Free MINE 2 by Kristina Weaver Page A

or how much I mess up, Ashley and I will always be connected by the child we’ve created.
    “Oh, love, you’re…”
    “Well, duh, Mr Tycoon, you already told me you were putting him there. Why so surprised?” she asks, laughing when I pull her down onto my lap and kiss the hell out of her smiling mouth.
    “Are you happy, love?” I ask minutes later when she pushes me away for air.
    I can’t say why her answer is so important to me, since I really can’t say I’d give a shit if she’s happy or not. I’ve always wanted my baby in her, and that’s exactly what I have.
    It’s not like I’d ever have given her a choice, since I’m still the controlling dick I’ve always been.
    But for some reason I’m hoping that she’s as happy to have part of me in her as I am to know that it’s there.
    “Again, duuuh. Of course I’m stoked. I love babies…well, most babies…oh, all right, I like the thought of us having a baby!” she titters, grinning back up at me. “Just think, in nine months we’re gonna see if human and alien DNA can in fact create a semi-normal life form.”
    “Ha bloody ha. You’re a regular riot, aren’t you. Now shut up and kiss me so we can go tell the bleeding world.”
    Our lips are a hair’s breadth apart when a screaming, jumping, clapping bundle of pure terror comes storming in and launches herself at us, almost unmanning me in the process.
    “You bloody beautiful bastards! I can’t believe you went and got Brit to buy you that test. What ever happened to bloody loyalty, you traitorous baggage!” she yells, squeezing us both so hard I’m forced to give her a shove to save the life of my wife and unborn child.
    “Get off, you barmy cow, she’s not a trampoline,” I mutter, fighting the urge to laugh when she starts bouncing around like an excited puppy instead of the sophisticated woman I’ve come to love.
    “But she’s smuggling my next nephew, Luc! Just look at her! Isn’t she glowing?”
    “I’m pretty sure she looks a little pale and green,” I say steadily, giving off a resigned sigh when Brody comes running in and grabs her up after pounding a bloody hole into my back.
    “Congratulations, you gorgeous minx. Can I see the kid?”
    This moment right here is when I know that, despite every plan and strategy, despite the seven years of hatred and vengeful musings I’d entertained, Ashley has always been and will always be that one and only I’d stopped believing in a long time ago.
    This is all so messy and emotional and way too out of my depth for real comfort, but when I look down at her smiling face and watch my sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law fawning over her like she’s royalty, well, I know that I wouldn’t change one bloody thing.
     
     
     
     

Chapter Twelve
     
    The family dinner I’d planned and hired caterers for has morphed into something I’m not capable of adequately describing. Luc, thanks to his prideful arrogance, has taken up space at the bar and is regaling his menfolk with tales of his completely calm and manly response after learning about the baby.
    I don’t have the heart to blow his cover and tell them all that he’d teared up like a freaking girl at the waxing room door when I’d given him the stick, but I have every intention of teasing the shit out of him as soon as they all leave—which, looking at Cammy and The Goldens and their own men, is not gonna be anytime soon.
    At least one good thing has come of having a house full of disgustingly happy guests: I get to sit back and enjoy a guilt-free party that hasn’t been catered by myself, and my brattish stomach has finally settled.
    Of course, I’ve had to watch these pigs stuff themselves with some of my favorite foods while I’m forced to chew on a piece of cardboard and chug flat ginger ale.
    But everyone’s happy, and for once I feel like maybe things are finally going to start going my way. I mean, Lucian has to so totally fall in love with me again. He’d looked