Page 276 of Ricardo

“Come here.”

Her face crumples, and I pull her into my arms.

She grips me hard, burying her face against my chest. I hold her carefully at first, then closer when she starts trembling, one hand spread over her back and the other cradling the back of her head.

For several breaths, I say nothing.

I let myself feel it because denying it would be useless.

Fear, first. Sharp enough to cut bone.

Wonder beneath it, so powerful it almost frightens me more.

Then love, fierce and immediate, not only for Julia, but for the life she has just placed in my hands.

I press my mouth to her hair.

“I wish you had told me the second you suspected,” I say, but gently, because the words come from fear and she deserves truth without punishment.

“I didn’t suspect. Not really. I kept thinking there had to be another reason. And then I just couldn't deny it any longer.”

She pulls back just enough to look at me. “Are you angry?”

“Yes.”

Her face pinches.

I take her chin lightly and make sure she sees me clearly.

“At Harrison. At the men in your apartment. At every circumstance that put you in danger while you were carrying my child.”

My voice roughens, but I keep it low. “I am angry enough to burn the world down, cuore mio, but none of that anger is for you.”

Her mouth trembles.

“I’m scared,” she whispers.

“So am I.”

She blinks as if the admission startles her.

Good. Let her see it.

“I am terrified,” I say. “Dante is in a hospital bed. You were almost taken from me last night. And now there is a child.” My hand lowers slowly, giving her time to move away if she wants to.

She does not.

When my palm rests low over her stomach, both of us go utterly still.

There is nothing to feel. It is too soon. Her body is warm beneath the sweater, soft under my hand, and still the contact alters something in me so completely that I almost have to close my eyes.

A child.

Mine.

Ours.

Julia’s hand covers mine.