Page 73 of Wilde Flame

It was a good fucking question, and one I didn’t have an answer to. I should want her living anywhere other than my house. Lord knows it would be hard as hell to sleep with Lilibeth under my roof every night and not touch her. But something deep inside wanted her with me. This woman was going to have my baby.

Holy shit. My baby.

“I don’t want to miss out on things.”

It was the first thing that came to mind—and I realized it was true.

“What do you mean?”

I held my hands out, beseeching. “If you’re staying with me, we can set up the baby’s room together, and when the baby kicks for the first time, I’ll hopefully be there to feel it. If you’re living somewhere else…I won’t get to experience any of that.”

Her head tilted. “You’re taking this a lot better than I thought you would. I totally freaked out when the doctor told me I was pregnant.”

Laughing, I pushed a hand through my hair. “Don’t worry. I’ll freak out the moment I’m alone. Right now, I’m…I’m not really sure what I am. Shocked?”

Her tongue swept over her lips. “I don’t know about us living together, Caden.”

I held up both hands. “I promise you, nothing will happen. Friends only.”

With a nod so slight, I would have missed it if I hadn’t been staring at her so hard, she said, “Okay.”

Bending down to look into her eyes, I smiled. “Okay, you’ll move in?”

“If you promise it won’t make things weird. I do think it would be nice to have you there with me for whatever happens. But…God, I don’t know…I’m still trying to process this myself. Maybe we should take a step back and think about all of this.”

I took her hand and drew her to me. Cupping her face, I looked into her beautiful hazel eyes. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

Tears filled her eyes, and she tried to blink them away. “We used a condom every time. How did this happen?”

“I’m not sure,” I answered honestly. “I don’t think any of them broke, but I have to be honest, I wasn’t paying attention when I removed them.”

She exhaled. “Thank you, Caden.”

“For what?” I asked with a laugh.

“For not freaking out on me, or blaming me, or…” Her words faded away.

“We’re in this together from now on.”

She smiled, and for a moment, it nearly took my breath away.

“Holy shit, Caden. We’re going to have a baby. A baby.”

I exhaled. “A baby.”

“It figures. I wait almost thirty years to have sex and I get knocked up the first damn time.”

I threw my head back and let out a roar of laughter. There was one thing I was sure of: this was going to be one hell of an experience.

When my laughter faded away, Lilibeth’s expression turned serious. I could see she was scared. “What do we do now?”

“We take one day at a time. First thing, go to the doctor tomorrow. Then let’s plan on getting you moved into my place.”

She bit down on her lower lip and nodded. “You’re really sure about me moving in?”

“I’m sure.”

A single tear slipped free and rolled down her cheek. “I’m scared, Caden.”