Chapter 25

The only thing I will ever force in my life are my jeans over my ass.

-Cobie to Dante

Cobie

Dante dropped down to one knee, and I immediately started to think the worst.

“Are you okay?” I breathed, rushing forward to drop down to my knees beside him.

He rolled his eyes in exasperation.

“Stand up,” he growled, pushing me to my feet by putting his hands on my hips. “This can’t be done with you down here with me.”

Frowning, I was about to question whether he was experiencing confusion or if he was dizzy, when he pulled out a velvet box.

I froze and stared at that velvet box like it was something akin to an atomic bomb.

“I don’t know if there’s anything I can say to ever take back those horrible words I said to you four months ago,” he whispered, his eyes on mine. “I know you say you’re okay, that you understood, but I’d never been at a lower point in my life than I was when I said those words to you. I didn’t mean them. I was mad at myself and the whole fucking world. I was scared of what you were making me feel, and how I was beginning to need you. I’ve lost my entire world once already… and I just wasn’t sure that I could put myself in a position where it could happen again.”

He swallowed, the thick lump of his Adam’s apple jumping with the movement.

“What I was scared to admit that day was that you had already become my world. You and Mary, you’re right here,” he pressed his fist against his chest. “You’re going to be there forever. You’ll have a place inside my heart until I no longer draw breath into my lungs.”

A tear slipped down my cheek uninhibited.

He watched it fall, then his eyes returned to mine. “Cobie, will you marry me? Will you live at my side and lend me your strength?”

I nodded. “I’d give you anything you asked for, Dante.”

His smile was radiant as he opened the box, pulled out the ring, and held out his other hand for mine. I put my hand in his, and he slipped the ring on my finger.

It was a princess cut diamond, large enough to take my breath away, yet small enough that it wouldn’t hinder my movements. It literally flickered like it was filled with an inner light that was meant to attract the eye.

“Dante,” I breathed. “It’s beautiful.”

His smile was small, and as he came to his feet, he pressed his mouth to my own.

“Nothing is as beautiful as you.”

The sound of an electric razor had my eyes opening.

I smiled as I threw the covers off of my body and made my way to the bathroom.

Dante wasn’t being quiet in his morning routine. But I’d found over the last few weeks since he’d come back to me that he wasn’t particularly quiet in anything he did.

Then again, I should’ve already realized that since I lived with him after my surgery, but I accounted my lack of noticing these things about him to the fact that I was hopped up on the good drugs which allowed me to remain in a semi-conscious state for extended periods of time.

“What put that smile on your face?”

I looked up to see Dante staring at me in the mirror.

“A memory.”

That memory would never get old.

Not ever.

He knew which one. He didn’t have to ask because my eyes had automatically trailed to the ring on my finger that I never took off.

“You coming to work with me today?”

I rolled my eyes.

I’d done that for the last two weeks. Me and Mary made ourselves at home in the staff lounge.

Now, after two weeks of both of us being there constantly, it was like a second home. Mary had a portable playpen that she used to nap in, and I had blankets that I took over the couch with. All of my shows, as well as Mary’s, were on the DVR, and the cabinets were stocked with more than enough snacks to last us while we were there.

Dante would never demand that I stay there, but I knew by his whispered question that he’d feel better having me and Mary close.

Drake still hadn’t been found, and until he was, I knew that Dante wouldn’t be comfortable if we were out of sight.

Which also explained why I was still on leave from my job.

I still had two months left on my extended leave of absence from my illness until the hospital would no longer be required to hold my position for me, and I knew that I wanted to go back at some point.

I loved Dante. I loved this life that we were building. But I didn’t want to be a kept woman. I wanted to do what I loved—and what I loved to do was watch babies being born into this world.

Speaking of babies, the one inside of me started to flip and twirl, making me laugh and press my hand to my belly.

I’d been feeling the movement for weeks now, but it never got old, feeling him press against my hand.

A work-roughened hand joined my own, and I looked up to find Dante standing so close to me that I could feel his body heat seeping into my own.

“Active again,” he murmured, his hand touching my belly.

Through Dante’s old blue T-shirt that I’d worn to bed the night before, I could see my belly bouncing and jolting with each kick and punch.

“Always active,” I corrected, then pushed past him to go to the en-suite bathroom.

I still closed the door. I wanted to leave a little magic in our relationship so I wouldn’t be shattering the illusion any faster than I had to.

As far as he was concerned, I didn’t poop or pee. I was the exception to that baser human instinct.

He may have helped me do both in the beginning of our relationship when I was recovering here after my surgery, but that didn’t count since we weren’t together.

When I came out and washed my hands, I had to roll my eyes at the fact that the bathroom counter was covered in beard hair. This bathroom had double sinks, but Dante couldn’t seem to figure out which part of the counter was his.

After proposing, Dante had shaved his beard.

Not just a trim, either, but a lot—all of it, in fact.

All of it except for a tiny bit of scruff that lined his jaw and upper lip thanks to the trimmer not being able to get quite close enough.

I kept waiting for him to break out a razor and shaving cream, but he never went that far.

My guess was that the beard had represented a part of his life that he was trying to step away from, but I’d never wanted to confirm that assumption.

I just smiled, silently mourned the loss of his beard, and went about my life with Dante.

We did everything together. We talked. We spoke on the phone. We had dinner together almost three-quarters of the time. We were solid, confident in our relationship and knew what we meant to each other. We were our second chance at life and happiness, and we weren’t wasting it.

He wasn’t there because he was being forced to be—he assured me of this every single morning—he was there because he wanted to be.

“Come on, it’ll be fun.”

I looked at him, studying his eyes, and raised my brows. “I missed the question.”

“I said, I think we should go on a vacation before you start back to work.” He paused. “Travis, his wife and kids, my mother and father, Baylor and his wife and kids, Reed and Krisney and their kids, and a few of the other guys from work have decided to go camping. I want to go to the RV place tonight to go look at a camper. I was asking if you wanted to go. I convinced you that you should, and you said it’d be fun.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I’ll go if we bring Mary with us,” I tried.

At first, I thought it was because Drake was still at large, but then I saw the way people watched Mary when we’d been at the grocery store last week.

Mary, although an absolutely beautiful child, did have Down Syndrome. She was going to attract a few stares anywhere she went. It was sad, it wasn’t right, but it was also, unfortunately, the truth. However, I think Dante took it as an insult any time someone stared at his precious girl too long.

Unless they were kids, then he didn’t seem to mind.

But, I could tell that he was purposefully keeping her away from any situation where she could potentially be mistreated by someone.

Hence why she never went anywhere with us anymore. If he expected us to go somewhere, he found a babysitter for Mary, usually his mother or one of his brothers.

And that made me sad.

Dante frowned.

“Drake…”

“Dante, we can’t keep living our life like this. You have Rafe on us each and every time we leave the house. Sometimes even one of your brothers are there tailing us wherever we go. We can’t keep going on like this. You’re going to have to allow us some room to breathe. We’ll do whatever you want us to do, but we can’t live our lives this way indefinitely.”

Dante didn’t have anything to say to that, so I didn’t say anything either.

Instead, I walked back into our bedroom—yes, ours—and over to the closet.

After tugging down a T-shirt that would just barely cover my belly, I tossed it on the bed and went back to the bathroom to pick up my leggings from the night before.

I only had a few pairs, and it was getting to the point where I’d need to get some new ones—and soon.

Yet another thing that I didn’t want to ask Dante. I didn’t want him to go to the mall with me but seeing as this was my first pregnancy, I didn’t know enough about what I would need or how maternity clothes were supposed to fit to order them online.

The few things that I’d borrowed from Hannah were all too big, and I wouldn’t be able to wear them until much later in my pregnancy.

Which left me with T-shirts and leggings for the time being.

Shrugging out of Dante’s T-shirt, I tossed it on the foot of the bed and reached forward to grab the clean one.

I had it in my grasp when I felt Dante’s hands on my hips.

Instantly I knew that he’d come to a decision.

“I’ll allow her to come,” he murmured. “But you’ll come with Rafe. I’ll arrive separately. Just in case.”

I grinned and pressed myself back into him, feeling the hardness that always seemed to be present when he was this close to me.

“I love you, Cobie.”

My heart felt like it was full to bursting.

“I just don’t want y’all to get hurt.”

I knew he didn’t. Which was why I’d allowed him to wrap us both—Mary and I—in cotton.

“Can we go to dinner, too?”

He squeezed my hips, and then let one go to run his hand up the length of my exposed back.

Then he pushed down in the center of my back, bending me over the bed, and I went without complaint.

“You’ll have to do a lot of convincing for me to do that.”

I shimmied my hips, and he laughed huskily, causing my pussy to clench with need.

That laugh. That laugh would always get me.

I could be madder than a hornet, and all he would have to do was laugh, making his handsome face break out in a smile, and I’d lose every single bit of attitude. All over a smile.

Why?

Because I was a sucker for the man. All he had to do was share that happiness—the happiness that I’d had a part in bringing out in him—with me, and I was putty in his hands.

The next few moments were a lesson in patience as he stripped off his underwear, followed by mine. Then proceeded to tease me relentlessly with his fingers, followed shortly by his tongue.

By the time he was standing up behind me and pressing his length to my entrance, my legs were already on the verge of collapsing.

He held me up by my hips as he pressed himself inside of me. He didn’t stop until he was buried fully inside.

Every single inch of me was filled with him.

“Fuck,” I breathed, bracing my forearms on the bed as he slowly started to move in me.

He was slow, oh, so slow.

But it was what I needed. What we both needed.

I bit my lip as he pressed himself deep, twisting his hips.

“God,” I breathed.

Dante didn’t speak, just continued to fuck me.

His hips would press against my backside for long moments. His pubic hair teasing the pouting, sensitive lips of my sex.

Then he’d pull back, taking my breath with him.

In. Out. In. Out.

By the time I realized I was close, I knew it was going to be big.

The sounds of not just our breathing, but also my wetness and moans filled the air. And before I could even think to warn him of my impending release, it was upon me.

The orgasm was something that I experienced every single time with him. Relentless and all-consuming.

My eyes closed, and I dropped my face into the comforter to contain my scream.

I didn’t want to wake the child in the room down from ours. Not yet.

So, I silenced my screams and let him take himself the rest of the way there without much help from me.

He came moments after me, filling me with his seed.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he breathed, running his hand down the length of my spine.

I smiled into the sheets, then pushed up just as he pulled himself back.

I felt his release run down the length of my inner thigh and rushed to the bathroom before it could make too big of a mess.

Once I was cleaned up, I heard the pounding of tiny little feet making their way to our room.

I had to laugh as Mary appeared, peeking around the corner almost as if she knew she was interrupting something.

Luckily her father had heard her coming and had pulled on clothes.

I, on the other hand, hung out in the bathroom while Dante led her out into the hall.

Distantly, I was aware of them heading toward the kitchen. The sink turning on. Cabinets pounding.

And then Dante discussing what to have for breakfast with her.

All the while, I stayed there, naked, standing in front of the bathroom mirror.

I took in my appearance.

The bright pink scars that lined where my breasts had once been were never going to be pretty.

My body was skinny, and my belly poked out almost obscenely, even at five months gestation.

My face was flushed from what Dante and I had just done…but I felt beautiful. Dante made me feel that.

Smiling, I walked away from that mirror, not one hint of embarrassment anywhere in me.

I was proud of my body. Dante loved me and the way I looked.

And I loved him.

I loved his little girl—our little girl.

I loved everything about my life now.

Drake was a dark cloud hanging over us…but I just knew that everything would work itself out in the end.

We—Dante and I—had suffered too much loss for it to turn out any other way.

Right?