Sweet Possession (Carson-Fox Resorts #2)

Epilogue

Cora

F or all the fretting I’d done over the last two weeks, it transpired I hadnothing to worry about.

My grandparents liked me.

At least, I thought they did. My grandma, Elena, hadn’t let go of myhand from the minute Fox and I sat down with them at the restaurant we’d arranged to meet them at. And my grandpa, Helios, hadn’t been able to wipe the affectionate smile from his face.

So yeah, I was pretty sure they weren’t disappointed to havediscovered they had an eighteen-year-old granddaughter.

I still couldn’t believe it.

I had grandparents.

And a brother. Although, no one knew where in the world he was,much like my mom’s whereabouts.

Two weeks ago, Fox sat me down to tell me he’d been keepingsomething from me. He didn’t want to tell me what he’d been up to in case I got my hopes up, only for them to be dashed.

It turned outthatFox had managed to get some information from mydad before he took his last breath. All it took was the sharp end of a knife pressed to my dad’s balls for him to tell Fox what he knew about Alexandria Doukas; my mom.

To a degree, my dad had told me some truths about my mom. She’dstayed with me and my dad until I was a year old, before deciding she didn’t want to be a mom anymore. The same thing she’d seemingly done with Andreas, my brother, who was four years older than me. Only, she didn’t leave Andreas with his dad, mainly because she didn’t know who his dad was. Instead, she’d given him up for adoption.

For several years, my dad didn’t know where my mom had gone untilshe reappeared back in Vegas when I was five. According to him, she was high on drugs and offered to sleep with my dad if he gave her money.

I’d told Fox I didn’t want to know what my dad’s reply had been tothat.

After, she disappeared, and my dad never saw her again. Theprivate investigator Fox had hired to find her had failed, but in his investigation, he’d discovered my grandparents were still alive, and living in Hawaii in the same place my mom had grown up.

Once Fox told me everything, he’d asked if I wanted to make contactwith my grandparents.

I didn’t.

I was too terrifiedthatthey wouldn’t want to know me, so Fox hadcontacted them on my behalf. They’d beenjustas shocked as I was to learn they had a granddaughter, but when the shock had worn off, they’d been ecstatic, and desperate to meet me.

And so, here we were. We’d flown to Hawaii a couple of days agowith Nash and Sav. Sav had been dead set on going to the Bahamas for their babymoon, but when we’d told them of our plans while we were in Hawaii, they’d jumped at the chance to come with us.

“What was she like as a child,”I asked my grandparents once thewaiter had taken our order.

I’d been shaking like a leaf when Fox pulled up to the beachsiderestaurant where we’d arranged to meet Elena and Helios, but after tears, hugs, andevenmore tears, my nerves had settled.

The two of them encouraged me to ask anything I wanted to knowabout my mom, telling me they’d do their best to answer. But they hadn’t seen her for over twenty years, so they weren’t sure how helpful they could be.

Elena gave me a sad smile.“She was a bright girl.Verystudious, anddid extremely well at school,”she sighed softly. It was obvious she missed her daughter.“She wanted to be a doctor.”

“What happened?”I asked, curious as to how a girl who wanted to bea doctor ended up abandoning two children and disappearing off the face of the earth.

“She met a guy,”Elena replied, running a thumb soothingly over theback of my hand.“He was…I guess you could say he was a troubled soul.”

“He was a waste of damn space,”Helios interjected, a scowl on hisface.“To this day, I’ll never know what she saw in him, but he had his hooks in her, and no matter what we did to try and keep her away from him, he dug those hooks in further until all she could see was him.”

“He introduced her to drugs,”Elena said, taking over from Helioswhen his jaw tightened.“Almost overnight, she changed. She started stealing from us to fund her habit. Her whole demeanor changed. Gone was my kind, selfless baby, replaced by a stranger who only cared about two things; her next hit and the man who introduced her to drugs.”

Apparently, my mom had a tendency to be attracted to guys whowere no good for her. A trait I was glad I hadn’t inherited. Fox was the best damn thingthathad ever happened to me.

The last three months had been the best of my life. Old wounds werehealing for the both of us, and every day we made new memories.

Memories I would cherish forever.

Tomorrow, we would be making the best memory yet.

I didn’t reply for a beat. What could I say back tothat? My mom hadchosen drugs over her children. There wasn’t anything anyone could say to makethatokay.

Fox gently squeezed my thigh. His hand had been resting there fromthe minute we sat down, reassuring methathe was by my side if things got too difficult.

He was always there.

My best friend.

My protector.

My Daddy.

“What about Andreas? Have you met him?”I asked, changing thesubject. I had lots of questions about my mom, and I’d ask them eventually.

“I’m afraid there’s little we can tell you about Andreas. WhenAlexandria was pregnant with him, she managed to get herself clean. But when he was a year old, we found out she’d relapsed. We had a huge argument, andthatnight, she left home and took Andreas with her.Thatwas the last time we saw her,”Elena said, removing her hand from mine to reach into her purse .

She pulled out a photograph and handed it to me. It was a photo of awoman holding a baby with dark brown hair. My breath hitched at taking in the woman.

My mom.

The first picture I’d ever seen of her.

I looked like her. We had the same long brown hair, and our eyeswere the same. Eyes we’d inherited from Helios. In the photo, she was smiling, but there was something about herthatmade her look… haunted.

“That’s the last photo we took of Alex and Andreas,”Elena continuedas I stared at the photo.“We reported them missing, and we raised our concerns about her using drugs. But all the police would tell us wasthatshe was safe and well, and Andreas had been taken into care. They wouldn’t tell us where he was, and we didn’t have the kind of money we would need to track him down.”

“You said he’d turned up at your house a few years ago?”Fox said,taking the photo from me.

“He did,”Helios said as his wife subtly wiped a tear.

My heart hurt for them. I’d never known my mom, it was hard to misssomeone you didn’t know. But for them, they’d raised her. Watched her grow up and become a mother, only for it tothenbe ripped away from them, along with their grandson.

“He turned up about two years ago, completely out of the blue. Hewas an angry kid. Well, hardly a kid, he was twenty. But he harbored a lot of anger toward us.”

“Why toward you?”I said, meeting Helios’ gaze.

Helios sighed.“He thought we didn’t want anything to do with him. Hecouldn’t understand why we hadn’t tried harder to find him. It appeared he suffered abuse at the hands of the couple who adopted him, and he’d turned to a life of crime to get away from them. When he arrived here, he’djustbeen released from a stint in prison.”

“We tried telling himthatwe wanted to find him,”Elena said, hervoice full of emotion.“But he wouldn’t listen. He blamed us for not doing more to help Alex. We told him we wanted to help himthen, but he said it was too late, andthathe never wanted to see us again. We’ve lived in hopethatone day, he’ll come back and we can try to have a relationship with him. It’s the reason we’ve never moved from the house Alex grew up in. We’ve always hopedthatone day, she’d find her way back to us, and we hoped Andreas would too.”

I swallowed the lump forming in my throat, my heart now hurting forthe brother I never knew I had. Our mother, the one person in the world who was supposed to love us had caused unimaginable pain for the two of us. At least my story had a happy ending, it didn’t sound like Andreas’ story would end like mine.

“Do you think we can find him?”I said, turning to Fox.

He squeezed my thigh again.“We can try, baby girl. But you mighthave to acceptthatthere is a chance he won’t want to be found. Andevenif he does, he may not want to have a relationship with you.”

I bit my lip as a stab of pain tore through my chest. Fox was right.Andreas wouldn’tevenknow I existed, I couldn’t get my hopes upthathe’d want to get to know me.

But we had to try.

How many times had I dreamed of someone showing up and takingme away from my life of misery? Countless times. Andreas may have turned his life around and saved himself. Or maybe he didn’t want to be saved. But I’d never know unless we found him.

Before we could continue talking about my brother, the waiter arrivedwith our dinner, and the conversation turned to lighter topics. I told them all about my bakery. About how I’d enrolled at a cooking school, and how Fox was teaching me how to run a business.

They told me about their lives. How Elena had taught at the samekindergarten for thirty years, and Helios ran his own automobile repair shop.

Dinner flew by, and before I knew it, Fox was paying the bill, havingargued with Helios who’d wanted to pay.

“We’d love to see you again, Cora,”Elena said, kissing me on thecheek as we said our goodbyes.“I know it’s a lot to take in though, so if you need time-”

“No,”I said, interrupting her. I didn’t need time. Now I knew I had afamily, I never wanted to lose them.“I’d lovethattoo. In fact,”I paused, looking to Fox, who gave me a small nod of his head. He knew what I was asking without me having to say a word. I looked back to Elena and took her hand.“We’d love it if you were able to come to our wedding tomorrow.”

Tears filled my eyes when she threw her arms around me, squealingin happiness.

Fox

“Dude, this is the lamest bachelor party ever,”Nash grumbled,throwing back the last mouthful of his beer .

“That’s ‘cos it’s not a bachelor party,”I replied, checking my phone forthe umpteenth time to see if Cora had messaged.

After meeting her grandparents for the first time, I hatedthatwe werenow apart. While she hadn’t stopped smiling all the way back to our hotel after the meeting with Elena and Helios, I was worriedthateverything she’d learned about her mom and her brother would start playing on her mind, and I’d told her to message me if she wanted to talk.

Sure, she was with Sav having some kind of bachelorette party whichinvolved them being pampered in the honeymoon suite and binge-watching chick flicks, but I wanted to be with Cora.

Not the scowling dickhead I was currently sat opposite in the littlebeach bar we’d found, doing our best to ignore the ogles from groups of women. Three different women had approached us and asked if we wanted to buy them a drink, which was promptly met with us telling them to take a hike.

“I did offer to organize a proper party. It’s not my fault you’ve turnedinto a boring asshole ‘cos you’re pussy whipped,”Nash said.

I snorted.“Youreallywant to talk about being pussy whipped,Junior? Wasn’t it you who had to ask Sav for permission to come for a drink tonight?”

His scowl deepened, making me chuckle.“I didn’t have to ask herpermission. Ijust…made it sound like I was.”

“Sure, sure.”

“Hi,”the woman who’djustappeared out of nowhere said as sheloitered awkwardly by our table.“Me and my friends were wondering if you two would like to join us, you both look like you could do with cheering up.”

I downed the rest of my beer before looking over at Nash who wasmuttering a curse.“Want to get out of here?”

“Fuck yes,”he replied, sliding out of the booth.

I followed quickly, neither of us looking back at the woman whoseface had contorted as if she’d bitten into a lemon at us ignoring her.

Making our way out of the bar, we took the path leading back to thehotel, the two of us quiet as the sun began to set in the distance. This time tomorrow, I’d be waiting at the altar. Waiting for the best thingthathad ever happened to me to walk down the aisle so we could make our vows.

I couldn’t fucking wait.

We were having a small wedding. In fact, until earlier today, theonly guests we were having were Nash and Sav, but I was damn happythatCora had asked her grandparents to come to the wedding as well. She deserved to have her family there, and who knew, maybe one day she’d have her brother in her life too.

I smiled to myself as the tide crashed against the shore. Thefirst few weeks after Freddy had tried to sell Cora a second time had been hard for her, and there were times I worried she wouldn’t ever be able to get over what Freddy had put her through. But I should have given my girl more credit. She was far moreresilient than what anyone, including myself, had thought. Over the last few months, her confidence had bloomed, and with every passing day, it continued to grow.

Gone was the girl who was once upon a time scared of her ownshadow, replaced by a woman who wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself. A woman who knew what she wanted, and wasn’t afraid to go and get it.

The best part about watching Cora’s confidence grow wasthatshewas no longer embarrassed to ask for what she wanted. It had taken time, but now, there wasn’teventhe slightest hint of a blush when Cora confidently asked for what she wanted when it came to sex.

We’d experimented together over the past few months, the two of uslearning what she liked, and what she didn’t. Like me, she wasn’t a fan of anal. We’d tried it twice, but it wasn’t for her.

She did enjoy having her ass spanked though, and while I could positively say I didn’t like to be spanked, I was more than happy to spank Cora’s perfect ass before making her scream my name.

“You want to grab a beer at the hotel bar?”Nash said, ruining theimage my brain had conjured up of the night I first spanked her, my palm leaving behind a stunning red blush on her ass cheeks as I made her come on my fingers.

“Nope. I’m going to see Cora,”I replied, upping my pace now I’dmade my mind up.

I didn’t give a fuck if it was tradition for the bride and groom to spendthe night before their wedding apart. I didn’t want to spend the night without her, so I wasn’t going to.

Nash chuckled.“See, pussy whipped.”

“You’re telling me you’d rather spend the night with me than withSav?”

His brows pulled into a frown as if he’d onlyjustrealizedthatSavwouldn’t be sleeping in his bed.“Fuck. Let’s go get our girls.”

It was my turn to chuckle. “Shall we just accept that we’re both pussy whipped, and we wouldn’t have it any other way?”

He grunted in response.

A few minutes later, we came to a stop outside the room Cora and Ihad been sharing since we arrived in Hawaii a couple of days ago. I knocked on the door, not wanting to burst in in case Cora and Sav were still having their massages.

When Sav opened the door, her face lit up in amusement.“I shouldhave known you two wouldn’t have been able to stay away.”

She was wrapped in a fluffy white robe which barely covered herswollen belly. In a couple of months, baby Carson was going to arrive, and Nash and Sav were still arguing over what they were going to call it .

I agreed with Sav. If it was a boy, there was no way on earth theyshould call him Nash Junior.

“Come on, sweetheart. Let’s leave the nearly-newlyweds to it,”Nashsaid, grabbing her hand.

Sav rolled her eyes, but she didn’t argue. In fact, she put up zeroprotest to stay with Cora and insist we left them alone for one night.“She’s in the shower. Tell her I’ll see her in the morning.”

Not bothering to put her shoes on, Sav let Nash lead her from ourroom. Once they’d disappeared down the hallway, I went inside and locked the door, making sure we wouldn’t be disturbed for the rest of the night.

The shower switched off from the bathroom.

Perfect timing.

Seconds later, the bathroom door opened. Steam billowed out asCora emerged, wrapped only in a towel, beads of water from her wet hair gliding down her shoulders.

No matter how many times I’d seen my girl naked, the slightest hint ofher bare skin made blood rush to my cock.

Her brows shot up in surprise.“Daddy, what are you doing here?”

In three large steps, I was in front of her.“Didn’t want to spend a nightaway from you, baby girl.”

An affectionate smile spread on her lips.“I didn’t want to spend thenight away from you either,”she whispered conspiratorially.

I fucking loved this girl.

The scent of her vanilla shampoo hit my nostrils, sending more bloodto my cock, which by now, was pressing against my zipper. Reaching up, I grabbed where Cora had tucked the corner of the towel into the top of it to keep it up. It fell to the floor, revealing her beautiful body to me .

Grabbing her hips, I pulled her toward me.“I’m going to fuck you,baby girl. One last time as my fiancèe, andthentomorrow, I’m going to fuck you as my wife.Thatokay with you?”

Heat filled her gorgeous eyes as she bit down on her bottom lip.“Yes,Daddy.”

Andreas and Dominique’s book is coming in 2025!