Page 36 of Reckless Love

I blushed, adoring his praise. “I look all right?” I turned and stood, smoothing down the satin of the midnight blue gown. The cut was simple and elegant, which only enhanced the single line of diamonds hugging the empire waist under my breasts.

Wick reached for me and tugged me against his front. “You look utterly delectable. You always do.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Always, huh?”

“Always.”

I arched my brows. “Even when you’re holding my hair back while I’m throwing up?”

Wick frowned, one hand splaying over my slightly rounded stomach. “I still think we should switch doctors.”

“Morning sickness is normal,” I reminded him, the same way our doctor had been for the last ten weeks. Some women didn’t get morning sickness, and others… Well, let’s just say I was making up for all the ones who didn’t.

Luckily I was almost into my second trimester, and supposedly things got better.

“We can stay home tonight,” my husband told me, utterly serious.

I laid a hand on his arm. “Wick, you know I love staying home, but this is important.”

“You’re important,” he retorted as he rubbed my stomach. “The peanut is important.”

I smiled. Wick’s nickname for our baby was too freaking cute. But neither his cuteness nor my aversion to public events were going to sway me. Not tonight.

“Tonight’s important to me,” I whispered.

He sighed and dropped a kiss on the tip of my nose. “I know. You’ve worked so hard, and I’m proud of you, baby.”

“We make a great team.” I grinned up at him, remembering the early days of figuring out how to resurrect Hope’s Heart.

After quitting my job—a decision Wick left entirely in my hands—I focused on breathing life back into the charity my mother had created. Wick also had turned over control of Papa’s jewelry store, but it only took a few months of me floundering my way through meetings and acquisitions before I realized it wasn’t for me. I asked Wick to step in and make the company as great as Papa had always imagined, and my husband had succeeded in record time.

My heart was in charitable efforts. I wanted to give back, not take people’s money.

That was what my husband was for.

After a few months of getting Hope’s Heart together, Wick had asked me to find more ways for his companies to invest in charities. There wasn’t a lack of charities in the world, but there was a lack of funds, and finding out places to best distribute Wick’s contributions turned into a full-time job itself.

Especially when Wick started using his influence in social circles to get friends and partners to donate to worthy causes.

All of it had led up to tonight.

Wick and I had been invited to the celebration of the Hope Center—a world class pediatric ICU for Central Park Memorial Hospital. The name had been Wick’s idea, and since he’d funded the majority of the multi-million dollar project, he got his way.

It was touching how thoughtful and amazing my husband was.

God, I loved this man.

Wrapping my arms around him, I rose to my tiptoes and kissed him.

“What was that for?” Wick murmured against my mouth, one hand now on my ass while the other held the back of my neck.

“For being you.”

“Love you, too, baby.” He kissed me again before letting me go with a reluctant sigh. “Okay, let’s get tonight over with so I can drag you back home where you belong.”

I giggled. “Let me get my shoes on, and we can go.”

Wick turned, spotting my strappy, silver heels by the side of the vanity. He pointed. “Those shoes?”

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