“Never.”
“My God,” she cries. She looks up at me in awe, those eyes I love so much taking in every inch of my face. “You have no idea how happy that makes me.”
“Yeah, the tears were a little questionable,” I joke.
“You’re going to be here . . . every day?”
“Every day from here on out.”
She smiles and cuddles her body close, relaxing instantly in my arms.
“We need to talk about what happened today, Dani.”
I probably could have timed it better, but the calm that was rolling down her body like a blanket evaporates the second I open my mouth.
“You don’t have to repeat that shit, baby. I know everything, but we do need to talk about what you think. What you think and what your gut is telling you about these things happening. I don’t fucking like it one bit, and until we figure out who’s behind these threats, I don’t want you leaving my sight.”
She opens her mouth to complain—I’m sure—but I stop her before she has a chance.
“I won’t waver on this, Dani. I just won’t. Not when it comes to you and our child’s safety. You can just think of it as us making up for lost time. Like it our not, I’m your new shadow, baby.”
Her face scrunches up, and I wait for her to speak, my fingers trailing over the soft skin of her back.
“I hate this. I hate feeling powerless and terrified to even look out the window, Cohen.”
“I know you do. But this shit will end. I won’t stop until I find out who has been making you feel like you aren’t safe. I won’t let anyone take you from me.”
We lie there in silence until she speaks again.
“Who do you think is doing this?” she whispers into the darkness.
“I’m not sure, but rest easy that I’ll find out.”
She nods her head against my shoulder and settles in deeper as if her body needs to get as close as possible to feel safe. I feel her stomach press against my side and smile into the darkness.
“A baby, huh?”
“Yeah,” she breathes. “I know we didn’t plan this, but I couldn’t be happier. Knowing that a part of us is cooking away in there gives me the biggest sense of completion I’ve ever felt. It helped me fill the void that your being gone had left, but it wasn’t until I had your arms around me again that I realized how right this feels.”
“My Dani-girl is having my baby.” I let that settle around us before another thought quickly takes its place. “Your father really is going to kick my ass.”
Her giggles float around us, and with a smile, I fall asleep. And for the first time in almost seven long months, I sleep peacefully.
COHEN DIDN’T LET ME OUT of his bed for two days. Of course, he kept me well fed and hydrated, but other than that, we spent the two days that followed his homecoming locked in his room with our bodies connected in every way possible.
The phone had long stopped ringing and it seemed that our family and friends were content to wait us out and give us the time we needed to become us after too long apart.
I asked him once between one of our long lovemaking sessions if he felt like it was weird that we came together so quickly. He laughed and told me that if we hadn’t been dancing around it for so long, I would have been his years ago. There was no doubt in my mind that I was right where I was meant to be.
“Dani,” I hear him call from the other side of his shower curtain. “I think they’ve given us as much space as we’re going to get. Your brother called to give me a heads-up that our parents should be here in about twenty minutes.”
Ugh. So much for staying wrapped up in each other.
“I’m surprised they lasted this long,” I mumble and rinse the shampoo from my hair.
“Me too,” he says, and I jump when I realize that he’s stepped into the shower with me.
“You just took a shower,” I say lamely.
“Yup,” he responds and takes my conditioner from my hand. “Turn.”
I do what he says and spin, giving him my back. I hear him groan as his free hand palms my cheek. “I love this ass,” he says and gives it a light slap.
“So I noticed.”
“We have twenty minutes, baby.”
I look over my shoulder at him and raise my brow in question, wondering where he’s going with this.
“I wonder how many times I can make you scream my name in that time.” He drops the conditioner, forgotten on the bottom of the tub, and pulls me against his hard, naked body.
Thirty minutes later, he has made me scream his name four times, and even while the front door is being pounded on by our expected visitors, he takes my body until I give him one more.