Page 150 of Heart of a Villain

“So what do you think?”

“About what?”

“About the Theory of Relativity.” She gently smacked his shoulder. “What do you think about our…future? What does it look like for you?”

He planted a kiss against the side of Tiare’s head. “I can’t say with the baby listening, but I want to put a baby in you. A whole lot of…babies.”

“Eesh has three. I could have three.”

“Ari has two, and Mo has one. You don’t have to match, Ms. WonderTwin.”

She shrugged, found a small flap that led to Deiro’s innards, and lifted it, the sides tearing like Velcro.

“Maybe I want three.”

“But no T names.” He tickled Tiare’s belly. “Isn’t that right, querida? There’s Thandie and Theo and Ty and Tiare. ‘Brown paper packages tied up with strings…’”

“‘These are a few of my favorite things,’” she finished. Smiling, she stuck her finger into the cotton. “What is this?”

When she removed her finger, she pulled out a sapphire solitaire ring. The band looked like something out of Northern Africa, with an almost mosaic pattern ending in that beautiful, flawless gem.

She looked up.

Adrían was staring at her.

“Adrían…”

Now, he was smiling. “Yes, minha amada?”

“Do you think Deiro might have belonged to, I don’t know, the mob or something before you got him?”

The smile fell.

His brows narrowed.

“What?”

“Look at this thing!” She held up the ring. “How much do you think it’s worth? I mean, this is a sapphire, Adrían, and it doesn’t look lab-grown. People sleep on sapphires, but they are not cheap. Holy mascarpone.”

“You’re joking, right?”

“About the mob thing? I mean, kind of yes and kind of no. But the ring was hidden in the bear. I mean, come on. What other reason would there be for a ring to be…” She brought the ring back down to eye level, frowning. “To be hidden inside a teddy bear?”

“I can think of at least one more reason.”

Their eyes met.

He scooted to the edge of the cushion. “I wasn’t planning on doing this while holding a baby, but?—”

“Yes.”

“Yes? What yes?”

“Yes, I’ll marry you.”

“I haven’t even asked.”

“Yes.”

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