Page 31 of Kingpin's Nanny
“I’ll always protect you,” he mouths silently.
I sag with relief. I knew that. Of course I knew that.
“Will they be my sister? Or brother?” Ivy demands. “I don’t mind which it is, so long as I can be their big sister.”
“You will definitely be their big sister,” Lucas replies calmly. “And we don’t know yet whether it will be a boy or a girl.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to point out that we don’t even know if I’m pregnant, but one look at Lucas and I know his answer to that. If I’m not yet pregnant, he’ll take great satisfaction in ensuring I am very soon.
And despite the improbability, I think I am.
“In a few months we’ll be able to find out,” I risk saying.
“If Uncle Lucas is going to be my daddy, and you’re going to get married to him…” She trails off.
“Yes.” The answer is obviously yes.
“Can I call you Mommy?” she says after a second, not understanding I’ve already agreed.
Lucas rumbles mock disapproval.
“You can call meMummy. Or Mom, if you prefer.” I squeeze her and she giggles. “We won’t tell Dad that we use American words sometimes.”
“I heard that,” he grumbles, but his eyes are sparkling.
“This Christmas is nearly perfect,” she says with a serious expression just like her uncle—or her now-dad.
“It seems pretty perfect to me.” I can’t imagine anything better. I have everything I’ve ever wanted. A family, security, love. The sexiest and most caring man in the world has askedme to marry him and have his children, and we have Ivy as a daughter.
“What would make it perfect?” Lucas asks indulgently.
Ivy gives us both the most angelic smile imaginable. “Can I have a puppy?”
EPILOGUE
LUCAS
23rdDecember, 10 years later
“Fucking thing!” I hurl the sticky tape across the room just as there’s a knock at the door, and Bella slips into my office. She takes in my furious expression and the tape rolling to a stop on the floor, and her mouth twitches.
“Did it betray you, King’s Cross, the London Mafia Syndicate, and good taste, and deserve to die?” she asks, deadpan.
Bella is wearing a slinky red dress with a subtle pattern that matches the lining of my suit jacket, and my heart pulses as I see it. She’s mine, and I’m hers, and I love the little signs of ownership we have that are outwardly visible. Her wedding ring and engagement ring included, but the ones that take a moment of coordination are even more special. They speak of our continued bond.
But even seeing Bella cannot salvage me from this bad mood.
“No,” I snap. “Worse.”
She raises her eyebrows.
“I can’t find the end,” I admit, dragging my hand through my hair. There’s a lot more silver in it now. Mainly caused by stickytape. That and eight children, plus London mafia nonsense that puts the UN Peace Corps to shame.
My wife giggles and picks up the roll of tape. “Shall I help?”
I sigh. “I should have got the shop to wrap it. But oh no, I had to order it online like an absolute idiot.”
Hips swinging, she crosses the room to my desk, and perches on the edge, just in front of my chair and begins to run her nail over the sticky tape, focused on the task.