Gigi shared a pained look with Nico as Nell let out a strangled scream on her next push. She hadn’t in a million years thought she’d be in the birthing suite to witness her cousin bring new life into the world. It sounded a loud, painful exercise. “You ever thought about having kids?” Good Heavens, what was wrong with her? Why was she asking Nico that highly personal question?
“Never really thought about it before. Between my parents’ death, Copper’s disappearance and dragging Matias around the world for a decade looking for her and a cure for him, the idea of kids never crossed my mind.”
“You could go down that path now. Your siblings have both melded. You own a profitable business. There’s nothing stopping you from having a family of your own.”
A family of his own? For some reason Nico pictured Gigi and himself out on his boat, sun shining, wind blowing her hair back as he taught her how to handle the wheel. But kids? He’d never factored them into his plans. Find Copper. Fix Matias. And once he learnt the truth - kill Kristiah. They’d been his goals. Goals he’d achieved.
Hah, now what, grow old tending bar, watching his siblings have kids, and grandkids? Be the fun uncle? “What about you?”
“Um.” Gigi winced as Nell screamed and Devon yelled for her to push harder. “I’m a bit like you. Never crossed my mind. The Emporium and my plans for world domination have always come first. And to be brutally frank, Nell’s not exactly cinching the deal for me here.”
“Preaching to the choir.”
They both turned as a baby’s cry split the air for a moment. Watching as Devon handed over a swaddled sleepy Sunny to her proud parents. Silent tears of joy rolling down Drum’s cheeks as he drank in the sight of his new daughter. Nell’s tired face aglow with pleasure and love as the baby nestled into the crook of her arm. Leaning back against Drum, clearly exhausted but beaming with happiness.
The baby’s eyes fluttered open, staring up at her parents with deep blue eyes three shades darker than her mother’s, her tiny mouth puckering slightly, as if she were smiling. And then she emitted a soft warm yellow glow, haloing the three of them for a second, before her eyes fluttered shut and she fell asleep.
“Well, damn.” Nico surveyed the trio, frozen, almost forgetting to breathe, everything in him wanted, craved, what they had. The love. The connection. The future ahead of them. He wanted the same promise, potential, but with Gigi DeWitt.
Mierda, he was a man in love, and he had no idea how to go about convincing his faux girlfriend, and temporary bed buddy, to fall in love with him. Bloody Hell.
Gigi snapped a couple of photos with her phone. She’d forward them to Nell and she could choose to distribute them or not, but it felt important to record this momentous beyond adorable occasion.
Hmmm, that was weird, Gigi glanced around the room to see if anyone else could hear a faint rhythmic slow drumming sound.Nope, no one else looked disturbed. Where in the heck was it coming from? Getting a little louder, but staying the same steady beat. Darn, she was pretty sure she was the only one hearing the sound. Was she going crazy? Crap, was this another symptom of whatever was going on with her? First the intermittent chills, and now this, hearing things?
Except, all she was hearing was a steady, rhythmic, soft thud, thud. It was kind of hypnotic, and weirdly soothing, and dare she say it, kind of primal with a tinge of sexy. Parts low in Gigi’s body beginning to throb in time.
Glancing Nico’s way, for some reason her gaze locked on the pulse beating at the base of his throat, just visible over the neckline of his hospital gown. Heavens, what did it mean that the drumming beat she was hearing ever so faintly was in the exact same rhythm as Nico’s heartbeat?
“You okay?”
“Huh.”
“Gigi? You look a little dazed.”
“Oh, no, I’m fine, it’s probably just the upfront and overwhelming effects of witnessing childbirth from a front row seat. Nature documentaries don’t come anywhere close to the real thing.” She watched as Nico suddenly grinned, Sweet Lady, her knees weakening at the sight, the man was gorgeous.
“I know, it’s loud, sounds excruciating and there are fluids involved that I really don’t want to contemplate, but I suppose when the end result is that.” He glanced over at the sleeping baby and her in awe love-struck parents hovering over her. “Maybe it’s something I find myself being unable to casually dismiss from my to-do list.”
“Really?” Damn, and she could totally picture Nico as a Dad. He’d be overprotective as hell, but he’d love his kids with a depth and breadth that would be enviable. How would a woman goabout getting him to direct even a small measure of that emotion her way? Hold on. Love? She wanted Nico Yanez to love her?
Well, of course she did. Because she was head over heels in love with his stubborn complicated ass. Why else would she be acting so darn blasé about their faux public, private sex-fest agreement? And kept blithely pushing for the arrangement to continue, rather than hounding Darcy to make lifting the curse from Nico a number one priority.
Okay, yes, she was a little, no, a lot scared of Darcy, but secretly she was kind of hoping that it would take her cousin a while to remember to get around to it after she’d wrung all of Qetesh’s other secrets from her.
Damn, she didn’t want things with Nico to end… ever. She was in love with him and she wanted him to love her back and for their relationship to be real. Oh, Goddess. Did he know how pathetically she was mooning over him? Clinging to him?
She needed to get as far away from Nico as fast as possible before he guessed her true feelings, and with pity filled eyes was forced to give her ‘the talk’. Except there was the problem of the curse still. Fine, she’d just grit her teeth and get through the next few days. Any old moment Darcy would be contacting them to say to the curse had been lifted, right? Tomorrow even. All Gigi had to do was act normal in the meantime. Flirt with Nico in public, and have mind blowing sex with him in private.
Good Heavens, suddenly the idea of that felt daunting.
Had she ever developed anything that kept your mouth wielded shut? What if it slipped out during sex, the words, I love you? That would be so humiliating, although, would it? She could just claim she was fully immersing herself in the girlfriend role. As excuses went it was a little limp but at least she had it at the ready in case she blurted it out in the heat of the moment.
It must be nice though. To be able to say the words out loud and hear them back. But exactly how would a woman go aboutmaking a man like Nico Yanez fall in love with her? He hated subterfuge, and they were involved in a fake relationship. But it wasn’t like Gigi had manipulated him into anything. They’d been partners in this thing from the start.
Okay, it had been a wobbly start, until he got it through his stubborn skull that Gigi was his equal and could protect herself. And it wasn’t because he was an asshole, he was just carrying around so much baggage. And truly, the man was a knight, trying to protect everyone. Always putting himself last. He’d put his own life on hold for over a decade trying to save his siblings, and appeared to have forgotten that he deserved a life and to be loved.
And Gigi loved him. The question was though, how could she get him to fall in love with her? A man who claimed loud and proud that he didn’t believe in love. It wasn’t like she could flirt her way into his heart. She was already doing that ten times daily when they were in public. Touching his arm. Holding his hand. Sharing an intimate laugh over something she knew he would find amusing. Kissing him casually and often. But that was all for her families benefit. It hadn’t been real.
