“That’s to go to Rico.”
“But we’re not in such a hurry anymore.” He looked as if this possibility hadn’t even occurred to him. “And there’s a kit in the top drawer of my bathroom cabinet.”
Before she finished talking, he hurtled to where she’d indicated, coming back with it in seconds.
Trembling, she rose, took it from him, her smile shaky. “I had to go to the bathroom anyway.”
“Why?” Then he groaned. “Bloody hell, yes, of course, by all means. I think my mind has been irreversibly scrambled.”
She planted a kiss on his chest as she passed him. “No way. But I love you even more because it’s scrambled now.”
Heart drumming madly, she ducked into the bathroom.
In minutes, she exited, the strip held tight in her hand.
“Tell me.” His voice was a ragged rumble.
She walked into his arms before she held up her fist. “I wanted to find out with you.”
“Do it.”
She opened her fist. The two pink lines were as clear as they had been when she’d found out she was pregnant with Rico.
On a triumphant growl, Richard crushed her to him.
Many hot tears and kisses later, Richard raised his head, scorched her to her soul with the power of his love. “I’ll always live with the regret that I wasn’t there for you when you were carrying Rico, that I lost the first seven years of his li
fe.” His finger on her lips silenced her protest. “But now fate has given me more than the everything it has already given me—another miracle, and a chance to fix all my mistakes. Now I get to share our new baby with you, and with Rico, from the first moment. I will be there for you, for all of you, every single second, for the rest of my life. This time, I’ll do everything right.”
Aching with thankfulness, she clung to him, the man she was fated for, the father of her son and of her unborn baby. “Just love me, just love us. You’re all I need. All our children will ever need. If we have you, everything will always be right with the world.”
Looking down at her, that god among men who loved her, he lavished hunger and tenderness and devotion on her, his every look and word a pledge. “I will live to love you. And you have me, all of me. I’m all yours, forever.”
* * * * *