Chapter 6 (Benjamin's POV)Eavesdropping was not nice I know but I could not help myself honestly when I heard my mom asking Anastasia about how I was treating her. And my mom was also right when she told her that only a special woman would ever get close to my horses. They were special to me so the woman that would be allowed to ride them had to be special to me as well. And when I told her the only two women that would ever ride my horses were my mother and the women I plan on making men I could actually hear her gulp and a blush started creeping from her neck up to her whole face. Did I mention how much I loved to make her blush? The red color looked good on her and I was constantly wondering if another part of her body blushed as easily as her cheeks did. Damn it! There goes my mind straight into the gutter once more. This seems to become something usual whenever I was around Anastasia and I was bevokinghader to hide the evidence of my thoughts. Pun intended!And this time was no
Chapter 7 (Anastasia's POV)Sharing the good memories with Benjamin was not as bad as I thought it would be. What I expected was to feel pain at reliving all those memories but instead, I felt real happiness and relief in a way. I felt good. Because I reminded myself that there was more than just pain in my life. There were good memories as well and they had a special part in my heart just as all those ugly painful memories did. Some memories taught me lessons of endurance and forgiveness while others taught me how to love and care for someone even when that someone might not entirely deserve your love.You might find it weird but I did not hate my father for what he did to me. I did not hate him twenty years ago and I did not hate him now. Sure, the absence of love made me fear him, but that was not the same as hating someone. All I ever wanted was just to get my father back the way he was before his brother died in a car accident and before our mother died from the illness. And with
Chapter 8 (Benjamin's POV)One moment we were just talking, laughing, and having fun even though I could see Anastasia was halfway lost in her mind still, but she was listening and for once she was relaxed. And the next moment, she was kissing me with such passion and hunger it took my breath away. I returned her kiss with the same enthusiasm and tangled one hand in her hair at the back of her head. The emotions that went through me could be hardly described. Sure there was the obvious factor of surprise, maybe even a bit of shock, hunger, and passion, which is not surprising since I've been lusting over Anastasia since I met her, but there was also this deep feeling in the pit of my stomach, growing stronger with every swap of our tongues and every move of our lips. And I just wanted more and more. I never wanted our kiss to end, which is weird because usually, I was more the kind of guy that ran for the finish line, but with Anastasia, it all felt different. I did no
Chapter 9 (Anastasia's POV)"Benjamin! Can you come down, please? I need help!" I shouted from the kitchen. Sometimes it really was not good to be a woman on the shorter side.Especially when you need something from the upper shelf that is completely out of your reach and yes, that was my situation at the moment. But luckily for me, I had a boyfriend who was more than a head taller than me, and for the first time, I was glad he was so tall. And yes you read it correctly. He was my boyfriend. After the day we spent alone with our horses we kind of bonded and those kisses just sealed everything and made our bond stronger. Since that day our relationship did not progress in any physical way. But as I said our bond becomes stronger and stronger every day. And I guess I should also mention that we received amazing news a few days back. Looks like Benjamin's mother beat cancer's butt even though she only had slim chances, but she grabbed those chances with both hands and beat the illness th
Chapter 10 (Benjamin's POV)Can I just say that life was perfect right now?Well not like right now exactly but in the past few months. At this moment it was not as perfect as I would want it to be, we were at practice and the coach was forcing us to our limits or that was just my opinion because I was absent for some time. But I felt good now because my mother was out of danger, Anastasia was behind our timeout box with Valentina and Anabelle probably keeping an eye on me and Seth as well, what with his leg being shot in the middle of summer. But his leg was healing perfectly and he looked in a much better shape today than I did. While I was breathing like I ran a marathon up the hill, he was completely calm and looked even more relaxed. What the hell was wrong with me? Did I really forget to take care of myself that much? After a full hour of painful torture, we were finally over and I hate to admit it but my lungs were burning and every muscle in my body felt like it could snap at
Chapter 11 (Anastasia's POV)You want me to answer honestly, I bet. Well to me it does not really matter what Benjamin's answer would be, it was so worth it to see him squirming and being confused. But I knew Benjamin and he always gave me an honest answer, and I had no doubt he would give me an honest answer now as well."I have o idea how you came to this question right now since we have not even slept together yet, but since you asked already, yes. I still want to have babies and be a father, maybe because of the whole fucked up experience with the crazy ex I want that even harder." See? Honest, no matter how weird or ugly the truth may sound to someone. And actually could understand his reason for wanting family even harder than a man at his age usually would. He was mentally already prepared to be a father but then he realized not everyone was as honest as he was. And to top it off he was not alone in this shit hole.Instead of pushing him for more unpleasant answers or being a s
Chapter 12 (Benjamin's POV)After the dinner, I could see and feel a slight change in Anastasia. It was most definitely in a good way but if you asked me what exactly it was I could not point it out to you even if I tried. But I liked to see her relaxed after Seth's question. I could see she was nervous when he asked her about her father's trial but she stayed strong anyways and I could not be more proud of my girl. What I still had to idea though was why they waited twenty years to bring Anastasia to the stand as a victim. It was weird but I guess this shit happens more often than we would like to think. The only thing I wished, for now, was that my sunshine got through everything with her pride still unharmed. She came a little way since the abuse in her childhood and she deserved to be happy so I hated it even more. It all came right at the time when she put all her pieces firmly back in place and now she would have to go through everything again. Those thoughts occupied my mind al
Chapter 13 (Anastasia's POV)Oh my freaking God! I made it! For the first time since I can remember I asked for something that I wanted and it looked like I was going to get it. Benjamin was still kissing me while he was pushing me to the bedroom but I had no patience to go that far. Nope. The living room would have to do for today, "No! Here! I need you like yesterday!" and what did the asshole do? He chuckled at my impatient ass. But I didn't care as long as I get what I wanted, and I was determined to get it, so I grabbed his belt and undid it before he could object and pulled it out of his pants, what I did not expect was that his jeans would literally fall off his ass and pooled around his feet. I moved away from him in surprise and just kept looking at him and back down to his jeans that were around his feet, and back to his face and back to his pants…after a few times I could not hold it in any longer and I burst out laughing and surprisingly Benjamin joined me only a moment la
Chapter 27 (Loraine’s POV) epilogue Some years later… “Andrew! The girls will be here any minute, could you get Samuel ready for me please?” Before you make any assumptions let us make something clear. Samuel is our son, and he is three years old. As weird and unthinkable as it might sound, all girls gave birth to a child in the same year. Sure, there were differences, Valentina and Nathaniel had three kids. The first one was a little girl named Daisy, who was not so little anymore since she was nine years old already. Second was a boy named Gareth, he was six years old and the last was Penelope who was three years old as well as our Samuel. Then there was Anabelle and Seth. They had two kids, twins to be exact. A boy and a girl, Samantha, and Sam, they were three years old as well. If we move forward, we have Anastasia and Benjamin, they had just one kid the same as me and Andrew, and the little three years old princesses’ name was Lory. The next in line would be Malcolm and Mandy
Chapter 26 (Andrew’s POV)We were on our way to the airport and of course, with Malcolm in the car we were driving over the speed limit and if a police officer pulled us over there would be hell to pay once he realized who the driver was, but mostly no one dared stop Malcolm, even the new guys knew his car and just waved when he passed. But in my opinion, we were still not driving fast enough. I wanted to be at the airport already, deal with the bastard and wrap my Loraine in my arms where I knew I could keep her safe.But as much as I wanted to yell and rant and be a smart ass, I knew I was thinking irrationally so I rather just sat back and kept my mouth shut. That and the fact that Malcolm threatened to throw me out of the car if I dared be loud.Thankfully we arrived at the airport just when my patience was running low. But as we stopped the car, I could not believe my eyes. There was a plane, ready to take off at any moment, but the stairs were still pulled out and firmly on the
Chapter 25 (Loraine’s POV)Either these people were stupid, or they just assumed I knew London so well that I did not need to have my eyes covered while we were driving to the airport. Or maybe it was just the fact that they were so sure I would not be going anywhere except board the plane to Washington.Too bad for them because I had every intention to run away as fast as my legs could carry me, especially now that I knew two of six guys were on my side. Two of those guys that were not on my side are going into the plane’s cabin to make sure everything is set up and two will be completely oblivious to my attempt thanks to my accomplices. I still had no idea what their moto was, but I was not about to ask them since I was just happy to have someone willing to help me get away without a need to kill someone.You see all my self defense classes and so on that I was taking while on the run were in case, I found some place I want to stay and not run anymore, but before London there was no
Chapter 24 (Andrew’s POV)“WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE IS FUCKING GONE?! YOU STUPID BUNCH OF IMBECILS! HOW COULD YOU LET HER SLIP OUT OF THE CLUB WITHOUT ANY OF YOU NOTICING!?” As you can see, saying I was pissed would be a huge understatement, because I was livid! Somehow, while we were celebrating our win in the office with Malcolm and the girls, and a few minutes later with their boyfriends as well, Loraine managed to slip out of the club and disappeared into thin air.If you would tell me a week ago, she disappeared I would probably believe she ran away like she did every time in the past eight years when something or someone got too close to her and her heart, but today I was sure she did not run away. She promised me that she would not run away, and she would stay with me for as long as I wanted her and on the other hand, the fact that Rodriguez was just leaving my club when Loraine mysteriously disappeared just did not stop nagging me. So, I had my suspicion that he had something to d
Chapter 23 (Loraine’s POV)Today was the first time in my whole life that I remember standing up to myself for as long as I can remember. Not once when I was married was, I willing to do so. I just swallowed everything that was thrown my way. I never yelled at the man or talked back, I never told him my opinion, never objected to his decisions about my life, nothing.And the feeling was kind of refreshing and new. It felt amazing.Now, you see I stopped smoking years ago, it was bad for my health and all that and honestly it was just an expensive habit. But at this moment I felt like I was on top of the world and decided to treat myself to one cigarette you could say for old times’ sake, so I can finally close the door on every bad decision I made in the past.I was at the back entrance when I heard steps approaching but I thought it was sure one of the girls or maybe Andrew, so I stayed put and did not even turn around to see who it was, a big mistake.Next thing I know someone was h
Chapter 22 (Andrew’s POV)The thought of pinching myself and seeing if I was even awake crossed my mind, but nothing felt as good even in dreams as Loraine felt in my arms. She said it. Those fears I had for the past few weeks since I realized I fell for this woman melted away like ice cream on a hot sunny day.Now the only thing left was for us to deal with Rodriguez once and for all. But that was not mine decision, I stopped kissing her and moved a bit away but still kept our foreheads pressed close together, “Are you ready to deal with the demons of the past?”She gave me a nod which was a bit hesitant, but honestly if I was in her shoes and had to deal with someone like Rodriguez, I would be hesitant as well. I took one of her hands in mine and gave her a squeeze to show her that she was not alone.As we rounded the corner, I could not help it but look around and once again it surprised me how self-assured the man really was. He took only five men with him and all of them were in
Chapter 21 (Loraine’s POV)How could he do that? If I had to guess, from what I saw in the office I would say Andrew knew about my past and he knew it well. So first of all, he was hiding the fact that he knows about everything from me, or maybe I can find an excuse for him and say he just found out, but I doubt that since he has been a bit weird for the past few weeks and especially today. But I am willing to tell myself anything to feel a bit better, and right now I needed to believe Andrew did not betray me like everyone else in my life did.At the moment I was sitting by the river that was right next to the club, and yes, I know I did not go far from everything, but it was far enough that Rodriguez would not think I came here, he probably thought that I ran away already like I always do when he finds me, but this time was different. I had friends, I had a job that I liked, and I hope they cared for me as well. I had a good life, and I was actually looking forward to the future. I
Chapter 20 (Andrew’s POV)The moment Loraine barged into my office I knew something was going to go awfully wrong and as usual I was proven right when the asshole opened his mouth.Thankfully me and Malcolm seem to be on the same page because when Loraine ran out of my office as if she was on fire, we both jumped to our feet, but since I was in my usual seat and Malcolm was right next to Rodriguez, he was the one that landed a solid punch to his face and probably broke his nose in the process judging by the crunching sound that could be heard, “You idiot! You just broke my nose! What in the ever-loving hell is wrong with you? Do you have any idea who you are dealing with? I can have you erased from the surface of the earth in a moment!” technically, if we were not who we are, he would be right, but since we were one of the strongest mafia organizations in the world, well, sadly for him, he was wrong. Sure, we were operating on legal grounds, but that was actually a plus on our side, b
Chapter 19 (Loraine’s POV) Something did not feel right. I could not put my finger on it, but my gut was telling me to go back to the club. Why? I had no idea but the opportunity to do so presented itself when Mandy asked me to put the car keys into my purse, because I was the only one that remembered to take a big enough purse to put in my wallet, phone and all the girly necessities but still had some space to put in the keys as well. Now I just had to come up with a plan to get away from them with a believable excuse, ran to the parking lot and drive back to the club so this awful feeling would go away. Even if I drove for nothing, I would still feel better if I followed my instincts and honestly, I doubted my gut was warning me for nothing. I know to some people it might sound stupid to follow your gut or your instincts, but those two things saved me more than once in the past years while I was being on the run. So, there was no way I would ignore it. As we walked around the sho