Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
“Are you fucking kidding me?” She flinched and he immediately lowered his voice, but the tone was no less fierce. “Don’t get me wrong. It’s your choice. I might be a bastard and a half, but I would never take that choice away from you. But don’t think for a second that I don’t want that baby, no matter how new this whole thing is to me. I never thought I’d be a father. I never wanted to be a father, but I’ll figure that shit out as I go.”
She released a breath she hadn’t been aware she was holding. “I see.”
“So there’s the real question—do you want to terminate the pregnancy?” He asked it with no inflection. No judgment or trying to persuade her to go one way or another on the decision. Just a simple question that wasn’t the least bit simple.
She sat back, but she was still too close, too aware of him, so she slid off his lap and retreated to her side of the seat. And he let her. She stared into the darkness. “I’ve always wanted kids. That seems even more naive than you already thought I was, especially considering the fact that any child of mine would be a political player, because any husband of mine would be a political player. I’d almost resigned myself to that truth before Teague offered me a chance out, and that changed everything.” She pressed a hand to her stomach, though she knew there was no change, no indication of the tiny life now growing there.
“And now?”
And now she’d gotten her first taste of freedom, and what a real life could be like, and she was well aware that a child would restrict her new freedom in a significant way. Not to mention the man beside her might not be her father’s choice for a political match, but it was a political match all the same. And just as likely to get both myself and any children we have killed.
But still…
“I want this baby. I know it won’t be easy or uncomplicated and I know that you and I barely know each other, but it doesn’t matter. I want this baby, and I’ll fight to keep it.”
* * *
Jude reached for Sloan before he bothered to try to talk himself out of it. She’s keeping the baby. He hadn’t expected the relief her words brought. He’d told her the truth—he never planned on kids. But a kid with Sloan…Jude wanted that. He wanted that more than he could have anticipated. If anyone back in Boston thought to use their child as a pawn, he’d dig their grave himself.
He pulled Sloan back into his lap, needing to hold her, and rested his chin on the top of her head. “If you change your mind—”
“I won’t.”
“All the same. If you do, tell me.” He wouldn’t like it, but he hadn’t been lying when he told her that it was her choice. The only way he could force the issue was to chain her up in a basement somewhere until she had the baby, and that was a level of sadistic that he would never resort to for an enemy, let alone to a woman he cared about.
“Promise me that you’ll put an end to this unholy alliance with Dmitri Romanov.”
He pulled back enough to look down at her. “No.”
“What?”
“No. I don’t like the man and I don’t trust him, but I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you and our baby safe. If that means I have to lie down with the devil himself and compromise what little honor I have left, I’ll do it gladly.”
Her lips parted in shock. “I would never ask that of you.”
“I know.” She didn’t have to.
It was too much to ask for that any child of his would have a normal life. But if anyone was going to be making sacrifices, it would be him.
Not Sloan.
Sure as fuck not their child.
She shook her head, harder this time. “No. That’s the whole point. We’ve become like a snake eating its own tail. Violence begets violence, and we have a chance to get out—truly get out.” She twisted the hem of her skirt around her fingers. “I just…We barely know each other. I’m well aware of that. But what if the way to keep our baby safe isn’t to compromise your honor or get into bed with Dmitri Romanov? What if the thing we need to do is to get on a plane and never look back?”
There was sense in what she said. He might not like it, but that was the truth.
His whole landscape had altered with the news that she was pregnant. While he grew up, there had only been him and his mother, and then she’d left him behind permanently and there’d been only Jude and his vengeance. That was his truth.