Page 37 of Infected By Virus

After stripping down as far as he dared, he crawled into bed with Rae. She turned into him almost immediately and a feeling of rightness slid over him. As gingerly as possible, he wrapped his arms around her and buried his nose if her hair. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her away again. She’d fled from him earlier in the living room because she either couldn’t handle his need for her or didn’t want to. He wouldn’t push her.

Even if he killed him, and it might well do just that, he’d move at her pace if they were going to try this thing. He prayed Hook was right about everything he’d said. God, how he prayed.

Rae mumbled something he couldn’t make out in her sleep, and he stroked her back to calm her. When it worked it did something to his hopes, it floated them up into an almost physical existence.

She slipped her knee up, stroking his cock with it, and he groaned at the sensations that rocketed through his bloodstream. Fuck if he didn’t go instantly hard to the point of pain. But he wouldn’t roll her over and bury himself in her, no matter how much he wanted to.

Her pace, her pace, her pace. That was what he chanted over and over in his head because he damn sure couldn’t sleep with a hard dick and the woman he loved right there, touching his dick regardless of her intention.

With a regret so profound, he lowered one hand under the covers and adjusted her knee off his throbbing dick. It protested the loss of contact, as did he, but he had to let her call the shots. If he did what his body was screaming to do and she regretted it, it would kill him. If he thought he couldn’t live without her and Adam, he would perish if he had to do so after causing her more heartache.

He kissed her head and said what he’d wanted to say since she walked back into his life. Something he’d repeated to her more times than he could count, even if her proclamation wouldn’t follow.

“I love you, Sunny, and nothing in this world or the next will ever change that.” He said it exactly the way he used to.

“I love you too, Darrin, through all time and across any galaxy.”

He swallowed a gasp at her response and tried not to wake her. He never thought he’d hear it again, never dreamed. Her words, words he heard in his head over the last years, had finally left her mouth once again, but she was asleep.

Did she mean them, or was it habit? Fuck if he didn’t want to shake her awake and asked her. But, if he were honest with himself, he was too much of a coward to do that. Nothing much in this life scared him, but her taking those words back—that terrified him.

He closed his eyes tight, willing himself to sleep with those words in his heart. Just as he thought he’d be successful in the attempt, Rae’s breathing changed.

Virus feigned sleep. Yes, they needed to talk, but they could do that tomorrow. He needed those to be the last words in his heart for the night.

Please, he begged any deity listening. Please, let her drift off again.

It was not meant to be because she spoke against his chest after wrapping her arm around him tight.

“Can we do it? Can we raise that sweet little boy together and not shred each other’s hearts again in the process?”

One question answered—Celeste must’ve told Rae her wishes. Of course she would’ve.

Virus wasn’t sure if she was actually asking him or was speaking her truth to his sleeping form, kind of how he had when he proclaimed his love to her. He didn’t expect her to hear and wasn’t in a place to do so when she was awake.

Before he could decide if to answer or just let her get it out, she spoke again.

“I’m scared, Virus.”

Again, he remained silent.

“I mean, I love you both so much, but … we’re two people with a history of toxic behavior who bring out the worst in each other. Is that really what’s best for Adam or us?”

Virus’s brain practically short-circuited after she proclaimed not only her love for him, but for his son, too.While she was obviously awake.

Whether she wanted an answer or not, she was going to get a definitive, unmistakable one. Plans to let her lead the way unintentionally flew right out the window.

He rolled them over, hovering above her. Her gorgeous blue eyes flew open in shock. So she did think he was sleeping.

“Fuck yes, it is.” He kissed her lips with a buildup of passion that had been brewing for years and he was powerless to stop it from overflowing from his lips to hers and back again.

Pulling back just enough to speak was damn near impossible.

“There is no one on the whole fucking planet I’d rather raise him with than you, Sunny. You have to feel that.”

“But—”

He was done with her protests.

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