Saintcrow swore softly when he saw the hurt in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said gruffly. “Can you forgive me?”
“There’s nothing to forgive. I called an adoption agency. They said they’ll take him.”
“Kadie, I can’t ask you to do that.”
“You didn’t ask me, but I know it’s difficult for you to be around the baby, just as I know I can’t live without you.”
He reached for her then, drawing her into his embrace. “This might not be the best solution, but if you’ve got a better one, I’m willing to listen. How about if we keep the kid for, say, six months and see how it goes? Maybe being around him will get easier as time goes by. If not....hell, we’ll worry about that later. In the meantime, if it gets too bad at home, I can always spend a night or two at the hotel.”
She didn’t answer for a long time, and then she nodded.
“I love you, Kadie,” he murmured, and he had never meant it more.
He moved back home late that night, surprised to discover that Kadie had moved all of the baby’s paraphernalia into one of the bedrooms upstairs, no doubt to put some space between him and the child. The distance wouldn’t be a problem, since Kadie’s preternatural hearing would allow her to hear the boy if he cried or made any other sounds that might concern her.
Clad in his briefs, he paced the floor in their room while Kadie went upstairs to get the baby ready for bed. He listened as she crooned softly to the child, heard the faint creak of a rocking chair, the love in her voice as she sang a lullaby while rocking the boy to sleep.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he removed his briefs when Kadie came into the room. He watched her undress, hermovements slow and provocative. When she reached for one of her nightgowns, he tugged it out of her hands and tossed it aside. “Not tonight,” he said, his voice laced with desire.
With a faint smile, she straddled his hips and pushed him down on the mattress. He gazed up at her, his dark eyes filled with love and desire. “I missed you while you were gone,” she said quietly. “I was afraid you weren’t coming back.”
He cupped her face in his hands. “I will always come back to you, darlin’,” he said, his voice husky. “Never doubt it.”
“Never,” she murmured, as his body melded with hers.
~ * ~
Kadie was almost asleep when Rylan sat up.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I was wondering what you were going to call the boy.”
“Oh.” Kadie sat up. “I hadn’t really thought about it. I mean, I thought we should decide together if you agreed to let him stay.”
He grunted softly.
“Do you have a preference?”
“No.” He slid a glance in her direction. “But you do.”
“Reading my mind?” she asked.
He shrugged one shoulder. “It’s a bad habit of mine.”
“Don’t I know it. So, do you approve?”
“Conor Rylan Saintcrow. I can live with that. Although I have to say, I’m surprised. I thought you’d want to name him after your father.”
Kadie stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Do you seriously think I’d name our child after my father when he tried to kill you?”
Saintcrow grinned wryly. Her father had been a vampire hunter. And then he blinked as the words, “our child” sank in. “The name’s perfect.”
Throwing her arms around him, Kadie kissed him soundly. And he knew in that moment that Conor Rylan Saintcrow was there to stay.
~ * ~
During the next couple of weeks, Saintcrow spent a lot of time in his office, making plans to reopen the town. He called a plumber to come out and check toilets, showers, and pipes. Contacted an electrician to look over the wiring, a pool cleaning outfit to spruce up the pool, a couple of gardeners to mow the lawns and weed the flower beds, a painting company to repaint the buildings and any of houses that needed it, inside and out.
