“That’s it?” Kian frowned. “No more arguments? That was way too easy.”

Syssi leaned up and kissed him lightly on the lips. “You married a very sensible woman. I’m always willing to compromise. Besides, you’re right. The jewels should be saved for a real emergency. A last resort kind of thing.”

“I’m indeed a lucky man.” He pushed up to his feet with his treasure in his arms. “How about we give making a baby the natural way another try?”

Syssi chuckled. “We’ve been giving it a twice and thrice and sometimes more tries a day for a long time.”

He kissed her nose and kept walking. “True, but you see, it’s not entirely up to us. The Fates decide the right time for adding that special life-giving spark, and we can never know when that is.”

“You and your Fates. They are just a trio of capricious ladies.”

Kian sat on the bed and hugged Syssi closer to him. “Whenever I mention the Fates, I have the same image pop into my head.”

“What is it?”

“Do you remember when you took me to the retirement home? You were supposed to read to your nana’s friends.”

“How can I forget. The nasty old crones had me read a racy romance novel in front of you and Brundar. I almost died from embarrassment even though you saved me and did the reading for me. Just listening to you read it was mortifying.”

“Yeah. I remember you turning redder than a beet. But I also remember falling a little more for you in that room.”

“Why?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Do you like seeing me squirm?”

“That too.” He kissed her forehead. “You look adorable when you blush. But I also liked that you kept on listening despite how uncomfortable it made you, and that you didn’t try to stop me. You’re not a quitter. That is one of the many things that I love about you.”

His compliments seemed to mollify Syssi. “And I love that you notice every little thing about me and find a reason to love it.” She put her head on his chest.

He breathed easier when she did that. The closeness, the trust, it was like a soothing balm on his frayed nerves. “Anyway, in my mind, these three old ladies helped us get closer, and when I think of the Fates, their smug wrinkled faces pop into my head. I remember thinking that they looked as if they’d won a bet or something.”

“Yeah, me too. But I thought they were so smug because they got you to read aloud that incredibly embarrassing book.”

Kian waggled his brows. “A very arousing story about vampires if I remember correctly. It got you all hot and bothered.”

“Oh, shit.” Syssi slapped her forehead. “You smelled my arousal, didn’t you?”

“Yep.”

“No wonder you looked just as smug as them.”

“I was in no better state. They got us both exactly where they wanted us.”

Syssi’s brows dipped in a frown. “Hmm, maybe you’re on to something. Not long after that most memorable visit, the three of them moved to Florida. The pretext was finding a retirement home closer to Leonora’s granddaughter. But when I tried to contact them at the place they’d mentioned, no one had heard of them. I thought that maybe I didn’t remember the name right, and I called a bunch of others with similar names, but they weren’t there either.”

“There you go.” He waved a hand. “A mystery.”

Syssi smirked. “If they are indeed the three fabled Fates in disguise, maybe I should resume the search, find them, and ask them to give us a baby.”

“Or we can give the natural way another try.”

“We can do both.”

“Always the voice of reason. Tomorrow, I’ll contact Turner and ask him to look for your missing ladies. But right now, I want to make love to my wife.”

She scrunched her nose. “Maybe you shouldn’t.”

“Make love to my wife?”

“No, have Turner look for them. What if one of them died? They were so old. So it’s not a remote possibility. I’d rather not know.”

“As you wish. When you decide you want to find them, tell me, and I’ll ask Turner to do his thing.”

“Okay.”

He loved that word coming out of her luscious lips. Usually, it meant that fun times in bed were about to start.

“How about you get naked and put on that jewelry we were talking about?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I would rather you undress me first and then put those jewels on me yourself.”

That was even better. “I like the way you think.”