Chapter Seven: Damon

I wasn't completely surprised when a knock sounded at my door an hour or so after I'd dropped onto the soft brown couch. It was the kind of couch that you sink into. The kind I was convinced was half cloud, determined to swallow me up.

It was ridiculously comfortable and appealed to the big cat inside me.

Sadly, when the knock sounded again, I knew I had to haul myself out of my squishy cocoon of warmth and actually talk to the person on the other side of the door. I had a feeling I knew who it was, and my stomach tightened with nerves. I grunted as I managed to heft myself up and then grumbled all the way across the room (the whole four steps between the couch and door), steeling myself for the confrontation to come.

"Hey there, kitten," Rex greeted me quietly and with liberal contrition, his big blue eyes soulful and locked on mine. "Can we talk? "

For all that I thought I'd been prepared for that moment, I wasn't. Just looking at the man —the alpha — who had upended my world had me tongue-tied. Even pale-faced and shocked stupid sitting on Ollie and Beck's couch, the man had made my heart race. But now? Looking down at me with a gentle smile and apology written all over his face? He was drop dead gorgeous.

Heart beating so hard and fast I thought it was going to burst right out of my chest, I could only nod and step aside, shutting the door carefully behind him. He was taller than I remembered, still just as broad shouldered and golden-skinned. He seemed to command the tiny little studio apartment as he stood at the foot of my twin bed, surveying the space.

It wasn't much, but it was all I needed. A bed, a wardrobe, a couch, a TV, a kitchenette and a bathroom. Cozy and slightly cramped, but private and warm.

The walls had been painted two days before I moved in, so it was bright and clean, too.

"Nice place you've got here," Rex said when his gaze finally settled back on me. "Reminds me of my first apartment back in Houston…only you don't seem to have a drug dealing downstairs neighbor." He frowned. "Right?"

"I'm pretty sure the little old tortoise shifter who lives downstairs is not a drug dealer," I couldn't help but laugh, imagining the frail older man living the stereotypical thug life. "Poor Mister Keogh."

"Tortoise? How does that even…you know what? Not my circus, not my monkeys."

"Or tortoises," I supplied helpfully.

Rex snorted. "Still a smartass, huh? "

"I seem to recall that you liked that about me."

His blue eyes sparkled with amusement. "I still do, kitten."

Danger , my brain blared as my heart lurched, danger!

I would not be stupid enough to go mooning over this man when, barely a couple of hours earlier, he'd looked at the life we'd accidentally created together and had…had…um…he'd…

Well, okay, he hadn't actually reacted badly, had he? He hadn't rejected the baby or me. Not in so many words, anyway, and I hadn't given him a chance to say more.

He'd freaked out, that was all. I'd also lost my shit when I'd worked it out. Maybe Rex deserved a little leeway.

Damn Brandt and his rational logic getting to me.

Nevertheless, I decided to put the brakes on our flirting. I turned my head and scoffed, "Coulda' fooled me."

The second the petulant complaint was past my lips, I regretted it.

I didn't want Rex to want me. I was fine being single. I didn't need to behave like a sulky teenager.

Was it possible to blame my hormones? Not just for the outrageous mood swings, but for how desperately some part of me did ache for his affection? I was going to blame the hormones.

Rex exhaled slowly. "Damon, c'mon now. Give me a break. I wasn't expectin' to see you again, let alone…" I turned back to face him, arching an eyebrow at the vague hand gesture towards my belly.

"Pregnant?" I offered, taking a sadistic thrill from the way he flinched. Then the anger I was trying so hard to hold on to melted into bone-deep exhaustion. Sadness warred with apathy, and I huffed a miserable little laugh, stomping over to the bed so I could sit on the edge of the mattress wearily. "Don't worry, Rex. You're off the hook. I don't want anything from you."

Why did my heart ache when I said it, though?

Stupid, traitorous body.

"Hold on just a minute," he groused, carefully coming to sit beside me, making the mattress dip and creak. "I never said I wanted to be off the hook. Don't go puttin' words in my mouth."

My throat felt tight and my eyes burned with unshed tears. "Don't act like it isn't a relief."

"Now, I'm lettin' that go on account of you goin' through a hell of a lot more than I can even imagine right now."

His gentle chiding made me feel a little bit guilty. However, I still snorted inelegantly and accused, "Brandt got to you, didn't he?"

After a short pause, Rex said, "Maybe. But, hey, you know what he told me?"

My mind whirred, worried that Brandt had told Rex about my multiple pregnancy complaints, but I knew my new friend wasn't the type to do that. Plus, he was a doctor; surely he believed in doctor-patient confidentiality. "What did he tell you?"

"He pointed out that gettin' eaten by a dragon is far scarier than any baby ever will be."

I blinked, struggling to process that sentence. "He…he threatened to eat you?"

"Yeah, and Eric backed him up. You maybe wanna warn a man that your town is filled with ornery dragons next time?"

I'd only been in Shifters Sanctuary a week, so I hadn't seen any of the Weldman brothers shift. I had seen footage from the mess in New York the previous year, though, and if that was the kind of damage one dragon could manage on his own, I wasn't going to push any of the dragons living in town to that kind of anger. The fact that Eric and Brandt had threatened to eat Rex as a way of defending my honor was sweet, though, in its weird-ass way. They barely knew me, but they'd told an alpha they'd eat him!

The giggle burst out of me without warning, followed by unstoppable laughter. Inside my belly, my son ( our son) seemed energized by my buoyed mood, kicking up a storm. I placed my hand to my belly, no longer finding the alien-like tapping from the inside quite as strange, and rubbed the spot his feet were abusing, trying to control my unruly amusement.

Rex's gaze followed the movement of my hand. On his thigh, his fingers twitched. "I know I don't have the right, but…may I?"

Giggles evaporating into quiet hiccups, I swallowed and nodded, pulling my hand away from its spot. My heart rate increased, and it was like the moment extended into slow motion as Rex tentatively reached out to splay his palm over the curve of my belly, right where my hand had been.

The kid inside me seemed to sense that the touch was coming from someone other than me, because he only seemed to kick harder, the tap-tap-tap-tap of his feet suddenly feeling less ticklish and bubbly and more like the tyke was trying to break down the wall of flesh separating him from the outside world.

"Sweet Jesus," Rex breathed shakily, sounding awed and terrified all at once. He tore his gaze from my stomach to look me in the eye. "You really are…I mean, not that I thought you were lying, but…shit just got really real."

My lips twitched and the giggles threatened to overwhelm me again, but I managed to smother them. "Yeah, I thought I was going to re-enact a scene from Alien the first time I felt him move. But I'm getting used to it now. It's even kind of comforting sometimes."

"Him?" There was a quiet reverence in Rex's voice, his palm pressing just a bit more firmly on me, as if he was trying to get even closer to the kid inside my belly. "Did you say ‘him'? A boy?"

Realization dawned on me. He hadn't known that.

Of course he didn't know , I scolded myself. It's not like you got a chance to tell him.

"Yeah," I replied softly. "A boy. Well, unless he says differently when he's old enough to tell me I was wrong. But, y'know, I'll love and support him — them — no matter what. Alpha, beta, omega…girl, boy, genderfluid…None of that matters to me."

"No, of course not, but," Rex's expression turned soft, "a son. Not that a daughter wouldn't…I mean… shit , I'm messin' this up."

It was such a far cry from the utter panic and refusal I'd seen on his face earlier that I didn't rush to reassure him at first. I was too dumbstruck by the perceived change in his attitude and how quickly that had happened. Were a few hours really all he'd needed to wrap his head around his, no — our impending fatherhood? Because I'd needed a hell of a lot longer than that.

"I'm sorry, kitten, I didn't mean to imply that I'd be any less amazed if we were havin' a girl, I just…"

That got my brain working again, my thoughts snagging on his use of the word ‘we'.

"Whoa, cowboy," I held up a palm towards him, halting his rambling. "What's this ‘we' business?"

Blue eyes blinked at me, a flash of hurt visible before it was hidden behind a more cautious expression. His big, warm palm left my cotton-covered flesh and I swear the kid inside me threw a tantrum about it going away, rolling and kicking up a storm. I rubbed at the spot, hoping to soothe my son and myself.

"Well," Rex began slowly, as though he was weighing his words before he spoke them. "It is my baby, right? I mean, you didn't come across any other alphas six months ago, did you?"

My heart started hammering again, but this time in fear. As an omega, I didn't have the kind of social standing or rights that he did. "It's my baby," I barely refrained from wrapping my arms around myself protectively. "All you did was knot me. I'm the one growing him. I'm the one…" Emotions clogged my throat as the words from my breakdown in the apple orchard threaten to overwhelm me again. Shaking my head, I tried to push them away. "It's my baby," I repeated fiercely. "And so help me, if you even think of trying to take him…"

The scowl that had taken up residence on his face shifted swiftly to shock and he held his hands up in surrender. "No, darlin', no. I'm not gonna take him. I wouldn't know the first thing about lookin' after a baby, for one, and for another thing…you're right. You are doing all the hard work right now. But," the mattress beneath us shifted as he straightened his spine, "I'm no deadbeat, Damon. And I'll be damned if my kid grows up not knowin' me."

The vehemence in his statement made me pause. Had a little chat with Brandt and the minor threat of being eaten really caused such a turnaround in Rex's attitude? And why the hell did I think it was so freaking hot? That had to be my constant horniness kicking back in; not something I wanted to deal with at that moment.

"Okay," I responded calmly, grabbing a pillow and hugging it to me. It had the benefit of hiding my growing arousal as well as providing comfort. "So, you've changed your mind, then? You want to be a dad?"

Rex let out a little growl of irritation and I hated that the sound went straight to my dick. "I never said I didn't," he huffed. "Sure, I didn't exactly jump for joy when you turned up at Beck's, but I was in shock! Still kinda' am, if I'm bein' completely honest."

"I'd appreciate complete honesty."

Instead of getting annoyed with my haughty response, my baby daddy —dear God, I was never going to think that phrase again— chuckled lightly and spread his arms wide. "That's why I'm here, kitten. I'm tryin' to do the right thing. We're gonna have to get to know each other, ‘cause we're gonna be in each other's lives from here on out."

"Don't you have a life somewhere? A job? Friends? Family?" I didn't have any of those things, but I didn't imagine that he would also just be able to uproot himself and move to a tiny town in Iowa, of all places.

He frowned. "Even if I did, I'd argue that bein' here for my son is more important. That bein' here for you is more important."

My stupid, evil, traitorous heart squeezed again.

"Besides," he continued, ignorant of my internal battle with my hormones and daydreams, "I came here looking for answers on the whole shifter thing. I'd already planned to settle in if the…pack…would have me."

His hesitation over the word ‘pack' was also ridiculously endearing. I cocked my head. "So, you're staying here, then?"

Staring at me with obvious caution, he nodded. "Yeah. Beck and Eric are gonna show me the ropes, teach me to shift—"

"You still haven't shifted?!" My voice pitched high with incredulity. "It's been six months!"

"And I had no intention of gettin' stuck as an animal, thanks." It was his turn to tilt his head to the side, observing me. "Can you shift while you're…uh…"

"Pregnant?" I offered again, and he winced.

"Yeah. That."

Unlike before, this time I could only find his discomfort with the word kind of cute.

I was going to kill whoever invented hormones.

Chuckling, I nodded. "I can, yeah. The last time was really draining, though. I only ran with the others for a little bit before I went back up to the main house to curl up and sleep. I also felt super ungainly, which is weird because animals are built to have litters, not just a single cub. But," I shrugged, "shifters aren't really animals, I guess. And we're not really human. Eric said Ollie had the same complaints, so I'm guessing the baby doesn't shift with me or something."

Although how that logic would work with a smaller animal, like a hedgehog or a bunny, I had no idea. There was some sort of magic at play, I supposed. That was the only way we could shift between forms at all, really. I didn't think there was a scientific explanation for it, after all.

Rex's expression twisted, his nose scrunching adorably. "That's just plain weird."

"I don't make the rules."

He snorted. "I know, kitten. But I'm still havin' some trouble gettin' my head around all of this stuff. Men having babies, me being able to turn into some kind of animal…it's gonna take a little gettin' used to."

"A puma."

"What?"

"You should be able to turn into a puma. A mountain lion." I clarified. "That's, um, that's what you scent like now. Back when we met, you scented human. But now…now it's puma and alpha."

Rex got up and paced the length of my apartment, rubbing the back of his neck. "I remember you sayin' I smelled human at the time. And, hey," he stopped mid-pacing, his eyes wide. "You said you were a puma. It made callin' you kitten even more appropriate."

I thought back to that day and smiled to myself. Even if it had completely upended our lives, being with Rex had been a revelation.

Most men before him hadn't shown me half the respect or even affection that he had. But Rex had been kind. He had seemed to care about my feelings. He hadn't been rough with me (until I had begged him to) and he had respected my boundaries. Before him, the guys I'd slept with had seen me as little more than a willing hole, especially the beta shifters who had looked down on me for being an omega. But, even if I'd only been a quick one-night stand to Rex, he'd been sweet about it.

In addition to that was the way he'd made me feel. I had never been as horny and desperate to be fucked as when I'd been with Rex. It was like my body had known how compatible we were, and it had begged to be filled and sated.

Ollie described feeling something similar when he'd met Beck, but he had been able to deny those feelings during their first meeting. Then he said that when they met again two weeks later, it triggered a super intense weekend fuck-fest (his words, not mine) that he and Eric hypothesized was a full-blown mating heat.

I wondered if my short but intense desperation to be fucked stupid by the big, gorgeous cowboy had been something similar. I'd needed him to fill me, to knot me, to breed me …and he had. But the desperate urge hadn't returned after he'd driven away. To hear Ollie tell it, his heat had come in waves over the weekend he had mated and bonded with Beck.

But Rex hadn't bonded with me, either. It was entirely possible that bonding during that first heat might make things more intense. I would never know, not unless another alpha and omega pair turned up in town.

My thoughts had veered wildly off track. What had Rex been saying? Oh, yeah. I was a puma.

I nodded. "I am, yeah. It makes sense that you are, too, if you buy into Eric and Ollie's fated —or, at least, compatible— mates propaganda."

"Do you?"

"What? Buy into the theory?" I shrugged. "It makes about as much sense as anything, I guess. I mean, Beck and Ollie are both wolves, and you and I are both pumas, so the logic tracks."

"Eric mentioned testing the possibility of mixed matings," Rex said, sounding a little awkward when it came to the last word.

Cocking my head, I wondered, "How does he plan on doing that? Parading other omegas in front of you and seeing if you can knock up a bunny or a hedgehog?"

The horrified look on Rex's face made me laugh. "Nuh-uh, he's promised me no more babies. It'll all be test-tube lab stuff."

Ignoring the sting of his anti-baby protest, I nodded and shifted on the mattress, wincing at the ache developing in my hips and lower back. "Eric did seem pretty excited to have a new lab rat…and it would be nice to have answers about all of this, too."

"Anyway," Rex said, frowning at me as I rubbed at my sore spots. I was either going to have to move back to the couch or sit at the head of my bed, propped up against the wall and a mountain of pillows. "I'm gonna be stayin' put and—are you alright?"

The concern in his voice as he swerved mid-sentence was sweet. I offered him a reassuring smile.

"It's nothing, really. My back just gets a bit achy lugging this guy everywhere." I smoothed my hand back over my bump for emphasis, adding fondly, "The little freeloader."

"Should charge him rent," Rex joked, but he was still eyeing me warily. "Can I help?"

"I just need to get my back supported and I'll be fine."

"Lie down on your side." He crossed the room and gestured to the bed. "Maybe put a pillow under your…" he hesitated, his throat working, "under your belly."

"I don't need—"

"Just humor me?" He paused then softened his tone. "Please?"

With a sigh, I did as he asked, feeling ridiculous stretching out on my bed while he loomed over it. That didn't compare to how I felt when he walked around to the foot of it and then started crawling up to stretch out behind me, though. "What are you doing?" I all but yelped.

"Shh," he murmured soothingly, which didn't help to calm my racing heart at all as his large, warm body made the mattress dip at my back. "I'm just gonna work out some of the kinks for you."

I knew he meant the pain in my back, but I couldn't help thinking about other kinks we could explore together. How was he with bondage? I mean, the guy was a cowboy. Surely that meant he had a knack with ropes.

My dick took that thought as an invitation to spring all the way back to life, reminding me that my hormones demanded satisfaction that my hand and dildo alone couldn't give. If that wasn't embarrassing enough, I became more than aware of my slick beginning to flow and pool. My cheeks flamed.

"This is okay, isn't it?" Rex asked quietly, his big hand rubbing soothing circles over the small of my back, having located the source of my earlier discomfort with precision. "I just wanna help."

As long as my slick doesn't seep through my pajama pants, it's fine , I thought in reply, but could only nod mutely as he carefully worked away the knot of tension he'd found. I groaned as the pain eased, both because the over-the-clothes massage really was relaxing and also because his touch was only encouraging my dick to make its bid for freedom.

"You okay?" he asked again, and was it my imagination, or had his tone gone a little husky there?

It had to have been my imagination. Stupid hormones.

"Mmhmm," I agreed, keeping my eyes firmly shut. My back hadn't felt so good in weeks. "Oh my God, that's magic."

His resulting chuckle was throaty and so close to my ear that I could feel the warmth of his breath skirting across my skin. Goosebumps erupted over my skin and I shuddered.

"Cold?" he asked .

I shook my head, praying that he wouldn't lean over and spy the obscene tent in the front of my soft pajama pants.

He lowered his voice to a gentle murmur, his fingers still easing the discomfort in my lower back. "Talk to me, kitten. Let me help you."

Desire was pulsing in my veins. With every careful, deliberate movement of his fingers, my body was coming to life. I'd only felt this desperate once before: the night we'd conceived our son. It was like flames were licking along my nerve endings.

My hormones had been making me feel horny since the early days of my second trimester, but never quite like this. It was as though Rex's proximity and touch had flipped a switch inside me, triggering the same instant connection that I'd felt that night in the bar.

A needy whine rent the air. It took a moment to realize that the sound had come from me.

"What's wrong?" Rex asked, his hand moving from the small of my back to run over my baby bump, his concern flaring. "Does it hurt? Are you—" he cut himself off abruptly when he brushed the dampened fabric concealing my insistent cock. His hand withdrew quickly and he rested it on my hip. "Oh." A beat. His fingers flexed, gripping my flesh through the soft fabric I was wearing. " Oh ."

Mortification flooded me. I still couldn't bring myself to open my eyes. "It's hormones," I explained, even though I suspected it was more than just pregnancy hormones. There had to be something to Eric and Ollie's theories about the whole fated mates thing, because my body's insane need for Rex was unlike anything I had experienced before. "Y-you were touching me and they lit up like the fourth of July. "

He was silent for a long moment. My throat tightened and my heart thumped hard and fast inside my ribcage.

"Can I help with that?"

I jolted at the cautious, quiet question, my eyes flying open. I turned my head to peer over my shoulder at him, knowing that I must look completely blindsided. "What?"

Rex's blue eyes were darker now, the irises inside them blown wider with lust. But his tone was steady when he repeated, "Can I help you with that? With your… discomfort ?"

I almost whimpered as I felt slick trickling out of me at the mere suggestion. Swallowing roughly, I tried to remain rational. "You don't have to." My cheeks felt like they were on fire and I averted my gaze. "I'm not…I mean, my body's not the same, and—"

"You think I find you less sexy like this?" He sounded incredulous as he swept his hand over my distended belly again. "You think takin' care of you, of your body's needs, will be a chore for me?" His tone told me that those assumptions, should I be making them (which I was) were wrong. "Kitten, I might still be freaking the fuck out over havin' a baby, but you're just as hot to me as the day we met. I want you just as badly now as I did then, but I don't wanna push you. I wanna reconnect at your pace."

My heart, which I had already established was a traitorous asshole, squeezed at how earnest he sounded. "We…" I started, then paused to try and calm my jumbled thoughts, wading through the mantra of ‘ fuck me, fuck me, fuck me' which had started to drum on in the background of my mind, "we need to talk properly. To…to…take things slow. Having a baby isn't a reason to jump into a relationship."

"I agree," he soothed, still rubbing big, arching circles over my abdomen. "But I also want to help make this as easy for you as possible. If your hormones are drivin' you nuts, let me take the edge off. We can take things slow and have sex on the side. Friends with benefits style."

I was tempted to argue that we weren't even friends yet, but my body was screaming at me to just say yes.

"It…it wouldn't mean that we're together," I told him, though some part of me wished I could have the fairytale happily ever after that I saw Ollie living. "It's just sex. Sex because you put a baby in me and now my body is demanding your knot again."

That urge terrified me, though. It was one thing to have a quick fuck in a bar bathroom, not thinking I'd ever see the guy again. It was a whole new issue to want to sleep with the man who had put a baby in me and who was talking about sticking around.

As horny as my hormones were making me, I knew I'd regret giving in to those urges so soon.

"Whatever you need, baby." Oblivious to my inner turmoil, Rex's voice was low and full of promise. "Just tell me what to do."

"I want…" I swallowed roughly. "Fuck, I want your knot. But…I can't. I'm sorry. I can't." I was on the verge of tears, frustrated by my body's demands and my brain's corresponding opposition.

"Hey," he soothed, "I'm sorry, kitten. I wasn't pushing. I just want to help you, and you said your hormones…"

"Hormones are the worst," I all but sobbed, still torn between giving in and getting some sort of relief and holding off until our relationship was in a more stable position. "I'm sorry. Mood swings and epic horniness must make me seem unhinged. "

I felt unhinged.

"Just tell me what you need. Anything, Damon. I want to help." He was so earnest that it brought a lump to my throat. "If you want me to leave—"

"No," without realizing it, I grabbed at his wrist as I protested, "I don't want that."

I didn't. Even if letting him fuck me again was a bad idea, it didn't mean I wanted him to leave, either.

"I'm sorry," I sighed, feeling guilty for the mixed signals I was sending. "You didn't ask for this."

Splaying his hand over my belly, Rex's voice rumbled at my back, low and gentle, "You didn't ask for this, either."

"We're going around in circles now," I told him. "Besides, I'm kind of happy about him. I mean, I freaked out when I realized I was pregnant, but that was more because I grew up thinking I couldn't have kids of my own, and I knew that being a pregnant omega in my old-school pack was dangerous. Especially with no alpha to show for my condition, y'know? They'd know that I snuck out. That I broke the rules. That I didn't drag you back to the pack the second I realized what you were."

"I—"

"Don't. It wasn't like either of us knew you were really an alpha. And, I guess, even if I had known it, my body was so determined to have you, I probably still would have forgotten that you could knock me up. All that biological imperative or whatever the hell Eric chirps on about."

He was quiet for a moment. "But now that I'm here, we're gonna do this together, right? Raise this kid together?"

I'd been completely prepared to be a single dad, but I wasn't ever going to be the kind of guy who kept a kid away from his other parent, not when that other parent wanted to be involved. "Yeah," I answered softly. "But once you're in, you're in. There's no coming in and out of his life."

Rex didn't even hesitate. "I wouldn't dream of it."

We continued to lie there in my bed, fully clothed, my arousal fading out again, even though a low thrum of my ever-present horniness remained. It should have felt awkward, but it didn't. It felt…nice. Outside of a few short relationships in college, I had very little experience with this kind of contact, snuggling in comfortable silence. Being an omega in one of the Moonmusic-based packs was a lonely existence.

Cuddling was nice, I decided, even though we hadn't really broached how we'd go forward from that point. We'd taken a step in the right direction, at least.

Regardless of what we were going to label our relationship, I couldn't deny that it felt like we were heading towards something monumental….which was crazy, right? We'd only known each other for a few hours in total.

Rex's hand drifted over my belly in slow, lazy circles, pausing as our son rolled and kicked out in the direction of his palm.

"That's never going to get old," he muttered, pressing a little more firmly, seeking out more contact with the child inside me. "I am really sorry I freaked out on you. I mean, back at the bar…and then also at Beck and Ollie's place, too. I'm…well, let's just say I don't always deal well with change."

A snort escaped me before I could rein it in. "Stop apologizing, we're good. Otherwise, it makes what we're doing now just plain awkward."

Because we were still cuddling. He'd given me a massage, he'd talked me through a weird, hormone-fueled semi-meltdown, and now we were cuddling as though we were together together.

He let out a bark of surprised laughter. "It feels good, though, right? Just being close. Not even sexual. Just…close." His voice lowered and turned soft and contemplative. "It's been a long time since I've done anything like this with anyone."

I couldn't deny that I was on the same page as him. The big cat living inside my soul was practically purring at being so intimately connected with his mate.

No. Nope. Not mate. It's too soon to be thinking of him that way.

I could picture my inner omega rolling his eyes at my refusal to agree. Even though it was all in my head, I struggled against my instincts sometimes. Logic and rationality should trump biological imperative, shouldn't it?

"Can I take you out on a date?" Rex's question startled me out of my thoughts. "I know we just agreed to raise our kid together…but, I mean, I want to see if we can be somethin'. A family. We can take it slow," he hurried to add, as though knowing that his huge declaration would otherwise send me running for the hills, "as slow as you need. But…could we try dating?"

Would it really be all that different to this new strangers-who-cuddle arrangement? We'd already agreed that we needed to get to know each other better, and he was also insisting that he was going to stick around for our kid. My heart beat a little faster at the idea, but I reminded myself that I wasn't going to make rash decisions anymore.

"Can…can I think about it?" I asked, feeling guilty when he tensed at my back. "I'm not saying no, I just…I need some time to process. And you should really do the same."

His palm smoothed over my belly again, and his lips brushed the spot behind my ear. "Of course you can, kitten. I'm gonna be here for you either way."

Well, how was I expected to keep up my rational front against sweetness like that?

In no rush to end our impromptu snuggle session, we chatted about other things. He stayed true to his word, not pressing his desire to pursue a romantic relationship as he fed me snippets about his life. I'll admit, I was surprised to hear that he was forty-two, considering he barely looked a day older than thirty-five…maybe thirty-eight at a stretch. When I told him I was twenty-five, I'm pretty sure he had a mild conniption.

"Twenty years," he breathed.

"Uh, no," I corrected playfully, "seventeen. I guess I'll be teaching our kid math, huh?"

"I mean, I knew you were younger, but…"

"Hang on, are you trying to tell me I look old for my age? I'd advise you to think real carefully about your answer." I was enjoying teasing him, finding the banter came just as easily to me as the night we met. "Next you'll be saying I look fat, too."

"No, no, I…I just…I mean, the lighting that night…" Rex trailed off as I cackled with mirth. His fingers twitched where they still sat on my belly. "You're trouble, you know that?"

I grinned. Even if he couldn't see my face, I was certain he could hear the smile in my voice. "I'm pretty sure we established that the night we met."

He hummed in playful contemplation, "Hmm, I'm startin' to like your particular brand of trouble."