Emmy snorts then begins to chuckle. “Will you hold him for a minute?”
“Absolutely.” She shifts her weight and places Alaric in my waiting arms. Then she rises just to promptly turn around.
“Bishop?”
“Yeah?”
“The answer is yes.”
“Yes?”
She tucks a piece of her dark hair behind her ear. “I made these babies yours when I named them. Everyone else is nixed at this point. You’re holding your son. I don’t want another day to go by without Atlas and Alaric having a father they can look up to. I know it’s not conventional, and it’s fucking weird but…I fucked up by dating him and sleeping with him. I made a bad choice. I should’ve—“ The rest of her sentence is lodged in her throat, and she begins to tremble in a growing sob.
“Emmy—“ I begin to rise from the couch, but her hand shoots out to stop me.
“Please…let me get this out. I don’t ever want to talk about it again after today.” I nod and she takes it as a sign to continue when she can steady herself about to hyperventilate.
It’s hard to watch. I crave to hold and comfort her. To tell her shit is going to be fine because I won’t let Alexander do another thing to her or the twins but I give her what she needs.
She doesn’t want to bring it up again and honestly, I don’t wish to either. We need to end this and move on.
“I lied before and said they weren’t yours but I didn’t know at the time. I wanted them to be. But I thought you were so detached from ever loving me that how could you possibly love a baby? Then I got two. Then I prayed that they were yours again only if it was to have you in them. Then they weren’t. I honestly wanted to die a little. I think I did. I’m afraid a monster will develop in my kids and there will be a part of him still there that I can’t control.”
“Don’t think like that. We will raise these kids with love and everything they need. We break monsters. We’ll know one if we see one.”
“But what if they do? What if Alaric becomes—“
“A good man? One that respects women because his mama would beat his ass if he doesn’t. That Atlas will have a big mouth on her but she’ll demand to be equal and treated as such because her mother also ran with a group of boys who used to take bets on who could drive you to lose your shit the fastest.”
Emmy’s eyes narrow. “Are you fucking serious?”
“Oh, yeah—“ I lean back on the couch and look down at Alaric. “—I’ll teach you everything I know.”
Emmy growls and falls slowly to her knees, prying herself between my thighs. “He’s good. I want him to stay that way.”
“He can’t be a pussy either. I’ll raise him as my dad raised me. He was a good man. I would’ve been a better human if he lived longer.”
“I’d like to know more about him,” she replies. “When you’re ready to talk about him.”
“Anything you wanna know, it’s yours.”
“So…you’ll take us all? Atlas, Alaric and I, want to be Bishops. A family. And we all wanna call you ‘Daddy’.”
My cock is the only thing that responds because my brain doesn’t form an answer, only listens and repeats what she said.
You’re holding your son.
We want to be Bishops.
Emmy’s soft brown eyes destroy and create me. A tightness forms in my chest and something shifts. I think it was my damn heart that just Grinched out and grew two sizes.
Emmy just gave my entire life meaning.
Something I’ve been searching for since I was fourteen.
“Yeah, baby,” I mutter as I lean in to kiss her lips with Alaric still in my arms. Kid better get used to it. “I want you all.”
My lips find hers and my girl is already wanting more. She sucks on my tongue and teases me to drop the kid and take her on the floor.
Alaric’s tiny leg kicks my chest, probably telling me to stop mauling his mother. A rumble forms from my chest and I disgruntledly pry from Emmy’s sweet mouth.
“Alaric isn’t a fan of public displays,” I tell her as she glances down at him.
“I’m going to hate every single one of your girlfriends.” I chuckle and pull her against my chest.
“Be nice.”
“Mhm.” She gives me a quick kiss. “I’m just foreshadowing.”
“Honey, I’m home!” Mills’s voice kills the moment and my cock’s salute when I hear the door close behind him. “Dude, what did I say?”
“Shut up,” Emmy moans as she uses my knees to push herself to stand. “I’m allowed to kiss—“
“Kiss, yes.” Mills throws his keys on his dining room table. “Fucking, no.”
“Do you see any fucking?” She gestures behind her to Alaric and me on the couch. “You goofball.”
“It’s your man I don’t trust.” My brows knit when Emmy steals a glance at me, her lips smirked and she gives me a wink.
Of course, I’m always the bad guy and will continue to play it so why wouldn’t she use it to her advantage the little shit.
“Kyson is coming by to grab that will,” Mills announces. “I’m ordering pizza y’all stayin’, right?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Put pineapple on Emmy’s side.”
“No!” She looks at me like I just told him to assassinate a bunch of puppies. “That’s unAmerican as fuck.”
“Who the hell said that?” Mills retorts like she’s crazy.
She is crazy.
It’s not a life-or-death situation to put fruit on pizza. But Emmy won’t touch the shit if she sees it and she could be starving.
“Take a poll, Mills,” Emmy counters. “You know what I like.” My alpha male, don’t-look-at-my-shit persona begins to come out but I shove it back down to play nice.
That and I have a two-month-old in my arms.
The only thing Mills needs to know about my girl is that she doesn’t like pineapple on her pizza and
