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Sin picked me up and carried me to my bathroom. He turned on the shower and stripped me. All I could do was stand, my teeth chattering. He stripped his clothes and got in with me.
The red bloom on Teddy’s shirt spread larger and larger in my mind. His wide eyes full of pain and surprise. “Do you think Teddy—?”
“I don’t know.” He hastily lathered a washcloth.
The blood sluiced down into the drain, a crimson river that would never run clear again.
I covered my face with a shaking hand. “It should have been me.”
“Don’t say that.” Sin pulled my hand away. “Never say that. We’d all be dead without you. Either from the hell of the Acquisition or Dylan’s bullets.”
“But Teddy—”
“No!” He slammed his fist into the tiles hard enough to break one. “Never wish yourself away from me.”
He crushed me to him, our battered souls clinging to one another as they had done from the start. “Never.”
EPILOGUE
STELLA
“TEDDY, COME IN. IT’S time for lunch.” I called loud enough for the dark-haired toddler on the lawn to look up at me.
“Mommy!” He grinned and did his best to navigate the grass toward me. Lucius ran up behind him and scooped him into his arms, tickling him as they barreled through the sunny morning.
I rubbed my stomach, the twins growing inside me apparently engaged in a fistfight. I turned as Lucius stomped up the stairs behind me.
Teddy giggled like a maniac. “Again, Unky Lusus!”
“Lunch first.”
“Mommy’s a buzzkill, little man.” Lucius set him on his feet in the foyer. He toddled off toward the kitchen. I may have been his mother, but he knew Laura had all the snacks.
“When are you going to pop?”
“Two weeks. You know that.”
“You keep telling me that, and I keep disbelieving that you can still be pregnant. Huge, is all I’m saying.”
“Beautiful, he means.” Sin came down the stairs and gave me a kiss. He peeked down the hallway and saw Teddy.
Giving me a grin, he turned and crept along behind his son, then grabbed him up and blew raspberries all along his stomach as he giggled.
“Are you sure they’re both girls?” Lucius matched my lumbering pace toward the breakfast room.
“That’s the word at the doctor’s office.” I trailed my fingers beneath my mother’s portrait that hung in the hall. I’d painted it from memory, and her smile greeted all guests to the house.
“Do you think maybe you could name one Lucia or something?”
“Not a chance.” I eased into the breakfast room. Lucius pulled out a chair for me, and I sat, my feet thanking me for the brief respite.
“Here.” He scooted out the chair next to me, and lifted my feet up.
I leaned back and closed my eyes. “Thank you.”
“Welcome.”
Sin came through from the kitchen and started rubbing my shoulders.
“He’s not eating sweets, is he?”
“Not really. Laura knows he’s supposed to eat lunch first. She only gave him a handful of jellybeans.” He kissed my forehead and kept rubbing.
“That’s sweets.” I threw my hands up. “Whatever. No one listens to the preggo lady around here.”
“Yes we do.” He dug his thumbs in, unwrapping my tight muscles like a Christmas present.
“I’m just irritable.”
“We know.” He laughed and kissed me again.
“Twins are your fault.”
“You may have mentioned that a couple hundred times. Though, I don’t think it’s true.”
Sin moved around and sat opposite me, putting my feet in his lap. He knocked my house shoes off and rubbed my swollen feet. “Spread your legs a little more.”
I tilted my head at him. “What?”
“You heard me.”
“I did but—”
“Do it.” He used that tone—the one that sent a thrill through me every time.
I slowly opened my legs.
“Pull up your skirt more.”
“Sin.” I shook my head.
“Stella. Do it now.” He dug his thumb into the bottom of my foot.
I grabbed the material and pulled until my skirt hit mid-thigh.
“Much better.” He continued rubbing, his gaze vacillating from my eyes to between to my legs.
My body warmed as he watched me. “You’re a bad man.”
“So I’ve been told.” He switched feet. “As soon as Teddy’s down for a nap, I’ll be going down on you.”
My temperature kicked up a notch. “Bad, bad man.”
He shrugged. “What? I can’t give my pregnant wife the special attention she deserves?”
One of the babies kicked what must have been a vital organ. I groaned and rubbed my belly with a vengeance. “Twins are all your fault.”
“Actually they’re not.” Teddy walked into the dining room, his green scrubs making him look older.
I closed my legs and wrinkled my nose. “What do you know? You’re not even a real doctor yet.”
I huffed as he leaned down and pecked me on the cheek.
“Okay, you’re right. It is all Sin’s fault.”
“Much better. I thought you were in rounds or something all day?”
“Nope. Got done this morning. Wanted to come by and see little T. And check on you, of course.”
