Page 51 of Loyalties & Longings

“Yes, but I want you to have an easier, more legal, mobile, and on-hand method of protection,” he continues. I gulp down the lump in my throat. Where is he going with this?

“I want Lucifer to be yours,” he says with certainty.

“But he’syours!” I all but snap.

He nods slowly, knowingly.

“He is, but I’d feel much better if he stayed with you. It’s not like we won’t eventually be living together anyway,” he proclaims.Oh God, I still need to have that conversation with Dad, I mentally chastise myself.

Blaze halts my thoughts by adding. “Besides, I think he likes you more than me anyway.” To which I flat-out laugh. Lucifer is the cutest demon-looking dog I’ve ever seen, and I definitely feel a connection of trust and love with him. Feeling tears stinging the back of my eyes, I bounce around the table and land in his lap. Hugging him tightly, I kiss his cheek, and he brushes some hair that’s fallen loose behind my ear.

“I want to give you so many babies. Children that’ll be just as fucking gorgeous, strong, and smart as you,” he says softly.

My stomach drops. We’ve never spoken about much more than actually being a couple, and in the space of five minutes, Blaze has mentioned giving me his best friend, living together, and now babies. I close my eyes and take a calming breath before I speak.

“I don’t want kids.” I feel my eyebrows wrinkle and bite my lip, anticipating this will be the downfall of our relationship.

Over before it ever really started.

Blaze lifts his hand to my face, grazing his thumb over my bottom lip. His dark irises rise from my lips to my eyes. With a sure look on his face, his reply is simple.

“Then fuck it, no kids.”

All of a sudden, I have a feeling of lightness, but I’m not sure he actually means it.

“But—”

He stops me with a finger to my lips in the universal symbol forhush.

“But nothing. It’s your body, after all, even though I claim it as mine in any and every way I can. In the end, it’syourchoice. Itwas only a fleeting thought for me.”

My inner voice is screaming at me.Is he really thinking this through? What if he changes his mind in the future?

“Hey,” he says, pulling my chin so I’m looking into his eyes. “Don’t do that.”

“Don’t do what?”

“Don’t go to that place. Don’t shut me out,” he says, stroking my jawline. “I’m serious, Lake. No kids, ever. It’s good for me. It means we can fuck like rabbits wherever and whenever we want. Which, in my case, is every damn minute of the day.” He shifts ever so slightly, and I instantly feel his unmistakable erection. My eyes shoot to his. He lazily flashes a smile he could easily pit against the devil himself, and I am confident Blaze would come out victorious.

“Now, is that a yes on Lucifer?” I nod again, fighting back a smile of my own, still distracted with my thoughts about Blaze and the devil going toe-to-toe in a smiling competition.

“Good.” He presses a kiss on my forehead. “Because I have something else in the works, but that’s going to have to wait. Let’s eat.” He slides me onto the seat next to him. I was so distracted by all of what Blaze was saying that I hadn’t even noticed our food was delivered.

I’m stunned, frozen.

Shock has got me in her sharp talons again. And before I can even conjure the thought, words fly from my mouth.

“Are you talking about an engagement ring?” I choke out my words as Blaze annihilates his burger.

Swallowing the massive bite he’d taken just as I spat out my question, he shakes his head.

“Nuh, not an engagement ring, Siren. Not yet anyway,” he says with another shit-eating grin before taking another huge bite of his burger.

***

Thankfully, getting the delivery atTheSiren’s Speakeasydidn’t take long, and Blaze dropped me back home so he could go get Lucifer and bring him and all of his things here.

The speakeasy name change was a last-minute decision, but it’s so much more fitting, and it’ll appease my father, too, as it has no link to me.

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