× Willem ×

Amelia was staring out of the helicopter in awe and I couldn't stop myself from taking her in.

I liked the way the sun played with the gray in her hair and turned it silver. I loved that when she smiled, her lips would quiver a little, begging to be kissed.

Her subtle, yet provocative sensuality didn't escape me either.

Last night, I wanted to make love to her, to feel her heat surrounding me. But the fact that she was still a virgin wasn't helping. I didn't want her to associate losing her virginity with the night she found out about my son and her being upset for thinking I'd gotten another woman pregnant.

She deserved better than that.

As it were, I had taken enough away from her and the last thing we needed right now was any kind of regret regarding her first time.

Besides, I may have been married to the woman on paper for eleven years; we certainly didn't know each other that well.

Taking things slow couldn't hurt, but it would fuel my hunger for her exorbitantly.

I couldn't believe that she was a virgin after all these years, but damn me if I wasn't excited and completely aroused by the fact.

With that aside, there were so many things we still had to talk about. I wanted her to talk to her father and listen to his side of the story.

Looking back now, I wished I'd fought harder to make contact with her all those years ago. I could have found out where they lived, but I'd decided to listen to her father's wishes considering she was still a minor when we got married.

Maybe waiting all those years was a good thing. We needed to come into ourselves so we'd have a fighting chance in this thing called marriage.

The helicopter landed at a private airfield at the airport and to my surprise, Filo was there to pick us up in one of my Range Rovers.

I looked at Omar, questioning her presence, and he shrugged. "She insisted."

"Willem, if you don't get in this car, right now." Filo glared at me sideways, clicking her tongue. "I'm not as old and as incapable as you make me out to be. I have a license, so I can still drive... Well enough to drive over you on purpose."

I laughed. "You would never. You would miss me too much if I were to die."

"I would just drive over your legs, you mongrel. Talking about legs, mine are stiff from waiting on you to get here." She shoved her door open and got out of the car. "Glad to see you back safe and sound Dr. Miller."

"Well, I didn't go far."

"Thank God. Made it easier for this one here to find you. I'm glad I insisted because now he's looking like the cat who ate the canary."

I took Amelia's hand in mine and opened the backdoor behind the passenger seat for her as Filo paced the parking lot. I waited until Amelia folded her long legs into the car before leaning down to steal a quick kiss.

Her soft lips accepted mine, complying without hesitation, and then curved into a smile.

"What was that for?" she asked, her grin widening.

"I was thinking about what I want to do to you when we get back to the house."

"Oh, nothing but naughty things, I hope." Her lashes swept up, brown eyes coy and filled with longing. "Tell me what you want to do, that way my vivid imagination will have something to do on the drive to the hospital."

I leaned forward until my lips brushed against her earlobe. I would not be the only one caught in a state of heightened arousal with Filo and Omar in the front seat.

"Think voracious kisses all over your body." I lowered my voice, adding a dark and hard to resist timbre to it. "Tender kisses on your inner thigh. Soft brushes on your clit with my tongue followed by deep long strokes until you damn near want to pass out because of insurmountable pleasure. The kind of pleasure those pretty and talented fingers of yours could never give to you."

I knew I was playing a dangerous game, but seeing her eyes widen with every naughty detail I added, made it worth the wait.

"How do you that? Make my body react like this?" She touched her lip with slender fingers, luring me deeper into her spell.

"Like what?" I demanded as my cock hardened behind my trousers.

"It's like giving a five-year-old sugar. I want to pull you in this car and have my way with you until I'm beyond exhausted."

"That might be too much action for Filo's poor old eyes."

She laughed. "Filo told you to come and get me, huh?"

"She merely talked some sense into me. Made me realize that I was letting a special woman walk out of my life without fighting for her."

I proceeded to help Omar with the rest of the luggage, fighting the sudden nervous knot I felt forming in my stomach.

I didn't know if Bradley would want to meet Amelia in the condition he was in. Even if he couldn't talk, I knew he wasn't going to be happy about meeting the wife he never knew I had while he was in a coma, because otherwise, he would have so much to say.

Sitting down next to Amelia in the backseat, I tried to follow the conversation the two women were having about going to the spa and how important self-care and alone time was.

I reckon Amelia had enough time alone in the last couple of years and that she didn't need more. Now that I was in the picture, I never wanted her to leave my sight ever again.

I found myself toying with the wedding band around her finger as the car drove up one of St. Maarten's many hills, and it occurred to me that I'd never gotten her an engagement ring.

That meant we were going to have to make a quick detour after our trip to the hospital to get her a ring.

Although it was way too late for us, I wanted Amelia to have the full experience of getting engaged and getting married. I wanted to give her a honeymoon befitting a star or a princess of some foreign country.

I'd stolen that experience from her, ripped it from her, like a pocket thief, running away never to be seen again.

"I must say I have never been to the spa," Amelia admitted as the conversation around me continued.

Before Filo could speak, I squeezed her hand and said, "Let's go tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?"

"What? You have other plans I don't know about?" I smiled, a teasing note in my voice. "With Hunter maybe?"

"Oh, you're not going to let that one go, are you?" she whispered.

"Schatje, I know this is all new to you. It's new to me too. I never expected to feel this way about you, but having another male around you like that is very upsetting to my bonded male ego."

"Bonded? We're not bonded." She practically rolled her eyes at me.

"But we are. Right here," I touched the ring on her finger, gliding slowly across the smooth metal, "and here." I touched her heart, my hand resting a moment too long on her bosom.

Her gaze flicked up to meet mine, desire burning deep behind her eyes. When she looked at me like that, it was difficult to imagine her leaving me to go back to her life in Curacao.

From the moment I laid eyes on her in the guests' shower, I wanted her immediately, guided by a connection so familiar and yet so foreign.

The urge to kiss her crashed upon me, but I suppressed it, smiling as I tucked the curly hair at her temple behind her ears.

"You're adorable when you don't know what to say," I said, watching her face closely, so I didn't miss any of her reactions.

The car pulled up at the hospital a couple of minutes into the visiting hour. Bradley's room was number four on the pediatric floor. The first five rooms only held one bed while the rest were shared with two or three other children.

"Are you sure you want me to be here?" Amelia asked as I waved to one of the nurses wearing a green and white scrub.

"Of course. I need you to meet Bradley. He's one of the main reasons why I stayed away all those years." I pushed door number four open, ready to see my son again. "I didn't want him growing up without a father."

My eyes landed on the bed first where Bradley lay sound asleep and then on the woman sitting on a chair next to the bed, long legs crossed, blonde hair flowing over her shoulders as she flipped through a magazine.

Her rosy lips parted when she saw us in the doorway and displeasure colored her face black as she zoomed in on my hand intertwined with Amelia's.

"You have balls showing up here with that woman. What are you trying? You think you're gonna get her to raise my son?" Tessa scoffed, closing the magazine on her lap.

Amelia's grip on my hand loosened and I knew she was on the edge of bolting. "The woman you're referring to, her name is Dr. Amelia Miller and she's my wife. I will not tolerate your disrespect toward her much longer."

"Oh, spare me the she's my wife bullshit. You barely know this woman."

I clenched my jaw, annoyed by Tessa's antics, which were fueled by her blatant jealousy. I didn't know why my father ever thought that she and I would be a good match.

"Tessa, I'm not doing this with you. Please, give me a moment alone with Bradley."

With a final cut eye in Amelia's direction, Tessa flung the magazine on the wooden table nearby and made her way out of the room. The click-clack of her stilettos on baren tiles sounded like a bulldozer going down the hallway in the quiet following her departure.

I turned to Amelia, one hand settling on her shoulder as I encouraged her to step forward. "I'm sorry about that. I should have known that she would be here."

"She's one grumpy woman." Amelia unclipped the chart hanging on the frame of the bed, her clever eyes assessing the series of numbers and notes jotted down by the nurses and doctors. "Do you know if Bradley's doctor is coming in today? He seems stable, what's their treatment plan from here on out?"

"I haven't spoken to doctor van Pelt after I left for Anguilla. Bradley needs spinal surgery, but there isn't a specialist in house. And they're wary of flying him out to another country."

She flipped the page, squinting a little as she did so. "I need to speak to doctor van Pelt. I think I can be of help."

"What are you talking about?" I looked down at the notes in her hands, but all I saw was gibberish.

"I'm willing to do the surgery," she said confidently. "I've done it before with great success, but it's a risky surgery nonetheless. The complications can outweigh the good. And the longer they wait, the lower his chances are at a full recovery."

"You can do the surgery?" I turned her body to face me, besotted by her beauty, in awe of her incredible skills as a pediatric surgeon.

After everything I put her through, she wanted to save my son's life.

"I can do the surgery," she confirmed, a smile stretching her full lips into something magical.

My legs shook under me and I decided to sit down on the chair Tessa had vacated before I landed face first on the floor.

I brushed Bradley's straight hair off of his forehead, my hand resting on the pillow behind his head after I'd done so. "You have no idea what this means to me... What you mean to me. I'm falling for you, and this, this is..."

As I struggled to express my feelings, feelings I knew had unfolded too quickly, Amelia knelt before me and took my right hand in hers.

She had a warm, soft touch, and I wanted to ask her right there and then to marry me again.

I wanted to tell her that I would never leave her again. That I would cherish her and put her first, always. That I would respect and adore her. That I desired strongly, profoundly, but only for her.

"I've seen many parents in your situation," she said, caressing the back of my thumb gently "and I can't say I understand what you're going through, but I know the fear of losing someone. I'm trained for this and I'm damn good at it. I never thanked you for helping my father get out of debt. And if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have had the money to put me through medical school."

"Your parents did what they had to do to secure your future. I merely saw a business opportunity and I took it." I met her brown gaze straight on, searching for a sign of displeasure on her side, but there was none.

Relief flooded my body and I guided her onto my lap. Her round bottom settled on my crotch and I circled my arm around her waist.

I wanted us to move past the last eleven years. No easy feat, but if we could, nothing would ever come between us again.

She nestled her head on my shoulder, looking intently at Bradley. "He looks a lot like you."

I smiled slowly. "He does, but my brother looked a lot like me, except he had brown eyes like my mom. Bradley and I took after my father in that regard."

"And that's as far as the commonalities go," a male voice boomed from the doorway.

I turned my head to see my father standing in the doorway as if he owned the damn hospital. He was just as tall as I remembered, his graying head nearly touching the doorframe.

I looked beyond him, waiting for my mother to show her face but she was nowhere to be seen, and based on the frown marring his forehead, he wasn't happy that I hadn't told him about Bradley being in a coma. Nor had I informed him or my mother about Amelia being here.

But fuck that. He only talked to me when it involved business, so I didn't see a need to keep him updated about my personal life.

The same treatment extended to my mother by default because her submissive composition wouldn't allow her to keep anything from my dad.

And I refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing anything personal about me since he never seemed to care in the past.

I stared across at my father as he approached, my grip on Amelia's thigh possessive and obvious.

The more space he engulfed with his large frame, the louder my message got.

Fuck you. And fuck Tessa.

I found my wife and I had every intention of keeping her.

Of the many stupid decisions I'd made in the past regarding the business, that one decision to invest in Mr. Miller's restaurants and to marry his daughter instead of Tessa was proving to be the best damn decision of my life.

I'd never felt so certain about a woman before and I was done with questioning the state of my marriage.

We had something good, something exquisite. Now, we just had to put in the work.

Both in and out of the bedroom.

But especially the former. If I had to go another second without her legs wrapped around me, her smart tongue in my mouth, my cock buried deep inside her wetness, I was going to lose it.

Or maybe, I just wanted to prove a point to my father yet again by showing him that I hadn't failed to stay married to the woman I'd chosen to marry despite his advice for me to marry Tessa.

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Me checking to see if y'all like the chapter after I took so damn long to update.