Page 74 of No Mercy
He brings our joined hands to his mouth with a kiss. “Everything, Angel. Marriage. Kids. Whatever you want, it’s yours.” He pulls me closer, leaning in, forehead to forehead. “Only, don’t send me away again. It nearly killed me the last time. I won’t survive another minute without you.”
“So, you’re not here because Rowdy proposed?”
He glances at the entrance where Rowdy stood only a few minutes ago. He’s gone. “Oh, I’m here because of that. I’ve got tons of questions, but they’ll have to wait. Right now, I need to hear what you’re thinking.”
“I’m afraid you’re only here because you’re jealous.”
He’s shaking his head before I even finish. “I was coming to you as soon as I won my fight, but when I heard about the proposal… Nothing was more important than getting to you to show you I’m all in. Please, Angel. Say you love me too. Say you don’t love him. Tell me you’re still mine.”
“I’m not marrying Rowdy. I do love him. He’s been by my side since you left. I can’t ever repay his kindness or express how much his friendship means to me. But I’m notinlove with him.” I catch his eyes. “You understand the difference?”
“I do, and I’m relieved as hell to hear it.”
“Good. But now I need you to tell me what you want. You said all the things you’d do for me. I can’t ask you to sacrifice your happiness, your dreams, for mine.”
“The hell you can’t.” His scowl creases his forehead, and I press my thumb to calm its edges. When he sees I’m still waiting for an answer, he concedes. “As you know, I never saw marriage and kids in my future.”
Yep, painfully aware.
“But you’ve always made me feel things I’ve never felt before. The world comes alive when you’re near, and it dies when you’re away. I don’t want to live in the land of the dead. I want to step into the light and live with you. Forever. I want to marry you so every motherfucker knows you’re mine. I want to put so many babies in you, you’ll be begging me to stop. I want it all a million times over, and then a million times more. But only with you, Angel. Only you. It’s always, ever, only been you.”
I don’t know how I’ve managed to keep my tears at bay, but I can hardly hold them back on my next words. “I need to tell you something.”
MY HEART DROPS AT THE SIGHTof her unfettered tears and the fear in her eyes. “Can we get off the floor?”
That gets me a sniffled chuckle. “Not until I tell you what I need to.”
God, she’s scaring the hell out of me. “Tell me. Rip off the band-aid.”
She worries her bottom lip, and I can’t help but dislodge it with my thumb.
Leaning in, I whisper across her freed lip, “It’s okay, Angel. You can tell me anything.”
She keeps shaking her head, and when a sob escapes, my fear shoots sky-high.
Is she sick?Fuck. What will I do without her?“Please, baby, spit it out. What are you so afraid of?”
Her face morphs into an ugly cry, only my Angel doesn’t look ugly at all. Her gaze meets mine, and my gut clenches, waiting for her to say what she’s so afraid to. “That you’ll leave me again,” she finally confesses.
Fuck.Relief floods me. “I’m not going anywhere. There’s nothing you can tell me that will make me walk away. Nothing. Ever.” I kiss her forehead and breathe in her familiar vanilla scent. It’s intoxicating and smells like home. “You hear me?”
She nods.
“Tell me,” I encourage with a squeeze of her hands.
Her mouth opens, then closes. She takes a big, cleansing breath and shakes her shoulders and head, releasing the tension. “Gabriel.”
“Yeah, Angel?” I can’t stop my smile at hearing my name on her lips. It’s been too long.
“When you left, you didn’t leave me completely. You left something behind.”
What?“No riddles. Not now. Plain. Short sentences only.”
She takes my hand and places it on her stomach. As the words, “I’m pregnant,” pass her lips, I feel the swell of her abdomen, and the same thought leaves my mouth and whispers across her admission, “You’re pregnant.”
“Yes,” she answers what I already knew.
My eyes take her in with a different sight. Open and aware, I now see her face is a little rounder. Her eyes, tired. Her breasts, fuller. I scan lower and see hips widening to accommodate my child growing within, and under my hand, I feel her belly’s tautness as it expands.
