The Billionaire's Game(80)

Asha nodded. “I know. I feel the same way.” She lifted her foot onto the chair. “I redid my tattoo.” Her henna tattoo had faded, and she’d replaced it with another image, using materials that she knew were safe for the baby.

Kade studied it for a moment before recognition dawned. “You changed it entirely. It’s a phoenix rising, just like mine.”

“I don’t feel like a butterfly anymore,” she admitted. “I feel like I’ve been reborn and I’m ready to start living for the first time. Because of you. A butterfly is too fragile. I feel stronger than that.”

Kade tipped her chin up and kissed her. “You are strong. The strongest woman I’ve ever known.” He fingered the delicate phoenix, tracing it with a finger. “There are very few people brave enough to escape the conditioning you went through and become their own person, no matter what the cost.”

“I wasn’t brave. I was just surviving,” Asha told him, perplexed.

“Sometimes surviving is a whole lot braver than the alternative,” Kade said gravely. “You’re a miracle. My miracle.”

Asha thought it was the other way around. “You saved me.”

“You saved me, sweetheart,” he contradicted.

“Maybe we should just say we saved each other,” Asha answered, knowing the important role Kade had played at making her start to put the pieces of her shattered life back together again.

“The phoenix is perfect. You’re right. The butterfly is too fragile,” he mused. “And you’re finally flying.”

“Not yet. But I’m working on it.”

“Anything I can do to make you fly higher?” Kade asked solemnly. He put her head on his shoulder and rocked her gently, his hold comforting and reassuring.

“Just love me,” she murmured.

“Then you can be sure you’ll always be soaring,” he answered.

Asha pulled back to look once again at the phoenix rising, and she knew Kade was right. The butterfly that couldn’t escape the cocoon was finally gone, replaced by a powerful mythological creature that would always be airborne. Right now, the phoenix was barely rising from the ashes, but with Kade’s love, it would soon be flying high for the rest of her life.

How could it not? She had married a man who had loved her and wanted to marry her when he thought she was barren, but had easily become ecstatic about the idea of having an unplanned child of their own. Kade loved her unconditionally, and that continued to amaze her each and every day.

“I love you,” she whispered as she gently kissed the strong line of his jaw. It was as if she couldn’t tell him those words enough. They’d been bottled up inside her for so long that all she wanted to do was tell him how much he meant to her every day, several times a day.

Kade held her tighter and she lowered her foot to the floor to keep her balance.

“You know what it does to me to hear you say that,” Kade growled, palming her ass.

She knew, but she told him anyway because she needed to say it and she loved the consequences.

Kade told her he loved her as he tore her clothes off and carried her to the bedroom.

They were a little late for their babysitting that night, but Sam and Maddie never said a word. Her sister took one look at Asha’s swollen lips, tousled hair, and contented smile and winked at her as she and Sam went reluctantly out the door.

Asha winked back, smiling as she flipped the lock on the door behind them.

She entered the living room to find Kade holding both babies, one in each arm, all three of them asleep. Her heart turned over as she saw the protective way he held the babies, an arm curled around each tiny body.

It wasn’t often that both of the twins slept at the same time, but Kade seemed to have the magic touch. Asha crept over to the couch and cuddled beside Kade, resting her head on his leg.

It was one of those moments when everything in her life was perfect.

She was with Kade, her nephew, and her niece.

Real family!

Asha knew she had finally found the place where she truly belonged. All her life, all she’d wanted was a real home. Finally, she realized that home wasn’t just a place. It was a state of mind. And it was him. Life really was all about love, and as long as she was with Kade, she’d always be home.