Page 51 of Beneath the Dawn

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“I’ve missed you so much, Martina,” Dante whispered as he eased off Marti and then pulled her closer into his arms. “Talking with you every night on the phone just wasn’t enough. I had to see you. Hold you and make love to you.”

She snuggled even more into his embrace. “I missed you, too, and now you’re here. But I still enjoyed our talks.”

“You would,” he said, chuckling. “I’m the one who had to take a cold shower after listening to all that naughty sex talk.”

“Hmm,” she said, smiling, feeling pleased with herself. “All of it wasn’t about sex. We made plans about where we will live after the wedding, didn’t we?”

“Yes, we did.”

Since she could work from anywhere, she would move to Sedona Valley. He was already looking to lease a condo near the Ursala Hotel and Resort. She would join him in Arizona in two weeks to meet his godfather, Ricco, and his family, which included his godbrother, Nico. From there, they would travel to San Francisco to meet his other godbrother, Skylar Kingston, and his wife, Haven.

She had talked to everyone on the phone, including his relatives in Italy. They had congratulated them on their engagement and were anxious to meet the woman who had changed Dante’s mind about love and marriage.

“There is something we never got around to talking about, Dante.”

“And what’s that?”

“Babies.”

He lifted a brow. “Babies?”

“Yes. Do you like kids?” she asked.

“I love kids, but since I never intended to marry, I never thought about them. Are we having this conversation because you want to have a baby, Martina?”

“Yes. I’m thirty-seven, so I figured we can have at least two before I turn forty.”

He chuckled. “Two in three years?”

“Less than that since I turn thirty-eight in May.”

He grinned. “I’ll do my best.”

“To be fair, before I laid all of that on you, instead of asking if you liked kids, I should have asked if you wanted kids. Do you?”

“Yes. I would love to have a baby…or two…with you. And I would be a good father to my child, like my father was to me.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that because…I’m pregnant.”

The shocked expression that appeared on his face was priceless. “You’re pregnant?” he asked in a disbelieving voice.

“Yes,” she said, smiling brightly. “And before you ask me about the pill, it’s only 99% effective. I guess that day in the shower when the condom broke, you unloaded more than enough to mess with those percentages.”

“You don’t say,” he said, with what appeared to be a proud grin on his face.

“I do say, but don’t get the big head… I’m going to see how much you’re wearing that smile after the first diaper change,” Marti said, returning his grin.

He shrugged. “I’ll handle it.”

Marti eased on top of him and smiled. “Dante Mario Avera, you’ve proven to me that you’re a man capable of handling anything.”

EPILOGUE

Thanksgiving Day

“I now pronounce you husband and wife. Dante, you may kiss your bride.”