She does, clenching around me so hard I see stars. Moments later, I spill inside her with a groan.
I pull out and shift us onto our sides, tucking her back against my chest. My arm drapes over her waist while my hand splays across her belly.
“Oh my God!”
My heart stops. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Antonio.” She tilts her head back to look at me over her shoulder, eyes wide. “We didn’t use a condom.”
“I’m clean. I got tested recently.”
“What if I get pregnant? What are we going to do?”
Panic seizes me for a second before my brain catches up.
“You think you’re funny.” I flex my fingers against the small swell beneath my palm.
The laughter spills out of her. “Your face. You actually fell for it.”
“I did not.”
“You did. You went pale.”
“I’m Brazilian. I don’t pale.”
“You went as pale as a Brazilian man can go.” She’s still laughing, wiping tears from her eyes. “Admit it.”
I tighten my arm around her waist and pull her impossibly closer, nuzzling into her neck. “Don’t worry, querida,” I say against her skin. “I’ll take care of you and the baby.”
The words are out before I can think them through. A promise. The kind my father made a thousand times and broke just as many.
What if I can’t? What if the Da Rocha genetics kick in and I become present but unreliable, loving but ultimately disappointing? What if I hurt her the way he hurt mãe, not through malice but through my own inability to be what she needs?
But I’ve already said it. And I meant it. I just have to figure out how to actually do it.
“My mother was right,” I say.
“About what?”
“Stability.” I stare at the back of her head. “Our daughter deserves parents under one roof.”
Jasmine turns her face toward me again. “What’s your plan?”
“We’ve done everything backwards. We had sex before we dated. We’re having a baby before we’re a couple.” I take her hand, lacing our fingers together against her belly. “I want to take you on a date.”
“A date.”
“Dinner, conversation, maybe dancing if you’re up for it. I want to court you properly, Jasmine. The way you deserve.”
Court. Meu Deus, I sound like my avô. But it’s the right word. The only word.
“You want to court me?”
“Is that so hard to believe?”
Something flickers in her eyes. I know she’s thinking about all the reasons she shouldn’t trust me, starting with Dani waiting in my bed.
“Let me prove I can be what you and the baby need.”
