“You are special.”
“Just think… only I can make this badass Navy SEAL turn cheesy. That’s one hell of an accomplishment, don’t you think?”
I chuckle, reaching over and touching her shoulder. And only her shoulder. If I did what I wanted and slid my hand down her body, I’d have to pull over again.
“You’re changing me in more ways than that, Snapshot,” I say. “Before us—”
“I love that there’s an us,” she says, her voice happy and carefree.
But I sense her withdraw after she’s spoken, as though she’s remembering Angela, remembering the complications that are still threatening to drag us apart.
No, a voice inside of me roars, belonging to my seed. Tonight is about you two. It’s about putting a child in her belly. Nothing else.
“What were you going to say?” she asks.
“Before us,” I growl, “I couldn’t imagine feeling like this.”
“Maybe I should be apologizing for making the big tough Navy SEAL feel, huh?”
“No,” I say passionately. “I wouldn’t trade the way I feel about you for anything.”
What about my daughter, though? Would I trade it for her?
Fuck.
I can’t let myself think about that.
Not tonight.
We’re going to tell her everything the second she’s home.
Right now, the only thing I can think about is my woman and the evening we have planned. Everything else fades away.
Chapter Thirteen
Tessa
My breath catches as I drink in the majesty of the scene.
We’re back at the cabin. Part of me guessed this was where we were going the longer we drove, but I didn’t want to tell Trent and spoil the surprise. He looks so intense in his navy blue suit, his hair swept, his face clean shaven and strong.
He smirks at me as he brings the car to a stop.
“What do you think?”
Tears brim in my eyes and I blink them away, feeling silly. But I’ve been tough and hard for so long. All during mom’s illness, I had to make myself cold and capable and not let myself feel too deeply anything she said.
But now emotion barrels into me.
There’s a raised wooden platform in the center of the clearing, off to the side from the cabin, with white fairy lights blinking around the wooden railing. A table sits in the center of the scene, bright and glistening, magical in the shimmering candlelight. A path of rose petals leads from where we’re parked to the platform, bordered by red lights that enhance their beauty.
“When did you have time to do this?” I gasp.
He chuckles, and there’s confidence and pride in the sound, and a million other emotions I can read because he’s mine as much as I’m his.
“Wait,” I say. “You’re a SEAL. Of course, you know how to get things done.”
He reaches over and brushes warm tears from my cheeks, smoothing his hand down and rubbing my back. His fingertips leave a tantalizing trail of sensation, dancing over me, teasing me, and making every inch of me hot and excited. I almost want to scream with release right here.
“So you like it?” he says.
I glare at him playfully. “Do I like it? I love it.”
And I love you, I almost scream, but somehow I stop the words before they escape.
Surely he’d call me crazy if I blurted that. It would be too much too soon. He’d freak.
He steps from the car and strides around, making me giggle again, but the feeling of the happy laughter causes more tears of joy to rise in my eyes. The emotion is sudden and overwhelming and I’m not sure I can get it under control.
I’m not sure I want to get it under control.
He opens the door and offers me his hand, his smirk so close to being a smile, a real, radiant smile.
I take his hand, feeling the warmth of him and the security in his powerful grip. He helps me from the car and we walk down the rose petal path, his hand on the small of my back, pushing through the fabric of my dress and my jacket to my skin, burning, beckoning, making me wish I’d taken him up on his offer at the roadside.
My body screams at me to drag him into the cabin.
It’s right there, my womb cries. We can eat after.
We walk onto the platform and over to the table, lit with electronic fire-red candles, illuming our silver cutlery and platters that shimmer in the light.
He pulls my chair out for me and I feel like a princess as I sit down and he shuffles the chair forward, closer to the table, as though he wants to lock me in so I can’t go anywhere.
As if I’d ever want to go anywhere.
I shrug off my jacket and place it on the back of the chair as he walks around to his side. He stands behind his chair, gripping it solidly, his jaw tight as his eyes move over me.