The Life - Rebirth (The Life 4)

I can’t see where pregnancy had changed her body much, except maybe her chest, and she’s never had any complaints in that department. She’d lost all the pregnancy weight as far as I can tell since she pretty much looked the same. For some reason, I was exorbitantly pleased that she hadn’t changed her hair or much of anything else about herself, for that matter.

What the hell am I thinking? Oh yeah, I guess in the last two years, I’d all but forgotten that I’m a sexual being. It was easy because she’s the only one I ever want to have sex with, and since she’d been gone, that side of me has laid dormant. Plus, I had other things on my mind, things that, for some reason, don’t really seem to matter right now.

I know this is because I’m treading in uncharted waters, that this new dynamic is something I’ve never prepared for, and in this way, she and I are on even footing. I’ve had to switch gears a lot in the last few hours alone. From vengeful son to excited lover, to father of three with a whole new outlook on life that I haven’t even had time to digest quite fully yet. I’m trying to handle things with my usual cool, but quite frankly, I’m out of my depth.

She must’ve felt my gaze on her ass after she passed me because she looked over her shoulder, and I didn’t even try to look away. I wonder how her fiancé would feel if he saw the heat in her eyes just then?

I smirked at her, but apparently, that was the wrong thing to do because she huffed and flounced her way out the door. “Mommy’s being silly!” That’s all I could think to say when I caught the babies looking at me from either side of my face. I kissed Gabriella’s nose, and she giggled, so I did the same to her brother, and he hugged me tighter.

I felt guilty that I hadn’t kissed baby Gabriel, so I hurried after their mother. “Gianna, wait up.” I knew what I was doing, I knew it when I saw her eyes widen and her nostrils flare when I leaned in. I did it on purpose, let’s be honest, and barely withheld my laughter when I kissed the baby instead of her and kept walking. She screeched or screamed. I’m not sure which because she tried to muffle the sound. “See? Mommy’s being silly again.” The kids seemed to think that was funny.

“It’s getting chilly out here; let’s hurry up inside.”

“We’ve lived in the Alaskan outback for two years; this fifty-degree weather isn’t going to hurt us.” Alaska? I don’t think she realized that she’d just given away a piece of the puzzle, and I didn’t let on that I’d heard or that it meant anything. She’d gone all the way to Alaska.

Now my mind was filled with some bushwhacking asshole in overalls and a greasy beard with his paws all over her. Alaska, is it? That’s just a hop skip and a jump from Russia. I know a few guys in Spetsnaz who are part of ANONYMOUS; I can make his ass disappear if he proves to be difficult.

She stood in the middle of the room when we walked in. The guys had done a rush job on the cribs that I hadn’t seen in years, a double that belonged to the twins and one that had been mine. “Do they usually sleep together?”

“Yes!” I changed course and headed to my room with the California king-sized bed.

She came in behind me but stayed as far away from the bed as she could like it was a snake about to strike. I ignored her and put the kids down to go into the en suite bathroom to run a bath in the his and hers tub. Their grandparents and great aunt and uncle had overindulged them in sweets because that’s their love language when it comes to kids, but now their little faces were a mess. No worries, daddy will take care of it.

Or at least I was about to until I walked into a problem. “I don’t have anything that’s gentle enough for their skin.” Okay, don’t panic, Gabriel. You’re talking about soap here, not metaphysics. Well, it felt just about the same.

“It’s okay; you can just dilute yours or some shampoo. Why are you looking at me like that? I do it all the time.” I pulled my phone after switching off the running water and called Lance. “I need you to go to the store, anything that’s open, and get me some baby bubble bath.”

“Bruh, seriously?”

“Hurry up before the water gets cold.”

“Shit, I’m on my way.”

“He’ll be here soon. Don’t look at me like that; their skin is too sensitive.” I started to ask if she’d done that a lot but with the mood she’s in, she’d probably take it as an insult, so I busied myself getting the kids undressed.