Rome (Marked Men, #3)(59)

“What do you mean? We have it, we raise it, we send it to school, keep it from getting eaten by wolves or becoming a stripper, and we’re good.”

“Don’t call it an it.”

“What should I call it?”

“I don’t know, but not it, and I meant where are we planning on raising him or her? My place? Your place? Together under the same roof or are we going to bounce back and forth? I feel like we didn’t really think this through.”

“Well, shit.”

I cast him a look out of the corner of my eye. “Exactly.”

We hadn’t really been together long enough to take such a big step as moving in together, but considering having a baby together was the ultimate game changer, I wasn’t sure we could play by the normal relationship rules. He was pretty quiet, so I glanced over at him. He looked like he was thinking pretty hard, but he didn’t seem too freaked out or panicked by the questions. I let him muse over it in silence while I headed to the Victorian. When I pulled up out front, he turned to look at me with seriousness shining out of those cobalt eyes.

“What do you want to do, Cora?”

I wasn’t expecting that.

“I don’t know. I don’t want you to do anything just because of the baby. I don’t want you to feel forced into anything.”

“I’m one hundred percent here by choice, Half-Pint.” When he said stuff like that, it made my heart throb.

“I guess we don’t have to figure it out right this very second, but it’s probably something we need to have a plan for eventually.”

“My plan is to do whatever you need me to do.”

Every girl in her lifetime should be so lucky to have a guy like him say those words to her. I knew he meant it, so I figured now was as good a time as any to push my luck. I put a hand on his knee and turned pleading eyes on him.

“Good, then what I need you to do is agree to come see your parents with me next weekend.”

I saw him go stiff and a moment of panic flare in his gaze.

“Why?”

“Because at some point they are going to need to know that they are going to be grandparents and I figure we should break the ice first. Come on, it won’t be that hard and I’ll be there to protect you.” I wasn’t going to mention it was long past time for him to put his fears at rest about how they would or wouldn’t see him.

He swore under his breath and shoved the door of the car open. I tried not to giggle when he struggled to get out, but it was just too funny. I followed suit and he stared hard at me over the roof.

“I haven’t been in the same room with them for over a year.”

“Well, then it’s been long enough. I’m not asking you swallow all that resentment you have about the fact they didn’t tell you about Remy or about how your mom treated Rule. I’m asking for you to deal with it and get a handle on it so it can be one less thing that keeps you up at night.”

We stared at each other for a long moment of silence. Finally he pushed off the car and inclined his head toward the apartment.

“Can I think about it?”

I bit my lip and put my hands on each side of his waist so I could rest my cheek against the center of his back while he fiddled with the lock in the front door.

“You can, but I already had Shaw tell them we would be there.”

He went stiff in front of me but didn’t say anything back. Once he got the door open, he turned around and pinned me to the wood with my hands above my head. I looked up at him and refused to blink.

“You can be a major pain in the ass. You know that, right?”

I smiled up at him and lifted up so I could wrap a leg around his hip.

“I know. But I make up for it in other ways.”

He chuckled and dropped his head so that he could kiss me. It was so easy to just get lost in him. The more I did it, the less I wanted to be found.

“Prove it.” Now, that was a challenge I was totally up to. Good thing I had the rest of the day to do it.

“Why are you riding with us again?”

Rule and Rome were in the front of the cab of the big truck, and I was in the back texting back and forth with Shaw. I really thought this was a brilliant idea but now I had visions of it blowing up in my face and being flat-out catastrophic. It was already going to be a tense reunion and adding my little surprise to the mix might just push the entire family over the edge. I just wanted to help, but if Rome didn’t appreciate the effort and I screwed things up beyond repair, I wasn’t sure I could survive it. I had a feeling him abandoning me would literally kill me, unlike Jimmy’s betrayal, which had merely wounded me deeply.

“Because Shaw told me that if I wanted to have sex again in the next century, I would get my happy ass to Brookside even though she had a migraine and wasn’t going. She told me I needed to be there for you since you were going.”

I laughed. “Atta girl.”


That had both of them turning around to glare at me. Apparently it wasn’t funny to mess around with a guy’s supply of ready and willing sex.

Rule’s hair wasn’t green anymore, instead it was bleached out to a startling white, and it was as pale as his girlfriend’s. The spiky mess was a contrast to his dark brows and the brightly colored tattoos swirling along his neck. It was actually pretty sedate for him, not that I thought his folks would appreciate the fact.