Page 119 of Mafia Obsession

“But we need to get you on some kind of birth control.” He kisses me again and then walks into the bathroom attached to my new office.

Did he come in his pants on purpose, so he didn’t come inside me?

I give Ares the time he needs to clean up while I right myself on the sofa and think about what he said.

Ares wants me on birth control. He also said he didn’t want my choices taken away. Since we’re getting married and he’s already forty-two, shouldn’t we be talking about having children, not securing the methods to prevent them?

I asked him about kids once. He didn’t answer. What if Ares doesn’t want children at all?

My throat goes dry. I already lost one baby. Maybe I can’t have another. Would that matter to him?

Or would it make me…easier to walk away from?

He returns to the office, one hand smoothing his hair. His perfection hardened back into place.

“Ares… I need to tell you something.” My heart pounds at what I’m about to say.

Gray-violet eyes widen. Perhaps the sound of my voice caused him to go on high alert. Or given all the things he already knows about me, something I haven’t told him yet could be earth-shattering to him.

“You can tell me anything.” He stands with his arms crossed, a pose that’s a complete contradiction to what he just said. “Talk to me.”

“I was pregnant a few years ago.” I close my eyes briefly and open them to find him staring at me.

Seeing the strange look on his face and hearing no immediate response, I stand up from the sofa. “I… I had a miscarriage. The pregnancy is why David and I got married. The only reason, really. When he told me he had a job here in New York, I had to come with him because of the pregnancy. I couldn’t do it on my own in Chicago. I had no family. Sandrine was in Lakeshore. But then I lost the baby… And David changed. I don’t think he really wanted to marry me. He was just doing the right thing.”

Ares keeps staring at me. After an exhale, he approaches me slowly. “Lourdes… I’m sorry you went through that. I didn’t want to judge how you could have married such a… I commend any man who will do the right thing by a woman. But even if I had known this all along, he lost my respect just the way he spoke to you at Winterhall. Never mind the physical abuse. We both know where that got him.”

“I know.”

Boy, do I know.

Clearing my throat, I add, “That’s why I’m not on birth control. After the miscarriage, I had to wait, and by then, David stopped wanting sex with me. There was no reason to be on it.”

“Are you telling me that you and he hadn’t been intimate…”

“In years,” I whisper.

He pulls me into his arms, and I melt against his chest.

“My little storm. My butterfly. You’re not that woman anymore. The way you handle me. The way you take me.” He brushes a final kiss on my lips. “No, you were never that woman. You were always meant for me.”

“I worried the miscarriage might have meant I couldn’t… You know.”

Ares straightens, his chin pointed. “Go on.”

“If I couldn’t have children, would that change anything for you?”

His expression shifts, something tightening in his jaw. “It would change nothing. I want you, Lourdes.You.”

Chapter 47

Lourdes

Aweek later, Ares is at Club Wicked, and a call comes to my phone. I recognize the number as one of the doctors at Sandrine’s new facility here in New York.

It’s late, and my hands shake as I answer it, fearing something is wrong.

She just moved there a few days ago. She took the move positively, especially when I showed her pictures of the new place in New York.