He rested his thumb on my lips. “Honey, it’s a yes or a no. Do you want a child with me?”
Gazing into his eyes, there were no doubts. “Yes.”
I expected a beaming smile, but his lips merely quirked upward. “Good. Think you want two, maybe three more after the first one?”
I giggled. “If I were in my twenties, I’d probably have said an immediate yes, but I’m thinking I want to wait until after I have our first child before I answer that.”
His lips turned down. “Nope. I want a better answer. I get that our minds might change if you have a rough pregnancy or a difficult labor, but everything being somewhat new again, I wanna know what you want now.”
My body stiffened. “You’re being awful pushy, Clint Ramsey.”
His eyebrows rose and he rolled into me. “Whenever I thought about us, I regretted never being pushy enough with you. So, hell if I’m gonna make that mistake again.”
“Even if being pushy is a mistake?”
“I knew what I wanted then, and I damn sure know what I want now.” He paused, letting his weight settle on top of me. “And don’t bullshit me. You’re stalling.”
Hard to say if it was the soft lighting of the bedside lamp or not, but the earnestness in his eyes made the iris shine like new pennies. Him being right about my stall tactic annoyed me, but I let it go. I stroked the angled plane of his stubbled cheek.
“I would like two if I can hack it. Three is a possibility, but I really don’t think I can handle four kiddos with our fierce personalities.”
He finally gave me the smile I expected a moment ago. Full and bright, his joy practically tangible. “They’ll have their own personalities, mi reina.”
I chuckled. “Right, sure. If Jared is anything to go by, he might be the spitting image of Kyle, but he is a carbon copy of Tanya’s personality. Besides, four kids would be—”
“A family. Loud, crazy, and sometimes draining on you.” He grinned at his obvious tease. “But it would be ours, Raegan.”
Warmth unfurled from my heart with his words. “You’re right, Clint. But you must admit, we need to see how it goes with boy one and boy two first.”
He shook his head. “Nope. Have to see how it goes with Shane and Wynnie before we’ll know if we’re ready to bring Penelope into the world.”
I laughed. “Not sure if I can name a son after my father, but don’t think it’s lost on me you want to recreate your family, except with a real father.”
His eyes closed for a beat before he shook his head. “No, I don’t, honey. I want four kids. You’re reluctant on that, and I get it. And our son has to be named for your father since you used to tout the many wonderful things about him, plus how much you wished I could have met him.”
My hand on his cheek had fallen to his shoulder, and I slid it up to his neck. “All right, honey. I think we’re agreed.”
His head shook again. “No, Rae. I’m bringing this up because,” he turned his head for a moment. “I don’t feel like there’s time to waste. And I should’ve led with whether you took your pill today and if you’d stop taking them tomorrow.”
My eyes widened. “You want to knock me up, like now?”
“Yeah.”
“Both our mothers would lose their minds.”
“The hell they would. Your mother would be over the fuckin’ moon, and Mamá probably wouldn’t be far behind her.”
I grinned. “You’re right.”
“So, you gonna stop taking your pill in the morning?”
My lips twisted. “I actually forgot to take it this morning since we woke up at your place.”
His head lowered and against my lips he whispered. “Excellent. Time to get to work.”
Clint
AS MUCH AS I WANTED to take my sweet time making love to Raegan, it didn’t happen. Like all the other times we’d been together the past few days, it heated up quick and I couldn’t get close enough to the fire. I finished so fast, I wasn’t even sure she came.
“I’m sorry,” I breathed into her neck.
She dragged her fingernails down my back. “What on earth for?”
My muscles rippled with her touch. “I don’t think you got off before I did, baby.”
She chuckled. “Boy, you must have been pretty far gone. I came when you did, baby.”
I ground my hips into her for the hell of it. Nothing felt as good as our bodies being connected. My chest swelled with a foreign feeling, but it wasn’t that foreign, since I’d felt it once before. It was just prior to her going to New York for an advertising job.
My fingers gently pushed into the hair at the side of her head. “I’m always far gone where you’re concerned, Rae. You told me you’re giving us a chance, but tell me you’re not going back to New York.”
Her eyes went from chocolate to melted chocolate in a nanosecond. “No, Clint. I’m not going back. I mean, I’ll have to go back for my things, but I’m with you now. My heart is screaming at me I should have been with you all this time. So, I get it.”
I slid my nose along her cheekbone and pulled away. “That’s music to my ears, sweetheart. And just to say, whenever you plan to get your stuff, I’m going with you. Comprende?”
Something about the way her expression changed as she smiled told me she fought an eye roll. “Comprende, mi rey.”
“Good,” I whispered.
I kissed her gentle and sweet as I withdrew from her. “I’ll let you go clean up.”
She pecked me before she rolled out of the bed.
When she returned to the room, I was pulling on my boxers. My phone rang and leaning over, I pulled it from my jeans. The contact displayed the letter ‘M’ and immediately I wished I’d put the phone on silent mode. I could ignore the call and tell Rae I wasn’t
