He still had that flirty smile on, so I had no idea if he was being serious or kidding. If I was being honest, I thought it was probably some mixture of both.
So yeah, I was dealing with a super rational being, suffice to say.
And maybe I was going off the deep end, because while normally such possessiveness would have given me pause or had me running in the other direction—at least it would have if Makayla or Destiny had described any guy pursuing them this way… Well, when it was directed at me while I had two almost full-grown babies in my belly…
I found it disgustingly swoony.
And him talking about tying me to a bed again only had my libido going through the roof imagining all the things I wanted him… them… to do to me once the cuffs clinked closed.
Yes, Daddies.
So I lowered my eyes in a way I knew made him crazy because it caused my lashes to flutter.
“Okay, Daddy,” I finally said, leaning across the empty middle seat of the taxi he’d chartered back to Padua. “But only if you promise to spank me once you have me tied up.”
Chapter 9
JANUS
I was running up the stairs.
She was back. Unless Leander was playing a cruel fucking joke on me.
He hadn’t been as much of an asshole lately, but then again, we hadn’t really been speaking much. My schedule of night shoots meant I slept during the day while he was up. So we rarely saw each other—which was doing wonders for our relationship.
I jammed my key in the door, turned it, and when I pushed it open—
There she was in the center of the room.
My woman. My future wife. Soon enough.
She was beautiful. More beautiful than I’d ever seen her. Her breasts. Her belly extended and expanded larger than I ever could have imagined it could grow in just a month.
Leander was at her front and Milo at her back, holding her loosely.
Some sort of guttural noise came from deep in my throat as I rushed towards her.
“Hope,” I gasped, trying not to be rough as I shoved my way into the circle so I could get my hands on her.
For once, Leander gave way for me. I clutched the delicate shape of her skull as I drew her face towards mine. Oh God, I’d missed her so much. I breathed her in, desperate and overjoyed and feeling too many other emotions.
I shook my head, not wanting to feel so many things at once. Not right now. I pressed my forehead against hers, then pulled back to look in her eyes.
“Baby,” I said, and my voice came out gruff when I intended gentle. “You’re home.”
A thousand other words clogged in my throat. All the things I wanted to say to her. All the conversations I’d had with her in my head while she was gone. All the games of twenty questions I’d played one-sided, imagining her answers. And giving mine back, opening up the way she’d always wanted me to.
But none of it came out.
Only another repeated, gasped, “You’re home.”
She nodded, tears glistening in her eyes.
And then she licked her lips.
Well, that was that.
I kissed her, my large fingers sifting through the glossy waves of her hair so I could cup her skull right at her scalp. I needed to know she was real. And I needed to draw her as close to me as she would come.
When she opened her sweet, soft mouth to me, I was not hesitant.
I tasted what my soul had missed.
Her.
I licked at that soft, sensitive palate inside her top lip where nerves seemed to bundle. She shivered in our arms.
“Enough,” Leander said. “It was a torturous drive. Let’s get her to the bedroom.”
“God, yes,” Hope said into my mouth.
Fuck, she was fire in my hands. I slid my palm down the back of her neck and to her shoulders as the guys started helping her towards the back bedroom.
“Couch,” I choked out.
I was shocked she’d still been clothed when I came in. How my brothers hadn’t already had her naked, I didn’t know. She and Leander must have gotten back only seconds before I arrived.
My hands dropped to the hem of her shirt, colliding with Milo’s as we worked together to lift it up. She lifted her arms to assist us.
My fingertips grazed her belly.
Holy shit. She was so pregnant.
With our babies.
Milo finished taking her shirt off as my hands cupped reverently at her belly. My eyes couldn’t stop flipping between her belly and her eyes. The tears that had been welling earlier now spilled as our gazes caught. Leander undid her bra using his one-handed trick, and then embraced her from behind. His arm wrapped around so that his hand joined mine on her huge, rounded belly.
Pink silvery lines spidered up from her pelvis and I dropped to my knees. Hope’s gaze was still locked with mine as I began kissing down one line of stretched skin.