My eyes widen slowly. Both of us glance at the twins at the same time. I look at Luca’s handsome face. At his dark hair, just coming in, peach fuzz on his head. At his eyes, which had started out baby blue, but were slowly darkening to a blue-gray color.
A color that looks very similar to his father’s…
“I used it,” I whisper, awed.
“I made them tell me,” he says, and I look back at him, tears stinging my eyes for a completely different reason now. “I know the paperwork was sealed, your donation was supposed to be anonymous. But I threatened to sue them, and the clinic told me, finally, that you’d received the sample. You were the mother. They sent me your information, and when I looked you up and saw that job posting online…” He trails off, shaking his head. “At first I only wanted to meet my children. I wanted to make sure they were all right. I didn’t intend to tell you anything; I assumed you had a husband, a boyfriend, someone in the picture who was meant to be the father. Surely the clinic had just mixed up my sample with theirs. And you are so beautiful, so amazing, you couldn’t be single. But then I met you…”
His hands tighten around my shoulders. I reach up to wrap my arms around his. I am crying now, unable to help myself. Tears of emotion streaking my face. The happiness, the truth of all of this, feels almost too great to bear.
Can this really be true? Can he be the father of my children, the man I never thought I needed? The man I didn’t believe existed?
“I want you,” he whispers, his voice low with feeling now. “I want this family. Once I realized you were single, available… I was consumed with feelings, Manila. I love you.”
I blink hard, a solid lump tightening in my throat.
“But I was scared to tell you, afraid that you would hate me. For hiring you for false reasons, for keeping this from you. I thought you wouldn’t understand.”
“Cassius. Stop.” I tilt my head forward to rest my forehead against his, our eyes still locked. “Of course I understand. I love you, too.”
“I want everything, Manila. You, the twins, a life together.” He closes his eyes again, a crease of pain crossing his forehead. “I can’t have more children. I’m infertile now. If you want someone who can, if you want a man who can give you more, I understand. But I won’t ever give up on wanting you, and my children. You must accept that.”
I pull him into a kiss before he can say anything else so stupid or insane. The kiss sears through me, the kind of kiss I feel all the way to my toes, to the tips of my fingers. When we break apart again, we’re both breathing faster, our eyes glazed with desire. “I want you, Cassius. I want our life together. I want to raise our family, I want to watch our kids grow together. The twins are all I ever wanted from life; I didn’t realize I could have more. I didn’t realize I would ever meet a man like you.” I kiss him again, and this time he kisses me back hard, desperate. “It all makes sense now,” I whisper when we break apart. “The way you are with the twins, the way you care about me…”
“You are more than I ever expected, Manila. More than I could have ever dreamed of. I’ll never get tired of being with you, touching you…”
My eyes sparkle as they catch his. “Promises, promises,” I whisper, and he grins, too, leaning in to deepen our kiss.
Lucie gurgles at us, and we break apart, laughing. Life with kids.
He feeds Lucie and I feed Luca, both of us catching one another’s eyes over the tops of the twins’ heads as we do, a knowing desire sparking in our faces. Together, we change the twins, then lay them down to nap.
Only then does he take my face in his hands, tilt my chin up until we’re nose-to-nose. He kisses me deeply, and we fall right back into place. Together, at last.
He pushes me down on top of the bed. Pulls off my pants, my shirt, my panties. I yank his clothes off too, desperate to feel his bare skin against mine. When we’re both finally naked though, he tortures me by waiting, holding himself on both arms above me and gazing along my length, slowly taking me in, devouring every inch of me with that hot gaze of his.
I stare at him too, marveling at this man. The father of my children. The man of my dreams. I run my hands over his chest, tracing his muscles. I finger his pecs, his abs. Follow the sexy V down his stomach to his groin. Run my fingers across his happy trail, lower, lower…
“God you are so sexy,” I tell him. But before I can grab his hard cock, he wraps a hand around my wrist. Lifts my arm in one sudden motion and pins it over my head.
“I could say the same of you, you dirty little mama.”