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She bites her lips and nods, tears springing to her tears – tears as bright and happy and hopeful as the glittering sea where I proposed to her. “Yes, you can. You can read me better than anyone.”
My heart starts to pound as a thought rushes through me, as it sends adrenaline rushing to every part of me, as my head hammers with the tension and I almost have to roar the words. But I stare, at her tears, waiting.
“Kelly?”
My voice is deep and gruff.
“Kelly?”
“Yes, yes,” she whimpers, collapsing against me.
I catch her and hug her close. “Yes, what?”
“I’m pregnant.” She trembles against me as I hold her, as I stroke my fingers through her hair and kiss the top of her head. “I’m pregnant, Kane. We’re pregnant.”
I kiss the top of her head again, and again, as though by doing that I can fight it. “I know.”
“Hey, hey.” She claws onto my chest and looks up at me. “You can cry. You can let it out.”
I laugh but halfway through, it becomes a croak, my voice cracking, and suddenly tears are streaming down my cheeks. These are the tears I never cried when my Army brothers passed, when Lena’s mother died, or a whole host of other hellish shit happened to me. But this woman is my everything, my forever, and now our future… our future….
We collapse against each other, as we both cry, as tears of pure happiness and joy flood out of us.
“You better not tell anyone about this.” I chuckle, dabbing at my eyes.
“What, our pregnancy?”
I grin. “Ha, ha. No. The crying.”
She giggles and moves forward. “Is that an order?”
I reach down and grab her ass, as she moves her palm to my shaft and strokes through my boxers. “Maybe it is,” I growl.
Then I pause, our faces close together, staring into her eyes. “I love you so, so much. I can’t wait to watch you become a mother. I can’t wait to be with you, always, forever. Forever.”
“I love you too,” she whispers, leaning forward to kiss me. “Forever.”
Extended Epilogue
One Year Later
Kane
I stand at the rear of the concert hall, with little Joey in the front harness. He loves to sit in there with his earmuffs on, his head resting against my chest. I hug my arms around him and lean against the wall. “Ready to hear Mommy sing, little man?”
This is my woman’s first show, opening for a bigger singer who’s in town. She was so nervous leading up to this, pacing around the bedroom with her hands at her sides, clenching and unclenching her fists.
“What if it all goes wrong? What if they hate me? What if I can’t sing? What if my dress looks silly with my baby weight…”
“Hey.” I paced over to her and gripped her shoulders, spinning her so she was facing me. “The baby weight makes you look even more beautiful. Look at your curves.”
It was always difficult to stop myself from mauling her, especially when she was strutting around the bedroom in nothing but her bathrobe, silk fluttering open at the middle to reveal tempting slices of thigh and breast.
“You’re beautiful. You were singing all through the pregnancy. And I happen to know little Joey loves your singing.”
He’s named Joey after one of my old military buddies, one of the men I made the run for… Those streets – the gunfire, and Joey just screaming, just roaring out for me to help him. There was nothing I could do. I brought him back but his wounds were too bad, now I have a Joey close to my heart. I’ve honored him.
“Aye, little buddy?” I say now, leaning down and kissing his head softly. “Are you excited?”
He murmurs sleepily and I study him for a moment, loving how much of his mother he has in his features.
Finally, the curtains flutter and the crowd goes quiet. A few hushed whispers hover in the air as the lights go low, the darkness broken by a few phones aimed at the stage. The curtains open and my woman’s voice crackles through the sound system.
“Hello, everybody.”
She looks to the back of the room, her eyes locked on mine.
I stare at her outfit – a gown of glittering black gemstones, trailing from her heaving breasts and spilling down so her feet are hidden. Her hair is pinned back and black jewels glitter at her ears. She was so in love with this outfit, but nervous too, but I knew she never had to be.
She looks like a queen, and I stare in wonder at the love of my life, the mother of my child. My wife. I stare and I can’t believe how lucky I am.
“My name is Kelly Konstantinov.” She smiles when she says the name without stumbling. I teased her for a while about it… teasing which always led to kissing, to embracing, to the red-hot clashing of our always-ready bodies. “And this is my song.”
