Page 22 of Bribed & Bred By The BRATVA (Bred By The BRATVA #9)

The water runs in the bathroom. I sit on the edge of the bed, elbows on my knees, waiting.

Patience is easy when I know where it ends, but tonight it claws at me. I heard the crinkle of the box when she picked it up, the tear of the wrapper. I know what she’s doing in there.

When the door finally opens, she steps out pale, the test clutched in her shaking hand. Her eyes find mine, wide and uncertain. She doesn’t need to say a word. I see the answer in her face.

Positive.

My chest tightens with something sharp and hot. A future made flesh. I stand slowly, closing the space between us, and take her wrist gently, guiding the test from her fingers to set it aside. It’s only plastic. She is the truth.

Her voice trembles. “What if… what if this is all you wanted? What if once you have a child, you don’t need me anymore?”

I tip her chin up, forcing her eyes to mine. “You think I would ever put you aside? You were already mine before this. You were already my queen. Now the world will see it in your body every time you walk into a room.”

Tears slip down her cheeks. I brush them away with my thumb, slow and deliberate.

“You will never be just the mother of my child, Isabella. You are my wife. My reason. My empire. And I will keep you like this forever, swollen, glowing, marked by me. Not just because I want heirs. Because I want you.”

Her lips part, a broken sound escaping. I press my forehead to hers. “You belong here. You belong to me. You aren’t going anywhere. Not now. Not ever.”

Her arms lift, sliding around my neck, clinging like she finally believes me. “I was so scared,” she whispers.

“I know,” I murmur. “But you don’t have to be. I’ll protect you until my last breath. I’ll worship you until there’s nothing left of me but your name in your mouth. And I’ll fuck you until you’re carrying me over and over again, until every part of you knows who you belong to.”

Her body softens against mine, trembling but certain. I scoop her up, carrying her to the bed, laying her down with reverence.

I strip her slowly, kissing every inch of skin as I bare it, whispering promises against her flesh. My mouth at her throat. Her breasts. The flat plane of her stomach that will soon swell with me.

“This body is holy,” I tell her. “Every curve, every breath. Mine to worship. Mine to fill.”

She gasps as my lips trail lower, as my tongue tastes her with slow devotion. Her thighs shake, her fingers knot in my hair, but I don’t stop until she’s moaning my name like a prayer.

When I finally slide into her, it’s slow. Gentle. Every thrust meant to remind her that she is more than safe, she is adored. I hold her face in my hands, my mouth never leaving hers, until she shatters around me, sobbing into my kiss.

I follow her, burying myself deep, spilling into the body that already carries me. Holding her so close it feels like we’re the same breath.

When it’s done, I curl around her, my hand spread wide across her stomach, my lips against her temple.

“You’re mine,” I whisper. “My wife. My queen. The mother of my children. And I’ll never let you go.”

She exhales shakily, then nods, curling into me. “Yours.”

The word is enough.

I close my eyes, my body wrapped around hers, my future already swelling beneath my hand.

For the first time in my life, I feel whole.