Page 126 of Savagely Yours
“No, not that.”
“Then I’m not following you.”
“I think…you’d make…an excellent father.”
I went still. “Even though I didn’t have one?”
“Oh, baby, of course. Definitely.”
I would never, in a million years, be able to explain to this woman just how much she meant to me.Everythingwas nowhere near adequate enough of a word.
“For most of my life, I never understood…” I paused, needing a moment to untangle more than just my thoughts. “I never understood why nobody wanted me. Even after somebody found me, and I ended up in a computer system, nobody came looking for me. So, I figured I would make the best of foster care, but then my foster dad passed away, and the next few places that I went to, I just knew I had to get out of the system. At least, on the outside, I could run if I saw danger coming. I had the option of not living down the hallway from it.”
She took my hand and kissed my palm.
“Larke, I know you wouldn’t suggest it if you hadn’t thought it through. I won’t insult you by assuming you haven’t thought it through.”
“I’ve thought about it a lot, even before we got here,” she explained. “Here, it feels like a possibility if we give it some time to establish ourselves. To grow together. To see that it’s safe.”
“I’ll never leave you or our child behind, Larke.”
“I know, and we’ll always be home for you. We’ll choose you every single time. This life, the next, an alternate universe, the multiverse—it’ll be you every single time as my husband and the father to any children we might have.”
“Our baby, they’ll know they’re wanted.”
She nodded. “They will.”
“And loved.”
“Immensely.”
“And they’ll never be cold or alone. Or scared. Or,” I almost choked on the word, “hungry. They’ll never go to sleep hungry, Larke. It won’t matter what I’ll have to do. I’ll make sure they never know that deep, stomach-eating sensation of not having anything to eat for far too long because no one out there cared enough to make sure they never experienced it.”
She gently swiped the backs of her hands over my cheekbones. “Never. They’ll know only Mommy and Daddy’s safety and warmth and love.”
“They’ll have a Mommy and Daddy. From day one.”
“And uncles.” She sputtered a tearful laugh. “And an auntie. Aunties, if Gage stops lying to himself.”
I grinned, and even though my vision was blurry, she was still so damn beautiful. “I’ll be good to you,” I promised. “Even if it’s never more than me and you, we’ll still be a family. I’ll be so good to you.”
“Oh, baby. I know.”
I gripped her hips, guided her onto my hard-as-fucking-steel dick, and thrust inside her until her sweet “oh, baby” turned into a gasping “yes, baby,” “fuck, baby,” and “baby, I’m coming.”
That night,with my wife asleep and tucked safely against my side, I smiled as I flipped through the photos on my phone:
Larke standing beneath the Constitution Avenue NW street sign.
Larke at the Cherry Blossom Festival silhouetted by rows of blooming pink.
