Page 37 of Rough Choice

“I’ll stay,” Luca said shortly. “Don’t want to put anyone out, but the town is going to need a lot of help once the storm clears. I want to be around to help with the cleanup.”

“Come with me,” Grier said, rising from the table. “Let’s get the cameras pulled in, then we need to do a run into town. We’ll need to make sure we’ve got enough fuel for the generators.”

“Sounds good, boss,” Luca said, and they each tossed Kye a wave as they left.

Kye stood there for a moment, hands on the table when he heard her feet shuffling above him. Looking up into the gallery, he saw Eliana watching from the banister. They exchanged small smiles before she turned to enter their bedroom. Things had been tense between them since their brief mentioning of babies in the days before. She’d been polite, but nothing more. And she was avoiding him.

Well, he’d be damned if she was going to blow hotter than the impending hurricane.

Kye was up the staircase in moments, and when he reached the bedroom, he saw her nailing boards over the windows on the balcony. Moving out the open door, he watched her fit the plank in place and hammer it into the siding.

“You’re pretty good at that,” he observed as he leaned against the railing behind her.

“Doesn’t take a law degree to figure out how to use a hammer,” she said flatly, and he grinned. Pushing himself off the railing, he held the next board in place for her as she held a nail in her mouth and began tapping the other one in place.

“Eli,” he said softly. “I’m in love with you.”

“I know you are,” she said, not meeting his eyes, instead focusing intently on her nail.

“I want to marry you,” he continued. She still didn’t look up, but her hammer missed the mark on her next tap. “And I want to have kids with you.” Now she looked up at him. Her brown eyes round and vulnerable.

“Don’t say that unless you mean it…”

“Come here,” he said, taking her hand and pulling her to her feet. He held her by the hips, and she rested her hands, one still containing the hammer, over his shoulders. “I’m not just saying that. I freaked out a little, I’ll admit. I only just got you, after ten years of aching for you. The idea of having kids… as stupid as it sounds, I never put much thought into it. I had to earn you first.”

“You didn’t need to earn me…” she started, but he cut her off.

“I would never forgive myself if I hurt you in any way. Even more than that, if we had a child… if you had my child, and I let you down, wasn’t a good father. I don’t think I could bear it.”

“You’re afraid you’re not going to be a good father?” she asked as though it was the most absurd question she’d ever heard. “You’d make an amazing father, Kye. I remember the way you looked after your younger siblings when you lived with the Duncans. You’re the kindest, bravest, sweetest man I know.”

“After everything I’ve been through, though…”

“That’s what will make you a great dad,” she interjected. “You’ve experienced the worst of it. You know what that pain is like. You’d never let something like that happen to anyone you loved.” Kye could only nod. He didn’t realize until that moment that he’d started to cry. A single tear rolled down his cheek, and Eliana brushed it away with her thumb. “There’s no pressure to start a family right this moment, but I needed it to be a conversation.”

“I want a family with you. I want you to be a mother and my wife and everything else. I want you to have everything,” he said quickly, sincerely.

“I just want this,” she said placing a hand over his heart. “I just want you.”

“I’m yours. All yours.”

* * *

Kye was running his hands down her bare arms as they lay in bed together. The rain was pelting the house outside, and the way the wind whipped through the air made a howling sound. “I can hear the sirens,” Eliana murmured, her cheek pressed to his bare chest.

“We’ll be okay,” he said reassuringly. They’d dimmed the lights to conserve power, and the low lights granted a very romantic vibe, despite the raging weather around them. The compound was well placed on a small hill nearly a mile inland from the ocean so the risk of flooding was minimal. All the same, they had two sump pumps on standby ready to work.

All windows were boarded up, and the vehicles were safely stored in the stable turned garage. Kye felt secure knowing all the buildings were made of reinforced concrete and, at the worst, the dock would be destroyed. He’d been tracking the storm and if the Doppler was correct, they’d only get hit by the southern tip of it. Still, by the sounds of it, the weather was raging and though they couldn’t see outside, the night was the blackest it had ever been.

“If this is how we’re going to spend our time as the storm passes, I think more hurricanes should blow through,” she teased as his hands found her ass under the covers. Giving her cheeks a firm squeeze, he hoisted her onto his lap and kissed her deeply. He was about to give her his hurricane when the walkie talkie on the nightstand screeched to life.

“Kye, we have a problem,” Luca said from the other end. He was in the basement monitoring the storm from the computers.

“What is it?” Kye asked, holding the black device up to his mouth. “The storm?”

“Not exactly,” Luca replied. Annoyed his attention was being pulled was from the naked woman straddling him, Kye snapped back.

“You know that prowler we’ve been keeping an eye on?”