Sort of like the things I feel when I’m around Ainsley.
“I told you that you got this,” she says.
I nod.
“You’re more capable than you let yourself think, Dex.”
“I still need help,” I whisper, nearly afraid to admit those words aloud.
One side of her mouth lifts into a smile. “We all do from time to time. And that’s why I’m here. I’ll go get some clothes on, but you totally got this, Daddy Dex.”
Daddy Dex.
The words are flippant and light out of her mouth, but they do something to me I wasn’t expecting.
The baby is still crying in my arms as a jittery feeling rises in my stomach. It’s almost like this rush of feelings—the thrill I so often chase that causes my stomach to bounce and my chest to tighten.
Just from her calling me Daddy Dex.
It makes me want to drag her to my bed, strip her naked, and make her a slut for me.
All in due time. Hopefully.
CHAPTER 12: Ainsley Riggs
I’m Going to Be His Wife
I must be seeing things.
The way his eyes widened as they fell onto the towel wrapped around my body.
The way he stared at me, especially after I called himDaddy Dex…
He was just panicked after his son was choking—which, honestly and only in the hindsight of everything being okay…maybe it happened so he can see that he’s perfectly capable of doing the things he is so scared of.
He’s starting to warm up to the idea of having his son around, and that makes me so happy. Jack is just a baby, and every baby deserves to be loved. It’s why I’ve done everything I can to make sure he feels love after his mother was forced to leave him and while his father starts to come around.
And his fatherisstarting to come around. He knew what to do to save the baby when he was choking. I ran to my room to put clothes on once we were sure everything was fine, and he managed to settle the baby down all on his own after that scary event.
I don’t bother with my hair or makeup as I head back to the family room to clean up the dice and the little dish on the floor. I set all of it up high on the kitchen counter while Dex sits on the couch and holds Jack as he feeds him the bottle, and when I walk by the counter again later, the dish and the dice are gone.
I see them in the garbage can when I’m throwing something else away, and I can’t help a little smile at the way he’s already starting to adjust his life around having a baby in the penthouse. It’s these little things now paving the way for the big things later.
Once the baby is down for the night, I find Dex in his usual spot brooding over by the window with a glass in his hand, though tonight it appears to just be water and not his usual whiskey.
“When do you want to do this marriage thing?” he grunts at me.
So it’s notexactlythe way I thought someone would propose to me, but we both get something out of this, I guess. Besides, I was proposed to with the romance and the flowers and all the things a couple of weeks ago in front of cameras, and we all know how that turned out. Maybe the dream proposal is overrated.
“How quickly do you need to work on your image?” I ask.
“Before word gets out that I have a kid with a woman who’s now in prison.”
I bite my bottom lip for a second. “I’m game whenever. I literally have nothing else going on.” I laugh a little maniacally at that, but maybe I’m also a little nuts. I did agree to this, after all.
He chuckles and glances over at me. “Training camp starts in sixteen days.”
“Do you want to do it before or after?” I ask.
