Yet he was still trying.
Something in her chest loosened at the sudden realization that even now, even when his instincts were strengthened immeasurably by his upbringing with a mother who tried to leave him, he was still fighting tooth and nail against himself. For her.
Wordlessly she pressed herself against his powerful body. When he shivered, she wrapped her arms around his waist.
“Do you want this?” she asked, afraid of the answer, but nevertheless needing to know. “You planned on freeing me when you went to the auction, but instead… Do you even want a mate and a child? I know your instincts are probably making you feel certain things, but do you want it?”
Carefully, as if he thought she were made of spun glass, Kain raised one large hand and let it stroke through her hair.
“I want you with every fiber of my being. Both of you. I have never been… I am…” Kain bit his lip, raw emotion cutting across his angular features. “I am scared.” He said the word as if it was a foreign concept to him.
He wanted them. Wanted her and the life she was carrying. Relief made her shudder and bury her nose in his chest. As long as that held true, as long as he was there to lean on, she could do this.
Love.
The goddess’ words rang in her mind, and she frowned at the sweet pull they caused in her chest.
It was too soon—too much to deal with right now on top of everything else.
With sheer force of will, she pushed the swirling tangle of emotions aside and focused on the here and now—on Kain and the life growing inside her.
“I’m not going to leave. I don’t care that it’s a demon child. It’s mine, and I will love it always. I would never do to him what your mother did to you and your brother. I just need a bit of time to… well, to adjust.”
Kain’s strong arms encircled her again, pulling her tighter against him. A calm settled over her mind as his heat encompassed her.
Home. This was home.
“You will care for this child?”
Despite the coarse note, she heard the fear in his voice clearly.
“Yes.” Selma pulled her head back so she could look at him. “Always.”
Finally, relief seemed to wash over him, filling his eyes with a joy so strong it made her heart flutter. When he buried his face in her hair, the tune he hummed just for her rumbled out of his chest and into her body.
“I am going to take such good care of you.” His voice dropped, turning husky in her ear. “You will want for nothing, I promise.”
Selma laughed and let go of his waist to press against his chest when his hands began sliding down her body in a rather familiar way.
“Really? This makes you horny? I practically had to rape you when we were at the hotel, but now—in the middle of nowhere, after I tell you I’m pregnant, you suddenly want it? I thought I smelled bad.”
“You stink. I don’t care.”
It was pretty impossible to hold back the smile pulling at her lips at his sudden change. She hadn’t seen him like this before—unrestrained, yet still in control. It made her chest feel light.
“I’m not having sex with you right now. There’s too much to discuss. Like what do we do now? This wasn’t exactly in the plan.”
He rubbed at her hips with his thumbs, the gesture still suggestive, though he kept his palms still. “Now you come back with me.”
“And then what?” She frowned, trying to wrap her head around the crazy turn this evening had taken. A few hours ago she’d thought she would be saying goodbye to him forever, and now here they were, on a road in the middle of nowhere discussing their futures. “No offense, but I’m not about to raise a kid in a penthouse on top of a casino.”
His soft lips quirked in a smile. “No? And where would you prefer to build a nest, my little mate?”
“Nest? I was more thinking a house. You know, in the country. With fresh air and…” She blushed when the damned picket fence popped into the forefront of her mind again.
“And?” he asked, eyebrows lifted in amusement. “If you want it, it’s yours.”
“We can talk about that later. I… I also want you to meet my parents, and preferably make such a good impression that they don’t think you’re in the modern slave trade and have brainwashed and/or abused me while I’ve been missing for the past two months. They’ve got to be worried sick.”
