“What?”
“Not you, Valentina. When I say your name, she wants to pretend she’s not sleepy anymore.”
“Tell my nugget I’ll see her soon.”
“I need you and Silas to find another nickname for my daughter.”
We laughed and said our goodbyes, and I slipped back into bed and pulled Amalia toward my chest. I wasn’t trying to wake her, but I needed to hold her. She stirred when I kissed the back of her head.
“Can’t sleep?” she asked, her voice groggy.
“Derek called.” Amalia stiffened in my arms. “Everyone is okay. He was up with the baby and decided to check in.” Her body relaxed into mine, and she interlaced our fingers and kissed my hand.
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Are you okay? Sure you don’t want Dr. Ward to look you over in the morning?”
I dipped my face and nipped at the shell of her ear. “Mi reina, I quite literally fucked you to the point where I had to carry you out of the shower. What else do I need to do for you to believe that I’m fine.”
She turned in my arms and buried her face in the crook of my neck. “I believe you…it’s just…you make me feel some type of way, Kai.”
“How?” I asked, stroking her back.
“At peace,” she whispered, kissing my jaw. “Soft.” Another kiss. “Vulnerable in the best way.” Her lips grazed along my skin, making my cock hard and raising goosebumps on my arms and the back of my neck. “Safe. Like I don’t have to be on all the time because I have you.”
Her admission stirred something inside me, warming every inch of my body. I'd never experienced feeling wanted and needed so wholly, not even with Derek.
She sat up and straddled my pelvis. “No one has ever made me feel safe the way you do. Not my girls. My father. No one. Until you. Is that crazy?”
“I love crazy.”
She smiled and kissed me. “Good, because I heard once you called me certifiable.”
My eyes opened wide, and I couldn’t help the laugh that roared out of my mouth. “Did Derek tell you that?”
“So it’s true?” she asked, pretending to feel offended.
My hand trailed up her naked waist to her breasts. “I didn’t know you. But the moment I saw you—I know you caught me looking,” I accused, flicking her nipple.
“A man checking out my tits isn’t anything new and surely not someone who would be on my radar. But I noticed you, Kai. The ‘tall guy with the pretty eyes.’”
“Could have been Derek.”
“Of course it was. It was both. But if you need an ego stroke, Cain, I was definitely looking at you.”
“Come here,” I said, reaching for her and kissing her lips, soft and slow. “And you were so down bad you forced me into marriage, huh?”
It was her turn to snort a laugh. “You’re delusional.”
“Maybe, but I’m not a liar.”
“Go to sleep,” she said, a faint blush on her cheeks as she slipped beside me again and turned around.
“You pushing that ass against my cock, baby, is going to get you nothing but fucked again.”
“It’s almost like that’s the point.”
