Page 104 of The Madman and his broken Princess
She held up the loosely bound bouquet. “It’s for our bedroom.”
I smiled. She never used roses for her bouquet; those were reserved for the arches around my mother’s grave. I could never look at a rose without remembering what happened to her.
She picked up the hem of her dress and stepped out of the flower bed. She was barefoot like me as she padded over to me. Her brows drew together. “You look pensive.”
“I am,” I admitted.
“Did something happen at the fights?”
I shook my head and took Amelia’s hand, pulling her against me. “I think the crowd missed your beauty. I caught several men glancing at your empty throne.”
“Next time, I’ll come again. Today, I just needed something else to banish the darkness.”
I nodded. Last night, a nightmare had woken her, sweaty and terrified. They had become rare for her, and for me too, but sometimes they caught us by surprise with their ferocity.
I kissed her, then marveled at her beauty. Could I love someone who looked like Amelia but had my blood too? Could I love a small version of myself?
“Remo has twins.”
She blinked and looked away, confusion reflecting on her face. “I’m not sure he’s someone I can see with the patience for kids.”
I shrugged and stroked her hair. “Can you envision me as a father?”
Her eyes widened. “Oh. Wow. I never really thought about it. But you take care of me. You show me love, so… why not?”
Why not. Thinking of my dark thoughts, my need for blood and gore, my impatience, and my constant need for Amelia’s body, I found many reasons. “Do you want children?”
She bit her lower lip and peered down at the flowers in her hand. “Not now. I don’t feel…” She released a breath as if she couldn’t find the right words. “I don’t feel whole enough yet. I feel like you, and I still need to work through so much before we can consider taking care of someone else. It’s not something I want to fail at.”
I nodded, relieved that Amelia felt the same way I did. “What if we’re never whole enough?”
What if I never was?
Amelia touched my cheek with a soft smile. “You’re whole enough for me, and that’s enough. Maybe we’ll never feel at a point in our lives when we’re whole enough for children, and that’s okay. I have you. I have Flavia and Luciano. My heart is full. And once I start doing the flower arrangements at Camorra weddings in the region, I’ll be very busy. My life doesn’t have a void I need to fill.”
I kissed her. She smiled against my mouth. “But maybe there’s room for something else in our lives.”
I frowned.
“Rodolfo told me one of his cats had a litter with eight babies, and he wants to get rid of them. So far, he only has a home for three of them. We have so much space. We could give the other five a home.”
“Cats,” I murmured.
“I always wanted a cat or a dog, but my father hated animals unless he could use them to show his power. And you like the lions and tiger and cheetahs.”
I chuckled at the hopefulness on Amelia’s face. “They don’t live under the same roof as we do.”
Amelia simply smiled up at me. “Cats would look great in our mansion, and in old Scottish castles, they kept the rats out.”
“We don’t have rats,” I muttered, but Amelia merely smiled. “All right. But the cats probably will avoid me. They are difficult and can sense that I’m not quite trustworthy.”
Amelia shook her head with a laugh, stepped on her toes, and kissed my cheek. “I knew you’d say that. Rodolfo is already on his way to pick them up for us.”
I sighed then smirked. I closed my fingers around Amelia’s slender throat, forcing her higher up on her toes. “You know I’ll have to punish you for your insolence, dove. What if I’d said no?”
She shivered, her eyes glazing over with lust. “I expected you to punish me, but I knew you wouldn’t say no.”
Her breathless voice went straight to my dick. “Upstairs. Now.”
