Page 144 of Severed By Vengeance

I leaned in and kissed him, brushing my lips against his. “Sounds like I’ll be outnumbered.”

Derek pushed wet tendrils of hair behind my hair and smiled. “You know there’s a way to even those odds.”

My heart hammered wildly in my chest.

“You… want a baby?”

He sat up and pulled me into his lap. “I never considered becoming a father. Never thought myself capable of that kind of love or worthy of it… I still don’t even know if I am.” Holding my face with both hands, he kissed my forehead. “But with you, angel, I want it all.”

I tried to keep myself from melting into another puddle on the lawn.

We would be okay.

“You’re just pulling out all the stops tonight, aren’t you?”

We laughed in unison.

“Baby, I got about 100 different ways to make you swoon, moan, and scream for me. I’m not nearly done with you yet. But first, I need to get my bare ass off this ground.”

Derek stood up with me wrapped around his waist.

“I’d like to put that to the test,” I said, nibbling at his lips.

“You don’t have to tell me twice.”

With that, he thrust me over his shoulder, slapped my ass, and ran toward the house as I laughed and swatted at his back.

“What about the food? I’m kind of hungry. You were late, after all,” I teased.

“Somebody wants to be punished.”

“Do I need to say please?”

Another resounding slap to my ass cheek filled the night air before he closed the door behind us.

I’d worry about the neighbors tomorrow.

THE END

EPILOGUE

DEREK

“I’ll kill them!”

I gripped the refrigerator handles and gritted my teeth, Eva’s hand on my forearm, making me pause long enough before I tore the damn things straight off.

“No, you’re not,” she said, slipping underneath my arms and staring at the barren shelves. “Their flight was canceled, baby. We barely made it here ourselves.” Eva turned to face me, throwing her arms behind my neck. “And you’re not actually serious, are you? You know I brought my cuffs.”

When she levered to kiss me, I scooped her into my arms and sat her on the kitchen counter.

“Mm, if that’s what it takes to bring those out tonight, let me make a quick phone call. Kai wouldn’t mind.”

I nibbled down the column of her throat as she tipped her head back, fingernails on my scalp, and a sweet little moan on the wingtips of my name.

“Stop it. You’renotgoing to call anyone, least of all your brother. Let him be. We’re just going to have to go into town and pick up some things to tide us over before that two feet of snow hits the ground.”

“I despise the grocery store,” I said, groaning into her shoulder. “There are always people in there.”