I don’t know why I said it, but it’s the truth. Maybe because I’ve always wanted a child of my own, but it seemed impossible. Like a pipe dream. And if there’s a chance he’s serious about a family, I refuse to waste any more time.
“I’m getting old,” I add. “I don’t want to wait until I can’t. I want one soon.”
A riot of emotions flash across Moses’s face—shock and surprise being chief among them.
“I’ve got one condition,” he says, carefully schooling his expression.
“What’s that?”
“You have to marry me before the baby’s born. Because I want him or her to grow up with what I didn’t have.”
I press my lips together, laughing to myself, because he’s officially maneuvered me into exactly what he told me he wanted when he came back to town.
“All right. You knock me up, and I’ll let you put a ring on my finger as soon as we get that positive test back.”
Moses couldn’t possibly smile any bigger, which knocks loose my laughter, because we’re totally fucking crazy for considering either concept. Marriage? Parenthood?
He’s ... well, he’s whatever the technical term is for an underground identity eraser and death-faker, and I’m a retired madam. Mom and Dad sounds like a punch line when used with reference to us.
It’s absurd, but maybe it’s perfect too. If we only dare to go after what we both want most ... what a life that could be.
The game forgotten, Moses pushes up from his chair and lifts me out of mine. “Then we’re getting started on this project right fucking now.”
I giggle and pretend to resist. “What about my dream vacation?”
“I forfeit,” he says with a smile, never losing step. “You were gonna win anyway. You had me, and we both know it.”
He carries me through the living room and straight to the bed. Like I’m precious, he lowers me to the mattress, taking my mouth in a smooth, drugging kiss.
Soon, when there’s nothing but the taste of Moses on my mind, he goes to work, stripping me naked and working his way down my body with his lips. My hands wander his shoulders and back, etching every line and sinew into my memory.
When he reaches my belly, he presses a kiss there and gazes up at me. “Magnolia?”
“Moses?”
“You’re going to be the most incredible mother. I hope you know that.”
It’s almost like he had my heart, literally in his hands, unbeating, until that moment. With one brief, simple sentence, it comes alive. “I guess we’ll see soon enough.”
He shakes his head. “No. It’s a foregone conclusion. I see it in my mind’s eye.”
His faith in me is a gift, and I drag him back up my body and urge him to his back so I can strip him.
When we’re both naked, I settle between his legs and take his heavy cock in my hands. I might not know how to verbalize what I’m feeling, but I can show him. I suck him deep, laving the shaft and head with my tongue.
He lets me have control, but only for a few minutes. With his muscled thighs tensing around me, he lifts me off his body and flips us again.
“Now, time for some baby-making.”
I can’t help but laugh, husky as my voice is now. “You realize, it’s not necessarily that easy. I’m on birth control.”
Moses shrugs. “Then we’ll practice, and you quit that shit. When the time is right, it’ll happen. I have faith.”
And so we practice, and when I come, I bite down on Moses’s shoulder to keep his name from waking up everyone in the entire damn compound.
And then we practice again.
And again.