Page 224

Kade didn’t forget to feed her. But they ate later. Much later.
Two Months Later
“That looks good. Exactly what I would do,” Kade told Asha encouragingly over her shoulder as she sat looking at her financial portfolio on her computer, the portfolio she was now building for their child.
She explained her rationale to him as she did her investing. Kade encouraged, and he pointed out pros and cons, but he let her figure things out on her own once she got the hang of thinking like an investor.
He’d calmed down considerably about the baby, but he never stopped worrying. Instead of his alpha male behavior irritating her, it actually comforted her. She was learning, especially from the women in her life, exactly how to handle Kade’s occasional over-the-top behavior. Mostly, Asha felt loved, and that was a feeling she wouldn’t trade for anything. Kade coddled her, cherished her, and downright spoiled her. In return, she tried to do the same for him. She supposed there was nothing she could really do to prove how much she loved him, but it didn’t stop her from trying.
The last few months had been an adjustment period, but strangely, it hadn’t been difficult. Considering they were married a few days after she’d discovered she was pregnant, Asha would have expected there to be some rough patches. There weren’t. Not really. She and Kade just seemed to…fit, getting closer every day until she couldn’t remember what her life had been like without him there, and she didn’t want to remember. Kade was her best friend, her lover, and now her husband and the father of their unborn child. After her traumatic history, she felt like she was living a dream, a lovely dream that she hoped never ended.
“Coming from you, I’ll take that as a compliment,” Asha answered. “You’re the smartest man I know.” She signed out of her account and got up from the chair. “I guess it’s time to get to Maddie’s. I can’t wait to hold the babies again.”
Her sister had delivered slightly before her due date, but both babies were healthy and already driving their parents happily crazy because they weren’t on the same feeding schedule. She and Kade had volunteered to give Sam and Maddie a night off so they could get out of the house. Truthfully, it was no sacrifice for either of them, as they were both completely enamored of their new niece and nephew.
“Do you really think we’re going to be able to pull either one of them away from the babies?” Kade asked doubtfully.
“They’re going,” Asha answered stubbornly. “They both look worn-out. They need a break.”
“Sam’s gone from worrying about the birth to worrying about what college they’re going to. That got me thinking—”
“Don’t even start,” Asha warned him, putting her arms around his neck. Kade and Sam were bad for each other when they started talking kids. When Simon got into the mix, it was even worse. Every one of them was more than ready to plan out the next eighteen years of their assorted children’s lives for them before they could even talk.
“What?” Kade asked innocently, tightening his arms around Asha’s waist. “We’re just thinking about their futures.”
“You can wait until they have some say in that future,” Asha told him adamantly. “I can tell you from experience that it sucks to have your future planned out for you.”
“I’d never do that,” Kade said huskily. “You know I’d never force anything on our child.”
Asha did know that. “I’m sorry. It’s a touchy subject. I know you wouldn’t.” Kade was excited, and she didn’t want to kill that excitement for him. “It’s my own insecurities. It’s not you. It’s hormones. It seems like I’m either cranky, crying, hungry, or horny.”
“But you’re beautiful in any mood,” Kade reminded her with a grin. “I prefer the horny mood, though.”
A startled laugh escaped from Asha’s mouth. It didn’t matter what mood she was in; Kade could switch it from irritable to horny in a matter of seconds. She looked up at his beloved, handsome face and liquid eyes with a sigh. “My soul mate. I happen to prefer that mood myself,” she told him with a grin.
“You are my soul mate, Asha. Do you remember when you asked me if I believed there was one person for each of us? I wasn’t sure what I thought then, but I know now. If I get overbearing and annoying, just remember that I can’t live without you anymore.”
Asha nodded. “I know. I feel the same way.” She lifted her foot onto the chair. “I redid my tattoo.” Her henna tattoo had faded, and she’d replaced it with another image, using materials that she knew were safe for the baby.
Kade studied it for a moment before recognition dawned. “You changed it entirely. It’s a phoenix rising, just like mine.”
“I don’t feel like a butterfly anymore,” she admitted. “I feel like I’ve been reborn and I’m ready to start living for the first time. Because of you. A butterfly is too fragile. I feel stronger than that.”
Kade tipped her chin up and kissed her. “You are strong. The strongest woman I’ve ever known.” He fingered the delicate phoenix, tracing it with a finger. “There are very few people brave enough to escape the conditioning you went through and become their own person, no matter what the cost.”
“I wasn’t brave. I was just surviving,” Asha told him, perplexed.
“Sometimes surviving is a whole lot braver than the alternative,” Kade said gravely. “You’re a miracle. My miracle.”
Asha thought it was the other way around. “You saved me.”
“You saved me, sweetheart,” he contradicted.
“Maybe we should just say we saved each other,” Asha answered, knowing the important role Kade had played at making her start to put the pieces of her shattered life back together again.
“The phoenix is perfect. You’re right. The butterfly is too fragile,” he mused. “And you’re finally flying.”
“Not yet. But I’m working on it.”