Page 107 of Daddy's Naughty List

“That’s messed up.” His fatigue was causing his words to slur. “I bet you’re good with kids. You want some of your own one day?”

Her heart warmed at the thought of her children. She considered all of them hers. “I love them. I’ve always dreamed of having a big family with lots of children.”

He grunted. “Not for me. No kids for me. Ever.”

Her heart skipped a beat. She twisted to look at him. That couldn’t be right. “You don’t want kids one day?”

It took him a minute to respond that time. Sleep was pulling him under. “Nope, none for me. I come from bad stock. I’m broken.”

That made no sense. He couldn’t be so good with everyone around him if he were as broken as he thought. “But you’re such a good Daddy to Littles. It would be a shame for you not to have kids.”

He shook his head. Well, wobbled his head, but she knew what he meant. “Littles are totally diff… diff’rent from kids. I’m a bad bet. Can’t take a chance on messing them up. Every child deserves loving parents.”

He sounded so sure. Like, everything was carved in stone sure. Something terrible must have happened to him growing up. She grew up in the Society, but she still wanted children. Her heart broke for whatever he must have endured.

Her heart broke for herself, too. She’d hoped she and Connor might eventually find a way to be together. But a life without children? She couldn’t imagine a future without children of her own.

His even breathing told her he’d fallen asleep. Life with Connor as her Daddy would be everything she’d always longed to have. And she would have done everything in her power to be the same for him. But she wasn’t sure she could be truly happy without children one day. Besides, there were other factors to consider. Now more than ever. A friend still held in the Society’s western compound needed her. She’d promised to be there, and it was a promise she had to keep.

Tears burned the backs of her eyes at the unfairness of life. Brushing his hair out of his face, she leaned over to press a kiss to his forehead, desperately afraid that her heart was no longer her own. She watched through the night. His face was peaceful when he slept, more angel than dark.

He woke early the next morning. She hadn’t figured him as a morning person, but he was in a great mood.

“Time to get ready for the day, babygirl. We have a lot of driving time in front of us.”

He thought they were both headed to Darling. There was no reason to tell him anything different. Arguing wasn’t the way she wanted their final minutes together to be spent.

The clear blue morning sky was cloudless and perfect. They fussed around getting ready to leave, just like they would every morning if things were different. He’d brushed her hair and helped her dress. Her stomach growled as she brushed her teeth, so he found a Disney show on television while he ran to the office to pick up something for them to eat for breakfast.

She’d almost blown it when she threw her arms around him and kissed him before he could make it out the door. She kissed him, that was, until he took over and kissed her until she saw stars. He was a great kisser.

After he closed the door, she pulled out the shirt he’d given her to wear the night before and put it on over her dress. Because it was January, and cold outside. At least, that was what she told herself.

With tears stinging her eyes, she took one last look at the room. It didn’t look like much, but to her, it was finer than a room in a palace. Then, tears falling freely down her face, Bliss squared her shoulders and walked out the door and into her future. Alone.

One month later, Bliss held a white stick in her hand and stared down at the two bright pink lines. That just capped off the month from hell. The things she’d endured were almost more than she could bear. Placing a hand on her stomach, she glanced across the room at the month old twins sleeping in two tiny bassinettes. Not hers by birth, but legally hers just the same.

They were the reason she’d had to leave Connor in Vegas. She’d had to go with the men and return to the Society’s western compound. Her friend, pregnant with twins, had developed complications. She hadn’t survived the delivery, but before she’d died, she’d named Bliss as their guardian.

The Society hadn’t cared. The twins were female, and the father wasn’t a member of their group. Bliss’s father, the leader of the western compound, hadn’t wanted to invite trouble, and the bad press they’d receive if the twins’ father showed up one day claiming to want the twins back wasn’t worth it. Girls weren’t worth the risk.

Bliss now had two tiny babies to care for. And on top of that, she was pregnant. The thing that wasn’t supposed to be possible turned out to be very, very possible. She had never longed to be back in Connor’s arms more. Her Daddy would know what to do. But she might not like his solution.

He wouldn’t want her now. Well, he wouldn’t want the three, soon to be four of them now. In a matter of weeks, she’d become a package deal. He’d made it more than clear he wouldn’t want her babies.

It made her heartsick, but he had the right to choose.

So did she.

Chapter Five

Connor

Connor drove to his Sabre Security brother Reid’s house with Tchaikovsky’sThe Nutcrackerplaying softly. He took a lot of ribbing from his brothers over his love of classical music, but it centered him. Lately, with Winnie’s sister, Bliss, back in town, he listened to a lot more than usual.

Rolling his neck in a futile attempt at relieving his tension, he tried to think through what he would say to her if she was at Reid’s house when he got there for the Sabre Security meeting. What would that look like? Would she be happy to see him?

Seemed unlikely.

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