‘Yes –’ Olivia nudges me, smiling – ‘let loose, Mr Hart.’
My shoulders jump up coolly. ‘As you wish.’ I hastily shrug off my jacket as a crafty smile slowly forms on my face. It falls to the floor, but I leave it exactly where it is and run to join my boy, dragging Livy behind me. ‘Make way!’ I yell, catapulting myself up on the couch with him. The sound of his giggles and the look of delight only spur me on. I’ve lost my mind, shaking my head, spinning Livy on the floor below me and singing along with my boy. God knows what my hair must look like.
‘Woooohoooooo!’ Harry screeches, springing off the couch. ‘The desk, Daddy!’
I’m in action immediately, running across the office again. I lift his little body up and join him on the huge, important-looking workspace. ‘Go for it, Harry!’
‘Yeaaaahh!’ His legs fly out, kicking the piles of paper everywhere.
And I couldn’t care less.
It’s raining white sheets of paper, we’re busting some very questionable moves, and we’re laughing in between picking up the lines that we know. It’s heaven.
My angels and I are in our own bubble of happiness, except our bubble is now huge. And nothing can pop it.
The music starts to fade, but our energy doesn’t. We’re still going hell for leather when Goldfrapp’s “Happiness” kicks in and Harry screeches his excitement. ‘Oh wow!’ he gasps, pushing his waves from his forehead. ‘My favourite!’
I’m yanked down from the desk and the three of us form a circle again. I know what’s about to happen. I’m going to get very dizzy. There’s only one thing that can stop the inevitable, so I pin my eyes on Olivia as Harry instigates the spinning of our little circle. He’s away with the fairies again, so he won’t notice that my full attention is planted firmly on his mother. And hers is on me.
Around and around we go, over and over, Harry singing and Olivia and I focused solely on each other. ‘I love you,’ I mouth on a crooked smile.
‘Your bones, Miller Hart,’ she mouths back, giving me that full-on beam.
Good God, whatever did I do to deserve her?
I’m feeling quite sweaty when the music finally comes to a stop, and continuing to follow our usual tradition, we all collapse to the floor in an exhausted heap. We gasp for breath, our chests heaving, Harry still chuckling with his mum.
I smile up at the ceiling. ‘I have a request,’ I mumble breathlessly, resisting the urge to meet Harry’s cute smiling face at the sound of those words. There’s only one right answer to this request.
‘We’ll never stop loving you, Daddy,’ he answers hastily, placing his hand on my arm.
I drop my head to the side to find him. ‘Thank you.’
‘We have a request, too.’
I take a deep breath and swallow down the lump in my throat that’s spiked by pure, undying happiness. ‘Until there is no breath left in my lungs, sweet boy.’
My world centres and everything is just perfect once again.
Olivia Taylor sent my meticulous world into fucking chaos. But it was real. She was real. What I felt with her was real. Each time I worshipped her, I felt my soul get a little bit cleaner. It was beautiful. It meant something. With the exception of one regrettable time, our lovemaking was never an all-out slamming of one body into another to reach the ultimate aim.
Pleasure.
Release.
Our intimacies were never automatic, either – not in the sense of my body taking over and just . . . doing. But it was automatic in the sense that, ultimately, it was natural. Effortless.
This was supposed to happen to me.
One night turned into a lifetime.
And not even that will be enough. Everything with Olivia and Harry will never be enough.
My name is Miller Hart.
I am the Special One.
But special because no other man to ever walk this land could ever be as happy as me.
I don’t need to elaborate.
I’m free.