Page 97 of Heart of Stone (Dark Billionaires)

“Kitten.” His voice was muffled in her hair, warming the skin beneath it.

The baby kicked between them, as though she was furious at being squashed.

Warren lurched back, croaking slightly. “Was that her?”

“It was.” She took his hand and placed it against her bump for the first time. “Our daughter.”

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Warren

Ourdaughter.

Warren was infused with a love so strong it nearly felled him. His other hand came up to her belly, feeling the movements beneath. “She’s so strong,” he murmured, joy warring with loss inside him, strangling his voice.

“She is. Alison told me that it’s possible for babies to bruise their mothers when kicking.”

“Has she bruised you?”

She shook her head, never taking her eyes away from him. “No.”

“Good,” he said sincerely, bending down to address her bump. “I’d have to have words with you if you were beating your mummy up, you know,” Warren whispered. He grinned as their daughter gave him a nudge in response to his voice. “Hello, baby girl,” he murmured.

His attention shifted when Kate pressed her hand against his cheek. But when he looked up, he realised she was crying. Rising, he pulled her close. “Kitten? What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry,” she sniffed. “Pregnancy has me bursting into tears constantly these days. Do you know I cried at a Dog’s Trust advert on telly the other day? I just thought of Leo in that situation and I had to hug him for ages afterwards…” She laughed tearfully, wiping her cheeks dry. “I went to the solicitors today.”

“I know.” He swallowed, half expecting her to hand him an agreement that would award her sole custody. “Rhys told me he’d sorted it out.”

Kate looked at him then. A long, hard look. “He told the solicitor I was there to continue discussing your adoption of the baby. Something you’d apparently started after mistakenly assuming she wasn’t yours.” He went to step back, but she grabbed him. “After you told me you were going to have her put in the care system.”

Warren looked away, finding it easier to focus on her bump.

Kate, however, continued. “You lied to me. You let me hate you all this time for something you never intended to do.”

“I wanted to hurt you,” he admitted, caressing her stomach. His voice was a mess of emotion, but he persisted. “But from the moment I saw her on the scan, I loved her. It didn’t matter if she was my biological child. I had proof that you and Graves were an item, but she… she was innocent. She was my daughter, no matter what.”

“You were going to raise the daughter of the man you hated most in the world?”

His answer was swift. “Yes.”

“You were going to raise the daughter of the man you tortured to death?”

“Yes.”

Kate drew closer to him then, her belly once more pressing against him. There was no anger on her face, no hatred. Her eyes flicked to his lips, and Warren seized the opportunity presented to him.

Just as before, he gripped both sides of her face, taking full control of the kiss. In contrast to before, however, his lips were gentle. It wasn’t lustful, or aggressive; it was the apology he couldn’t put into words, a declaration that he would never again wrong her, a promise that he would love her and their daughter until his last breath.

Kate pulled back. “It was never about what you were going to do to me, you know?”

“What?”

“You were going to have me put in prison.”

Her words shamed him. “The video of you and Graves…”

“Exactly. You had what you thought was proof. I can forgive that. I wish you’d talked to me instead of flying off the handle like a complete fucking idiot, but I can forgive that. It was you saying you were going to put her into the care system that I couldn’t forgive.”

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