Then to see Emily with him put a seed of hunger in me. I wanted this with Emily. I wanted a family with her. I wanted to see her with our little boy playing on the floor and laughing with him.

She was right. I could love this kid. He was mine. I didn’t want to let him down. I wanted to be a part of his life. Dean was a part of Rush’s, and he hated Rush’s mom. At least I didn’t hate Mase’s mother. I just didn’t know her.

Emily could have a relationship with Mary Ann. I’d just get to know my boy. But more than anything, I wanted Emily’s stomach big with our child. I wanted to feel our baby inside her and know we made that kid. She’d be mine forever. They both would.

I had hired a private jet to take us to Texas, so when our visit was over and Mary Ann and Emily had set up some visitation times for us, I’d hugged Mase and told him I’d see him soon.

Emily had been smiling from ear to ear the entire car ride back. She kept babbling about how much he looked like me and how he had watched me with his serious eyes. She had talked about how he had clapped his hands and gotten excited over the horses outside. Everything Mase did amazed her.

And fuck if I didn’t fall even deeper in love with this woman. I didn’t think it was possible. But apparently, when it came to Emily, I could fall in love more every day. She had so much to fucking love.

I kept my hand on her back as we got on the plane. I liked touching her. Mary Ann had noticed that, too, and smiled at me. She seemed happy that I had found Emily. It was strange, but it also felt good. Maybe I could be friends with Mary Ann after all.

“I’m so glad we came,” Emily said for the tenth time, as she sank down onto one of the leather sofas in the jet.

“You mentioned that,” I teased her. I lifted her and put her in my lap.

“You were great with him,” she said, as I nibbled on her neck.

“You were, too,” I said, because in truth, she was amazing with him. I was pretty sure he liked her more than he liked me. I slipped my hand up between her thighs. “I kept thinking about you being pregnant with my kid. Made me fucking hard. I like the idea of knowing we could make a life together. That I’d have a kid that you gave me. That was a part of both of us.”

She stiffened in my arms and turned to look at me. “I can’t . . . I could never do that. My momma is already worried about me, but that would break her heart.”

What the fuck? “Your momma doesn’t want you having kids? Or she doesn’t want you having my kids?”

She sighed and laid her head on my chest. “My momma wants me to have kids one day. But she’ll expect me to be married when I do.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. Married? Well, fuck. I hadn’t even thought about that. I was keeping Emily forever. That was for damn sure, but I hadn’t thought about the fact that we needed to get married. It wasn’t something people in my world did often, because when they did, it always ended badly.

Emily would never get to divorce me. I wouldn’t let her. The idea of her ever wanting to leave me was terrifying. But marriage?

“I’m not ready for marriage right now, Kiro. Relax. That’s not what I’m saying. I am just saying that talking about babies is out of the question for me. I’ll do that one day when I’m married.”

One day when she was married. She didn’t say when we were married. Fuck that. She wasn’t marrying anyone but me. Ever. She was mine.

I pushed her down on the sofa and began stripping off her clothes. I had to remind her who she belonged to. Whose heart she’d taken over and just how much I couldn’t live without her. This shit about marrying one day was fucked up. She was marrying one day, and it would fucking be me. My babies in her stomach. Mine. All mine.

“Kiro?” she asked nervously, as I made quick work of stripping down.

“Open for me,” I replied. The panic in my voice was obvious.

She opened her legs, and I was inside her immediately. “Fuck, yes,” I groaned, as she squeezed my cock like a glove. “Mine, Emily. This is mine. No one else’s. Always just mine.” I chanted like a madman while I began moving in and out of her.

“Yes, Kiro, I’m yours,” she reassured me.

When she wrapped a leg around my waist and locked down, that meant she was almost there. Sliding in and out of her wet heat made everything in the world OK. She fixed whatever was wrong.

“My angel,” I said again, as her body started to shake and the orgasm had her pussy locking down on my cock, sending me off with her. “I fucking love you!” I yelled, as I shot my release into her.

When I came down from my high, I scooped her into my arms and held her. I stayed inside her. I liked being connected to her like this. It eased all my fears.

Emily

Mase came to stay the weekend with us twice that summer. It was hard on Mary Ann to be away from him too long, but she was determined to allow Mase and Kiro to bond. It also gave her time to herself. She was even dating someone now.

By the end of the summer, Georgianna had given birth to a baby girl. She said she’d had a paternity test done and that Nannette wasn’t Kiro’s child. However, something inside me told me she was lying. But Kiro refused to insist on seeing the results of the test. He said the kid belonged to Georgianna’s ex-fiancé. I was going to have her show us the results of the test when Kiro would listen to me. But right now I was letting her adjust to life with her new baby and Rush.

It was a battle I gave up.

Over the next six months, Mase became a part of our lives. We went to the zoo and took him to a Lakers game. We spent afternoons on the beach when it was warm enough. Every time I watched Mase smile up at his dad, my heart squeezed. I loved seeing them together.

Georgianna never came back around. Dean would have to travel to get Rush from her. She had a baby now and refused to bring Rush to Dean. He didn’t seem to mind, and Kiro preferred it. He still hated Georgianna.

When the guys had to work on a new song or go to record the new album while Rush and Mase were visiting, I took care of them. Both boys had stolen a piece of my heart.

May 1993

Emily

Slacker Demon’s summer tour was starting. Their newest album had gone platinum once again, and I was prepared to travel with Kiro. He refused to have it any other way. Dean had convinced Trac, Brit, and Dash that without me, Kiro would be a mess. That they all needed me there in order to make it through the tour.

We had spent the weekend with Mase, and I was going to miss him over the next four months. Kiro seemed a little sad to see him go, too. He had bonded with his son the past year, and I was so thankful for it.

Mase was talking a lot now, too, and it was adorable. He was calling me “Emmy” just like Rush did. Kiro had picked up on it and he called me Emmy more often now than he did Emily. Mary Ann was in a serious relationship, but Kiro didn’t seem to care about that. He let me have my friendship with Mary Ann, but he rarely spoke to her.

I slipped out of bed before the sun came up. My eyes had snapped open, and the waves of nausea roiling through my stomach were back from yesterday. I made it to the toilet just in time. Luckily, Kiro had slept through this yesterday. I had thought it was something I’d eaten, but now it was back, after I’d felt fine all day yesterday after being sick. I couldn’t be coming down with a stomach bug now. Not when we were due to leave for tour this afternoon.