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Isabel
“We haven’t used protection.” Sitting on top of Pace after we made love again, the sun beginning to shine through the slits in the curtains and his seed leaking out of me, I feel blessed. Beyond blessed.
“Nope.” I register the exhaustion in his voice. Sometime in the night, he went out. I assume to deal with Albert Liani because he came back bloody. I didn’t ask about it because as much as I craved my own family yesterday, people who share my blood, I know that’s no longer what I need. Family is who I choose, and they are all surrounding me.
“Do you want children?” Staring down at the scars on my body, I wonder if I would even make a good mother. It’s not as though I had any example of one.
Lifting my chin with a finger, Pace narrows his gaze. “Cut that shit out.” I can only shrug. “You’re going to be an amazing mother to as many children as I can plant inside of you. Whether it’s one or ten, nobody is going to love them like you will.”
His words inspire tears. I didn’t know how badly I needed to hear him say that until now. “I bought tests.” Gazing at the bathroom, I wonder if it’s too soon. “Nicola said it’s best to do it first thing in the morning.” I want to, but I realized sometime through the night that it’s barely been two weeks that we’ve known each other. It’s far too soon.
“Take one,” he encourages. “If it’s negative, that just means I get to spend a hell of a lot more time fucking you.” His grin is purely erotic as his eyes roam across my body.
“I’m afraid to be disappointed.” I didn’t even realize I would be if it turns out negative, until I was given the opportunity to buy them.
Sitting up, Pace cups my face in his hands. “No matter what that test says, it’s early, it could be wrong, and if it’s not, that simply means we get more time together before I have to start sharing your attention.”
Gripping his wrists, I smile at him. “You always know what to say.” Jumping off the bed, I rush to the bathroom and grab three tests.It can’t hurt to be thorough, right?I hope.
Ripping the packages open, I sit down and pee on all three sticks before placing them on the counter. Cleaning up, I start a shower, needing to have something to occupy my mind while I’m forced to wait. It takes a few minutes, but Pace eventually joins me. There’s a sly look in his eyes as he takes the conditioner from my hand and begins massaging the liquid into my hair.
As soon as it’s rinsed, he pins me to the shower wall, dropping down so he can thrust up into my neediness. I sigh as he kisses along my neck. “Congratulations, Mama.” It takes a minute before his words sink in and for my excitement to bubble over into a loud squeal which turns to a moan when his aching cock starts thrusting deeply.
“Positive?” My question is breathless.
“All three,” he groans into my mouth as he takes a kiss.
Our lovemaking is slow and lasts well into the day. Eventually, one of his brothers knocks on the door with the promise of food, but we don’t move. Not for another day. By the time we come up for air and join the family in celebration, my body is deliciously sore and covered in love bites from my husband.
When the men disappear to the back of the property, Pace gives me a look that tells me all I need to know. He’ll be back, but first, he has to take care of past business. I assume it’s Father Cassio he’s after, but it could be anything.
Right now, I no longer care. I have everything I never knew I needed in life, and as I begin the walk with Posy and Amalia to the orphanage, I know just how lucky I am.
I have sisters, brothers, parents, a loving if not slightly sadistic husband, and soon, a baby on the way, there’s nothing that could make me happier. Not anymore. The church may have stolen my childhood, but the Cardarellis gave me life.
And I intend to hold onto it for as long as I can.
Epilogue
ISABEL
One Year Later.
Ihave no idea how we got so lucky as to have such a perfect baby girl. At only three months old, Daphne is beginning to sleep through the night, and on the nights where she’s still waking, Pace is so eager to hold her that I often don’t know about it until morning.
The two of us were both nervous during the entire pregnancy, worried that we would mess up this whole parenting thing. As it turns out, we aren’t horrible, and Pace, my darling husband, with his brutal hands, short temper, and killer instincts, treats us both like queens.
“Is it time to wake her yet?” I read a hundred baby books while pregnant and shared as much information with Pace as I could, and the one thing we both have been quite strict on is keeping her on a schedule. But I can’t help it, I love her so much.
“You’re so impatient,” he teases, so I try to coerce him into giving in with a nuzzling of his neck and a hand up his shirt, caressing his ripped chest as I kiss lightly across his flesh.
“You’re a naughty girl,dolce. It will only throw her off schedule.” His predatory growl vibrates through my hand, and I have to rub my thighs together to keep from jumping his bones.
“We missed you.” Turning my body into his, I absorb the warmth that emits off Pace. He’s been gone for two nights, helping his brother Domino with a surprise for Nicola. My sister-in-law is finally getting her second baby, and Dom has bought the house next to the Morellos in Catania as a surprise for her. All the brothers spent the weekend there to help put together the nursery for the new baby.
Gripping the back of my thighs, Pace lifts me into his arms, always amazing me with his strength. “I missed you too.” Leaning down, he captures my lips before turning to carry me out of the room. “How long do we have?”
