“You’re right. He shouldn’t have told me.Youshould have. By trying to protect me, you let me think the worst. And because I didn’t trust myself and my judgement about you, Ididthink the worst. And when I thought about the fact that I was pregnant . . . I was terrified. Terrified that I’d fallen in love with someone I didn’t even know. That my child’s blood would be half yours—and it wouldn’t be . . .
“But Idoknow you, Brooks. And Archer taking the chance and telling me what you couldn’t, only made me realize how much I do know you. I know in my heart that you’re a good man, and as crazy as it sounds, what you did, and why you did it . . . that proves it. And it made me sick tothink that I’d let you walk out of my life because of your past.”
“Poet,” he whispered.
“No, let me finish. You’ve loved me. All of me. From the beginning. Down in that shaft, I realized I hadn’t loved you the same way. Because I was too afraid to. Well, I’m not afraid now, Brooks. I want you. I want every dark part of you. Every secret. Every memory that haunts you. I want to know it all, because I want to share a life with you—not just the good stuff. And I know there’s so much more good to you than bad. God, Brooks. Can you ever forgive me for not trusting you?”
Brooks got off the chair and knelt before me on the floor. He placed his hands by my thighs and peered up at me, his heart in his eyes. “Can you ever forgive me for trying to protect you from who I used to be?”
I held the mug in one hand and stroked a finger across his cheek with the other. “Everything you’ve ever done makes you the man you are now. I know you’d never hurt me or our baby. I’ve never worried about that.”
“No?”
I shook my head. “I wouldn’t have been dreaming of having your babies if I thought you’d ever hurt me. It’s why your past was such a shock. I couldn’t seem to reconcile it with the man you’ve shown me.”
“I hid it from you,” he said.
“Yes.”
“I didn’t want my past to fuck this up.”
“I know that too,” I said gently.
He turned his head and kissed my finger and then he took it into his hand. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know. Well, maybe not everything. For the sake of legalities. But other than that, I’m an open book.”
“I don’t need to know. Unless you want to tell me. Then I’ll listen.”
“I’m not Ripper anymore.”
“I know.”
“But I’ll always protect you.” His hand splayed across my belly. “I will always protect our babies.”
“I know that too,” I said, leaning forward and brushing my lips across his. “Babies?”
“Can’t have just one, Freckles. She’ll get lonely.”
He smiled against my lips.
I smiled back.
“Drink your tea,” he commanded, finally pulling back and getting up off the floor.
“Yes, sir.” I took a dainty sip. “So, are you going to tell me about Gina?”
“What do you want to know about her?” he asked.
“Why did you dissolve your ties when you did?”
“Danger had passed. And she met someone,” he said with a wry smile.
“So in biker world, you got a divorce.”
“If you want to call it that. But when you and I tie the knot, it’ll be forever.”
My lips quivered. “You promise?”
“I promise.”
