Chapter 161

The chef serves course after course, each one a memory of ours but elevated and reimagined—the risotto from the night I moved into his penthouse, the sea bass from our wedding reception, the chocolate soufflé from our last evening before Sofiya’s birth.

We talk for a while, Vince describing how the Costa Rica project has risen from the earth and is poised to make us millions in legitimate revenue. I like hearing him excited about something. I like seeing him make his mark on the world, turning a dream into a reality. I could listen to him describe hotels and highways for the rest of our lives, I think.

If we’re lucky, that’s exactly what I’ll get to do.

“It’s working,” I say with quiet wonder. “Everything we’ve fought for. Everything we’ve sacrificed for. It’s actually working.”

Vince’s eyes are dark in the candlelight. “Did you doubt it would?”

“Yes,” I admit. “I doubted everything. Especially us.”

He nods. “How about now?”

“Now, I think we might actually pull this off.”

The string quartet downshifts to a slow, haunting melody. Vince stands, extending his hand to me. “Dance with me.”

I allow him to pull me to my feet and lead me to a small space cleared for this purpose. His hand is warm at the small of my back, guiding me into the familiar steps of a waltz he taught me before our wedding.

“Do you remember the first time I saw you?” he murmurs against my ear as we sway together beneath the stars.

“How could I forget? I walked in on you fucking your secretary. Not exactly a file-it-away-and-forget-about-it kind of thing.”

His chuckle rumbles through his chest. “And you stood there, frozen. Those big green eyes wide with shock. Your cheeks flushed with embarrassment— and something else.”

I’m less ashamed than I once was, but my face goes hot nonetheless. “I was mortified, but I couldn’t look away.”

“I knew then. Something changed that day.” His hand slides lower, possessive at the curve of my ass. “I saw you and recognized something in you that mirrored something in me. A hunger. A desperation. A refusal to settle for less.”

“You manipulated me from the beginning,” I remind him, but there’s no heat in the accusation. We’re long past that now.

“I did.” His mouth brushes my temple. “And then you turned the tables. Manipulated me right back. Made me fall in love with you—something I never thought possible.”

The words steal my breath. Vince says “I love you” rarely, preciously. I memorize every single occasion.

“I was so scared of you,” I confess, pressing closer, hips sealed against his. “Terrified of what you represented. Of what loving you would turn me into. Then I was terrified of losing this.” My fingers curl into the lapels of his suit jacket. “I used to think your world would corrupt me. That I’d lose myself in your darkness.”

“Did you?”

I consider it, the woman I was versus the woman I’ve become. “No. Your world didn’t corrupt me—it revealed me. Showed me parts of myself I’d buried so deep I didn’t know they existed. The darkness was always there, Vince. You just gave me permission to embrace it.”

He spins me out, then pulls me back against his chest, our bodies moving in perfect sync. “You’ve done the same for me, you know. I wish there were words better than thank you.”

The music swells, and Vince draws me closer until I can feel his heartbeat against mine. Over his shoulder, I see the world sprawled beyond us, treetops wreathed with fog. I like being above it all with him.

“Penny for your thoughts,” he teases, nipping at my ear.

I look up at him and laugh. “Two pennies for yours.”

“I was thinking about what you said the other day.”

“That you shouldn’t wash colors with whites?”

He chuckles. “That you want another baby someday.”

I’m instantly flushed. My thighs press together like that’ll bottle up the desire there. “Emphasis on the someday part of that.”

He backs me into the table. I realize suddenly that the music has stopped, the clank and bustle of the makeshift kitchen has quieted, and all the plates that were on the table are gone. We have the rooftop to ourselves. “Agree to disagree,” he says. “I think ‘someday’ should start right now.”

His teeth scrape the sensitive skin beneath my jaw, making me gasp.

“Here?” I ask breathlessly. “What about the chef? The musicians?”

“Gone.” His hands push my dress up around my waist. “I dismissed them when you were dancing with your eyes closed.”

A growl of satisfaction rumbles through his chest as he slides two fingers inside me, his thumb pressing against my clit and releasing pulsing waves of dangerous deliciousness.

“Mine,” he growls, his free hand pinning my wrists above my head. “This body, this pussy, this womb that’ll carry my child again… all fucking mine.”

“Yours,” I gasp, my body quivering beneath his demanding touch. “No one else will ever feel how wet I get for you.”

He replaces his fingers with his cock in one smooth thrust, filling me completely. I cry out, the sound lost in the vastness of the night sky above us.

I lock my ankles behind the small of his back to seal him deeper into me. It’s funny that there was a time that I was terrified of his size. Now, it feels like the key to a lock that opens a door deep inside me, a door for us and us only.

When he fills me, I cry tears of happiness.

When he withdraws, I just want him back again.

The table shakes beneath us, but it manages to hold up to the job as Vince pulls me onto him by my thighs, fucking deeper and deeper and harder and harder.

My eyes flutter halfway closed as the first tendrils of the orgasm start to spread through me. I clamp down on his forearms to keep him close as little sighs and moans go pouring out of my parted lips.

“Look at me,” he commands. “I want to see your eyes when you come.”

I obey, my gaze locking with his as pleasure builds higher at the base of my spine. I’m still in my dress, but I’ve never felt so naked or so thrilled about it.

“Vince,” I gasp as the tension coils tighter. “I’m close. I’m close. I’m —”

“Not yet.” He slows, torturing us both. “I want to remember this moment. The night we decided to expand our family. The night we claimed our future.”

I didn’t think I could come with him going this slow, but his words push me over the edge. I come hard and fast. As I do, I say the only words that make sense anymore.

“Come in me, Vince. I want your baby.”

45

ROWAN

I wake tangled in silk sheets that smell like sex and champagne.

My body is still humming from Vince’s touch. Last night, he fucked me beneath the stars while I begged him to put another baby inside me. Today, it’s bright and warm in the morning sunlight, and life seems like it could be so good if we just let it.

Vince sleeps beside me, one arm flung possessively across my waist. In sleep, the sharpness of his features softens. I trace the silver streaks in his hair and wonder how many of them I’ve caused.

He doesn’t stir when I slip from beneath his arm.

The familiar weight of my tracking necklace rests against my throat as I pad silently to Sofiya’s room. She’s such a good sleeper. Auntie Ana and Uncle Dan wore her out last night, so now, she’s snoozing happily.

She’s such a beauty, too. Dark lashes fanned against cherub cheeks, those ever-present tiny fists of victory clenched by her head.

My body aches pleasantly between my legs, a reminder of Vince’s promises from last night. Another baby. A future beyond the darkness. A new beginning.

I almost believe it.