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Chapter 22
Leda
A rush of emotions swelled inside me at the awe in his voice. Here was this big bad Mafia Don who had done things that most wouldn’t even think could be possible, and he was surprised by my being pregnant. It made it all far too real, made Lucas far too real, solidifying the fact that he could be killed if we didn’t stop this war.
“Our child,” I repeated, banishing the horrible thoughts for now.
A breath-stealing smile crossed his face. “My boys must be strong swimmers to fight off that IUD.”
There was male pride in his voice, and I rolled my eyes. “That’s crazy talk. You know the IUD could have just failed.”
I had been under a lot of stress lately and not taking care of my body as I should have. It was easy to think that my hormones had been out of whack too.
“Regardless,” he said, his hand drifting over my hip and resting there. “We are having a child, Leda. And I haven’t the faintest cloud what to do with kids.”
“We’ll figure it out together, all right?” I told him, touching his face with my hand. “I’m not so sure what to do with one either, but if my brother can figure it out, it can’t be that hard.”
Lucas’s jaw tightened. “I understand now.”
I wasn’t sure what he was referring to. “What?”
He looked past me and at the wall. “I know why your brother did what he did. He had more than just himself to worry about. Leda, a child is innocent. He doesn’t get to pick his parents or the situation he’s born in.”
Oh, I knew that quite well. I was a D’Agostino regardless of how much I wanted to fight it.
My father was a monster, but he still was my father. I couldn’t deny him, disown him, or disown my ancestors.
“It’s going to be okay,” I told Lucas, seeing the concern starting to file into his expression. “We have plenty of time to fix all this and set up a future for our child. I will be here the entire way.”
He leaned forward and pressed our foreheads together. “I don’t deserve you.”
I let out a choked laugh, breathing in his scent. “No, you don’t.”
He didn’t laugh but pulled back instead, his eyes anxiously looking into mine.
“I love you,” he said in a rushed tone. “I don’t think you realize just how much you mean to me, Leda. Hell, I can’t even fucking think straight whenever you are around. I live for your laughs, for your jokes, for your smile.”
Tears clogged my throat. I had never heard Lucas bare himself like this before, and it was everything. I knew that when Lucas said things like this, he wasn’t lying, nor did he take them lightly.
“I don’t know why you love me,” he continued. “I’m a fucking monster, and I don’t deserve your love or that of the child you are giving me, but I can’t live without you. I can’t go through the rest of my life without knowing that you are beside me 100 percent of the way.” He lowered his head. “I don’t know what I did to deserve someone like you, but I’m not going to take you for granted ever again.”
I let his words sink in before I gripped his chin and forced him to meet my gaze.
“You are everything to me,” I started out, the words coming from my very soul. “I don’t care who you were. I want to be with who you are right now and in our future. I want to watch you love this child with every fiber of your being because I know you will. I know you will be the best father you can be, and we will love you even more for it. I love you, Lucas Valentino. You don’t ever have to hide who you are from me.”
I knew there would be days that he would be someone else. If we got this Mafia stuff straight, there would be two sides to Lucas. There had to be. He couldn’t be the Don in our home, and he couldn’t be this wonderful, good man in front of his Mafia.
I was prepared for it, and I would embrace all parts of him because if I couldn’t, then I didn’t truly love him.
“Thank you,” he said, surprising me.
“For what?”
He sat up. “For never giving up on me. You had every opportunity, and hell, every right to do so, but you didn’t, and that makes you far fucking better than I could ever become.”
My lips parted, but Lucas was already moving out of the bed, giving me a healthy view of his gorgeous body as he did so. Every angle, every dip and swell of his body made him complete perfection, even his scars.
And he was all mine. “Where are you going?”
