Intense Pleasure (Bound Hearts 14)

“She has told me she wants five babies,” he told his lovers then, his voice soft as each of them gripped his shoulder, their fingers clenching in the fabric of his shirt. “I did not tell them of your desire for babies, Summer, forgive me. They are mothers who long to hold their grandchildren to their hearts. Just as I do.”

When had reality become this warped? A woman should get a warning before having her lovers’ crazy parents explode into her world in this way.

“This is crazy.” The two women looked like her own mother whenever anyone mentioned grandchildren.

“We would be excellent grandmothers,” Selena stated almost regretfully. “Can you not try? Just once? Reason with them…”

“Explain the impossible, Summer.” Raeg spoke behind her. “Go on, reason with us. Make murder seem just, and the threat of future bloodshed understandable. Go on, I’m waiting.”

Uh-oh.

Summer lowered her arms as she looked toward Raeg and Falcon’s mothers and father.

Selena and Maria watched their sons with hope and pain. Roberto was less easy to read, but Summer could sense his waiting silence as he tried to choose his words carefully.

She, however, wasn’t waiting.

She turned on them, her hands going to her hips once again as she stared at him furiously. They actually seemed surprised that she was angry.

Go figure.

“Summer…” Raeg began warningly.

“Oh be quiet, Raeg,” she snapped, watching as his eyes narrowed on her, his arms going over his chest, his feet shifting until his legs were braced solidly beneath him.

“Summer, if you would await us upstairs,” Falcon suggested.

“Like hell. Here’s what I’m gonna do,” she told them, making her mind up in that second. “Since the two of you refuse to see sense, I’m goin’ to Momma and Daddy’s. I won’t be coming back until you leave. And when the weekend comes, I’ll be choosing a partner I can trust to put love and family before pride and a request for explanations. I will marry, have my babies, and regret every day of my life that the men I love don’t have the balls to live in the present rather than the past. That’s what I’m gonna do.”

* * *

Raeg caught her as she tried to pass them.

Hooking his arm around her waist he pulled her to a stop before she could flounce past and cause him to murder some son of a bitch in a week.

He knew that tone of voice, and he knew Summer. She was not above getting pissed enough to do something just that stupid when her pride or her beliefs became ruffled.

“We were coming for you,” he growled. “But just because our anger has cleared enough to realize that murdering bastard wouldn’t hurt you, doesn’t mean we have to deal with him. If you’ll just go upstairs…”

Disappointment and uncertainty flickered across her face. “But Raeg, that’s your momma,” she whispered. “And your daddy. If there’s any way to fix this, you fix it.”

“There’s no way.” Surely she couldn’t believe there was.

“Those would be my babies’ grandparents,” she reminded him softly. “Would you hurt our babies by denyin’ them the chance to know grandparents who would love them and protect them, no matter what? They’ve proven they’ll do whatever it takes to protect those they love, no matter the consequences. Would you take that from our babies? From us?”

Babies?

He swallowed tightly, his gaze jerking to Falcon only to see the soft bemused expression on his face that proved he was having just as hard a time processing what she was saying as he was.

Babies.

Summer growing round with their children, cuddling them to her breast as she had cuddled her cousin’s infant, humming lullabies, and filling their lives with things they’d never known they could have and were too wary to wish for.

“Raeg, would you do that to us?” she whispered, her voice gentle, dreamy. “

I don’t want our babies sad because we deny them their grandparents. Do you?”

He swallowed tightly.