Claiming Sarah (Ace Security #5)(79)

Her eyes teared up. “I love you,” she whispered.

“And I love you,” he returned. He leaned up and kissed her forehead, then briefly touched his lips to her cracked and dry ones. “Go back to sleep,” he ordered.

She tightened her hand in his. “You’ll stay?”

He smiled. He knew she wouldn’t want him to go. They’d almost lost each other, and they both knew what a close call they’d had. Sarah didn’t want him out of her sight any more than he wanted her out of his. “Of course, angel.”

She closed her eyes, and he thought she was asleep several moments later, until she murmured, “Do you want a boy or a girl?”

God. He couldn’t decide. Both. He wanted both. A girl with Sarah’s luxurious hair and even-keeled disposition, and a boy with her eyes. “I don’t care,” he told her.

“Boy,” she said firmly. “We need a boy first so he can look after his little sister.”

Cole nodded. Yeah, he could go for that.



Thirty minutes later, Felicity stuck her head in the door of Sarah’s hospital room. She’d wanted to see Sarah and tell her she was glad she was all right.

But the sight of her best friend stopped her in her tracks. Cole was sound asleep. One hand was resting on Sarah’s stomach, and the other was gripping her hand tightly. His head was on the mattress by her hip, and even though his body was twisted in the chair and he looked uncomfortable, she wouldn’t dream of waking him up.

Slipping out of the room, she quietly shut the door. Seeing Sarah could wait. The satisfaction on Cole’s face was all she needed to see to know they’d both be all right. She’d been worried about him over the last week, but she knew without a doubt that all was well in his world . . . finally.





Epilogue

Sarah stood against one of the walls in the large gym, smiling as she watched her man on the other side of the room. He’d offered to get her a drink, but of course he’d been stopped by just about everyone while on his errand and was now surrounded by the men from Ace Security as they shot the shit.

Rock Hard Gym was having another of their famous “black light” nights, and it seemed as if the entire town had shown up.

Sarah was standing with Grace, Bailey, Alexis, and Felicity, chatting while their men took a break from checking IDs and walking around the gym to make sure everyone was safe and happy.

“How’s the ankle?” Felicity asked Sarah.

She stuck it out in front of them and wiggled it back and forth. “Good as new. Joel calls it my bionic leg.”

Bailey laughed. “I swear he and Nathan are obsessed with science-fiction shit. It’s crazy.”

“They only put in a few pins, right?” Grace asked.

Sarah nodded. “Yeah, but I might’ve exaggerated when I was telling Joel all about it.”

Everyone laughed.

“You look good,” Alexis told her.

Sarah smiled and rested a hand on her belly. She’d just started to really show, and every day seemed better than the last. “Thanks. I feel good.”

“Well, I feel like shit,” Bailey complained, resting her hand on her own protruding belly. “I’m ready to have this kid. If I hadn’t already had the ultrasound, and if I hadn’t made the doctor promise that there was only one kid inside me, I’d swear there were at least two.”

Sarah pressed her lips together and looked at the floor.

“Sarah?” Felicity asked. “You have something you want to share?”

Shit. She and Cole had decided to keep this to themselves for as long as possible, but she’d always been horrible at keeping secrets.

She shrugged, then smiled. “We’re having twins.”

“No shit?” Bailey asked.

“Oh my God, really?” Felicity breathed.

“That’s so cool!” Alexis said, practically jumping up and down with excitement.

“I’m so glad I’m not the only one,” Grace said with a small smile.

Everyone hugged Sarah, and she couldn’t help but laugh. She was so happy it was almost scary.

“Tell us all the details,” Felicity urged.

“We were going to wait to find out the gender, but the doctor was concerned by how big I was getting. So we agreed to let him do a more thorough examination. Turns out there was a reason I was so big—there are two little buggers in there!”

“Holy crap. I bet Cole about lost his mind!” Felicity said.

Sarah nodded. He had. He’d been so excited that he’d taken her straight home to “get acquainted with his babies,” as he’d put it. She’d tried to remind him that he’d been “acquainting” himself with them for weeks now, but he’d ignored her.

The way he’d made love to her, so tenderly and gently, had made tears fall down her face. Then, being Cole, the slow lovemaking quickly turned carnal, and he’d taken her hard and fast, vowing to keep her knocked up and filled with his babies for the next ten years.

“He totally bragged that he had the most potent sperm in three counties,” Sarah admitted with an eye roll.

The other women all laughed.

“That sounds like him,” Felicity said with a chuckle. Then she bit her lip and looked at Sarah with a strange expression on her face. “I know you and I aren’t officially related, not like we are”—she gestured to the other women—“but I feel as if Cole’s my brother, so that makes you my sister-in-law. And if you’re my sister-in-law . . . then that would make our kids cousins.”