He pushed up onto his elbow and cocked his beard-stubbled chin. Without fail, he shaved every morning. And without fail, by evening he was rocking a sexy-as-hell five-o’clock shadow.
Before she realized her intent, she’d touched the tip of her finger to his chin dimple. He ducked, kissing herhand before saying, “You’ve thought about this a lot, haven’t you?”
She nodded. “And the cherry on top of this awesome two-kid sundae is that I’ll have all the Black Knights Inc. guys around—you included, if you decide to stay on after we go aboveboard—to be positive male role models. It’ll be perfect.”
Except, for the first time ever, a dark smudge appeared on the surface of her perfectplan. When an image of a little girl with bright-green eyes and a dimple in her chin flared to life inside her head, Emily quickly snuffed it out.
For a long time, Christian said nothing, simply searched her face. She expected some sort of debate. One of the many arguments she’d heard before.A child needs a father. Raising children alone is incredibly difficult. If youdohappen to find someoneyou want to spend the rest of your life with, they might not want to be saddled with two kids who aren’t theirs.Yada yada yada, bullshit, go fuck yourself.
He said none of this, however. Instead, he completely obliterated her by saying, “I think you’ll make an excellent mother.”
“Well,thatmight be the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.” She had to swallow past the lump in herthroat. “You aresuchan overachiever.”
He smiled—a real, full smile—and damned if it wasn’t an arrow through her soul. She realized that haunted look was gone from his eyes. No doubt he would never look back on this day or what happened in Iraq with anything resembling indifference. But perhaps, just maybe, she’d helped him see there was nothing for him to be ashamed of, nothing he couldhave done differently. He’dsaved her life. Lawrence would have slit her open from her throat to her thighs if Christian hadn’t pulled the trigger when he did.
“Now…” She leaned forward to nip at his delectable bottom lip. She was so thrown by his last statement that she had to distract herself. Those bright, sparkly feelings? Well, they were bursting all over the place like the fireworksover Navy Pier on the Fourth of July. And if she’d thought she was emotionally vulnerable to him before, it didn’t compare to how exposed she felt now. “You’ve been set straight on today’s events, you’ve been fed, we’re on a bed, so what do you say we put that condom you stole from Angel to good use?”
