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“Megumi wasn’t so hypothetical.”
He threw his head back on a delighted laugh at her growl. “See? You may think you could have shared me for the sake of my mission to reacquire my family name, but you’re almost sick to your stomach just imagining it in retrospect, even when you know it will never happen.”
“I would have stomached anything to be with you. At least, I would have lived with permanent nausea. I was a beggar who didn’t dream she could be a chooser.”
He crushed her to him, his eyes reproving. “You were never a beggar. You were always my mistress, in all meanings of the word. Mistress of my heart, queen of my life. I was born to love you, too.”
He received her surge as she flung herself at him, squeezed her tighter into himself. “I dreamed of reclaiming my heritage and my family because I thought I’d be able to fill the emptiness inside me with duty and tradition, that they’d be anchors to give my life purpose. Then I found you, and I no longer needed anything but you. I only searched for them again when I lost you, to fill the void your loss left behind. But you’re back with me, and you’re mine, have always been mine like I’ve always been yours. You fill my every emptiness—you are my anchor. You and the family we’ll create together. You are my counterpart, the other half of my soul, the only one who’s ever understood me, the darkness and pain and scars I have inside me, and also the power, resilience and indomitable will. We’re the same, and we’re the only ones to soothe and heal each other, and to give each other the endless love we need.”
After dragging him down for a fierce, thankful kiss, she sank back, playing lovingly with his hair, her brilliant eyes glittering with tears and adoration. “When I wanted to do something that mattered, all I could think
of was you, when you were a child, helpless and alone, and I wanted to help all the children who found themselves in your same situation.”
His heart convulsed at yet another proof of her total love for him. “You suffered worse. Why didn’t you direct your efforts toward girls who suffer the same as you did?”
“Because I love you more than I love myself. Way more.” And he believed her. For he loved her way beyond how he loved himself or anything else. “Imagining your pain hurt me more than remembering experiencing my own. But once this shelter project is up and running, I’ll do what you suggest, too, in my original region. But there, I won’t be up against natural disasters, but organized crime.” She sank kneading fingers in his arm. “I’ll need your muscle there.”
Body going rigid with arousal all over again, he groaned. “My every muscle is at your disposal. And my brothers’, too.”
She giggled. “Are you sure they’d be open to that? Antonio called me when you were on your way and begged me to get you off his back. The poor man is entering chronic sleep deprivation because you’re obsessing about my pregnancy.”
“So what? That man can operate in his sleep. He actually did yesterday.” She chuckled again, and he melted a caress down the delightful curve of her cheek. “So how do you feel about adoption?”
After a moment’s surprise at his abrupt change of subject, she smiled widely. “I feel that now that I’m going to have a billionaire ninja husband, I’d like to adopt four children.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Why four?”
“Because I have my eye on two girls and two boys in the shelter. And they have their eye on me. Ages two to six. I was thinking how I would be able to adopt them alone, but now...”
“We’ll adopt them together. And our baby will be born to find she or he already has a huge family waiting to love her or him.”
“Uh...why don’t you think about it some more? Adoption is a huge decision, even bigger than deciding to have a biological child.”
“I know that. And I’ve already thought. Why do you think I asked you what you feel about it?” A consideration suddenly hit him. “Or did you only consider adoption when you thought you wouldn’t have a child of your own?”
“Knowing I’ll have a child of my own doesn’t change a thing. I want to help as many children as I can, give them security, and if possible, a loving home.”
“You’re saving the child I was in them, aren’t you?” When she nodded and buried her face in his chest, he lifted her chin, held her swimming eyes that glittered azure in the soft lights. “And we’ll also save the child you were. An older girl who’s been passed over for adoption from your part of the world.”
She dived into his arms again with a smothered cry of poignancy...and the doorbell rang.
Frowning, he sat up. “Expecting someone?”
“I didn’t even tell anyone I was back.”
On alert in a split second, he sprang from the bed, making her whoop in delight at his elastic rebound.
“Wow,” she breathed as she rushed to put on her dressing gown. “One day you must show me all the ninja stuff you can do.”
“I showed you many so far.” Then he showed her another trick, literally jumping into his pants.
As she jumped and clapped, he placed his fingers on his lips as he rushed soundlessly out of the bedroom.
She rushed after him. “Didn’t you resolve everything with the Yakuza? Why are you alarmed now?”
He again gestured for her to lower her voice. “Because no one should be calling on you, now or at all.”
“Aren’t your bodyguards still around?”
