Page 37 of The Kingpin’s Omega Lover (River City Omegas #2)

Malori’s face brightened with the first hints of hope since he’d entered the kitchen. “If she was involved in my daughter’s sale to someone else, do you think she’d trade information on her whereabouts?”

“I don’t know, but it’s worth asking, don’t you think?”

“Fuck, yes!” His excitement dimmed as quickly as it had flared.

“But she’s three years old, King. What if…

fuck, but what if she has a good life with whoever bought her?

Do I have any right to tear her away from that?

Junior is still young, he’s a baby, but she’s walking and probably talking.

What if she already calls them Mom and Dad? ”

King circled the island and pulled Malori up into a firm hug.

Malori’s arms cinched around his waist, and he pressed his face into King’s neck.

“I don’t have any of those answers for you, angel.

First, we need the information. Proof of life, of adoption, and of her current whereabouts.

Until we have that, there are no answers to the other questions. ”

“You’re right.” Malori released a long, angry sigh. “Do you think Marta will kill him? Aleks, I mean?”

“Probably. Does that bother you?”

“No. It should, because Aleks did give me my son. Not, like, he handed him over willingly, but the pregnancy. Junior exists because of him. I shouldn’t want him dead, but I do.” He looked up, right into King’s eyes. “Does that make me a horrible person? That I want my son’s father dead?”

“No, it doesn’t. It makes you human and flawed, and it makes you the man I love.”

Malori’s lips parted, and his eyelashes fluttered. “Yeah?”

“Yes. I love you, Malori. Pretty sure I fell in love with you a little bit the day we met. With your courage and tenacity, and your will to live. And every day since, you’ve shown me a man I want by my side, now and in the future. For all the days of my life.”

Malori closed his eyes. A single tear slid down his right cheek, and when he blinked them open again, his eyes shined with joy.

“I love you, too. I have for a while, but I never had the words to say it. Because everyone who’s shown love to me in the past has betrayed me.

I didn’t trust that word. Love. But you gave it back to me, Alexander Kingston. My King.”

King’s own eyes burned. “It’s my honor to give that word back to you. I can’t promise life with me will be easy.”

“I don’t want easy. I want honest. I want genuine. I want you.”

“You’ve got me.” King glanced around, but Bishop had cleared out at some point. “Malori, I have to ask you something.”

“It’s a little early for a proposal.”

That made him laugh out loud. “Not that. Not yet. I’m curious, though. When we’re together, do you ever feel…connected to me? On a more spiritual level?”

Malori smiled so sweetly that King fell in love all over again. “Are you asking about the charum connection? If I think there’s something like that between us?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe. I love the concept of the charum, of that perfect, fated half of myself out there, waiting for me. I love the idea that my other half is you.”

“But you don’t believe in it.”

“I don’t know, and that’s the truth. I’ve never been a spiritual person. I see the love between Bishop and Kensley, and I know they have an intense bond, no matter what they call it, because I believe things I can see and touch and understand.”

“You can’t see and touch love.”

“Yes, I can.” Malori’s hands skimmed up his ribs and around to rest on King’s chest. “I see it when you smile at me. I see it in how you protect me. I touch it when I hug you and hold you and make love to you. I understand your love, because it’s this tangible thing right in front of me.

I don’t need to call you my charus to know your love is real and soul-deep. ”

King brushed his lips over Malori’s as love and joy threatened to overwhelm him. “I accept that. The emotions matter, not the label.”

“Exactly.”

Junior’s screech of disapproval startled Malori right out of King’s arms. “Damn it,” Malori said sheepishly. “I came in here ten minutes ago to get him more juice.”

“Then we’d better bring him his juice.” King walked to the refrigerator and found the carton of apple juice.

His proximity to food reminded him it was lunchtime.

His admission of love to Malori had helped settle his unhappy stomach enough that he was considering ordering delivery.

Maybe pizza. They all deserved a little junk food today.

“Hey, King,” Malori said as he twisted the lid back onto the full sippy cup.

“What is it, angel?”

“What’s your middle name? Do you have one?”

King put the apple juice back in the fridge. “It’s Thornton. Why? Learning security questions so you can hack my accounts?”

Malori chuckled. “No. Thornton. Thorn, for short. I like Thorn.”

“For what?”

“For our son. I can’t keep calling him Junior. He’s Thorn now.”

If King had possessed the physical ability to melt into literal goo, he would have.

His depth of love and devotion to not only Malori, but now also to little Thorn, did something to King that hadn’t happened in a long fucking time: he cried.

He pulled Malori back into his arms and held him tight while tears of pure joy ran down his cheeks.

Six months ago, he’d stormed a large, rural farmhouse in search of his kidnapped brother, and he’d walked out with a wounded soul cradled in his arms. A wounded warrior of a soul that had scraped and battled and never given up on what he wanted.

And King had been given the miraculous chance to fall in love with that man.

To create a family with that man, and now they had a son.

And hopefully, maybe, a daughter.

But for right now, King basked in what he had in his life. His lover, his son, his best friend, and his brother. And as he hugged Malori tight, King vowed to the Creator and the universe that he would do everything in his vast power to keep his family safe.

No matter what.