Surrender: Keeping Her in the Dark Vol. 4 (29 page)

Read Surrender: Keeping Her in the Dark Vol. 4 Online

Authors: Leslie Sansom

Tags: #Keeping her in the Dark

Norah had broken down about three days in to being a mother and told me she was scared of turning into her mother. When her mother and the rest of her family came to visit during the first month, I reassured her she had nothing to worry about. Norah and her mother couldn’t have been more different.

We were figuring things out. It wasn’t easy but we didn’t expect it to be.

The truth of the matter was I bought Norah at an illegal auction over 2 years ago. I bought her, fell in love with her and married her. She has been the key to my salvation and to my sanity. Now we had created life. Something I did years ago in a moment of pure selfishness had turned into these two little lives.

Our relationship will never be an easy one. When you have lived through the things we have been through things just don’t become easy. But we had evolved. When we met I was a controlling man that liked to hurt women in order for me to get off. But I would like to think I have grown as a person and changed for the better.

As for Norah, I’m not sure if she has changed at all. She is a sweet, kind and caring person when I bought her and she was a sweet, kind and caring person now.

I don’t know what the future holds for us. But as I sit here in my den, with Thomas sleeping in a swing beside me and my bride rocking Catherine in a chair across from me, I know that I can make it through anything as long as I have her beside me.

Norah

“I love it!” I shouted, closed the book and jumped across the room and hugged him. He had been writing this story for a long time. He wanted to tell our story but didn’t know how to end it. Becoming parents to Thomas and Catherine seemed like the perfect ending.

“Really?” I leaned back to look at her face.

“Well I think you kinda overstated my beauty, but other than that,” I kissed his lips. “I don’t know how you had time to write it. But it’s wonderful.”

“I’m glad you like it,” he said.

“I love it. What are you going to call it?” I asked.

“Coming out of the Dark.”

Epilogue

I stood under the tree and watched Liam chase the kids around the pond. It was hard to believe they were two years old already and we were expecting our third. I looked down and rubbed my tummy.

“When do you think you’ll be joining the party?” I said to myself. She was due to join our family any day now.

“Are you feeling alright, little one?” Liam asked. It warmed my heart that he still called me ‘little one’ after all these years. Especially in my current condition.

“I’m fine. We’re fine.” We all sat down on a blanket and tried to enjoy lunch.

Thomas didn’t want his peanut butter on top, he wanted it on the bottom. Liam fixed the problem by flipping the sandwich over.

Catherine didn’t want to sit down. She never wants to sit down. She likes to run all the time. She runs and her long dark curls just bounce behind her.

We had just received a formal letter from Fieldstone Adler School accepting the twins into their preschool next year. It probably helped that Liam donated a lot of money and was an alumina himself.

We had toured lots of schools. I couldn’t believe they were only two years old and we were worried about schools already. I think I went to the Sunshine Daycare until I was ready to go to Kindergarten and my mother certainly didn’t have to apply, interview and reserve a spot a year out.

I was just happy to have some kind of structure in their day. Most days they stayed at home with Rosa and her band of merry maids. Lina had been elected as our nanny. We asked the ladies if one of them would like to take on the responsibility of caring for the kids while we were at work. Lina volunteered.

We had converted the Great room on the second floor to a playroom for the kids and the bedroom next to the twins for our newest addition.

Since we waited to find out the sexes of Thomas and Catherine, I gave in this time. We had the room painted a light yellow and baby pink and big white letters spelling out her name. Isabella Rose. Rosa was more than thrilled and beyond honored that we chose Rose. She was teaching the twins to call her Abuelita. My mother wants them to call her Mary, of course.

I thought having grandchildren might bring out the mother in my mother, but it didn’t.

She and Jim were still not married. He wanted the twins to call him Uncle Jim. Liam suggested they call him asshole. I voted for neither and said it would be easier if they call my mother Mary, then they can call him Jim.

Maggie and Lorraine were the best aunts anyone could imagine. They skyped with the kids at least once a week and mailed them cards and toys all the time. In the past two years they have been here four times and we have been to Florida to see them at least three times. Liam was actually contemplating buying a house there. I was all for that.

He still likes to control things but he has finally learned patience. His children have taught him that.

It’s peaceful outside today. No clouds in the sky and a soft breeze. I stretched out my legs and sighed in relief.

“Oh,” I put my hand on my belly.

“What?” Liam asked.

“She’s kicking,” I leaned forward and took his hand to place it on my belly. “Can you feel that?” I looked at him.

“Yes,” he smiled. He leaned forward and placed his mouth near my belly button. “Can you hear me, Isabella? You feel so strong, baby girl.” He raised my shirt and kissed my belly.

“It’s nap time,” I made it to my knees and started to clean up lunch.

“I like nap time,” Liam winked at me.

Nap time was our special time together. Unless of course I really took a nap too.

We put the kids in their beds and Liam read them a story. I went to the bedroom and changed into something a little more romantic.

I walked in the bedroom slowly with a little attitude. I had on my black boy shorts and black sports bra. Liam was sitting on the edge of our bed with only his boxer briefs on. He ran his hands over my belly.

“You are still so very sexy, my love.”

He moved me to my back and laid beside me. He started on my shoulders and ran his hands over my body. He caressed my sides and shoulders because he knew how they hurt me.

I was so relaxed. His touch calmed me. It always had. Somehow in all this caressing he had taken off my underwear and bra. I didn’t even feel them leave my body.

His mouth clasped my nipple and I let out a deep sigh. His tongue moved on my neck and ear and then down my shoulder.

“You’re killing me, Hastings,” I whispered. “We don’t have much time, you know that,” I opened my eyes and gave him a look.

We still managed to have a very healthy sex life, but of course it had changed since the kids entered the picture. Sometimes we couldn’t take as much time as we really wanted.

His hands pushed my legs apart and slid inside me. He moved in and out slowly driving me crazy. He kept hitting that spot. That spot that made me feel like I could either come or pee. I hoped it was the first one.

His fingers were soft and seducing. I moved my body closer to his hands and arched my back.

“Please, Liam,” I begged.

“I like it when you beg, little one. You know that,” he grinned. He moved his body between my legs and bent my knees. He pulled me closer to him and thrusted inside me.

“Oh lord,” I grabbed the side of the bed. His hips moved slowly at first and then he picked up the pace. He groaned and tilted his head back.

I raised myself up on my elbows and watched him move. My belly blocked the view of him entering me, but seeing his hips move back and forth was just as much of a turn on.

“Damn, you’re sexy!” I fell back on the bed as I found my release.

~Three years later ~

I stood in the driveway tapping my foot.

“Let’s go you two. School waits for no one,” I opened the door to the car. Thomas and Catherine finally made it out of the house and thankfully both of them had their book bags.

“Well it’s about time,” I said as I bent down and pulled up Catherine’s sock. “I appreciate you wearing your school uniform today, Thomas and not your baseball uniform.” I gave them both kisses and helped them into the car.

“Let them grow up, Norah. They can get in the car by themselves.” John said as he and his son, who was 5 years old now, just a year younger than the twins, came walking up.

“Glad to see you can make it too,” I joked with him. It was so wonderful to have him and his family living in one of our guest houses. Liam twisted a few arms and got his girls accepted into Adler Academy, and the twins and his son Johnny all went to Adler Elementary.

“Where’s the little one?” John asked. I chuckled whenever John called Isabell, little one. Sometimes I chuckled. Sometimes I cringed.

“Here she comes,” Liam came out the door with little Henry in his arms.

“I don’t understand why I have to go to school but Henry doesn’t!” Isabell had her hands on her hips. She always had her hands on her hips. Her long brown curls just bounced as she walked.

“I have explained this to you before, little lady. Thomas and Catherine are 6, so they must attend 1st grade. Johnny is 5, so he is in Kindergarten. You are 3, so you must go to pre-school.” Liam handed Henry to me and then bent down to tie Isabell’s shoes.

“Henry is only 18 months old. He can’t go to school yet. He can’t even feed himself.” He kissed her forehead.

“But I want to stay here with Abuelita too!” Isabell was the one with the attitude.

“Please get in the car like a big girl and don’t make Mommy angry, sweetheart.” She crossed her arms against her chest and got in the car unassisted. It was funny that Liam was warning someone about my temper.

He stood back up and gave me a kiss.

“She is all you,” he said. “Stubborn, mouthy and full of attitude.”

“Lord help us,” I said.

“Have I told you lately that I want another baby?” he kissed me again.

“Four is enough,” I nodded.

“Really?” he looked at Henry.

“Liam, we can’t keep having kids because the other kids keep growing up. I promise you, they will all grow up.”

We had agreed to stop after Isabell was born. We thought three kids was plenty. He had his son and I had my girls. He still worked as much as ever at his company and I still ran my event planning business.

We had even decided that I would get permanently fixed so I couldn’t have any more children. Liam didn’t like condoms and I didn’t like being responsible for a pill or a patch or even a shot. But in order to have the surgery, I had to come off all my birth control two weeks before.

Seven days in to the two weeks, Liam and I both had a little too much to drink at a dinner party and got a little frisky in the car on the way home. When I went in for the surgery, Henry had already been conceived.

Four children. Liam and I were the parents of four children.

Liam Thomas Hastings 3rd

Catherine Elizabeth Hastings

Isabella Rose Hastings

Henry Wayne Hastings

When Liam took the bag off my head on board the yacht I never thought it would lead to four other lives.

After John drove away to take the kids to school, I turned back to face Liam.

“You are so beautiful,” he said and then kissed my cheek.

“You always say that,” I said.

“That’s because it’s true.”

The End

Thank you so much for reading the “Keeping her in the Dark” series. I hope you have loved Liam and Norah as much I have enjoyed writing them.