Page 77 of Sugar Baby
We share a smile, and I go to him. He wraps his arms around me, and I sink into his strong embrace, inhaling his delicious scent as he does the same to me, desperate to mate with each other but knowing we have to wait until everyone is with us.
ChapterForty-Four
Cain
Spilling my gut-wrenching heart out to these two strangers who share the same blood as me has been the most challenging thing I’ve done since I left that house, never to return. But neither of them judged me or criticised or made me feel like my pain was less. Even with our differing backgrounds, I felt like they understood. I couldn't see that earlier because I was on the defensive for so long. But I do now.
Sitting on the picnic table with my feet on the bench and my head lowered, I sigh. “Sorry for being a dick about your childhoods. It’s neither of your faults that I ended up where I did.”
“It’s okay,” Trent says, resting his hand on my shoulder. “I wish we’d known about each other earlier, we could have come for you or done something.”
I shrug. “It is what it is. There’s nothing to be done about it now, and I think it’s time I finally moved past it and got on with my life.”
“Only if you want to,” Atlas says quietly. “You have every right to hold onto this pain.”
“I don’t want to anymore. It’s dragged me down for so many years, now that I want to build a life with Sophia, I need to let it go.”
Trent nods. “But don’t feel that you need to act differently. She wants you for you. All brooding and shit.”
I snort, as does Atlas. “It’s part of my charm, obviously.”
“Let’s go and find her,” Atlas says. “She must be feeling a bit out of sorts with everything that’s happened in the last few hours. Not to mention…”
We both glare at Trent, but I get in there first. “Didn’t think to use protection, arsehole?”
He blushes, which is really nerdy of him. “It wasn’t a priority when she threw herself at me.”
“Ooh, burn,” Atlas remarks with a loud laugh. “You’d better be ecstatic about the consequences, or you are going to have two very pissed-off brothers to kick your entitled arse.”
“I’m over the moon,” he says with a soft smile.
I feel that he means it, and I’m glad. Sophia deserves to have the father of her child in her life loving her and them. I’m a bit jealous, but I’ll get over it. I plan to ask for the same courtesy at some point, and I hope she will agree. I have a feeling I won't be the only one. It seems we all have some making up to do for the sins of the past.
“Hey,” Sophia says, sidling up to us with Nico and Carter. “Everything okay here?”
“Perfect,” I say, leaping off the table and going to her. I wrap my arms around her, kiss her soundly and nip her bottom lip. “Are you okay?”
She smiles at my concern for her wellbeing. “Yeah, I think we are all square. Unless anyone has anything else they want to say or tell me, or whatever?”
When everyone shakes their heads in response, I say eagerly. “When can we mate?”
She laughs and looks at Carter, but her green gaze meets mine. “Soon. I want to be mated before I tell my parents about the baby.”
“Probably for the best,” I murmur.
“Thank fuck,” Trent says, “Your mother is about ready to kill me as it is. I need all the protection I can get.”
I snicker and punch his shoulder. “Big badass scared of a little omega.”
“Pah! You would be, too, if she had you in her sights. She’s fucking fierce.”
We all laugh and then sober up when Sophia takes my hand and leads me back toward the compound. Her mood has gone serious, and I think I know that her decision has been made.
“My parents and Enzo have gone to get their wounds attended to,” she says. “They left a note to say the off-the-books doctor was a couple of hours drive away at his country estate, so they’ll be gone a while.”
“What are you saying?” I murmur, pulling her close.
She smiles and leads us all into her bedroom. She has pulled the curtains around on her four-poster bed and made a beautiful, comfortable and cosy nest for herself.
