Page 28 of Cruel Salvation

“I’m scared, Damon. I’ve never wanted children before. I’m carrying your child and we’re not even together. It was just one night and I’m terrified. I don’t know how to be a mother, I don’t have any role models, and I’ve never even wanted to be a mother.”

She fell into his arms and he wrapped her up against his chest.

“I’m scared.”

“I know you are, baby, but whatever happens we’re in this together. And you have Snow and Charlie, Aoife, and Nadia and Gideon.”

He lifted her chin with his knuckle and dropped a light easy kiss on her upturned lips and held her gaze. “You have me. I want to be with you. From the first moment I’ve wanted you. Me saying that has nothing to do with the baby. I want you with or without.”

Damon could see the hope and fear in her eyes and knew Nazareli wasn’t a woman to be pushed. She was too stubborn and strong-minded for that and it was part of her attraction.

“I don’t know how to be with someone. I’m almost thirty and I’ve never had a boyfriend. How sad is that?”

“Not sad, baby. You were off saving the world.”

She snorted. “Yeah, right.”

“Stop doing that. Stop beating yourself up for everything, I won’t have it.”

Her eyebrow shot up and she gave him a look which would make most men shake in their boots but it just made his dick hard.

Gripping her hips, he rocked against her pelvis. “Fuck, you’re hot when you’re trying to be scary.”

Her face dissolved into laughter and his heart hitched at the beauty of her and the sound of her happiness, knowing he’d caused it. It would be so easy to fall in love with this woman if he hadn’t already, and he suspected he had.

“Not exactly what I was going for, but I suppose my lover being frightened of me isn’t the best.”

Bending his head, he nipped at the soft flesh between her neck and shoulder. “You can say ‘boyfriend’. You won’t come out in hives.”

Her light chuckle had him lifting her in his arms and turning them toward the bed. Sitting against the headboard, he tugged at the sheet covering her perfect body. His gaze stalled on the perfect high breasts and the tight peaked nipples begging for his tongue.

“God, you’re beautiful.”

“You’re not so bad yourself.”

“The things I want to do to you, Naz.”

“Why are you still talking?”

“No fucking clue.”

Then he bent his head and nipped at her sensitive nipple, loving the way her back arched as he smoothed his hand down her spine and over the sweet curve of her ass.

As he did, he felt her hands fumble with his boxers, so he raised his hips and helped her free his aching cock.

“Damon.”

“What, baby?”

“I don’t know if I should.” He pulled back to look at her and saw the anxiety and fear in her eyes. “I don’t want you to regret anything, ever.”

“I won’t, baby. I swear to you, I won’t.”

“I don’t want you to be with me out of some sense of obligation. I don’t want you to feel like you have to stay with me because we have a child together.”

“And I won’t, because I want to be with you. I didn’t know what I was before, but now, I know exactly what I am. You make me want to be more, Naz.”

“Okay.”