“As expected.” Killian’s tone made it clear he wasn’t interested in talking about it any more deeply than that, and after a brief hesitation, Reagan nodded.
“All right. I’ll leave you to your lovely wife. Call me if you need anything, both of you.”
And with that, she turned and followed Brody. Leaving Aria alone with her husband and his shattered, empty eyes.
“Daddy?”
At her soft question, he looked up, and the flicker of light in his eyes told her she’d taken exactly the right tack. “Yes, princess?”
“I could really use a shower. And that nap you promised.”
“Of course.”
Before she could move, his arms were under her, scooping her up as he headed out of the room and for the stairs. Normally, she would have argued, insisted she could walk herself, but everything in her told her he needed this.
So for once, she didn’t argue. She simply let her head fall to his shoulder as he carried her to their room and set her on her feet in the ridiculously large bathroom. His hands were gentle, so gentle it made her ache as he stripped her clothes from her before turning on the shower.
“Join me?”
He hesitated, just a moment, before reaching for the button of his shirt. The red stains were a stark reminder that while her child was safe in her womb, another mother was going to bed tonight without her baby.
And that the man in front of her had been the one tasked with bringing her the news of her loss. Holding her while she wept and raged and grieved.
The need to comfort welled inside her as they stepped under the spray together. Red pooled at their feet as she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close.
Words failed her as he clung to her, burying his face in the side of her neck as his entire body shook. Just once, but it was enough to tell her he was closer to the edge than he was letting on.
Lifting his head, he pressed his forehead to hers. “Aria…”
The words he’d never actually said hung in the air between them. “I know. Will you wash my hair for me?”
It was in his nature to care for the people around him. So she gave him that. Let him coddle and pamper her as he scrubbed the events of the day from their bodies. And with every passing minute under those scorching hot sprays, she felt the tension leave him, little by little.
Her own nerves settled as his fingers worked their magic in her hair, pressing firmly against her scalp. Closing her eyes on a sigh, she gave herself over to it.
To him.
When they were both finally clean again, he helped her out of the shower, gently rubbing one of his soft, fluffy towels over her body until every inch of her was dry. Once more, she found herself in his arms as he carried her to the bed they’d shared more often than not. Their bed, she assumed, now that she also shared his name.
But when he tried to put her down, she clung to him. “Stay with me.”
“You need your rest.”
“I need you.”
As she’d known they would, those three little words shattered his resistance. With a soft sigh he climbed into the bed with her, holding her against his bare chest as he pressed a kiss to her hair. “Stubborn brat,” he murmured, though there was no heat behind the words.
Lifting her head, she smiled up at him. “Would you have me any other way?”
He cupped her face in his hand, his thumb brushing over her cheekbone, and for a moment, she worried her heart might simply stop at the tenderness of that simple touch. “No. No, I don’t think I would.”
A different kind of need welled inside her as he dipped his head, capturing her lips in a slow, sweet kiss. But when she reached for the towel he’d wrapped around his waist, he captured her wrist, holding her at bay.
“Naughty girl. Didn’t I say you needed rest?”
“And didn’t I say I needed you?”
Dragging her arm up above her head, he shifted, grabbing hold of her other wrist, pinning them both to the bed in one hand. “Stubborn. Willful. Obstinate.”
