I just stare at him, blinking through the confusion.
“What?” I choke out as he comes back over to stand near me, slamming his palm on the door near my head and breathing in the scent of my hair. Crown reaches up to run inked fingers through it.
“If you want the farmhouse and you want the ring … if you want me … you will—to the best of your ability—give me a baby sometime in the next …” Crown trails off, lifting his eyes to the ceiling in thought. “Five years.” He gives a little raise of his lip as he looks down at me. “I don’t know how I feel about you having a baby at eighteen anyway.”
“You want a baby from me?” I choke out at him, ducking under his arm and moving away toward a horrible painting of a flower on the wall. It’s so very … not like Crown. It fits the farmhouse vibe, I guess. I wonder if he picked it up at an antique store or something? Anyway, I hate it. I want to take it down and replace it with something else.
I turn around.
“I’m not a womb for rent. I’m not a fucking baby factory.”
He gives me a look, moving back over to me yet again. I circle around him, but he just follows after me until we’re standing close and facing each other.
“What if I can’t have kids?” Maybe a weird thing to ask considering the circumstances, but a pregnancy doesn’t always result in a baby. “What if … I get injured between now and then? What if I have this kid, and it’s Grainger’s, and I almost bleed to death and never want to do it again?”
“Semantics. I said everything in your power,” he tells me, looking me over like he’s already looking forward to the ‘fucking’ portion of the baby making equation. “Is that a lot to ask? For me to give up all of my other hopes and dreams?”
“You should be able to say yes to this without asking me to farm your seed,” I snap at him, but he just smiles tightly.
“You should be able to agree to my terms without hesitation.”
There’s a long pause where I see that we’re both right. I want four men. Crown wanted one woman. He’s asking for a baby. I don’t know how to feel about that.
“If I agree to this, can I have some of your money to buy new clothes and décor that doesn’t look like it belongs in my grandmother’s house?”
“Huh,” Crown says, but his breathing’s heavy. He looks dead serious. He looks scary as fuck. I mean, he would if I were anyone else.
“Or I could take a quarter of your money, a quarter of Beast’s, a quarter of Sin’s, a quarter of Grainger’s … Having a one-fourth wife is cheaper than having a whole one.”
“Have you talked to Beast about this?” Crown asks, raising his brows at me. He isn’t latching onto my desire for dark humor. Always so damn serious, this motherfucker. “Or Sin and Grainger for that matter?”
“Not exactly,” I confirm with a slight cringe. “Well, Sin, yes. But no on the other two.”
Crown goes to move away, and I step forward, causing him to stop.
“You guys don’t have time for your own wives anyway; this is better.”
He narrows his eyes and moves back toward me, sliding his fingers into my hair and making me shiver with a violent shimmer of heat.
“You don’t need to spend anymore time convincing me; I told you what I want.” He wets his lips, and I can see that he’s thinking about kissing me again.
“Give me the ring,” I repeat, and he shakes his head. I’m not sure whether he takes that as my agreeing to his conditions or not. I am not sure if I’m agreeing to his conditions or not.
“If you’re going to wear it, I’m going to give it to you properly. You’ll have to wait.” He scoffs at me. “Impatient little brat.”
I reach down to cup him through his jeans, loving the way his breath hisses out between his teeth.
“I thought old men had a harder time getting it up; you seem to be doing just fine though.”
Crown snorts at me and then wraps his other arm around my waist, yanking me close.
“Jesus Christ, you’re an asshole,” he growls, and then he’s kissing me again. His fingers knead the back of my head as his arm bands tight, pulling me firmly against him. My hands fist in the leather of his cut, my poor chipped nails scratching at the VP patch.
Crown groans as I arch into him, allowing him to take whatever it is that he wants from my lips. Whatever he needs. I moan in response, clawing at him, wishing I could get closer, wishing with every beat of my heart that we could fuck right now.
