Sunlight filtered in around the drapes, and I groaned. Was it seriously morning already? I mentally chastised myself for falling asleep. I’d wanted to stay awake longer, to spend as much time with Trent as I could because who knew when we’d get another chance to be alone like this.
“There’s my beautiful fiancée,” Trent said, his voice low at my ear.
I couldn’t stop the smile that formed. “I thought you were sleeping.”
“Mmm. No,” he said. “I’ve actually been awake all night.”
“You have?” I asked, shocked. “Why?” I twisted so I was on my back and could see his face.
He was as handsome as ever, and it hit me just how unfair it was that he could pull an all-nighter and still look like he’d just walked off the page of a high-end fashion magazine. Last time I’d stayed up all night, I woke up looking like a zombie who’d been microwaved a few minutes too long.
“I was waiting for you to wake up,” he said, tugging me closer and planting a kiss on my cheek.
“Uh, okay,” I said. “So, that meant you couldn’t sleep?”
“Chloe, honey.” His voice was melodic, and the mere sound of it had my heart fluttering wildly.
“Yeah?”
He cupped the side of my cheek and turned my face toward him. I rolled onto my side so I could get closer. His eyes sparkled in that way I loved.
“I have a very important question to ask you, and you have to answer it, okay? No answering with a question of your own,” he said.
“Okay,” I said, confusion and unease battling for dominance in my mind.
“Will you have my baby?” he asked.
I laughed with surprise, but there wasn’t a trace of humor in Trent’s expression. He was dead serious. My laughter faded, and my eyes widened. Oh, my God. He was seriously asking me to have his baby. He wanted to go through with our plans!
“Yes,” I said, my throat clogged with emotion. “Yes, of course I’ll have your baby.”
He graced me with a breathtaking smile, and excitement swelled inside of me. I was seconds away from erupting with sheer joy.
“What changed your mind? I mean… last time we talked about this, you said…” I had to stop to collect my thoughts.
“I know what I said.” He brushed strands of hair from my forehead and trailed his fingers down the side of my face. “But I’ve been thinking about this literally all night.” He laughed.
“And?”
“We both want to be parents, and this is our only shot. I’d feel much better about this if we could get pregnant after the Zoya are dealt with, but we can’t deal with them until after you change and—”
“And once I change, I can’t get pregnant,” I said.
“Exactly. We really don’t have a choice. We do it now, or we don’t do it at all,” he said.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek, letting Trent’s words settle. He was right—it was now or never. This was something we both desperately wanted, but wanting something didn’t necessarily mean we should have it.
“What about everything else, though? How will we protect our child? Two vampires raising a human child? No stability?” I asked.
“I will die protecting you and our child,” he said vehemently. “No one will harm either of you.”
I sighed with frustration. “I know that, but losing you sort of defeats the purpose of everything else.”
He smiled faintly. “I know, which is why we’ll ask Isach and maybe even Ivy to use whatever magic they have to protect our child. I know there are protection spells they can do.”
I nodded. “Okay, but that doesn’t solve all the other problems.”
“No, but I’ve been thinking about that, too.” He grinned mischievously.
Something in his expression gave me pause. I remained silent.
“We don’t need to live in the same town or house our entire lives to be home or be a family. You want to travel, right? So, let’s do that. We’ll homeschool our child, give them a real-world education.” Trent’s voice rose with each word, his excitement building. “Instead of teaching history or geography in a classroom from a book, we’ll take our child to see all the historic places and museums. We’ll show him or her the world.”
“Oh, my God,” I whispered, my heart filling with love and happiness and disbelief.
“And I think we should be honest with our child right from the start,” he said, his tone turning serious. “No hiding who we are. We just be ourselves, and we teach him or her about us, about the importance of discretion to keep our secret. For our child, this life will be normal, and when they’re older, they can decide what life they want.”
My jaw dropped.
“Our child will have plenty of family. Us. My dad. Jax. Colt. Abby and Isach. Whitney. Wyatt. And we’ll meet a lot of people in our travels. He or she will make friends. It’s not a traditionally normal life, but it will be full of love,” he said, his gaze penetrating.
“Wow,” I mumbled, completely overwhelmed by everything he’d just said.
He really had spent all night thinking about this, hadn’t he? He’d promised we’d figure this out, and that’s exactly what he’d done. Tears pooled in the corners of my eyes and spilled down my face.
Trent wiped my tears, his hands lingering on my cheeks. “Now that I’ve said all that, I’ll ask again. Will you have my baby?”
I laughed despite my tears. “We’re really doing this, aren’t we?”
“We’re really doing this,” he said with a smile.
And with those four words, Trent had given me everything I’d ever wanted. I didn’t deserve him, but I was going to spend eternity proving that I did.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN:
Truth Test
TRENT AND I RELUCTANTLY DRAGGED OURSELVES out of the Inn. As badly as I wanted to stay there, wrapped up in our own little world, we couldn’t.
Today was the day Abby had to meet Rector and take his stupid truth test. The closer we got to home, the larger the
