Page 129 of Prey

I cup his face, forcing him to meet my eyes. “You think I don’t know exactly who you are?”

“A killer. A monster who?—”

“My monster.” The words come fierce, protective. “The father of my daughter. The man who gave me strength to avenge my abuser and feel nothing but relief.”

He leans into my touch like a cat seeking warmth. This predator, this weapon, this broken man who learned to hunt before he learned to love.

The lagoon is body temperature, impossibly clear. Nikolai gets into his swim trunks, all lean muscle and tribal tattoos covering his scars. I wear a maternity bikini that barely contains my swollen breasts.

He swims circles around me like a shark set on devouring anything that gets near his territory, hands constantly reaching to support my weight in the water. Our daughter settles when I float, finally still enough for me to relax.

“She likes it here.”

“Smart girl. Takes after her mother.” His palm spreads across my belly underwater, soft and gentle. “Can you feel that? She’s pushing against my hand.”

I can. Our daughter is pressing toward her father’s touch, recognizing him.

We float together as the sun burns overhead, him holding me while I hold her. For the first time in months, my back doesn’t ache. The water supports what my spine cannot.

“I love watching you carry her.” His voice drops to that rough register that makes me clench. “Love seeing you round with my baby. Knowing I put her there.”

Even six months pregnant, he can ignite me with a few words.

“Breeding kink much?”

His laugh is shameless. “Guilty. You’re perfect like this.”

He backs us toward shallow water where he can stand, positioning me against his chest. His hands roam my changed body with obvious reverence—fuller breasts, rounded hips, the tight curve of my belly.

“Most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he murmurs against my neck.

I grind back against him, feeling him harden. Pregnancy hasn’t dimmed my desire—if anything, the hormones make me constantly hungry for him.

“Take me back to bed.”

“Not yet.” He turns me in his arms, studying my face. “Something else first. Come on, let’s dry off.”

We get out of the water not long before the sunset paints the sky in impossible colors—orange bleeding into pink bleeding into deep purple. Nikolai leads me by the hand across a sandbar that appeared at low tide, water barely reaching our ankles.

Candles flicker in glass hurricanes set in the sand. Rose petals drift on the gentle current. He planned this, orchestrated every detail.

“Jenna.”

He drops to one knee on the sand, and my heart stops.

The ring is platinum, simple and elegant—a solitaire diamond that catches the last rays of the sun.

“I know how we started.” His voice shakes. “I took you. Caged you. Tried to condition you to want me.”

“Nik—”

“Let me say this.” His free hand finds my belly. “I was a weapon. Programmed to hunt, capture, and claim. They made me into a predator, and I found my prey. But from the moment I saw you, I knew you weren’t just prey. You were the woman who escaped a killer’s cage and became a killer herself. Who chose to stay when you could have run. Who trusted me with her body and her heart and now her baby.”

Tears blur the paradise around us.

“You saved me, Jenna. Not from them—from myself. Made me remember I was human. That I could love.” His voice breaks. “I don’t deserve you. Don’t deserve our daughter. But I’m selfish enough to ask anyway.” He holds up the ring. “Marry me. Not because you belong to me, but because I belong to you. Be my wife. Let me be your husband. Let us be a family.”

I sink to my knees in the sand. “Yes.”