Page 136 of The Devil’s Lair

I guess we do.

He takes my hand and helps me into the bath. The water is hot enough that I hiss as I sink down into it. Tobias climbs in behind me, his legs bracketing mine. I lean back against his chest, and he wraps his arms around my middle.

This is what true intimacy feels like. This quiet, this… closeness. It still feels new, special, precious. For a while, we don’t talk, the only sounds being the shifting water and Tobias’s breath against my shoulder. His thumb draws circles on my abdomen.

Tobias is the first to break the silence. “I submitted the final paperwork today.”

My chest hitches. Isla’s adoption. “How long?”

“He said six months or so.”

“Oh. That long. Still, it doesn’t matter. She’s yours anyway. The paperwork is only a formality.”

“I told him he had two.”

I chuckle. “And what did he say to that?”

“He huffed and puffed, then said he’d see what he could do. I told him that if he isn’t capable of pushing this through in two months, I’ll find someone who will.”

“The poor man.”

Tobias snorts. “Poor, my arse. For what he’s charging me, he’s lucky I gave him two months instead of one.”

“I imagine the process of adoption is pretty convoluted.”

“Which is why the De Vil name opens doors. If we don’t see movement in a month, I’ll call the judge and give him a little incentive to move faster.”

I shake my head, though not in despair, more in astonishment. The power this family has is hard to wrap my head around, and that power is about to get supercharged when Saskia marries the future king of the UK and Commonwealth. Plus, they have The Consortium influence. I don’t think there’s a single thing this family couldn’t make happen if they had the motivation to do it.

“She called me Daddy again today.”

I hear the pride in his voice, the wonder, and I smile, recalling that same feeling when Isla first called me Mama. After what Marcus did to her, I feared I’d never hear her call me Mama again. Now, she not only regularly calls me that but has added Daddy to the list, too. It’s hard to fathom sometimes how much my life has changed in less than five months.

“Do you melt every time?”

“Every time.”

“I know the feeling. It’s pretty special.”

“Yeah.” He squeezes me a little tighter and drops another kiss on my shoulder

A question bubbles to the forefront of my mind. “Can I ask you something?”

“No.” He chuckles. “Of course you can. Ask me anything. Always.”

I take a breath. “Did you mean it when you said you wanted kids of your own?”

“Yes. I’d love to give Isla brothers and sisters, but whether you carry them or we adopt is up to you.”

I twist my head to look at him. “How so?”

“Because it’s you who has to cope with the hormones and the changes to your body. You who has to give birth. That’s a big deal.”

“So, if I said I didn’t want to have more kids naturally, you’d accept that you’d never have any of your own?”

“I have one of my own. Isla. And if we adopt, they’ll be our own, too.”

Oh, my heart. I actually press a hand to my chest to hold it in, because this man… everything he says makes me all gooey inside. “You know what I mean.”