Hearing her say how much she’d be willing to sacrifice for me made my heart ache and swell at the same time. “Natalia, I don’t know what to say. The fact that you would be willing to offer such a huge thing, sacrifice something so important is…” I shook my head. “It means the world to me.”
She looked me straight in the eyes. “I want you, Hunter. The rest we can figure out. I don’t ever want you to be inside of me and feel like it’s wrong again. If things between us go the way it feels like they will…one of us can get fixed so we don’t have to ever worry about condoms or getting pregnant.”
She’d just given me the biggest gift anyone could ever receive. She offered so much and wanted nothing in return except me. I wasn’t sure if I deserved it or not, but I was selfish enough to take it.
I’d known how I felt about her for a while now; I just didn’t have the balls to put it out there. But it was time. It was long past due.
I walked to her and dropped to my knees at her feet where she sat on the edge of the bed. “I love you, Natalia. I’m so fucking in love with you that my chest feels like it could explode with everything in my heart.”
“I love you, too, Hunter.”
I kissed her lips softly.
“So we’re good?” she said. “You agree we shouldn’t find out?”
“Give me some time to think about it. Okay?”
“Of course. It’s a big decision, and we have a few days, right?”
I nodded. “The test results probably won’t be back until Friday morning.”
“Okay. So we’ll sleep on it and talk about it again tomorrow with a fresh outlook.”
That sounded like a great plan. Then again, you know what they say about the best-laid plans…
Chapter 41
Natalia
I was confused when I woke up to the sound of a phone ringing. The blinds were drawn, and I wasn’t sure what time it was or where I was at first. But the hard chest acting as my pillow reminded me. Hunter was out cold—he didn’t even flinch at the sound of the phone, so I reached over to the nightstand and grabbed his cell. The phone stopped ringing just as I picked it up, but the missed call read Uncle Joe. I checked the time before setting it back down. 9 a.m. Damn, we’d both slept late.
I gently nudged my sleeping giant. “Hunter.”
“Mmm?” His eyes pinched shut tighter.
“Your phone rang. And it’s late. Almost nine.”
He opened one eye. “Sit on my face.”
I laughed and smacked at his shoulder. “That’s your response when I wake you up and tell you that you missed a phone call?”
“What? I like to eat right away when I wake up.”
“It was your uncle.”
Both his eyes opened, and his face turned serious.
“What?”
He leaned up on his elbows. “It’s only six in the morning in California. If he’s calling me this early, there’s a reason.”
“I didn’t think of that. Well, hurry, call him back.”
Hunter swung his legs and sat up on the edge of the bed. But he didn’t immediately reach for his phone. At first I thought he was taking a minute to wake up, but then I caught sight of his face. “What’s the matter?”
“Uncle Joe ran the test. He said he’d call as soon as the results were in.”
“But it’s only Thursday. You said results weren’t due until Friday.”
“He said probably Friday. I don’t know. He could be calling about something else. But…”
His cell phone started to ring again. We looked at each other for a few rings before he answered. “Hey, Uncle Joe. Give me one minute, okay?”
He covered the phone. “You sure this is what you want? You don’t want to know. It’s a big decision, Natalia.”
I wasn’t sure of much, but I was certain of one thing. “You’ll leave me if it’s positive. Your life won’t be the same. I’ll leave it up to you. But I don’t want to take those risks. I don’t need or want to know.”
He stared into my eyes for a long time before nodding. Then he lifted the phone back to his ear. “Hey, Uncle Joe. Before you say anything, I want to let you know that I’ve decided to not find out the results. So if that’s the reason you’re calling, I don’t want to know.”
I heard a man’s voice through the cell, but couldn’t make out the words he was saying. Hunter stared off, listening intently.
“Uh-huh. Right.”
Hunter’s eyes raised to mine and held. “Natalia and I decided we don’t want to know.”
He looked away again while he went back to listening. I couldn’t sit still. I wrapped the sheet around me and stood to pace the floor.