Illicit Temptations
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Katee Robert
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Epilogue
“GET READY TO PUSH.”
Aaron braced himself behind Becka and tried not to wince as she clasped his fingers in a death grip. Her entire body went tense, little ripples making waves in the birthing pool they sat in. He couldn’t help her. He couldn’t step in and take away the pain radiating from every pore of her body as she tried to bring their daughter into the world. All he could do was hold her and let her crush his fingers and breathe the way they’d been taught in their birthing classes.
As the contraction passed, Becka slumped against him. “Ouch.”
“You’re doing wonderfully,” Lucy said as she mopped Becka’s brow. She had her dark hair tied back and a look of concentration on her face, as if she could will Becka to have an uncomplicated labor.
“You are,” the midwife confirmed. “The baby’s in position and engaged. A few more pushes and you’ll get to hold your daughter.”
Aaron smoothed back the damp hair from Becka’s forehead. “I love you. You’re amazing.”
Becka huffed out a strained laugh. “I’m thinking murderous thoughts about you right now.”
“You can tell me all about them if it would help.” He reached between them and gently massaged the small of her back. The contractions were coming fast now, and they had less than twenty seconds before the next one by his count.
“No energy.” She drew in a long breath. “Here we go.”
“You’ve got this, Becka. Almost there.” Lucy mimicked the breathing pattern they’d been taught to use.
The battle to bring their daughter into the world was exactly that—a battle. Becka bore down with a determined silence that scared the shit out of him. There was no screaming. No yelling. None of the things he’d read about and tried to emotionally prepare for so he could support her. Nothing but a focus that left him totally and completely in awe of her.
“This is it, you’re doing great. Don’t stop. Harder, Becka. Push harder. You can do it!” The midwife’s commanding tone had Aaron biting back a snarl; Lucy held her breath in utter stillness, but Becka let loose a muted shriek and the midwife crowed in delight. “Here she is!”
He barely got a glimpse of a wrinkled pink face before their baby let loose a scream to shake the rafters. The midwife grinned. “Healthy set of lungs.”
Things moved quickly after that. Aaron could barely process that the event had finally happened—that they were parents—in the midst of all the insanity. Lucy fielding the news out to Allie and their men. Nurses coming and going. Becka being checked out and pronounced perfectly fine.
Both Aaron and Becka changed into dry clothing while their daughter was weighed and measured and underwent all manner of poking and prodding.
Finally—finally—the last nurse shut the door and they were alone.
He pushed out of the chair he’d been relegated to and crossed over to sink onto the edge of the bed. Becka lay with her eyes half-closed, their daughter lying against her naked chest. Aaron carefully stroked the baby’s downy-soft hair. “She’s here.”
“She is.” Becka smiled, and a tear escaped the corner of her eye. “She’s perfect. More perfect than I ever dared dream.”
“You both are.” He pressed a soft kiss to their daughter’s head and then another to Becka’s lips. “What do you think? Is she a Summer or an Evangeline?” The two names they’d finally settled on after months of rigorous debate and even a fight or two.
She looked down into the baby’s sleeping face. “Summer. Definitely Summer. She’s been in this world a grand total of two hours and she’s already brightened everyone’s life she touched.” Becka made a face. “Oh God, motherhood is going to turn me into one of those people, isn’t it? I’m so happy I can’t even think straight, and if I had my phone, I’d already be sending pictures to everyone in my contact list.”
He chuckled. “I already texted a picture of her, along with her weight, length and time of birth, to all our friends and family.” He’d restrained himself to a single picture, but he already had half a dozen in his phone. Aaron grinned. “How long do you think it will be before Roman stages an intervention?”
“Two months—tops.” She smiled back. Becka reached out and covered his hand with her own. “Hey, Aaron?”
“Yes, minx?”
She nodded at the bag they’d packed and repacked three separate times in the last month, convinced that they’d forgotten something important every time. “Can you grab my purse out of there?”
Curious, he dug through the bag until he found the tiny clutch that she’d insisted on. He handed it over and watched as Becka used her free hand to dig inside it. She paused. “Okay, so in my head, this would be all soft lighting and I wouldn’t be feeling like I’ve just been ripped in half and look like day-old roadkill, but squint a little and pretend with me.” She pressed her lips together. “Aaron Livingston, you are the best man I’ve ever met. Better than I deserve, and I damn well know it. I can’t promise that your organization and borderline compulsive need to research things won’t drive me to drink sometimes, but I do promise that I’ll love you for the rest of our lives.
“There’s no one else but you for me. I want a life with you. I want to fill our home with a couple more kids. I want meandering walks to delicious food trucks and old movie marathons and the early-morning talks over breakfast and the nights spent wrapped up in each other.”
She glanced at Summer and laughed. “Though I suspect we’ll both be too exhausted for the next however many months to do more than sleep in that bed. But the point stands—I want a future with you. With us.” Becka leveraged open the tiny box in her hand and turned it to face him. “Will you do me the immeasurable honor of being my husband, Aaron?”
He lifted the ring out of the box. It was a dark gray that he suspected was titanium and had a faint abstract pattern etched on the outside. “You proposed.”
“Well, yeah. I did say I was going to.”
He left the bed long enough to grab a nearly identical ring box from the side pocket of the bag. Aaron returned to her, smiling so hard his face hurt. “You beat me to it, minx.” He opened the box and showed her the princess-cut diamond he’d had commissioned over a month ago. “The answer is yes, Becka. I’ll be your husband if you’ll be my wife.”
She touched the ring, smiling as hard as he was. “I was thinking three kids, but that might be the leftover adrenaline making me loopy, so that is completely open to negotiation.”
They both glanced down at Summer. Aaron shifted to drop a lingering kiss to Becka’s mouth. “I love you. I love you so much it makes me crazy in the best way possible.”
“The feeling is very much mutual.” She smiled against his lips. “Do you want to hold her?”
He carefully took Summer from her and cradled their daughter in his arms. Aaron’s chest hurt with how right it was to have this right here, right now, with this woman. “Welcome to the world, princess.”
