Sweet Rome (Sweet Home, #1.5)(75)

“I found out today why,” she said almost inaudibly.

“And… what’s wrong?”

“I’m… I’m…”

Fuck me, I was going to explode!

Gripping her harder around the waist, I shouted, “Christ! You’re what, Mol?”

“I’m pregnant,” she blurted out.

Golden eyes lowered, and my pulse took off like a hummingbird.

Pregnant. Shit, a baby. I was going to be a daddy?

“You’re pregnant?” I stared at her in disbelief, feeling like every drop of blood had just drained from my body.

My girl seemed to have turned into a friggin’ mute, so I flipped our positions, putting me on top. “You’re pregnant?” I asked again and watched Mol’s eyes well up.

“Yes, I’m pregnant, Romeo. I’m pregnant with your baby.” Each word was like a punch.

Sitting up, I stared at the white wall before closing my eyes, lost in my thoughts. How would this work? Would Molly be able to finish her master’s? Would it be the end of her education? Where would we live? I was going to be a daddy… And slowly, I realized that the thought of that didn’t have me running for the hills like I’d always thought, but rather feeling so damn content I could barely breathe. I was having a baby with my girl.

So many questions circled through my mind, too many to keep up with, and then my girl f*cking froze me to the spot with one simple sentence. “I’ll make an appointment to see a doctor. I’ll just get rid of it immediately.”

Glaring at Molly below me, I barked, “You’d kill our baby?”

Bucking her body, trying to get up, Molly shouted, “Don’t get all high and mighty on me now! I don’t need to hear any moral shit! I’m trying to do the best thing for both of us. I’ll cope with whatever I have to do. If that means having an abortion, then that’s just what will have to happen. It doesn’t mean I want to go through with it!”

“Then don’t, baby, please. Getting rid of it can’t be what you f*ckin’ want.” No way was she killing our child. It was our child.

“I don’t know what the hell I want!” she cried, the tears flowing once more. Shit. She was petrified, and I was being an ass.

Leaning down, I ran my hands through her hair. “Well, I do.”

Taking hold of my wrists, she searched my face before saying, “But… you…”

“Jesus, I was shocked!” I cut in, shaking my head, then moving my hand to her stomach. “I’m still shocked, but that’s our baby in there. We made it together.”

Desperate for her to understand, I pulled up her T-shirt and kissed along her stomach, stating, “And it’s not going anywhere. Promise me. I have real strong feelings about this, Mol. Don’t destroy our God-given angel.” Her silence almost killed me, but I had to make her understand how much this meant to me.

“Promise me I have a say in this. Don’t have an abortion, please.” She couldn’t. God, I couldn’t see her go through that.

I waited, barely breathing, pressing my forehead to her flat stomach until she whispered, “I promise.”

Relief like nothing I’d felt before settled in my bones, and I moved back to take the lips of my girl… the mother of my child.

As soon as our mouths meshed together, the same need that I always felt around my girl shot through my veins like a drug. Ridding Molly of her jeans, I freed myself and in seconds, plunged into her wet warmth.

Wrapping her legs around my waist, Molly moaned into my ear, clawing at my back and murmuring my name.

“I love you, Mol,” I said against her lips.

Tears slipped from her eyes as I pushed into her slowly; she studied my face as I took her, unhurried and slow.

We came together, holding hands, and I swear something within me changed right then. I realized I didn’t need the controlling f*cking all the time with Mol; it could be different… I trusted her enough to relinquish my controlling tendencies.

“That’s the softest you’ve ever made love to me. It felt so different,” Molly whispered into my hair falling over her face. Pulling back, our foreheads touched and she smiled. “I loved it.”

“You’re carrying precious cargo now, baby. I need to be more careful with you… with you both.”

A wave of happiness seemed to settle over us both and I sloped to the side, pulling my girl to face me, her eyes bigger than normal behind thick brown frames. I’d been so worried before I hadn’t even noticed that her contacts were gone.

“You look like my old Mol with these glasses and your hair like that. The girl I looked at months ago, on her hands and knees, cussing in that f*ckin’ hot accent in humanities block, wearing neon-orange shoes, and I knew, without a shadow of doubt, that she would one day be mine.”

“One day,” Mol teased with a smile, referring to my tattoo.

Swallowing, I confided, “I always wondered if one day I’d have a family, if I’d ever be happy enough with someone… with myself, to have a child.” It was true, but with Molly by my side, the thought didn’t scare me quite so much.

Reaching out and gripping my hand, panic set in Molly’s eyes and she admitted, “Romeo, I don’t think I can be a mother. We haven’t had normal families. We have no idea how to be in a normal family! How the hell can we bring up a child? We’re far too young. What do we have to offer a baby?”