I shook my head, shoving the memories of Tristian out of my head.
“Don’t,” Eden ordered, reading my mind. “Don’t let him ruin us when we’ve just begun. He’s not worth it.”
“I loved him. He was my brother.”
“Who turned into your enemy.”
“That’s the hardest pill to swallow.”
I pressed a hungry kiss to her neck, my teeth grazing her soft skin like they wanted to bite down, mark her on the outside as well as the inside.
“I love you. I love you. I love you.” I meant it, kissing her deeply, our kiss slow, both of us still panting.
Eden smiled up at me, and it was like looking directly at Heaven, at the sun, at the beauty of the world.
I was lost.
And then found.
Broken but not forgotten.
A sinner.
She was a saint.
My angel.
The good to my bad.
Her eyes filled with tears. “Romeo, do you love me?”
“I’ll say it until you believe it, and then I’ll say it again and again, so you feel it. I love you. You’re mine, Eden. Mine.” I stared deep into her eyes.
“And all I’ve ever wanted… was to be yours too.”CHAPTER FORTY-ONE“I love the way your foul little mind works.”—Jafar
Romeo
Now: Six months later…“I hate school.” Naz had been repeating that same mantra all through dinner, though strangely enough, he’d always loved school. And now he was repeating it after brushing his teeth, mumbling it under his breath while he got on his Batman PJs.
Frowning, I went into the bedroom I shared with Eden.
Ours.
Home.
We’d moved out of her old house soon after we came together. I sold my penthouse and decided to buy a house outside the city.
Years ago, I would have said the quiet suburbs were my worst nightmare.
Now, I found that I preferred the quiet; I preferred this family, this family that was real, which was mine.
Eden was in the bathroom, wearing black silk shorts and a tank that left little to the imagination when she wasn’t wearing the short silk bathrobe around her little body.
My body.
“Is he still saying he hates school?” She rubbed some moisturizer around her gorgeous face; her worried eyes met mine through the mirror.
I tugged her back against me.
The three-karat princess cut diamond shimmered on her left hand as she grabbed my arms and laid her head back against my shoulder, leaning into me, relying on me.
I would never get tired of it.
The way she looked at me as if I wasn’t a killer, but someone who did whatever it took to keep her and my son safe.
Protected.
Content.
Happy.
I was still an assassin for the family; I just didn’t sleep with women anymore to gain intel.
“Yeah.” I kissed the top of her head. “He’ll talk about it when he’s ready. You know how he gets.”
She snorted. “Yeah, he takes after someone else I know in talking to himself and kicking the ground until he’s worked through a problem.”
I smirked. “Wow, this person must be a great role model.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I think when he wipes blood off the blade of his knife or cleans one of his many guns.”
I smacked her on the ass, earning a yelp, and then she turned in my arms, and her mouth eagerly found mine.
Damn, I was ready for her.
So hard that I forgot our son was in the next room until “Ewwww gross!” sounded from behind us both.
We slowly broke apart. Eden’s cheeks were red; I just winked and said, “And that’s how babies are made.”
Eden smacked me in the stomach.
Naz shook his head. “Babies poop themselves.” He crossed his arms. “Did you know that if you wake up a sleeping bat, it dies?”
See? He loved school. It didn’t make sense.
“Come here, little man.” I picked him up and carried him to our bed while Eden followed.
I placed him between us and cocked my head to the side. “I’m worried. Can you help me out with something?”
His eyes went wide. “I don’t want you to be worried.”
“Okay then, so you can help?”
He gave me a firm nod. His inky black hair was getting long. I threatened to cut it, Eden threatened to cut me off. It was near his shoulders.
My cock was just as obsessed with her as I was.
“You came home kind of upset today, and I can tell something’s on your mind. I think if you talk about it, you might feel better… It’s making me worried that there might be a bully at school I need to go take care of.”
His lips pressed together before he let out a very dramatic sigh. “It was Dad’s Day at school.”
My heart stopped in my chest. “And that made you hate school?”
Tears filled Eden’s eyes as she watched our conversation; I knew it was killing her not to fix it, not to pull him into her arms and coddle him.
“Well, my dad did bad things, sometimes he hurt Mom, and then he died, and I don’t have a dad, and Jude said that I only had a mama, and then he asked me if I was going to cry.”