Page 123 of Vicious Little Princess

“No. Just ravenous now.”

Off his look, I added, “For food.”

He gave me a withering stare. “Really, huh?Justfor food?”

Shit.“No. Honestly, not just for food.”

“I know. It’s one of the reasons I insisted on this tonight.”

“You… how?”

“I’ve been keeping an eye on you.” He leaned in and kissed my cheek in such a tender way that it sent a radiating warmth through me. He murmured happily as I turned my head and nuzzled against him. “You’re carrying our baby, that’s everything, and I’m here for whatever you need.”

“That means a lot,” I breathed, and looped my arms around his neck, holding him to me.

“You can do this. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

“Thank you.”

“I want you to know that Nico and Milo will be the same. They’ll be the most supportive you can imagine. They’ll be overjoyed, Cat. This absolutely won’t be a bad thing to them, so if that’s also a concern you’ve been feeling, I can promise you that it’s unfounded.”

“I love how you are, how you can make even the worst things seem that much lighter, you know that?”

“It might have become apparent to me,” he said, smiling down at me. He stroked my hair with one hand. “Ilove how you’ve been with me, supporting me after what happened and actually helping to bring me back in on everything when it was being kept from me.”

“Well, I know what it’s like to be forced onto the sidelines. I mean, in this case, it was coming from a good place, but I understand that feeling all too well, the helplessness, the nastiness of being cast aside and discounted. I didn’t want that for you.”

“Even though I really didn’t help matters earlier when I tried to go after that asshole on my own, huh?”

“I understand why you did it. We all do.”

He winced. “But it was reckless as shit.”

“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “It was. But we’ll find another way. Like you keep telling me, yes? We can always find a way through.”

“But it needs to be together.”

“Yeah, it does.”

He stared at me in awe.

“What?” I asked, with amusement.

“Just that you were so worried at first about not being able to work as a team and now look at you. Also, the fact that you’d never really been in a relationship and you jumped right into this with three of us, and you’re doing so well with it… it’s impressive.”

“You’re giving me too much credit. I’m just finding my way through as I go.”

“Nah, it’s more than that. You’ve changed everything for us.” He stroked my belly again. “And there’s about to be even more of that with this little baby. Things were straining between the three of us before you came along and now? Now they’re more solid than they’ve ever been. Yes, even with the argument that you witnessed tonight.” He smiled. “You were that special element that we’d been missing all along. And now you’re here, I can’t imagine it being any other way. I love you being here with us. I love our foursome dynamic. And I loveyou.”

He certainly had a way with beautiful words and declarations. More than that with him was his endearing sincerity. Behind the image he put on to the world, he was such a loving and caring sweetheart of a man. It had become clear as I’d gotten to know him, that beneath all the rest, all that he wanted was to feel loved and safe. And he really put his heart out on his sleeve where that was concerned. It was so amazing and courageous that what had happened to him recently, and even years ago with his father, hadn’t managed to take that away from him. He fought so hard for it too, to be this incredible person before me.

“I love you too,” I confessed, right there with him. I brushed my lips over his. “How you’ve been with me, especially since I told you about the pregnancy… I’ll never forget it… thank you.”

“You’re mine, you’re ours. It could never be any other way.”

“Shit, you and your beautiful words,” I uttered a moment before I tugged him down to me and crushed my lips to his.

It wasn’t overwhelming or insanely animalistic as I was used to it being with the guys, something both Nico and I brought to the table a hell of a lot whenever the four of us came together. No, this time it was different, maybe because I had that part of me locked down, or maybe because of the intimacy of the moment between us, but it was easy and enveloping, and intensely sensual.

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