Aurora Rose Reynolds

It shouldn’t matter, but I fucking hate that she keeps taking her eyes from me.

“Did you need something else? Flour, sugar, my firstborn child?”

“You are so strange,” he informs me

“Are you okay?” Hell, no, my dog almost killed me trying to get to the man she’s obviously in love with.

His eyes meet mine, and he shakes his head. “I don’t know what’s going on in that pretty little head of yours, but know this—you run and I will find you.”

“You are safe with me, Sophie.” His fingers run along my jaw. “We are going to explore this thing between us. We are going to take it as slowly as you need, but you are not going to push me away. It’s not going to work. You push me, and I will push back.”

“No, Sophie, I’m not going to stop. I need you with me, but in order for that to happen, I need you to want us as much as I do. I need you to stop letting your fears run you.”

“I’m almost there, baby.”

“Okay,” she says quietly, and I want to fucking scream because I can hear the fear in her voice. She’s been so good—no freak-outs, no worries. She’s settled in and started coming around…and now this.

“Talk to me, baby,” I say soothingly.

“About what?”

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

I pull my arm free from the nurse and go to her.

“Hey, baby.” I bend down, breathing her in.

“You’re here,” she croaks out.

“Nowhere else I would want to be.”

“All right, Mr. and Mrs. Mayson. Are you guys ready to have some babies?”

“How did he look at me?” My heart starts to beat hard.

“Like he couldn’t believe his luck, like he couldn’t believe you were real and right there with him.”

“Stop!” he roars, and I clamp my mouth shut, feeling like an idiot. I know he’s worried, and me acting crazy isn’t going to help that. “No one is going to fucking hurt you. No one is going to get near you, and I don’t give a fuck if I have to stand guard over you for the next . . .” He jerks his fingers through his hair. “For the next however long it takes for the cops to find who did this shit.”