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Janus’s elbows framed each side of my head, and it was like he’d closed out the rest of the world. Hands grasped each of my feet—one touch gentle, the other firm. But when Janus pushed the hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ear, he was the only one I could focus on.
“Hey baby,” he said deep.
I blinked up at him, flat on my back and breathing hard. They always took my breath away.
“Hi,” I whispered back, and then giggled. But my giggle turned into a groan when he pulled out and then thrust back in.
“It’s happening.” Janus frowned.
“What?” I lifted my arms to wrap around his neck.
“He’s taking me away from you.”
His eyes were dark gray in the dim light of the room.
I shook my head and frowned.
Janus leaned down, his groin grinding against mine. “I barely see you anymore.” His hand slid down between us. “You’re growing my baby.”
I clenched around his shaft inside me. “I’m here.” I clenched my arms around his neck. “I’m always here for you.”
He nuzzled his face against my neck and whispered, “I hope that’s true.”
I turned my face into his and we kissed as he pulled out and thrust in again. While the others had fucked me, Janus made love to me. He made love to me so sweetly and assured me with his body the things his words had promised.
He loved me.
I clutched him to me with every muscle I had. “I love you,” I whispered. “No one will ever take me away from you.”
He cried out a low, guttural groan, and flooded me deep inside with his seed.
SEVEN
HOPE
The next morning, Janus woke me up. “How are you feeling, honey?”
I blinked up at him and shifted my legs, smiling when I saw his rumpled hair and the creases on his face from the pillow. And remembering last night. They’d all bathed me after, and I still couldn’t decide which I loved best—the lovemaking, or the sweet caretaking after.
I paused and assessed my tummy. For the second day in a row, I didn’t feel like running for the toilet.
“I’m good,” I said, shocked when I meant it.
“Then come to work with us today,” he said. “We’re actually going into Venice to train on the gondolas. It’ll be a beautiful day on the canals. With all the comforts, I promise.”
I bit my lip. It would be nice to get out of the apartment for more than just a short walk. But a whole day out…
“And Milo can always bring you back to the hotel if it’s too much.”
I threw my arms around his neck. “Yes!”
I’d always heard of Venice but had never realized that it was actually a city off the coast of Italy. The way the boat driver explained it, it was composed of 117 small islands connected by bridges and canals.
Humanity was officially insane to build a city like this. It made no sense! But the closer the boat got, skipping across the waves, the more the beautiful historic city came into view. All along the outer edges, docks were surrounded by floating gondolas and boats.
My stomach had even survived the slapping waves of the sea. Thank goodness it was a calm day and the waves hadn’t been too strong. Still, when we switched from the wave-runner to a gondola to head deeper into the city, I was glad. The waters were much calmer.
About an hour later, the guys had me perched on a comfortable canvas chair in a sun-dappled mini-courtyard, watching the twins attempt to learn how to steer a gondola. A scene in the movie required Leander’s character to steal one and suavely navigate it through the streets of Venice, escaping the bad guy. Hence, needing to look semi-convincing at standing and steering the aforementioned longboat.
Janus got the hang of it right away as the instructor led them through the spiel about the proper way to let the oar enter the water. Then he demonstrated exactly when and how to rotate it so that it cut smoothly through and propelled the craft forward. It looked so easy when he showed them.
But when Leander tried, he tended to dip too deep, so that by the time he got to the pivot and pull part of the rotation, his boat barely moved at all.
“Shallow strokes, shallow strokes!” the instructor called out from right beside me on the dock.
Leander cussed as his gondola started to spin in a circle while Janus’s slid smoothly forward.
“No, no, I said shallow strokes!” the instructor called again, then let out a long string of Italian. Milo lifted his eyebrows, looking up from his phone for a second before glancing back down.
I hid a smile. It was so rare to see Leander not immediately excel at anything he tried. He looked over at his brother, whose gondola was twenty feet ahead of him down the canal. Then Leander’s brow scrunched in concentration and he swung the oar into the water again. And he dug it in, the exact opposite of what the instructor had been asking him to do.
