Page 85 of Lulu
“Come here.”
I didn’t hesitate, going over to him and settling on his lap. “Is this going to hurt?” I asked softly, preparing myself while knowing that no matter how this turned out, I could handle it.
He held my gaze. “You don’t want a little mini me or mini you running around the house?”
I swallowed. “I’ve always wanted a family, Brody. I’m halfway there,” I said. “I have you and I have Buttercup.”
He laughed, his body shaking beneath mine. “I didn’t think I was ready for any of it,” he confessed. “Until I made you mine after years of wanting you. I told you I’d done a lot of thinking on this last trip. I want the whole fucking package with you, babe. I. Want. It. All.”
I burst out crying.
“Baby!” There was immediate concern in his voice, and he pulled me away from his body so he could look at me. “We don’t have to have children.”
He’d misinterpreted my reaction. I sobbed harder. “Y-Yes we d-do c-‘cause I’m preg-nant and I-I want this ba-baby!”
Shock spread across his rugged face. “You’re pregnant?”
I nodded, too emotional to speak. His eyes moved over my face, down my body and narrowed over my belly.
“I’m f-four months.”
A slow, sexy smile gradually spread across Brody’s face, coupled with a look of awe that contradicted the strong, dangerous man that he was. His large hand moved to cover the tiny mound where our little peanut grew. I didn’t think I could love anyone as much as I loved him at that moment.
“What are-are you think-ing?”
His eyes met mine. “That I was too rough with you earlier.” He wiped my tears away.
“No, I mean about the baby.”
His grin grew, warming me inside. And something else was growing, too, beneath my ass. He burrowed his nose against the side of my neck and murmured the words against me. “It fucking turns me on to know I’ve put my baby in your belly.”
I shivered with his lips against me. “You’re okay with this?”
“Fuck yes, baby.” He began to rain kisses along the side of my neck.
My lips quivered with a smile and my heart felt like it was going to burst with happiness. Everything was going to be okay.Wewere going to be okay. We finished up dinner and then Brody carried me to the bedroom, where he made slow, sweet love to me.
Later that evening while we were watching TV, a news bulletin interrupted the show to announce that the serial killer Eddie Roth had been found dead in the prison shower. He’d had his throat cut. The news went into a brief description about his victims, his years on the run, and his ultimate capture. I held my breath, afraid that my name or picture would flash across the screen as the one who’d gotten away, but the only reference to me was that there’d been a lone survivor. The picture that came across the screen of Eddie didn’t look anything like the man I’d known, it had been taken when he’d been recaptured. The years hadn’t been good to him.
Sensing what the news would do to me, Brody had wrapped me up in his great, big arms and held me tightly against him. He kissed the top of my head, and we’d quietly sat through it. I couldn’t say that I wasn’t happy that Eddie Roth was finally dead, or that the news hadn’t taken me back to that night when my life had changed so much. But Brody was there to keep the nightmares at bay.
With him in my life, I could get through anything.
Epilogue
One year later
Brody
I rocked Lilly long after she’d fallen asleep against my chest, for my comfort as well as hers. I liked the feel of her little, warm body against me, the sound of the breaths that escaped through her little pursed lips. Every so often she would twitch, but then settle right back down when I tightened my arms around her and kissed the soft, brown, downy on top of her head. I grinned at the little hand that was clenched around a handful of my shirt, as if she knew that sooner or later, I’d put her down and she didn’t want me to leave.
At least, that’s what I wanted to believe.
At seven-months-old, she’d already exposed us to her stubbornness and determination to have things her own way, and the kid had a set of lungs on her that she wasn’t afraid to use when she was unhappy. Her screams were so piercing that Buttercup would run to the back door and cry to be let outside. Sometimes I followed her, only to look back and see Lulu glaring at me through the glass as she bounced our daughter in her arms, trying to calm her down.
Who would have thought that a tiny little human would have changed my life so much? Given me so much meaning? Me, a retired killer, now a member of the Desert Rebels and an all-around bad boy. How did I get so fucking lucky? I knew the answer to my own question as I glanced over at the doorway to see the beautiful, naked woman I couldn’t live without. Lulu, my baby’s mother, had burrowed her way into my heart. She wasn’t going anywhere. She’d loved me enough to fill my life with more than I’d ever thought possible. More than I’d ever hoped for.
I’d had my life mapped out, and it hadn’t included a family. Women, yeah, because I had needs. And while I’d wanted Lulu for years, a future with her had never entered my mind.