The front of my pants tightened. I ignored everything, my own food, my aching cock. Nothing else mattered until this woman was fed—by my own hands.
As she chewed, my babies wove around the legs of the table and chairs. They watched silently, knowing better than to jump up while I had food out.
Amanda swallowed. “What made you get cats?”
I stabbed another bite of chicken, this one with a cube of seasoned potato. “I found Grigio out by a dumpster. A tiny thing. I couldn’t leave him there, and when the shelter admitted he might be put down because they were at maximum capacity, I brought him home. I requested Bianco from the same shelter; thought he would make a good brother.”
“Poor babies!” Amanda leaned down to look.
Grigio let out a plaintive cry.
I gave him a hard look. There would be a piece of plain, unseasoned chicken on his dry food tonight, yet here he was, begging at the table. “Mama isn’t going to feed you, so knock it off.”
Amanda leaned back to study me. “Mama?”
Her ass grazed my dick. I pushed down a groan. I wanted to bury myself in her, fuck her hard until she forgot her own name. She was my wife. And so far, I hadn’t had enough opportunities to show her how good that name felt.
Butmama…fuck me.
I didn’t dare let my mind picture her holding our child. That dream seemed too far away, too many obstacles to paint it into existence. But my dick didn’t understand the delay.
“Sorry,” I muttered as I lifted the fork to her lips. “That just slipped out.”
The last thing I wanted to do was scare her. When we talked about the future, when we were young and full of dreams, there had always been animals in it.
“You think of me as their mom?” Amanda asked around the bite of food.
I shrugged. “Theythink of you that way. They aren’t friendly with people, but they act differently around you.”
Amanda accepted the next bite. “I like them—a lot.”
“Good.” I lifted the glass of milk, bringing it to her lips.
Something profound settled over us. It wasn’t easily described. But without verbally acknowledging it, we’d just agreed to co-parent two cats.
Or at least, that was what I hoped had happened.
I fed Amanda until she protested that she couldn’t eat another bite. Satisfied, I loosened my hold on her.
“You did well,” I commented and reached for my own food.
Amanda placed a hand over mine. “Stop.”
Chapter 46 – Amanda
“My turn,” I breathed.
My hand slid down the length of his arm. I paused for just a moment, staring at our stacked hands. Mine was ridiculously tiny compared to his. That wasn’t the only difference. His were darker, with a natural olive complexion. It was hard to see the original skin through the faint white scars and the smudges of ink. Those hands had caused destruction. Fought.Killed.And yet they would never be raised against me. Vincenzo would hurt the world without blinking an eye. But me? This strong hand was protection.
If I wanted it.
I do.
Fighting back a shudder, because that desperate want came with a tangled mess of fine print, I reached for the fork. My fingers slipped around his to pluck it from his grasp.
I pierced a piece of chicken, needing to reach over to hold the leg bone to peel it off. Damn, but he made this look easy. Vincenzo didn’t intervene as I struggled, and he opened his mouth when I turned in his lap to place the food between his lips.
To make it easier, I swung both legs over his thighs, moving to sit sideways on his lap.
