The Naughty List Bundle with The Night Before Christmas & Yule Be Mine. Fern Michaels

and move immediately into the primal rhythm they both so easily gave themselves over to, he stayed, buried deeply, and slipped her hand from his neck, turning it palm up, where he pressed a gentle, beautifully sweet kiss in the center of it, then curled it closed, so the diamonds on her ring finger twinkled in the moonlight.

      “Ye have me heart, Melody mine. Ye’ve made me the happiest man on earth, agreeing to come back with me, to my home. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure ye never regret it.”

      “I know I won’t,” she said, caressing the side of his face, as she lifted her hips and he slid more deeply inside her. He already knew her body so well, so instinctively, she was swiftly climbing to another peak. She moved her hips beneath him, also knowing his body so well that she knew just how to take him with her.

      They kept their rhythm slow, their gazes locked, and each stroke was like a promise. As she felt him gather, he lowered his mouth to hers, to claim her in the same instant that she would claim him. She whispered against his lips, “I know I won’t, because we’re already home, Griffin. That’s always going to be wherever we are together.”

      “Then welcome home, luv,” he said, grinning as he took her mouth…and the rest of her heart. “Welcome home.”

      Epilogue

      It wasn’t how he’d have wanted the reunion, but Griffin had been happy that Sean and his very pregnant wife, Holly, along with Trevor and Emma and their trio of rapidly growing boys, had been able to attend Lionel’s memorial service. The tribute to Lionel and the Hamilton empire had paid due respect to all he had done during his lifetime and his tenure as reigning keeper of the Hamilton legacy.

      “Who’d have ever imagined the auld codger would last another four years?” Sean said, as they settled themselves at one of the far tables in the grand resort dining hall.

      The elaborate and elegantly styled room was packed with large round, white linen-draped tables, all filled with people who’d come from the world over to pay their respects. While the mood graveside had been somber, and the attendance much more intimate, the atmosphere was decidedly more social at the resort.

      “The reins are finally passed,” Trevor added, lifting his glass toward Griffin. “Cheers to you, cousin.”

      Everyone laughed at that. Griffin had come there feeling disconnected from most of the family roots he’d left behind, only to find brand-new connections on American soil that had opened his mind, and his heart, to reestablishing old connections when he’d returned home.

      But no connection was so wonderful as the one he’d found in his marriage.

      “I just can’t believe how much Hamilton truly changed,” Melody said as she settled in next to him. “I know I saw all the plans ahead of time, but this…” She gestured to the room they were in, but he knew she was picturing everything beyond it. She hadn’t stopped gaping at the town since they’d flown in several days ago. “I can’t believe the difference, and in just a few years. I would never know this was my old hometown.”

      She said it easily enough, even laughed, but Griffin knew how hard it had been for her to drive the streets and no longer be able to see it as the place where she’d grown up. There was still work to be done, but it was, by far, one of Griffin’s crowning achievements. But he appreciated and understood the grief she was feeling.

      “I know,” Emma said, taking her place next to Trevor after seeing their children safely to the sitters’ suite. “I don’t recognize it either. Hard to believe I used to work here.” She looked at Sean. “Have you noticed an increase in business in Willow Creek? I’d have to think this development has created a bit of a boom for you.”

      “More than a bit,” Sean said, “that’s for certain.”

      “His cousin Mick is thinking of opening another restaurant here in Hamilton, at the resort,” Holly added. “Something maybe less traditional, with a more sophisticated menu.”

      Sean laughed. “I’m the one with the culinary pedigree, and Mick ends up running the gourmet branch of the growing Gallagher legacy.”

      Holly nudged him. “You could have done that if you wanted to.”

      “And give up Willow Creek? Not on your life.” He placed his hand over his wife’s stomach. “Or this one.”

      The women made aw sounds and took turns placing their hands on Holly’s stomach. It wasn’t the first time since marrying Melody that Griffin had thought about the eventuality of their own family, but Holly’s pregnancy brought it home to him in a far more visceral way. It surprised him just how much he wanted a child.

      It was a testimony to just how changed a man he was, that the idea excited him almost as much as it terrified him. He thought that a perfectly normal reaction.

      “So, will you have to stay long during the transition?” Trevor asked Griffin.

      He shook his head. “We’ve had plenty of time to plan this all out. The COO has already been the de facto head here for the last three years. Nothing will change much, in house. Melody and I are only here for the services, and to sign a few papers.”

      Melody smiled. “I’m glad you ended up with the mountain retreat,” she told Emma and Trevor. “That’s where you two first met, right?”

      They glanced at each other, smiled, and nodded. “Yes. I’m not sure what we’re going to do with it,” Emma said, “but we won’t do anything right away.”

      “She has a certain room she’s dying to get into,” Trevor said, then regaled them with the story of Lionel’s secret room, which they’d found by accident during their time at the retreat, but had decided not to intrude upon.

      “It’s where he kept all of the documentation about Trudy’s past, and the agreements between them concerning her fortune, right?” Holly asked.

      It was Melody who answered. “Yes. So many secrets. Hard to believe Trudy agreed never to search for her son.”

      “We don’t know that they didn’t,” Trevor said. “But no contact was made”—he looked to Griffin—“which was a shame.”

      Griffin shrugged and slipped his arm around Melody’s shoulders. “I’ve become a firm believer that all things happen for reasons grander than we might know at the time. In the end, everyone got what they wanted most, am I right?”

      Smiling and nodding, they all lifted their glasses, though Emma and Holly reached for water glasses, rather than the champagne that had been poured for each table before they’d arrived. It took a moment for Griffin to realize that Melody had reached for water as well.

      Using his own water glass, he’d started to propose a toast, but turned to look at her instead, his glass shaking a bit in his hand. “Too early for a bit of the bubbly, luv?” he managed, not sounding remotely as casual as he’d hoped.

      “Oh, no,” she assured him.

      Those lovely midnight blue eyes of hers still took on that special glow he’d come to cherish over the past four years. There seemed to be an additional something special about them.

      “About, oh, six weeks too late, actually,” she finished.

      Emma and Holly squealed. Sean and Trevor shared a quick grin with each other, then looked at Griffin, on hold for any cue from him before congratulating him, manly comrades-in-arms first, dads-to-be second.

      “You’re…?”

      She sipped her water, trying to look oh-so-innocent. “I didn’t tell you before we left, because you’d have never let me get on the plane.”

      “You can fly up until your third—” Emma started to say.

      “Tell that to Captain Worrywort here,” Melody said.

      “I am no’ a worrywort, or any kind of wort,” Griffin said, clearly affronted, feeling