Yet for Ember, he’d have settled down. He’d been willing to give up his career to marry her. He’d even faced down her parents to date her.
A smile tugged at her lips as she remembered the first time her father and Bastien had faced off.
“Captain?”Her father had sneered at Bastien’s patch, and left off the impressive part of Bastien’s status.
“First rank,” Bastien had corrected in a move that was as stupid as it was audacious.
Her father had arched a brow at that. “You getting lippy with me, soldier?”
“No, sir. My lips are reserved solely for your daughter.”
Her father had started for his throat. But her mother had caught him before he could kill Bastien. “Brandon… calm down.” Then she’d turned to face Bastien with an evil glint in her eyes. “Are you trying to insult us?”
“No, ma’am. Just really nervous. Sadly, whenever I’m nervous, I get stupid, and things come out of my mouth that even I cringe over.”
Her father had finally laughed. “Well, at least he’s honest.”
“I am that, Commander. Again, stupidly so. And when it comes to Ember, I have a special level of moron that’s reserved solely for her.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Bastien had shrugged. “That I’d jump into a decaying hole on fire during a massive bombing run and risk a building coming down on me to keep her safe and to protect whatever she loves.”
Clapping him on the back, her father had handed him an ale. “Good man. For that, I’ll let you live.”
Ember had never known anyone to charm her parents, before or after Bastien. Out of all their daughters’ boyfriends, he was the only one they’d ever liked. Him and Tasi the only two that her parents had welcomed in as their own.
Like it or not, he is family.Through their son, she would be forever tied to him.
With that thought on her mind, she leaned forward to reset his nav system.
“What are you doing?”
“Before you take off after Barnabas, don’t you want to meet your son?”
“More than anything.”
“That’s what I’m doing.”
Bastien stared at her in complete disbelief that she was willing to do this. That she’d actually given him a son and hadn’t abandoned their child. It would have been so easy to give him up and free herself. Instead, she’d risked her life and that of her family to keep his son safe.
That was why he loved her so.
I’m a father.…
And with that thought came a whole new fear. “Can I ask a favor?”
“I’m not having sex with you in a fighter. You can forget it, buddy, right now. You’re not that cute in a flightsuit.”
He laughed at her droll tone. “Technically you’ve already done that. Years ago. Many times. So I am that cute inand outof a flightsuit. But that wasn’t what I was going to ask.”
She dipped her gaze down to his groin, which was painfully swollen and woefully obvious. “No?”
He shook his head. “Can we not tell Florian that I’m his father?”
“Why?”
“In case I die, I don’t want him to have to cope with the pain of it. I’d rather just be a passing stranger he meets and never thinks about again.”
