Kian (Undercover Billionaire, #1)(73)

Lily turned her head as she gazed at him, maybe seeing if he was worthy of being her daddy. He found himself holding his breath as he waited for her verdict. Then she smiled the most innocent and beautiful smile he’d ever seen.

“Daddy,” she said. She held up her arms, and he didn’t hesitate to rush to her, lifting her up and kissing her cheek. “Daddy,” she repeated before laying her sweet cheek against his chest.

Kian couldn’t control the tear that slipped from his eye. He blamed the damn drug the doctor had forced on him, because there was no way it was an actual, emotional tear. He hadn’t cried since he was five years old. He’d swear to that in a court of law.

He sniffed as he closed his eyes and pulled himself together. “Yes, I’m your daddy, baby girl,” he said, his voice gruff.

She leaned back and looked at him, then raised her sweet little hand and rested it on his cheek, and his damn broken eyes stung again as he gazed into the innocent depths of his little girl’s eyes.

“And Mommy,” she said before she pointed at Roxie.

“Yeah, and Mommy,” he confirmed as he looked at Roxie, who wasn’t even trying to hide her own tears. She wouldn’t even need the excuse of medication.

Kian sat down next to Roxie, his daughter safely held in his good arm, his cut arm wrapped around Roxie. “We’re a family,” he said.

Roxie stiffened the slightest bit next to him, and he found his heart breaking a little. She might not be ready for this. He knew he couldn’t rush it, knew he had to be patient. But after a night like the one he’d just had, patient wasn’t something he wanted to be. He wanted to protect and care for them both, and he wanted to do it starting right this minute.

“Yes, we’re always going to be a family,” Roxie said. But there was a bit of distance in her voice. Kian wanted to push the issue, but he knew he couldn’t do that right now. He knew he had to let her figure it all out. She shouldn’t make a decision when she’d just had such a traumatic night, anyway.

“Why don’t you both come home with me tonight?” Kian suggested.

“Thank you, but I think I need to go to my house tonight,” she told him. There was fear in her voice, like she was afraid of him getting mad at her over the request.

“I understand,” he said. But he forced her to look at him as he said the next words. She needed to hear him. “I love you, Roxie, and I’m a somewhat patient man. But tonight scared me more than I’ve ever been scared before. I need you to make a decision.”

She gazed at him with confusion in her eyes, and then finally she nodded. He leaned in and kissed her lips gently before backing up.

“Do you want to take Lily with you?” she asked with so much pain he knew the request was killing her.

“I always want Lily with me,” he said and felt her body flinch. “But tonight, she needs her mama.”

He felt the relief flood through her, and he knew he’d made the right call. He wanted both his girls home with him, and he had a feeling it was going to happen very soon. With that knowledge, he could give Roxie the space she needed to come to the decision on her own.





Chapter Twenty-Eight

Roxie wiped her eyes as she walked to the break room and poured what had to be her tenth cup of coffee in only four hours’ time. She was more than grateful the hospital was slow today. She truly feared she’d make a wrong call, and a patient would be the one to pay the price.

She hadn’t seen Kian in three days. Now, that might not seem a long time to the average person, but after all of their ups and downs, it might as well be an eternity. She’d been at work all three days, and Kian had been in the hospital, but he’d been on another floor, and she couldn’t find a reason to go there.

She knew he’d stopped at the day care many times to visit with Lily, who was always more than happy to see him and had to tell Roxie all about their special time together. So, it was only Roxie he appeared to be avoiding. That was good, she tried to convince herself. He’d told her he was giving her time to figure it out.

But she was a wreck, an utter and complete wreck. She wasn’t sure what she wanted or needed. But she did know for sure after that night a week ago when he’d pushed her to the breaking point, she hadn’t been the same again. Then the attack had happened, and she’d been in even more turmoil. She couldn’t sleep, she picked up her phone constantly to see if he’d called or texted, and she walked slowly through the hospital hoping to run into him. She wanted to see him, but her damn pride wouldn’t allow her to call him and admit to that.

Though emotionally, she wasn’t at all ready to face this man again, she also knew that he was a wonderful father, and she would have to get used to him being in her life. She just wasn’t sure if he was going to be an intimate part or not.

Roxie couldn’t even imagine how it would feel to see him with another woman, but she knew she either had to give him all of her or nothing. Kian wouldn’t accept anything less than . . . well, everything. That’s how she’d gotten lost in him the first time around. And it was so much more intense now than it had been back then.

“How’s everything going, Roxie?”

She turned to find one of the new young nurses standing there with far too much perk in her step and eyes. Roxie hated the woman just the tiniest bit in that moment. She would love to feel carefree with no burdens on her shoulders. It didn’t even matter if she was placing half of them on her own shoulders.