His laugh is low and rough.
He glances at the papers scattered across my thighs and around me.
“These are outdated,” he says, sitting beside me. “I already asked for new ones—including a nursery.”
At his words, his hand immediately goes to my belly, and Nero kisses my shoulder.
Relief washes over me in a way I didn’t even realise I needed.
I told myself over and over that I wouldn’t let what happened with Lysandra affect me, but no matter how close I came to believing it, one fact clung stubbornly inside me:
She’s still Nero’s mother.
“You asked for a nursery design?” I ask, unreasonably emotional.
“Of course, love.”
A tear slips down my cheek, and Nero’s eyes widen in alarm. He straightens immediately, turning my face toward him with care.
“What is it? Did I do something wrong? Did you want to choose on your own? I can cancel everything,” he blurts out, barely breathing between questions.
I laugh and wave him off.
“I’m just emotional,” I explain. “Hormones, Nero. Completely out of control.”
He exhales deeply.
“Fuck,Little Fae. At this rate I’m not surviving this pregnancy.”
“Exactly,” I agree. “Now imagine ten.”
He laughs and kisses me slowly, gently, deeply—until I’m reduced to a puddle of happy sighs.
“What happened this afternoon? Why didn’t you wait for me? Are you feeling okay?” he asks, all the questions I knew were coming.
“I got nervous,” I confess—part of the truth. Nero’s voice, sayinghalf-truths are fully told lies, echoes uninvited in my mind. “I thought the car would take me to you and then we’dgo to your parents’ house together. When I realised I was there alone, all I could think about was the rumours on the island and the possibility that they’d already heard them—and believed them. That I was trying to trap you or something like that. I couldn’t force myself to go through it without you. I started feeling unwell and decided to come home and leave it for another day.”
Despite my words holding nothing remotely amusing, Nero’s lips stretch into a smile bright enough to light the world.
“What?” I ask, confused.
“You saidcome home. And you’re here.”
“Oh.” My cheeks heat instantly.
I hadn’t even noticed the words leaving my mouth—nor when exactly this place became home to me.
Nero laughs.
“I think my plan worked.”
“That was your plan? From the start?”
“I told you I wanted you to spend a lot of time here.”
“A lot of time isn’t the same as all the time, Nero.”
“Semantics,” he shrugs with a wink.
