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“Yes. To remind myself my little sunflower is lethal. You’re under my skin, baby. It’s only normal for it to show on the surface. The effect you have on me runs much deeper than the scar. You’re mine. I keep you with me. It’s not a big deal.”
Livie wanted to color his tattoo yellow because it’s a sunflower. The center isn’t shaded with ink because it’s a raised, pink scar from the bullet that tore his flesh when I shot him. It’s clearly new, ugly. I can almost feel it throbbing. Around it are the petals of a sunflower. It’s not perfect. It looks like it’s been crushed, stomped on. Some petals are falling, showing lower on his abdomen. They cover some of his other tattoos.
“It’s a broken flower.”
“It’s a flower that’s surviving despite everything it’s been through.”
“Thanks to its sun?” I ask with a tipped smile.
He chuckles. “Of course, thanks to its sun.”
Not far from my scar is the one his sister left him when she shot him.
“You’re going to have to stop angering the women around you,” I tease.
“Absolutely. I’m running out of skin to tattoo.”
Livie starts whining. She shakes her head, unhappy with something I can’t quite comprehend. Nate’s hand shoots toward me and takes back the pen I’m fisting tightly.
He gives it to Livie, stopping the beginning of her tantrum. But instead of coloring him again, she falls against his chest and wraps her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.
He bites back a grunt, her body on his scar clearly painful. But before I can get her back, Lia jumps on him.
“I want to hug Mister Nate!” She wraps herself around him in any way she can, and he looks up at me as he wraps his arms around both of them.
“How does it feel?” I ask. And I know he hates that question, but he’s going to have to try.
“Like something unbelievably powerful belongs to me.”
“They’re just two little girls,” I laugh, even though he’s right. I feel it too when I’m with them.
“They’re my two little girls.”
“You’re already sounding possessive.”
He smiles. “Try to take them away from me and see what happens.”
Why am I feeling so proud that he’s already attached to them?
“It’s a lot of responsibility. Very little time to yourself. It’s worrying too.”
“I’ll take it all.”
I cock an eyebrow at him, putting a hand on my hip.
“They’re expensive.”
His answer comes without hesitation.
“I’m a very rich man.”
“You can kiss goodbye to your privacy. And your personal life.”
“My personal life is you, Kayla. It’s you, and them. I need nothing else.”
I lick my lips, nodding. Shit, that feels really good to hear. “Okay. We’ll give it a go. But only because being a dad looks so hot on you.”
He tilts his head to the side, his eyebrows pinching. “I didn’t realize you thought you had an option. This was not an interview process. I was only showing you what it’ll be like from now on.”
