Luka edged me toward the bed.There, he cupped my shoulders and bent his knees so we were at eye level.
“Okay?”he asked.
“Too much happened today.”My lower lip quivered.“I want to go home.”
“Soon, sweetheart.”Luka scooped me into his arms and lowered me into the waiting bed.“As soon as you’re cleared, I’ll take you and Bree home.”
When he moved back, I clutched him tighter.“Don’t leave me.”
“Never.”He kissed my forehead and rearranged so he was in the bed with me.“Bree okay?”
“She’s perfect and still asleep,” Keelie said, but she made no move to lay Bree back in the bassinet.
If my friend hadn’t been holding her, I would have snatched her up.But I was so tired.I inhaled as I tried to stop the tremors pulsing through my body.But nothing could shake the chill of just how far my father would go to get his way.
He wanted Bree—except he didn’t care abouther.Not at all.He cared about what she represented: billions of dollars.Power.Status.
And I couldn’t let my father near my daughter.I never, ever wanted her to meet the man.
Arriving backat Luka’s apartment the next day was a relief, even as the anxiety—and fear—of being responsible for a tiny, sweet little human overwhelmed me.
I couldn’t care for an infant.I took in the moment, trying to think—that had become harder and harder, even before my father’s full frontal assault on my parental rights to Bree.Warmth spread across my back as Luka wrapped his arms around me and the sleeping bundle I couldn’t seem to let go.
“I’m scared,” I whispered.
“I am, too.”
I tilted my head up to look into those mesmerizing sherry eyes.“Of what?”
Luka stared down at me for a long moment.Our breathing meshed, and I leaned against him, trusting as I’d trusted no one since my mother’s death, or since Ida Jane came into my life.She’d be over tomorrow to snuggle Bree while I showered or napped or whatever else I was supposed to do.Something else to learn.
“Of failing you.Not being a good father.Of somehow hurting or neglecting her.Your father taking her from us.”His throat seemed to seize, and he made a choked sound.
I inched away from him and laid Bree in the crib.Luka had pushed to finish the room early, and I was so glad now.Because of his motivation, we had a completed nursery to welcome our baby girl into, even though she’d come a month earlier than expected.The sheet was cool, and she looked so tiny, bundled up in her blankets and wearing a cap atop her fuzzy head.The baby doll Luka had bought once I told him I was pregnant sat on the shelf next to a stack of diapers.Our daughter would need more toys, but none would be as special to me as that doll.
The pang I felt melted as I turned, wrapping my arms around Luka.I swayed with him as I had with our baby.
“You’ll be the best daddy,” I said.Again, that noise.His fears ran deep—his demons brought on by disinterest, neglect.Not that different from my own, really.I rolled up on the balls of my feet and kissed his chin.His stubble abraded my lips, but I didn’t mind.“I know that because of how you cared for me—us—in the hospital.By the way you look at her when you hold her.By the way you’ve transformed your condo into a home for her.”
“For you both,” he corrected.
I smiled even as I tightened my arms around him.“For us.”
We were quiet.Bree’s breaths pelted the air like tiny butterflies.I relaxed into the sound because I knew she was close.She was safe.
“Would you marry me, Luka?”I squeezed my eyes shut so tightly that the pressure caused them to ache.
“Are you proposing?”he asked, amusement in his voice.
My breath stuttered.“If I am?I mean…to protect Bree.”
He gathered me closer, dropped his cheek against my hair.“Stop that.Just stop, Millie.”
“S-stop?”
“You don’t have to protect yourself from me.I want what you want: to make sure Bree’s safe.But also to make you happy—to make me happy.So, if you’re asking me to marry you, I’d say yes.”
I blew out a breath and leaned into the fear eddying around me.Luka was the giant boulder keeping the swirling current at bay.Unmovable, stubborn, beautiful man.
