I’ve told her that every single day.
She waits. She knows that’s not what I’m trying to get out. That’s the warm-up line, the truth that softens the pain of what I need to say next.
“If it’s too hard for you to stay here, I’ll understand. If you want to move, I’ll follow you anywhere. And if…” Fuck. “If it doesn’t sit right in your heart, being with me after seeing me kill a man, then?—”
“Shut up,” she says fiercely, cutting me off. “It’s hard. Of course it’s hard. I didn’t think that would happen, but it only happened because ofhim, not you. Your strength impresses me every day. I loveyou, Zane Kincaid. All of you, including the part that doesn’t hesitate to protect me. And don’t pretend for a second that you could let me go, because I wouldn’t want you to.”
I huff a laugh. Part relief, part confession. “Look, I try to be an enlightened human being.”
“Of course. Luna raised you right.”
“But you make me feral, you know that?” I pull her more properly on top of me, being careful of my far side, with the stitches that are starting to dissolve. “Is this okay for the baby?”
“Mmm.” She nods. “Did you notice that I’m starting to show?”
“What? No?” I roll her onto her back quickly.
She laughs as I push up her skirt. “You can’t tell when I’m flat on my back.”
“Then show me.”
She nudges me onto my back again, then slowly stands up and wriggles out of her dress.
Standing naked in the moonlight, she turns to the left and the right, tracing an almost imperceptible new curve low on her belly.
I’ve never seen anything more beautiful. I tell her that.
“I love being pregnant,” she murmurs, lowering herself to straddle my thighs. She takes my hand and presses it where she was caressing her belly.
And holy shit, Icanfeel it. There’s a small firmness inside her that’s pressing up, demanding space.
I can see how it will grow, day by day, week by week. And in a few months, she’ll be swollen and lush, visibly pregnant for all to see.
There are good reasons not to rushher to any kind of a commitment. We don’t need that, because we’re bound by something deeper than words.
But there are other reasons to put a ring on her finger.
And they’re important, too.
Chapter 36
Hope
“Good morning,” Zane says softly, waking me up. “I brought you a cup of coffee.”
“Mmm.” I slowly blink my eyes open, smiling as the sweet dream Zane I was just frolicking with dissolves into the just as sweet and very real Zane.
Who I frolicked with last night, under the moon.
“I could have gotten that myself,” I murmur as I push myself up.
“I know, but I like to take care of you,” he says. “Just like I did last night.”
Heat flames in my cheeks, even though I just had a similar thought.
“How do you feel this morning?” He drags a hungry gaze down my body again. “Sore?”
I shake my head and drag in a rough breath. And I tell him the truth. “Empty.”
