Chapter 16
Wyatt
I switched the water off and stepped out of the stall, wrapping a towel around my hips before grabbing another one for my hair. The bathroom was bigger than her apartment had been with state of the art everything.
When I’d drawn up the design for the contractor, I’d done everything with her in mind. I know she loves castles and all that old world shit, and since I couldn’t care less one way or the other as long as she was with me, I did what I thought she’d like.
The place was a cross between a castle and a middle-eastern palace with marble floors, gold fixtures, and gold and crystal chandeliers hanging from the twenty-foot ceilings. There were turrets and little nooks here and there in the upstairs rooms for her to play in, and about a hundred windows to let in the light and the view of the surrounding mountains.
It’s a given that not many people are going to see the place as isolated as it is, but I didn’t build it for show, I built it for her—a place where she can spend her days happy and free. I’d had to make some adjustments to the already existing nursery by expanding it by about twenty-four square feet, room enough for the babies when they come. I figure they’d be in there for at least three years before moving into separate rooms.
I’ve been reading up on babies and motherhood to prepare myself for the months ahead since the only baby I knew anything about was her. There’s a shit ton to learn, and I hold not a little bit of fear, they look so tiny in the pictures on the net and that one video I saw on childbirth was enough to give me nightmares.
I’d almost prefer hand to hand combat with an expert gorilla than to go through that shit. But since she would be the one suffering through it, I figured the least I could do is learn how to help her, be there for her when the time comes.
I stepped out of the bathroom, intending to go to the closet to grab some sweats and my usual Henley. I don’t know why I expected her to be still asleep, but the soft cry of alarm that came from the bed when I stepped into the room stopped me dead in my tracks.
I lowered the towel I’d been drying my hair with and turned to look at her. We stared at each other for the longest five seconds of my life before her eyes filled up with tears. I moved across the room to her and pulled her into my chest.
“No, baby, don’t do that.” She punched my shoulders and my back as she fought to escape my hold. “Stop it before you hurt yourself.”
“Let go of me.”
“Never!” I found her lips and kissed her into subjection after she tried to bite a hole in my lip.
She’s always been a feisty little thing, at least she used to be. But I’d heard from some of the others that after I left, she’d changed, withdrawn to the point that her last two years of high school she’d become damn near a stranger in her own home. I bear some of the responsibility for that, and the guilt I carried upon hearing it was a testament to that fact.
When she tugged at my back because she needed to breathe, I eased up, taking soft little nibbles of her lips. My cock tented the towel, and her eyes looked down as her cheeks pinked up. She looked around the room and then back at me.
“Where am I?”
“Home.”
‘This doesn’t look like my home, take me back.” She tried scooting off the bed, and I held her down and leaned over her.
“Let me go.” The little hellcat scratched and clawed as she called me every name in the book. “I’m sorry, baby; I’m so sorry.” She was crying hard now, something I never could stand, and I wrapped my arms around her.
That only pissed her off again, and she started pummeling my back and chest with her tiny little fists. “Enough!” My yell stopped her cold, I’ve never raised my voice to her before, and her little lip pouted and trembled as those big blue eyes, glassy with tears, looked at me with hurt and accusation.
I thought her ass had calmed down, but then she hauled off and slugged me right across the face. Fuck, I thought they said she’d changed, that she’d damn near been comatose up until she went away to college.
I gripped her hands and held them over her head on the bed as we both breathed like we’d ran a race. Her eyes spat fire, but at least she wasn’t hurling invectives at my head any longer.
“I’m not going to tussle with you and hurt the babies.” I leaned down close until our noses were nearly touching. I wanted to kiss her so badly, but with the mood, she was in, she’d probably knee me in my unprotected balls.