Page 79 of The Viper's Wife

After all the things I’ve said to her in the heat of sex, this feels like a strange alignment of fate.

“He said if I didn’t, it’d be ‘bad for my health.’” She scowls. “Nico, I can’t leave if we have a baby together.”

I can’t fucking hear her say those words. My mind fills with images of her, swollen as she hums a lullaby to her belly, that look of unfiltered joy I saw at the engagement party when she was playing with that little girl. We would make beautiful babies.

And we’ve fucked without condoms already. Maybe she’s already…

I take her hands, and her shoulders tense further. “Are you on birth control?”

Her hands are limp in mine. She meets my eye carefully. “Yes.”

“I want you off.” It’s a matter of safety, right? If Giovanni’s telling her she has to be pregnant before the wedding, if her life is at stake, then that’s what we should do.

She tries to pull her hands away, but I don’t let her. She changes tactics, twisting toward me, and laying her hands flat on my chest.

A lightning strike of arousal bolts down my spine.

“Nico, please,” she says softly. My dick swells. “Please. I’llpretend to be a good wife, I promise. I won’t fight anymore, just please, please, don’t get me pregnant.”

My altruism flees in the face of my desires. I lean forward and kiss her gently, taste her lips with a brush of my tongue.

Seeing her with that little girl, and then with the fierce, protective love she held for her friend, confirms what I’d hoped.

“You’d make a great mom,” I tell her, and she exhales a shuddering breath. “I’d be a great dad too. I promise you. I would take care of you and the baby, no matter what.”

She struggles against my hold, but not as hard as she could. She wants to fight this so badly, but she wants it just as much.

After a beat, she relaxes and disengages. Releases her emotions, her fight and desire, to become still—and my own emotions surge, desperate to get her back.

I force myself not to push her.

She looks me in the eye. “If we had a baby, would your dad let us raise it in peace? Or would he force a boy to join the Family and a girl marry some man she hates for an alliance?”

The lies lick against the inside of my mouth.

I can see in her eyes—the seed of doubt I could plant if I told her what she wanted to hear. The hooks I could get into her if I just lied.

But an older, wiser part of me cuts through. She’s already agreed to live with me. I don’t have to lie. I just need to be patient.

So it’s not kindness, but the restraint of a hunter that has me telling her, “He’d go to any lengths to get what he wanted.”

And that same primal part of me is pleased by her look of mild surprise at my honesty.

“Then you understand?” she asks. “A good dad wouldn’t bring a child into this life.”

“I do.”

She still seems suspicious, but eases a little, and I let her go. For now.

“And, uh, thank you for breakfast.” She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “It was good.”

“You’re welcome.” I tuck another strand behind her other ear, and she frowns, but doesn’t mention it. “If you’re going to be staying here, we should pick up some extra furniture, right?”

Sitting on the hard concrete, it’s hard to deny that, though I can tell she wants to.

“Yeah, I guess so,” she exhales.

I smile, and she frowns.