“Beautiful name for a beautiful girl.”
“I don’t know how to thank you for bringing her back to me.” Just like her daughter had cried in my arms, silent tears fell down Siren’s cheeks.
“You love her, darlin’, that’s what you do. Just love her.”
“I will.”
“I know you will.” I brushed away her tears. “You’re a good mother.”
A hint of a smile touched her lips. “You’ve only seen me as a mother for half an hour.”
“It’s been a good half hour.” I winked.
She laughed. It was only a quiet little chuckle, but I’d take it.
I reclined her seat and kissed her forehead. “Close your eyes, darlin’. Get some rest. We got a couple hours.”
“I’m almost afraid to.”
Tension creased my brow. “Why?”
“What if this isn’t real?”
I gently placed my hand over hers as it rested on Maddie. “This is real, Siren.” I leaned over and brushed my lips to hers, intending to leave it at that but when she opened her mouth, she caught me off guard.
I momentarily froze but then I caught the back of her neck, my tongue slipped inside her mouth and I groaned.
Her hand cupped my jaw and she kissed me like she never had before. This wasn’t a kiss laced with desire and need, this was something all together different. Pulling me to her, holding me tight, her touch wasn’t desperate or rough, it was soft and caressing. My heart fell past the point of no return.
When she’d dropped her towel that day in my bedroom, I thought she was the sexiest woman I’d ever seen. But right now, giving me a part of herself while she held her baby, kissing me like she was whispering a thousand words of love—she wasn’t sexy, she was fucking stunning and I just knew. The next time I sunk inside her, it was going to be different. Never-come-back-from-it different.
I took her face and eased back, kissing her gently once. “You’re runnin’ me, Siren. Nothin’ I wouldn’t do for you, you know that, don’t you?”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, breathless. “I didn’t mean to.”
“I’m not.” I stared into her eyes and took a step I never thought I’d take again. “I love it,” I said, testing the waters.
Her face flushed a beautiful pink.
I ran my thumb over her cheek and lowered my voice. “Tell me what made that gorgeous blush.” I wanted to know what she was thinking more than I wanted my next breath.
“You’re a lot to take in.”
I forced a quiet chuckle and released her. “Catch some sleep, beautiful. I need to talk to André.” I kissed her and stood, pretending like she didn’t just gut me.
“Wait.” She caught my hand.
I looked down and hesitation clouded her features. I squeezed her fingers then let go. “I’ll be back. Take care of Maddie.” I moved a few seats over and sat next to André. My back to Siren, rejection bit my ass and I sighed. Rationally, I knew there was nothing to get worked up over, I hadn’t told her I loved her, but I still let it get to me that she hadn’t said anything. Jesus, I was a pussy. Needing to change the subject, I focused on André. “Whatdaya got on Stone?”
André looked up from his laptop. “Nothing. He’s either underground or great at covering his tracks.” He dropped his voice. “I don’t know what will be waiting for us in Daytona.”
“Us?”
“You think I’m going to leave your pathetic diaper-changing ass alone?”
I smirked. “I didn’t have all the practice you did with your twenty younger cousins.”
“Twenty-seven but who’s counting?”
Jesus. “That’s a lot of shitty diapers.”
He laughed. “No kidding.”
“Do you seriously have twenty-seven cousins?” I’d spent a few holiday meals with him and there were always a shitload of people in his parents’ small-ass house, but twenty-seven cousins?
“Yep. That’s what happens when you have ten aunts and uncles.”
I couldn’t even wrap my head around that. Siren and Maddie felt like a whole family. A family that wasn’t mine, I reminded myself. Ignoring the sting that thought brought, I cleared my throat. “I got half a mind to call Candle and tell him to set up a meet with me and Stone.”
André was shaking his head before I finished talking. “No fucking way. Unless you want to get shot again.”
I glanced at my arm. “I was grazed.”
“And the rounds that hit your chest?”
“Wasn’t Stone.” Facts were facts.