAL’s Justice

  Book 38: Royal Romance

  Book 39: Doctor Mountain Man’s Special Delivery

  Book 40: Crocodile Dan D

  Book 41: Mountain Man’s Secret Baby

  Book 42: Doctor Bad Boy’s Secret Baby

  Book 43: Cop’s Babysitter

  Book 44: Nanny for the Cop Next Door

  Book 45: Small Town SEAL’s Saving Grace

  Book 46: Cop’s Fake Fiancée

  Book 47: Billionaire’s Nanny

  Book 48: Cowboy’s Babysitter

  Book 49: Steamy

  Book 50: Brother’s Best Friend

  Book 51: Possessive Professor

  Book 52: Firefighter’s Babysitter

  Book 53: Soldier’s Secret Baby

  Book 54: Ward’s Independence Day

  Book 55: Doctor Next Door

  Book 56: Possessive Policeman

  Book 57: Coached by the MMA Fighter

  Book 58: Boss’s Babysitter

  Book 59: Virgin in New York

  Book 60: Rock Star’s Baby

  Book 61: Possessive Protector

  Book 62: Possessive Australian

  Book 63: Best Friend’s Brother

  Book 64: Possessive Cowboy

  Book 65: Summer Romanced

  Book 66: Possessive Prince

  Book 67: Lovers’s Enemy

  Book 68: Cop’s Best Friend

  Book 69: Possessive Firefighter

  Book 70: Football Next Door

  Book 71: Doctor December

  Book 72: Possessive Canadian

  Book 73: Blue Collar Billionaire

  Book 74: Possessive K-9 Cop

  Book 75: Possessive Brazilian

  Book 76: Hockey Obsession

  Book 77: Possessive Boston Irish American MMA Fighter

  Book 78: Halloween Next Door

  Book 79: Possessive Russian