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It didn’t take long for him to catch me, though, one of his hands settling on my hips, the other fastening around my neck. There was fire in his eyes now. An inferno. “You’re marrying me,” he murmured. “Before the baby is born. I know you’ll want some big fuckin’ thing, and you’re going to complain about there not being enough time for the dress, the flowers to be flown in from Italy or where the fuck ever, but I don’t care. We can do it big, huge next year if you like. You can make it whatever you want. But it has to be in the next nine months. If I had my way, we’d be doin’ it tomorrow. But you’re in my arms.”
His hand slipped from my hips to cover my stomach. “My baby is inside you.” His voice was impossibly soft, bursting with emotion. “I got my way. I got my fuckin’ wildest dreams. So it doesn’t have to be tomorrow. But it will be soon.”
Tears were streaming down my face faster than he could wipe them away. Karson didn’t try. The last time I was pregnant, he got used to me bursting into tears at an insurance commercial or when I accidently dropped my cookie on the floor.
Surely, this had something to do with the hormones, if only a little. But most of those tears came from an authentic place.
Not a little bit of me even wanted to argue. “Okay,” I whispered.
Now he looked shocked.
“Okay?” he repeated.
I nodded.
“Fuck,” he muttered. “I thought it would be a lot more difficult than this.” He let me go so he could reach into his jacket. He pulled out a ring box.
Holy fuck. He couldn’t have magicked that out of nowhere. He had already been planning this.
“You kind of stole my thunder,” he teased with light in his eyes.
The box opened to reveal the most stunning emerald I’d ever seen. Square, solitaire, the band rounded with tiny diamonds.
“Emerald,” I murmured.
“Her birthstone,” he finished for me. “So you carry her, us, with you for the rest of your life.”
Somehow, the tears came even faster.
“Did I do good?” Karson asked, sounding slightly uncertain.
I nodded my head violently, leaning forward to kiss him. “Yes, honey, you did good,” I said against his mouth. “Now put it on me.”
He grinned. “Not arguing with that.” His eyes were grave on mine. “Once this is on, it’s never coming off.”
I scowled at him. “As if I’d ever.”
He slipped the ring on my fourth finger. It fit perfectly. It was slightly heavy. I liked the weight. Loved it.
I stared down at it for a long time.
“The doctors told me I wouldn’t have another baby,” I said quietly. “I already knew that, though.” I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “I know you’re going to think I’m crazy when I tell you this, but I have to tell you everything now before I lose my nerve.”
I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment.
“Years ago, I went to a woman in Romania,” I began quietly, opening my eyes. “A fortune teller. The real deal. You are a man of action and reason, so you won’t believe in her, but she was legit. She came from generations of witches. And she predicted this. All of this. Meeting you. Falling for you. Getting pregnant. Losing the baby.” It was only then I had the courage to look into Karson’s eyes. “And she told me that I would never have another child. That I would never be a mother.”
“Fuck that bitch,” he growled, pulling me into him.
I blinked at him. “She is a very powerful witch, Karson, you cannot call her a bitch,” I whispered, eyes darting around, half expecting her to appear.
“She is on another continent, I doubt she can hear me,” he replied, voice still rough with anger. “And if she was right in front of me, I’d gladly say the same. Because you are a mother. No matter what happens here. You are a fuckin’ mother. Nothing and no one can take that away from you.”
Again, tears clouded my vision.
“But both modern medicine and ancient witchcraft told me this wasn’t going to happen,” I sobbed.
Karson wiped at the tears with his thumb. “You’re Wren Whitney. Since when have you let modern medicine or ancient witchcraft get in your way?”
