It's not gentle. It's fierce and desperate, his hands sliding into my hair, his body pressing against mine. When he finally breaks away, his eyes are wet.
"We're having a baby." Wonder in his voice. Awe. "Vivian, we're having a baby."
"We're having a baby." Saying it out loud makes it real. My own eyes start to burn. "Are you okay? I know we didn't plan this. I know you might not be ready?—"
"I'm terrified." He laughs, the sound thick with emotion. "I'm absolutely fucking terrified. But I'm also happier than I've ever been in my entire life."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." He rests his forehead against mine. "I spent five years convinced I didn't deserve a family. That I'd lost my chance at anything good. Then you crashed into my life and proved me wrong about everything."
"I didn't crash. I arrived in an armored SUV with federal escort."
"You crashed." He kisses me again, softer this time. "Into my cabin. Into my walls. Into my heart. And now you're giving me something I never thought I'd have."
"A baby."
"A family." His hand slides down to rest on my stomach, flat and unchanged, holding a life we created together. "Our family."
I cover his hand with mine. "I'm scared too. I don't know how to be a mother. My own mother barely remembers who I am most days. What if I screw this up?"
"Then we'll screw it up together. And we'll figure it out together. That's what we do." He tilts my chin up. "You taught me that, Vivian. That I don't have to carry everything alone. That asking for help isn't weakness."
"I taught you that?"
"You taught me everything that matters." His thumb traces my cheekbone. "How to love. How to trust. How to believe in something bigger than my own fear."
The tears spill over. I stopped fighting them months ago. This man has seen me at my worst, terrified, hunted, covered in his blood as I ran through the darkness. He's earned my tears.
"I love you," I whisper.
"I love you too. Both of you." His hand presses more firmly against my stomach. "God, I love you both so much it hurts."
We stand there on the ridge as the sun climbs higher, wrapped around each other, his hand never leaving my belly. The mountains stretch out before us, snow-capped peaks against a brilliant blue sky. The wildflowers sway in the breeze, purple and yellow and white.
This is where he first showed me his soul. Where I started falling for him before I knew what was happening. Where we got married under a sunset three weeks ago.
And now it's where we learned we're becoming parents.
"We should tell the team," I say eventually. "They'll want to know."
"Later." He pulls me down onto the grass, settling me between his legs with my back against his chest. "Right now I just want to sit here with my wife and think about our kid."
Wife. The word still sends a thrill through me.
"Do you want a boy or a girl?"
"Doesn't matter. As long as they're healthy. As long as they have your stubbornness and your courage."
"And your eyes," I add. "Those green eyes that see everything."
"Those green eyes that only see you."
I lean my head back against his shoulder. "We're going to be okay, aren't we?"
"We're going to be better than okay." He presses a kiss to my temple. "We're going to be happy, Vivian. The kind of happy I didn't think existed for people like me."
"People like you?"
