Page 152 of Syndicate of Sin Bundle

“God,” I growled, “I fucking love how dirty you girls are.”

43

laila

“Why did you ask me to come inside Sage the other day?” Constantino asked me.

We sat in a luxury restaurant that overlooked the water while Sage used the restroom. I shifted in my seat and took a sip of my Afterglow wine, heart pounding. I didn’t want to say it out loud, so I opted for the first thing that came to mind.

“Because I thought it’d be sexy.”

“Mmhmm,” Constantino hummed.

“What?” I asked, placing my glass down and avoiding eye contact.

“You didn’t have a reason other than that?” he asked me, nudging at it.

I peered over my shoulder to make sure that Sage wasn’t on her way back. “I’d really like to not talk about it now. We are at dinner with her, and she could be back any second, Constantino. Why don’t we wait until we get home?”

“We’re going to talk about it,” Constantino said. “We’ve put it off all week.”

“She’ll be back any moment,” I repeated.

“Then, you’d better start talking.”

Mouth drying, I stared at him and pressed my lips together. How could I tell him that I wanted a kid so badly that I would be okay with him getting Sage pregnant? It was so fucking wrong, but I didn’t want to lose her.

“Because,” I whispered, “it will make her stay.”

Constantino was about to respond, but he paused and furrowed his brow, as if he hadn’t expected that answer. “I thought it was because you wanted me to get her pregnant for us to have a family.”

“That too,” I said, guilt washing over me.

This past week, I had thought endlessly about both scenarios, but I had realized that Sage couldn’t leave me because I … I loved her. Which was ridiculous because it had only been a couple of weeks, but …

“Fuck.” I ran my hands through my hair. “I don’t know, Constantino. I—”

“The restroom is so nice,” Sage said, sliding onto her seat beside me.

I froze and straightened out, hoping she hadn’t heard a word I said to my husband. She took a sip of her water, her silky royal-blue dress clinging to the curves of her breasts, and looked between us.

“I didn’t interrupt, did I?”

“No,” Constantino said. “We were just talking about how Laila wants a big family.”

Cutting my gaze to him, I kicked his leg underneath the table.

“She was telling me about it the other day,” Sage said, rolling spaghetti around her fork.

Constantino arched a brow at me. “Is that so?”

So that he wouldn’t say anything else, I shifted the conversation.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about starting that foundation we were talking about at the museum the other day,” I said to Sage, lightness flowing through my body and a smile creeping onto my lips. “I want to help kids in foster care and in adoption agencies through an art auction.”

“I can help you,” Sage said.

“You-you would? I mean, you don’t have to do it to please me, but I was going to ask you if you would donate some of your art to the auction,” I said, nerves biting my insides. “I think it’d go for so much.”

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