Below is the Seth and January bonus story you requested! If you prefer to read it on your e-reader, it’s also available in my Pine Harbour BookFunnel bonus content library here: books.bookfunnel.com/pineharbourbonuscontent

“The Ten-Year Plan”

Five and a half years after the epilogue of Fearless at Heart

At the first plaintive cry from upstairs, Seth scratched his short beard, closed the invoicing program he’d been working in, and unfolded himself from behind his desk. His daughter’s nap was just exactly how long he should spend sitting at the computer anyway.

Toddlers were pretty good barometers of work-life balance.

Parenting had taught him to appreciate the minutes he did get to himself.

He snatched his cell phone from its charging station, shoved it in his back pocket, then took the stairs two at a time as he called a greeting to Willow so she would know she wasn’t alone. “Are you awake, Willybean?”

“Da!” Her voice carried out of the nursery.

He grinned, the newness of her name for him still a joy. “It’s me.”

She shrieked when he jumped into the doorway, then waved her arms from where she stood in her crib. “Uh, uh.”

“I know you want up. Let me just get a diaper organized, and then…there you go.” He swept her into his arms and kept the patter up as he got her changed. They had an hour before January and Asher would be home from school, and he didn’t want to spend them inside on such a nice autumn day. “Listen, kiddo, I need some advice. Your mom’s birthday is coming up, and I don’t know what to get her.”

Willow blew a spit bubble at him and smiled.

“It’s a bit cool today. Let’s put on a sweater.”

That got him a brief whine, until the sweater was on and forgotten.

“Remember those leaves we raked up this morning? Let’s go jump in them again.”

He’d never been a grass and shrubs guy until he married January, but now he was very proud of the lush lawn his daughter could take tentative steps across on her way to face planting in the big pile of leaves from the single mature tree on their property, an oak along the back fence.

As Willow pushed herself up, took three steps, and fell again, he started reducing the leaf pile by carrying it to the compost bin, a basket at a time.

“Nnn.” She grabbed his leg on his third return trip to the pile. “Nnno.” Then her eyes went bright. “No!”

Oh, dear God.

He sat down, laughing, and she climbed on top of him. “No,” she repeated firmly.

“I really loved that your first words were Da and Up,” he said softly, stroking the blonde curls off her forehead. “But did your third word really need to be No? I’m the bossy one in this house, don’t you know that?”

She laughed and smacked him in the face.

* * *

January was typing an email to a parent when Asher appeared in the doorway of her classroom, the ECE teacher from his Kindergarten class making eye contact with her before leaving him.

“Hello, darling,” she said, gesturing to him with one hand as she finished up. “How was school today?”

“Trenton stole my blocks.”

“That happens. What did you do?”

“I thought about hitting him.”

She swallowed back a laugh. “And then…”

“And then the teacher gave me Play-doh.”

“You have such nice teachers, don’t you?”

He made an agreeing noise, but his attention was elsewhere. He was already digging in her purse for the extra granola bar she always had for him.

She hit send on the message, then double-checked that her prep was done for the next day. She had a stack of assignments to mark, but she’d do those after the kids were asleep. The white boards were clean, the laptops were plugged in to charge overnight…she was all set. “Ready to go?”

He sproinged back up like a Jack-in-the-box. He reminded her so much of Seth in his enthusiasm for adventure. “Yes!”

They walked to and from school, because the house that she had Seth had made a cozy home for their babies over the last six years was only a few blocks away.

Asher had arrived six months after their wedding. Three and a half years later, after much back and forth-ing on whether January wanted to have another baby, Willow arrived and completed their family.

Both times, she took maternity leave until the next school year started, and then Seth took the winter off to be a stay-at-home dad.

It was a lot of fun to see her big, tough husband turn into Mr. Domestic for six months.

Especially because it was his choice, without any pressure from her. Both times she told him she was pregnant, she had crawled into his lap, full of a low-grade worry about his ten-year business plan and what the breaks would mean. He just kissed her and told her that every day was the first day of a new ten-year plan.

The path to their neighbourhood was at the back of the school yard, so they strolled in that direction at almost-five-year-old pace. Asher told her a rambling story about the blocks—again—and she listened with one ear as she mentally examined what was in the fridge for dinner.

When they arrived on their street, he ran ahead down the sidewalk, then waited for her to cross the street.

Inside, the house was quiet, but just as Asher kicked off his shoes, the side door opened.

“They’re home,” Seth crooned. He was carrying Willow, who clapped frantically when she saw her big brother.

Seth put her down and swooped around them to catch January in his arms. “There’s my pretty girl,” he murmured. “How was your day?”

She tipped her face up just in time to catch his kiss. “Busy. Good. Better now.”

“We raked up all the leaves in the backyard. It’s nice out. I could barbecue for dinner, or we could go to Mac’s?”

That was a toss-up. On the one hand, she loved the diner. On the other hand, Willow didn’t sit still.

“I was trying to remember what we have.” She caught his hand and pulled him down the hall. She gave a quick glance at the stairs to make sure the baby gate was closed—Mom reflex—then let the kids follow at their own pace.

She pulled open the fridge as Seth hugged her from behind. The warmth of his body was a balm at the end of every day. The strength in his arms was a promise she was never alone. “Missed you today,” he said quietly, for her ears only. “Early bedtime tonight?”

Her body went liquid against his as his words sank in, heating her up. “The second the kids are asleep, I’m all yours.”

They’d almost had a year of blissful alone time together before Asher arrived.

Now their lives were split again, in much the same way they had been when they first got back together. Parents by day, lovers by night.

She wouldn’t have it any other way, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t looking forward to the day the kids would want to go to Aunt August’s house for a weekend-long sleepover.

Maybe she’d take Seth to Mexico for his forty-fifth birthday.

For his fortieth, she bought him a used sailboat, which was almost like a vacation (except it was a lot of work). He’d once commented that for all the time they spent at the marina, they rarely went out on the water. Which was true, because she’d been raised by a miserly bastard who couldn’t afford a boat by the time she was a teenager, even though he lived in service to them his whole life.

More baggage to unpack. More baggage her husband was happy to take and drop into the lake for her, well-weighted down with none of that anymore.

After twenty years of hard work and no play, Seth was all about living for the moment now. With kids, with a boat, with travel.

And always with her.

“Let’s go to Mac’s,” she decided. “And if Willow roams, then she roams. We can always get takeout and come home.”

“I’ll share my fries with you.”

“You always do.” She closed the fridge and spun around in his arms.

“Hey, So Willow learned a new word today—”

“No!” Her daughter came out of nowhere and grabbed onto her pants. “No!”

January picked her up and nuzzled her close. “Still no Mama, but we’ve no, huh?”

Willow giggled and buried her face in January’s shoulder.

“Aww, my sweet little bean. Are you going to be the strong-willed one?”

Asher was a rule follower. The kind of quiet, gentle first born who slept through the night at six months, convincing his parents he could have a sibling because parenting was really very sweet.

January pressed her cheek against Willow’s and breathed in the scent of her daughter.

Parenting really was very sweet.

But Willow was an adorable handful who liked to stand at the top of stairs and sway while laughing maniacally. And she had yet to sleep through the night once.

So much for thinking it was top-notch parenting skills that helped Asher turn out the way he was.

“Ash, honey,” she said, raising her voice. “We’re going to the diner for dinner.”

“Okay.” His voice carried to them from the front room, which they’d turned into a library and Lego room.

Seth squeezed the back of her neck. “Can you have eyes on Willow for an hour before we go? I have a bit of work to do still.”

“Of course.” She kissed her husband on the mouth, long enough for Willow to lift her head and say no again. Then she carried her daughter to the front room and the bookshelf of Sandra Boynton books that were their favourites.

* * *

Dinner was chaos, but it was filled with laughter. And for the seven minutes it took Willow to eat a grilled cheese sandwich, Seth shared his French fries with his wife while he told her about the winter maintenance he would do on the plane he kept here in Pine Harbour. She asked thoughtful questions about Teegan’s plane up north, remembering things he’d said weeks earlier, and as he did every day, he thanked his lucky stars she’d agreed to marry him.

Life with January was wonderful.

He thought about the spreadsheet he’d accidentally stumbled across earlier that day. Thought about telling her about it, but before he could, their seven minutes was up, and Willow was sliding off the bench and under the table, sprinting for freedom as fast as unsteady toddler legs could carry her.

Which was not really that fast at all.

He scooped her up before she made it to the next table, and she practiced her new word and her first word in alternating, panicky gasps.

January winked at him and immediately started putting their burgers in takeout containers they’d requested as soon as their food arrived.

When he tried to get Willow into the car seat, she went stiff as a board in protest.

Asher rolled his eyes as he buckled himself in, a new skill. “Willybean,” he sighed. “We’re just going home.”

And then Seth got to hold his wife’s hand over the console in his truck for three minutes.

“Bedtime,” January said with a tired smile.

Which was Seth’s favourite time of day. January would lie down with Willow and nurse her to sleep, while Seth read Asher a story and tucked him in.

Then they would meet in the hallway, and Seth would take a sleeping Willow from January’s arms and carry her to her crib. After that, they’d creep downstairs and curl up on the sofa.

“Do you have work?” Seth asked her softly as she unbuckled Willow at home—an easier task than getting the tiny tyrant into the seat in the first place.

“Some marking.” January set their daughter down so she could run on the lawn. “It won’t take long. Thirty minutes?”

“I’ll do the bath then.”

Some nights they both worked a little, but tonight he wanted their time after the kids were asleep to be uninterrupted.

It was an anniversary of sorts.

* * *

They usually went downstairs after the kids were asleep.

Tonight, though, January knew Seth was feeling extra amorous when he directly tugged her into their bedroom.

The bed he’d had up in Blind River fit perfectly under the arched window. Everything else in the room were pieces they’d bought together over the last five years, including a rocking recliner they’d both spent months in with their babies. Now that chair held a laundry basket and a stack of books.

It wasn’t the sexiest space, but it was the warmest and the most loving she could imagine. In the ensuite bathroom, she heard the tub filling.

Seth peeled off her t-shirt, then kissed her shoulder. “Bath time for you, too.”

She smiled. “So bossy.”

“You like it.”

“I love it.”

“So, hey…” he carefully let her hair down. “Today is kind of a special day.”

She frowned and turned, confused. “It is?”

“It’s my ten-year anniversary of operating Kincaid Air Ferry.”

“Oh! Why didn’t you say anything sooner? We could have celebrated.”

“We’re about to.” His mouth quirked in a half smile. “I didn’t say anything sooner because I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I was looking for something in my files earlier and stumbled across my first ten-year plan. I needed some time to process.” He stripped out of his shirt as well. “Ten years ago, I registered my company and signed a purchase agreement for my first plane. And do you know what my stated ten-year goal was?”

She shook her head.

He cupped her face in his hands and leaned in, brushing her mouth with his. A sweep of his lips, then a longer, more lingering press.

“I wanted to own four planes and have three pilots working for me. I wanted to have moved to a larger hub location, like Sudbury or Owen Sound.”

“Oh,” she breathed. That sounded terrible. Great in concept, but so much work.

“But also on the plan were local excursions, and partnering with local businesses, and then a single line at the end. Prioritize work-life balance. I didn’t think about that line again for another ten years. It wasn’t a conscious thought when I saw you again, or when I realized I could never leave you. But in loving you, it’s what I found. And it wouldn’t have happened on the original plan.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. It wasn’t how I expected to get here, but I’m not that far off from the plan after all.” He gave her a cocky smile. “If you look at it creatively. And happiness cannot be overrated.”

“I’ve always admired your ability to look at a plan with the utmost creativity,” she said, a familiar relief flooding through her body. She never tired of reminders that her husband was in fact happy with this life they’d built. He showed her that he was, often, but there was something special about hearing him say it.

He unbuttoned her slacks, then slid his hands inside them, squeezing her ass with both hands before stripping her the rest of the way naked.

Then he led her into the bathroom. He climbed into the tub first, then she settled in between his legs and lay back.

Steam rose around them, encouraging a loving silence.

“Ten years,” she finally whispered. “That must mean we passed your ten-year retirement mark from the Air Force without fanfare, too.”

“I don’t need fanfare.” He kissed the side of her head. “Pass me a washcloth.”

She snagged one from the basket on the ledge. “But I like to celebrate you.”

“You can celebrate me with your mouth,” he said under his breath.

She laughed. But she would, definitely.

He washed her arms, then her back.

He kissed her neck, then her mouth. Cupped her breasts and pinched her nipples gently, just the way she liked.

They made out like teenagers, equal parts enthusiasm and hormonal compulsion.

Once Seth got her going, she was pretty horny these days. Her libido had done funny things after having kids—it went into a period of dormancy after pregnancy, that fourth trimester that was all cocooning and healing time. But then it had roared back unexpectedly each time, and now she knew exactly what she wanted, when she wanted it.

Tonight, that was her husband’s cock, as hard as she could get it. She wanted to tease him and serve him and love him.

* * *

The water rocked as January rolled over, then rose up onto her knees, making Seth groan at the sight of his wife. She was slick all over, and pink from the heat. Between them his cock lifted, bursting out of the water.

Her eyes lit up and she wrapped one hand around his shaft.

He hadn’t meant for her to— But okay, yeah.

Lifting himself mostly out of the tub, he welcomed her hot mouth as she took in just the straining crown. Her lips were featherlight, her tongue soft and silky.

And then her mouth lifted away, and her breasts grazed his erection. From the glint in her eye, he didn’t think that was by accident.

He was breathing hard now; his seduction plans out the window.

She ducked her head again, taking more of him now.

Then off, and this time, her breasts swayed forward, and she caught them on either side of his dick.

Fuck.

“That’s a pretty sight,” he said huskily.

She blinked up at him. “But you can’t come on my tits in the tub. Too messy.”

Pretty little liar. The tub was the perfect place to mark her, but she clearly had something else in mind.

He braced himself with one arm, and reached the other out to stroke her cheek, rub his thumb against her mouth. “Will you swallow for me, then?”

She bobbed her head.

“Good girl.” He hissed in a breath as she ducked again, this time taking all of him, all the way to the root. “Oh, my pretty wife. Your mouth feels incredible.”

She licked and sucked until the corners of his vision started to blur, then she added her hand and stroked him in tandem with the firm suction she had on his head.

He pumped his hips, he couldn’t not, and then he was coming, and it was enough to make his eyes cross and his legs cramp up.

Her lips pressed tight together as she slid off his cock, then she visibly swallowed before smiling.

Again, his only thought was fuck.

Once upon a time, she’d been the straight-laced tutor he’d set out to corrupt, and now she was a vixen who turned him inside out on the regular.

“You sexy minx,” he growled, sliding back into the tub.

He pulled her close, pushing his thigh between her legs.

She shivered as he bit her shoulder, grazed her neck, then caught her mouth with his. Gave her his tongue, over and over again, until she was panting with need, and he’d recovered.

Then he hoisted them out of the water and carried her, wrapped in a fluffy towel, to their bed.

He rolled her over and sank his teeth into the spot where her ass meets her thigh.

She rolled her hips back, and he ignored her obvious offer of a pussy to stroke.

Not yet.

He tasted the other cheek, nibbled on her thigh, then finally spread her open and licked.

She was slick and swollen.

He slurped at her pussy until the throb in his cock got to be too much, then he flipped her over.

“We have a problem, wife,” he growled as he slid into her.

Her eyes sparkled up at him. “What’s that?”

“You always come twice, and now you’ve got me on edge. I might forget myself and spill inside you if you come on my cock.”

“I think that’s called work-life balance,” she gasped. “Sometimes you need to let me be the generous one.”

He found her clit with his thumb. “Even Steven is the only offer on the table. I want you to come like this, then I’m flipping you over again.”

“So acrobatic.”

“So mouthy.”

“Must be all that bossy come—”

He cut her off with a kiss. She still tasted like that bossy come.

But his cock deep inside her, barely moving, and his thumb on her clit, and his tongue stroking deep into her mouth?

His wife was many things, but impervious to the trifecta she was not.

He’d figured out the magic combination after Asher was born. When they had to squeeze intimacy in where they could get it, it just made sense that he perfect the art of making his wife come quickly.

She gasped against his mouth, her whole body shaking, and then, just as she shattered, he jerked his hips back.

He hadn’t been kidding.

Two tonight for both of them.

She moaned into the mattress as he rolled her over—more gentle than a flip, given that she was still trembling.

He exhaled carefully as he pressed back into her sensitive flesh.

The walls of her pussy fluttered around him.

The absolute perfection of it.

He pulsed his hips, dragging his length in and out of her. Each press threatened to tip him over the edge. Each withdrawal was accompanied by a careful, controlling breath.

He squeezed her ass, relishing the sight in front of him. Her curvy back, her rounded bottom.

The wet slick between them as he pulled out, then thrust home again.

And then her fingers, just below his cock. Wetting themselves so she could stroke her clit for him.

The best girl.

She’d always been a wonder to him. Even when they were too young to know this would one day be their forever.

And now she was his. His other half, his reason for being, his joy and his comfort.

“Come for me, January,” he whispered hoarsely. “Give me that and I’ll fill you up.”

She cried out.

Beneath him her fingers worked like mad.

And then her whole body twitched, and deep inside, the contractions started again. A tight, rhythmic squeeze that he didn’t try to evade this time. He sank deep, letting her body pull his release. It was hers, after all.

“I love you,” he breathed as he fell forward. He caught himself, so he wasn’t quite crushing her, but he wasn’t not crushing her.

She grabbed his hand and pulled it to her mouth, kissing his fingers. “Love you, too,” she breathed.

He felt it more than he heard it.

And it was perfect.

Everything he didn’t know he’d wanted ten years earlier. And absolutely everything he’d ever needed.