Sizzling Seduction (22 page)

Aisha exhaled and let everything he said swirl around in her head. She looked him in the eye and saw the love he had for her flowing. Just that sweet, tender look from him let her know that he was serious.

She thought about her feelings, the ones she’d been trying to hold back from the moment she first saw him and he came barreling into her life, refusing to take no for an answer and talking about just wanting to get to know her.

She exhaled. “I’m so glad that one of us was brave enough to believe in magic and go after what we could be together. Thank you, Patrick, for loving me enough to make me see it, for waiting for me to catch up. I love you.” She caressed his face, savoring his mahogany-brown handsomeness.

“Wil you marry me?”

“I’l marry you, Patrick. I’d be honored to be your wife.”

He leaned forward and gently brushed her lips. She might have been a little bruised by Bil ’s beating, but she wasn’t broken or bowed.

She was loved and she was final y brave enough to reach out and grab al the love her heart could carry. Al the love the sexy fire captain was waiting to give her….

After spending the night being held by Patrick in his strong, loving arms, Aisha felt rejuvenated. She didn’t let the black-and-blue marks on her face and body sway her.

Her heart was ful of love for her son and her man, and that give her strength. She felt good and she felt like making breakfast for the two amazing men in her life.

Gently unraveling herself from Patrick’s arms, she went into the kitchen and turned the CD player to Mary J. Blige’s

“Just Fine.” She practiced her dance moves as she mixed and poured the pancake batter.

She didn’t even have to go back and wake the two of them. First Patrick came out in his jeans and no shirt. She let her eyes linger on his chiseled form and thanked the Almighty that she hadn’t succeeded in turning this gift of a man away. If she hadn’t been so busy with the pancakes, she might have given in to the urge to rub her hands down those ripples, to give those muscular arms a squeeze. As she started to consider doing just that, Dil on came out in his super ninja spider pajamas.

“Hey, guys, I made some pancakes. So I hope you’re hungry.” She smiled at them.

“Wel , that depends, Mom. Are these the regular pancakes from the box, or are they a recipe you got off the TV?” Dil on asked after clearing his throat.

“They smel heavenly, love. But I’m with Dil on…Regular or concoction?” Patrick gave her one of his devilish grins.

She put her hand on her hip and gave them the most menacing look she could, especial y since she wanted to burst out laughing at their antics.

“They’re just plain ol’ pancakes, guys. I fol owed the directions on the box to the letter and didn’t add a thing. I didn’t get the idea or half of the recipe from watching any TV cooking show, so help me God.” She put her hand up in the scout’s-honor pose. “So if you guys don’t want these to get cold, then you need to sit down.”

She took out the pancakes she was keeping warm in the oven and added the new batch to the platter. She also took the syrup out of the microwave and set everything on the table.

Patrick and Dil on started fil ing up their plates with gusto and soon Dil on was covering his pancakes with the warm syrup. Seeing him pour so much on his pancakes gave her a moment of pause.

“Um…I did get this idea from Paula’s show about the syrup where you put some—”

“Oh, brother…M-o-m…What did you do to the syrup?

What’s wrong with plain old Mrs. Butterworth’s?”

“I just wanted to try something new. You might actual y like it, you know. She said to use fresh cinnamon and a little fresh lemon and orange zest, but I didn’t have any fresh cinnamon or oranges or lemons so I improvised. But I’m sure it wil be good.”

Patrick shook his head and chuckled. He switched his unsyrup-covered pancakes for Dil on’s plate, went over to the counter and got the regular syrup bottle for Dil on. He sat down in front of the syrup-covered pancakes and winked at her before saying a quick prayer and digging in.

“I’l eat your concoctions, love. You know this means you have to stay with me for the rest of your life.”

She giggled. “It means you love me and I love you.” She leaned over and placed a soft kiss on his lips.

“And don’t you ever doubt it, love,” Patrick said as he caressed her bruised face.

She might have looked frightening, with al the black-and-blue marks. But she was the most beautiful woman in the world in Patrick’s eyes.

“Oh, brother…” Dil on said in between bites of his pancakes. “You two are
really
sappy.”

She mussed her son’s curly hair and made the sappiest face she could. “Don’t worry, we love you to pieces, too, my little sweetie.”

“M-o-m…” Dil on gave Patrick a pleading glance and Patrick put on his best sappy-faced expression.

“Your mom is right, Dil on. We love you very, very much.”

Both she and Dil on burst out laughing when they looked at Patrick, and soon they were al cracking up and enjoying one another.

That happy family feeling came over her again and this time she relished it. She let it wash away al the pain and hurt because she knew that it was going to last.

Two years later

“C
ome here, son. Let me help you fix your tie.”

Patrick straightened Dil on’s tie with a look of love and pride on his face,

The twelve-year-old young man stood stil , al the while shaking his head. “Dad, I don’t know who’s worse—you or Mom.”

Patrick chuckled. “Oh, that’s easy. Your mom is worse.”

“What did you say?” Aisha final y finished getting their daughter, Chloe, out of the car seat and walked over to them with the baby in her arms.

They had been married a little under two years and had welcomed the newest addition to their family a year ago today.

Chloe Elizabeth Hightower’s christening was today and Patrick was happier than he had ever known he could be.

“What am I supposedly worse about this time?” Aisha asked their son.

That was another thing he would never get tired of saying.
Their son
. Ever since Bil had decided to give up his rights to Dil on, fol owing a last-ditch effort to try to hurt Aisha, Patrick had hurried to make legal what he had always felt in his heart. Dil on was completely his now. He was a Hightower.

“Babying me. I’m twelve now, you guys. I’m a preteen. Y’

al are going to have to stop with the babying.” Dil on grinned through his mock-serious expression.

“You’l always be my baby,” Aisha said with a smile as she handed Chloe to Patrick.

Patrick took his daughter as he drank in his wife, son and beautiful baby girl with his eyes.

“Love…”

His wife turned and gazed at him with her beautiful brown-sugar eyes.

“Yes?”

“Thank you for giving me the most amazing family a man could ever hope for. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

They walked into the church, surrounded by family and friends, and it felt amazing. Everyone was there. Al his brothers, their wives and children, his parents. His aunt Sophie had even made her amends and was slowly making her way back into the family. She’d said she wouldn’t miss her grandniece’s christening for anything in the world. Even Carla and Gerald had showed up.

“Everyone’s here…except my mom….” Aisha’s happy face took on a slight sadness. She had cut her father out of her life and didn’t expect that to ever change.

Patrick couldn’t believe that her father stil took Bil ’s side after what he’d done to her, and that he’d even represented Bil in the criminal case. But he knew she stil held out hope that one day her mom would come around.

“Of course everyone is here, love. This was what it was al about at the end of the day. Family, honor, loyalty, but most important of al , love.”

Aisha gazed at her husband and their children. She loved the way he had stepped in and become the father that her son needed. She loved that he fought to make it legal and binding so that Dil on would never have to worry about being wanted or loved again. She just loved the man because he had been patient enough to wait for her to realize that they could be magic together. And she felt the sudden urge to give him the gift she’d been keeping secret for the past two days.

“Patrick,” she said softly, “I’m pregnant.”

“Yes!” Dil on pumped his fist. “This time it has to be a boy!”

“Boy or girl is fine with me. I’m just happy you final y said yes,” Patrick offered in his most heartfelt voice. He covered Aisha’s mouth with a deep kiss and al she could do was agree with him.

ISBN: 978-1-4268-4117-0

SIZZLING SEDUCTION

Copyright © 2009 by Gwendolyn Pough.

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