The Marine (Black Hawke Security #3)

EPILOGUE

AIDAN

Three Months Later

––––––––

W aiting wasn’t the hardest part.

Briar’s mother was.

The last three months have been difficult. Between all the legal bullshit annulling Briar’s marriage to Kael, aka Johnny Trevis, and me wanting her to move in immediately, we’ve had a few disagreements.

“I need space,” Briar said after we returned to our lives.

“Then sit out in the yard. It’s massive,” I replied, pointing outside while we were debating it one night.

“You don’t get it.” She nudged me.

“What I get, my beautiful fiancé, is that you are mine and I want you here every day and every night.” I scooped her up, and she wrapped her legs around my waist.

“I’m not ready,” she said, playing with my hair. “Give me some time.”

“I’ve waited ten fucking years, Briar. Don’t ask me to wait any longer.”

There was a part of me that hadn’t released all my fury about our past and how we’d been kept apart.

I was mad.

I didn’t want to wait any longer.

“You need time, too,” Briar said, looking me right in the eye. “If this is going to work, we need to make sure we are both in the right place. I love you. I know you love me.”

“If you don’t, I’ll tell you ten times a day,” I’d said.

“You do, baby.”

I’d huffed because...yeah, I did.

“Fine, but you’re having private security until you move in with me,” I’d stated.

This was my compromise.

“Ugh. I might love you, but you are a pain in my ass, Aidan Black.” She’d flung her head back.

I grinned. Then sucked on her neck, leaving a beautiful mark for all the world to see.

Marking Briar was my favorite thing.

Just ask her inner thighs.

Three weeks later, she moved in and I’m not sorry for wearing her down.

Ten years and three weeks.

Or something approximate to that.

But that was after we’d had dinner with her mother at her house.

“Oh, are you back to threaten me again, Aidan Black?” Mrs. Sutton asked, crossing her arms.

I closed the front door behind me.

“Nope, just wanting to show you the engagement ring on Briar’s hand.”

“Aidan!” My beautiful fiancé slapped my chest. “We had a plan.”

And no, I will never stop referring to her as that. Until she’s my wife, that is.

I shrugged. It was a change of plans...and her mother pissed me right off just by breathing.

“You are not marrying him!” She’d cried as I smirked directly at her unapologetically.

“Yeah, Mom, I am,” Briar replied, not leaving my side.

My gaze shifted when I lifted my head, and I shot her mother a threatening glance and meant every single part of it.

She clamped her mouth shut.

“I love him. And Aidan loves me. I am going to marry him and”—she glanced up at me with eyes filled with adoration and I nearly fucking melted— “we’re going to have beautiful little babies.”

I leaned down and kissed her.

Because how could I not?

Plus, it aggravated her mother.

“You are barely sorting out the legalities with Kael. Or this Johnny Trevis.”

Oh, they were being sorted. I was pulling strings.

The hard part was accepting that Briar was grieving for him when all I wanted to do was put a bullet in his skull.

“We’re going to wait a year, but I’m moving in with Aidan and you have to accept it.” Briar had pressed her body into mine.

I’m here, sweetheart.

Always.

“Dear god. Your father will be turning in his grave.” She cried, shooting me a dark look.

“Mom, please.” Briar cried, getting upset.

I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but it still grated at my nerves seeing her manipulate her daughter.

The right thing would have been to let Briar fight her mother, learning to stand up for herself, but I’m a protector and she’d done pretty damn well already.

It would take her time.

She’d committed to me, and I was going to help her grow into the new person she was.

Strong and with clear boundaries. Even from me.

“Accept it or we will leave,” I said, looping my arm around Briar’s waist. “We are getting married, and you know damn well I’m not the man responsible for your husband’s death or any of the pain both of you have suffered. None of it.”

Silence.

“He’s not, Mom,” Briar said softly.

Her mother just looked broken. Then she did something that surprised me. She started nodding. First while looking at the floor and then she glanced up at us as we stood in the entranceway.

I saw the love she had for her daughter as she fought to accept the situation. If she didn’t move forward with us, she would lose Briar.

Completely.

“Then I guess you better both come in properly, and I’ll make some tea,” Mrs. Sutton said, standing and straightening her dress.

We were both so shocked we stood there in silence for a moment. Then I patted Briar’s hip.

“I’ll have coffee,” I said.

Today, her mother and I tolerate one another, but she’s now got a really good reason to forgive me and move on.

Well, two reasons.

“Ugh, I don’t know. Cream. Yellow. I hate both.” Briar groans as she stands in the spare room we have cleared out.

I lean against the doorjamb. “Then let’s find out the sex. Of both of them.”

“No. I want it to be a surprise!” she says, rubbing her stomach.

It’s barely a bump.

Two bumps.

We’re having twins!

We’re three months along and stupidly excited to become parents. I’m in no hurry. Seeing Briar carrying my babies is the sexiest thing in the world.

“Then, yellow it is,” I say, walking up behind her and kissing her neck.

“I swear we are going to have triplets if we keep having this much sex.” Briar giggles as I slide my hand under her dress.

“Then we’ll need a bigger house, because I’m not stopping.” I swoop her up into my arms and carry her through the house.

I’ll have ten babies with this woman if she wants them. More to love.

“Love you so much,” she says, rubbing her fingers through my facial scruff.

“Tell me while you’re screaming.” I wink and kiss her. “And I love you too.”