I smiled through my tears, finding his gesture incredibly romantic. “Can I say yes anyway?”
He looked at me with that intense gaze he’d been showing me since the night we met. Packed with possessiveness and passion, he regarded me like he wanted to fist the back of my hair and take me hard and deep.
Our love wasn’t just romantic and respectful. It was full of passion, heat, and combustible desire. It had everything I wanted in a deeply sensual relationship, and it exceeded every dream I’d ever had about romance. He wasn’t quite the man I’d once pictured, this man who killed men without blinking an eye, but he had the kind of heart that I wanted, so big but so empty. And he only wanted one person to be inside it.
He moved me to my back and maneuvered between my legs, his hard dick telling me exactly what he wanted. He always responded to my enthusiasm, always got hard when I wore my heart on my sleeve. His hands clutched mine against the sheets, and he held his mouth just inches from mine. “You better say yes.”
Epilogue
Cassini
I went into the house to retrieve the silverware I’d forgotten to put out on the table on the patio, but once I got to the kitchen, I gripped the counter and breathed through the fatigue. This pregnancy was killing me. My feet hurt all the time, my back was aching, but I knew it was worth it.
Because I was having twins.
I clutched the counter for a moment as I let the pain pass. I’d just hit my seventh month of pregnancy, and that was when things had started to get difficult with our first baby. The morning sickness intensified, and I couldn’t get any sleep. I ended up napping around the house randomly throughout the day whenever I could.
Balto came in the back door behind me. He recognized I was in distress because he came to my side right away. His hand moved over my stomach, and he supported my back with his hand. “Baby, only a few more months to go.”
I ground my teeth together. “I’m not having any more of your babies.”
He smiled as he rubbed my stomach. “You say that now…”
“I’m serious.”
“You’ll feel differently the second you look outside and see your son admiring his birthday cake. Now we have two little girls coming, and they’ll grow up to be beautiful and smart like you.”
“I don’t know about that… I did marry you.”
“And that was the smartest decision you ever made.” He kissed my temple then grabbed the forks out of the drawer. “Hold these.”
I held them in my fist.
He lifted me up and carried me out of the kitchen and onto the back patio.
“I can walk.”
“Or I carry you.” He carried me across the grass and to the gazebo where everyone was gathered.
“It’s your son’s birthday party, and you’re being lazy?” Case teased, sitting next to Balto Jr. in his high chair. A party hat was on his head, and he already had food stains all over his special outfit.
Balto lowered me to the ground so I could sit in the chair next to our son. “I’m not lazy. I’m just enormous.”
“Not enormous,” Balto said. “You’re sexier now than you were the first time.”
Dirk made a disgusted face. “Saying my sister is sexy is like saying a squirrel is sexy…”
“Then I guess I think squirrels are sexy.” Balto grabbed one of the cupcakes and lit the single candle on top. “My little boy turns one today. Crazy how time flies.”
Heath moved into the chair beside him. “And crazy that you’re going to have twin girls running around. Too bad twins run in the family, right?” He nudged him in the side, the third skull diamond sitting on his right hand.
“I can handle it.” He placed the cupcake on the table in front of Balto. “Alright, little man. Blow out the candle.”
He tried to sink his fingers into the frosting so he could wipe it all over his face.
I grabbed his hand. “Balto, blow.”
He giggled then jabbed his fingers into the cupcake.
“Alright, maybe next year you’ll get a wish.” I grabbed the cupcake and blew out the candle before I handed it back to him.
He started to demolish it, getting frosting all over his cheeks and even some on his eyelid.
My son was loud, hyper, and so messy, but I loved him with all my heart. He had Balto’s striking blue eyes and fair complexion. Once he hit his teen years, he would probably start to look just like his father. Then when he became a man…the women would be dying to sink their claws into him.
I already dreaded that day.
I grabbed the napkin and cleaned up his face even though he still had half a cupcake to eat. “Messy boy.”