Page 30 of Hunted

“Then we fall,” I say simply. “Aerin?”

Her expression instantly turns wary. “Yeah?”

“This is forever. You know that, right?”

When she pauses, I know I just read the situation right. She’s still carrying scars from Shane Dacre, and those scars—and fears—are leading her to think her tears and her hormones will eventually drive me away. She couldn’t be more wrong.

“Yes,” she eventually says. “I mean?—”

I kiss her. “I’m not going anywhere. My future is with you and Thumper, and yours is with me.”

She’s stopped warning me to stop calling our soon-to-be born little girl Thumper which is probably a mistake. I think that now, even when she’s here, and she has a real name, we’re going to be slipping back to that nickname frequently.

“But I cry every day. Sometimes even twice.”

“It’s just hormones, love,” I soothe her.

“You gave everyone a list of words they’re not allowed to say around me.”

I called a meeting too after Aerin had gone to bed, but she doesn’t need to know about that meeting.

“Not because I’ve had enough of your crying,” I reassure her. “But because it always breaks my heart when you do. All I want is to make you happy.”

She bursts into tears.

I gather her in my arms and stroke her back. “See! It’s not even ten in the morning yet.”

I kiss her hair, prepare to reassure her that it’s okay when the lounger gives way beneath us with a crack.

Aerin yelps and I do the same as I’m suddenly lying on a pile of broken plastic with Aerin in my arms. “Are you okay?”

She glances at the broken lounger and then at me. “I’m not sure why I should be surprised that it eventually happened.”

“When Bennett sees it…” I sigh, shaking my head. “He’ll be rubbing it in my face for days.”

Aerin smiles down at me, her eyes still glassy, her cheeks pink, looking soft and happy.

Suddenly, all the love I feel in my heart hits me so hard, it hurts. I look at her and I know I would do anything,giveanything for this woman. Anything at all.

“Mack?” Aerin says softly.

I cradle the back of her head and smile at her. “Just amazed you’re mine.”

“Really?”

I nod. “Really.”

We study each other for a little longer. “Soon it won’t be just us anymore. The house will be loud. We won’t have quiet evenings on the lounger anymore.” She pauses. “Not only because we broke it. But?—”

“We’ll have other moments,” I interrupt her softly. “Some, I think, will be even better. Like taking Thumper for walks in the forest. Or when Thumper shifts for the first time and we go for a run as a family.”

So many other memories we’ll hold on to forever.

She smiles at me. “Do you want to get up? Your back must hurt lying on broken plastic.”

“With you smiling down at me like that?” I draw her face down for a kiss. “I don’t feel a thing.”

She’s smiling as her lips touch mine.

---