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“Almost, yes. Do you want to hear the heartbeat?”

There’s a lump in my throat, but I nod.Yes.

“More than anything,” I say gruffly.

“It’s pretty cool,” Willa says as the doctor squeezes gel on her bare belly. She shivers. “Literally cool.”

I reach out and take her hand as the doc moves a wand, attached to a handheld Doppler device, over Willa’s skin. There’s a whoosh, then a thump-thump.

“Is that?—”

“No, that’s me,” Willa says, laughing.

“Too slow,” adds the doc.

I clear my throat. “Still cool.”

There’s more whooshing, and then?—

Oh.

Thudda thudda thudda thudda thudda.

“That’s fast.” I look at the doctor in alarm. “Is that normal?”

“Very. 150 beats per minute.”

I lift Willa’s fingers to my mouth. “Wow,” I breathe against her skin. “Thank you.”

She stares at me.

I know I need to let her go, but I can’t.

I hold her gaze and kiss her fingertips.

“Thank you,” I repeat softly.

The doctor turns away, then returns with a cloth to wipe Willa’s belly.

Shame roils through me at the memory of how I wanted to wipe off her belly that night on the terrace.

At how much I enjoyed painting her with my seed.

And at least some of that stayed inside her and took hold.

She’s twenty.

Fucking fertile as hell.

And I fucked her bare, because she felt like heaven and I wanted her around me.

I wanted to be inside her, nothing between us.

I only pulled out at the last second because I knew I should.

Then I went to get a washcloth, and she disappeared.

I’m still staring at her belly when Willa slides her hand out from my grasp and tugs her shirt down.