Page 36 of The Inconvenient Compromise
Fiona smiled again. “Both… Now pick her up. Slide one hand under her head and the other under her bottom.”
Reluctantly and with not a small amount of trepidation, he did so. He was waiting for her to begin screaming because he was fairly certain he was doing it wrong. But she didn’t. Instead, her eyes opened, and she stared up at him. Her rosebud mouth formed a little ‘o’, and he was lost. He’d give her the world if she asked for it.
“Bring her here,” Fiona said.
“I’m not quite ready to let go of her yet.”
“Well, you can’t feed her,” Fiona pointed out. “And it is time.”
As if on cue, the baby began to cry—soft, snuffling cries that he knew would soon give way to angry screams. She could reach a volume that was shocking, given just how tiny she was.
Approaching the bed, Lucian sat down on the edge of it and carefully passed his daughter to her mother. As he watched Fiona bring the child to her breast, the cries died away. Contentment settled over all the occupants of that room.
Lucian moved to lay behind Fiona, pulling her back against his chest. With his wife and his daughter in his arms, life was more perfect than he had a right for it to be. But he didn’t intend to ever let go of either of them.
“I love you more now than I did even a day ago. And tomorrow, I will love more still,” he whispered.
“Are you speaking to Katherine or to me?”
“Both,” he answered, pressing a kiss to her temple. “Both.”
THE END
