Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

A year later …

"We're late, sweetheart," Stefano called from the front door.

"Coming!" his gorgeous wife shouted from upstairs. "Two seconds."

He chuckled. Her idea of two seconds was very warped. He'd learned that over the past months. He didn't care, though. He didn't care if he was late to his own funeral. She could take all the time she wanted. It was impossible not to indulge her.

She was pretty good about getting to class on time, but mostly because he drove her there. So, he'd learned to give her a fifteen-minute warning, a ten-minute warning, and then a five-minute warning. He did all that without telling her that he'd padded it. Somehow, she hadn't noticed.

Stefano had purchased her a car, but so far, she hadn't driven anywhere alone. He didn't like the idea of her out in the world alone. He was overprotective and unapologetic about it.

She didn't seem to mind. He was pretty sure she wasn't interested in being alone anyway. She teased him about it, but if he tossed her the keys and told her to have a great day, she would probably panic and come up with any excuse to have him drive her.

All of the men in their friend crew were the same. Once your woman had been kidnapped and sold into slavery, you tended to spend the rest of your life being overprotective.

"Do I look okay?" she asked as she flew down the stairs wearing a soft gray cotton dress, black tights, and black flats. He knew she had on sexy, lacy black lingerie underneath the dress because he'd seen it on her in the bathroom earlier.

She'd cut several inches off her hair. It was full and healthy and bounced around her in waves. He loved it, but mostly, he loved pleasing her. He pulled her into his arms. "You look good enough to eat, sweetheart. Grab your coat. It's cold out."

She rushed to the coat closet and snagged the wool jacket he'd bought her a few weeks ago. It was stylish, but she didn't care much about style.

When she returned to him, she grabbed the lapels of his suit coat, lifted onto her toes, and kissed him. "I love you."

"I love you, too, sweetheart."

She told him she loved him about ten times a day, but it never got old.

He opened the door to let them out, closed and locked it before leading her to the already-warming SUV. As soon as she was settled, he rounded it to get into the driver's seat.

She giggled as she rubbed her hands together against the cold. "I bet this is the first baby shower that's ever been held at a BDSM club."

He chuckled. "Maybe. But it's appropriate." The club had become a place where all of them gathered together a few times a month. Though some of them were more involved in the kink community than others and went to the club when it was open, the rest of them only went when it wasn't open to the rest of the members.

Robert and Ella were amazing hosts who gladly unlocked the doors for this motley crew of close friends who'd grown to be more of a giant family. There were almost twenty of them, and surprisingly, most of them managed to come every time they united. Getting together was a priority above any other obligations.

In addition to the thirteen of them, comprised of the six women who'd been rescued and seven men they were in love with, their posse included Robert and Ella, Boyd and his wife Macy, and Diane and her submissive, Andrew. Diane hadn't introduced Andrew to the group until things had settled down, but they all loved him and welcomed him into the fray.

"Can you believe Summer is having a baby?" Roselia asked as she rubbed her hands together to keep warm.

"Yes. Surely, you're not shocked. I'm surprised it took them as long as it did to get pregnant. I don't think the three of them were trying very hard to avoid it." He glanced at her.

He'd been wondering how she felt about the fact that Summer was about to pop. She wasn't the only one pregnant either. Grace was six months along. Khai and Grace were expecting a girl. They'd purchased a home and had the nursery almost ready.

"Does it give you baby fever?" he asked his gorgeous wife.

"What?" she scrunched up her face. "No. Of course not."

Stefano chuckled. "Liar."

Roselia gasped. "Don't be silly. I'm only twenty-three. I still have three years of college."

He reached over and squeezed her hand. "I'm forty-six," he reminded her. "If we wait too long, I'll be old and drooling before we get them out of elementary school."

She rolled her eyes. "You won't."

"You know I would totally pull my weight if we had a baby, sweetheart. I wouldn't dump all the responsibility on you. You would still finish school. I promise. The non-profit is practically running itself already. I don't need to be there forty hours a week."

The thirteen of them had opened the non-profit to help victims of human trafficking almost a year ago. Substantial donations kept coming in, and community support was tremendous.

Stefano had a full-time paid position funded by an anonymous donor, even though Stefano was pretty certain that donor was either Damon or Bridger and Colter. It didn't matter. Devoting his life to rescuing and rehabilitating survivors was Stefano's mission in life.

That and getting his wife pregnant.

She stared at him. "Babies are a lot of work."

"Yep."

"I need three more years of school."

"Yep."

"Are you seriously suggesting we have a kid while I'm in school?"

"Yep." He grinned but only glanced at her. He needed to keep his eyes on the road.

"Stefano!"

He lifted her hand to his lips. "What?"

"You can't just spring shit like this on a woman while you're driving down the road," she argued.

"Why not? Seems like as good a time as any." They'd arrived at Roses and Thorns, and he pulled into a parking spot and turned off the engine.

When he faced her, her eyes were wide. She was working hard to look stunned and disagreeable, but she couldn't keep from smiling. "You're serious."

He leaned over the console and cupped her face. "I'm just saying I'm ready when you are." He lifted her knuckles to his lips and kissed them. God, he loved this woman.

She stared at him, saying nothing, but she did open and close her mouth several times as though she were about to speak and changed her mind. Finally, she pulled her hand free of his grip and unfastened her seatbelt.

He thought she was going to open the car door and put an end to this discussion, which would have been fine. After all, she was right. He'd sprung this on her.

But that's not what happened. Instead, his sexy wife climbed over the console, straddled his lap, and pressed her pussy against his cock. "How about we make a deal?"

He chuckled as he cupped her fantastic ass. "Not a chance. No, I will not spank you in the club in exchange for getting you pregnant." He knew her well. She'd been asking him to try spanking her for months. She'd been abused with a cane. He was never spanking her.

She pushed out her bottom lip in a fake pout. "But Gemma and?—"

He cut her off with a hand over her mouth. "Sweetheart, I don't care if every one of your friends lets their Dom spank them. The answer is still no. None of them were caned in captivity. I won't risk traumatizing you with impact play. And before you ask, orgasm denial is off the table also."

She played with the front of his black button-down shirt. "You're no fun."

"I'm lots of fun." He slid his hands under her dress and up her back until he could grip her bare skin. "I just don't think most aspects of D/s are a good idea for you."

"You won't restrain me. You won't spank me. You won't tease me. You won't let me suck you off. No collars. No nudity. No kneeling. No blindfolds. It's a kink club, Stefano."

He chuckled. She was right. It was a kink club, and damn, she had learned a hell of a lot about kink in the last year, but he still wasn't fond of the idea of triggering her. She was a survivor of sex trafficking. It made him nervous.

"If you won't dominate me , maybe I should dominate you . How about that?"

He flinched. "Not a chance, sweetheart, but nice try."

Her shoulders dropped. "Can we negotiate? All the other men let their women do at least some of the things."

He sighed. Maybe this had become important to her, but he wanted her to be doing it for the right reasons. Just because everyone else was doing it was not a valid reason. "How about this? We'll come on a night when the club is open soon. We'll wander around so you can watch all the different kinks. If something seems titillating and doesn't trigger you, we'll try it at home first." That's as far as he was willing to bend. The thought of sending his woman into a panic made him feel sick. He'd never forgive himself.

She sat straighter. "Yeah? You'll do that?"

"I will. We'll come on a Friday or Saturday."

"This week?"

He chuckled. "Sure. This week." What the hell was he signing up for?

She hugged him, rocking her body forward so that his cock grew twice as hard against her pussy. She was going to be the death of him.

Finally, she leaned back and smiled. "We should go inside before we miss something like a gender reveal."

"I don't think they're going to have a gender reveal, Rose. They've been pretty adamant about not finding out the baby's gender before it's born."

"Well, there will be games and stuff. Let's go." She reached for the handle on his door, opened it, and awkwardly climbed off his lap to jump down to the ground.

He followed her, shut the door, and opened the back door to grab the gift they'd brought.

When they reached the entrance, Roselia stared at the Roses and Thorns logo and shuddered. She did so every time they came. "I still can't believe that was tattooed on my thigh," she murmured before adding, "And you were manipulating a dog chip in my body."

He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. "It's gone now. No more tattoos."

She looked up at him as they entered. "What if I want to get one?"

He drew in a breath. Being married to a woman half his age meant she ran circles around him most days and caused him to have near heart attacks. It didn't bother him so much for her to have a tattoo, but the thought of her enduring the pain made him cringe.

Granted, he had the same concerns about childbirth. He would probably be one of those crazy fathers, pacing around the room for hours in a panic over his wife's suffering.

The thought of having a tiny human comprised of both of them, though, made him all warm and fuzzy inside. She might not have baby fever, but he sure did. Thank goodness it didn't really matter much if they waited another year or two.

"You're here!"

Stefano lost his grip on Roselia's hand the moment five other women ran forward to hug her. This was a thing with these women. No matter when they'd last seen each other, they always greeted each other as though it had been ten years. They also all talked at once as if they hadn't spoken on the phone six times already that day.

While the six of them rushed off to join the other women in the room, Stefano set their gift on the table in the main room and joined the men.

He shook Colter's and Bridger's hands first. "You ready for this?"

They both chuckled. "Not a chance," Colter said, "but I doubt anyone ever is."

Khai rubbed his palms on his thighs. "At least there's three of you. You can each take turns sleeping. I'm worried we might need more than two adults in the house to manage one baby," he joked.

Damon smirked. "Colter and Bridger are going to make it look so easy that all the women are going to want a baby."

Jagger laughed. "That's my fear, too."

Axel winced. His lips were pursed.

Stefano looked at him. "You're awfully quiet."

He lifted his brows but looked anywhere but at the other men.

"You dog," Robert said before leaning in to whisper, "Nora is pregnant, too, isn't she?"

Axel swallowed and looked at all of them. "Don't say anything. She wants today to be all about Summer. She made me promise."

Stefano grinned. "We won't say a word. Congrats, though."

Damon cleared his throat and glanced toward the women before looking back. "Confession time."

Everyone lifted their brows.

Boyd chuckled. "Gemma, too?"

"It's early still. She'd kill me if she thought I breathed a word."

Jagger leaned in closer. "Kally isn't pregnant yet, but we aren't using birth control anymore."

Stefano drew in a slow breath. He doubted he'd have to argue his case for long. Once all five of the other women were pregnant or giving birth, Roselia would want one, too. He was confident.