Eli framed her womb with his hands and kissed her belly over and over. “You saved our child, Kitten. You couldn’t have known, but you instinctively kept our baby safe. It’s going to be beautiful, just like you.”
She closed her eyes. She hadn’t known. Her leopard had still been too inexperienced to tell her, and she hadn’t felt the pregnancy, but Eli had known the moment he’d gotten her pregnant. She brought her hand to her face and looked at the ring there. Jake and Emma had come with a justice of the peace and Eli had married her a week after she’d gotten home.
Catarina blinked back tears and reached once again for the silky mass of Eli’s hair. “I love you so much sometimes I don’t know what to do with it,” she admitted, the sound so low it was barely there. No one in her life had given her compliments until Eli. No one had ever said they loved her until Eli.
Love and the admission of love were still strange and terrible yet wonderful things, just as the feeling was. It was overwhelming to her at times. Like now. In this moment. When Eli had to claim every inch of her. When he had to love every inch of her, showing her what she meant to him. It almost felt as if he was worshiping her body right along with claiming her. She never quite knew what to do with his sweetness and always, always, she wanted to curl up and hold herself still in fear that she might lose him. She couldn’t imagine how he felt waiting to hear if she was alive or dead. She would let him have whatever he wanted just for that alone.
Eli lifted his head from where he’d been communicating with their child. He had no idea if the baby was a boy or girl. He’d know soon enough because her leopard would tell his leopard. But right now, his heart was full, shattering with her soft admission, knowing how hard it was on her to tell him.
His eyes met hers. Catarina. All cobalt eyes and long, silky hair. He had no idea a man could love a woman so much. He knew he was driving her crazy with his too close, hands-on control, but until that feeling of being unable to breathe left him, she was going to have to give him time.
“You’re everything to me, Cat,” he told her. It was true. He’d found that out when he thought he’d lost her. “I can’t breathe without you. I’m still trying to catch my breath.”
She stilled under his hands. Her eyes took on a deep violet vibrant hue. She got it. She knew what he needed and why. He felt her body settle, although her breathing remained ragged. He bent to kiss her belly where his child snuggled.
“You’re such a miracle. A real fucking miracle, Cat.”
She laughed. “Honey, seriously, you have to clean up your language just a little bit. You can’t say miracle and drop the f-bomb at the same time.”
He loved the sound of her laughter. It filled the room with warmth and joy. She gave him things that were so intangible he couldn’t tell anyone else exactly what they were, but he couldn’t live without them. Without her.
“I dropped a few of those f-bombs when I was pleading for your life in that waiting room,” he growled, unrepentant. He dropped his head back to the important matter of hearing and feeling her heart beating in every part of her body.
“You didn’t?” Her breath hitched as he shifted his body to slide lower.
“I did.” He pushed her thighs apart and looked down at her body. “You’re so damned beautiful, Catarina, sometimes I can’t believe you’re really mine.”
“I hate to be the one to tell you, but I’m covered in scars.”
Eli had scars too. Cordeau’s lieutenants had taken him down with a stun gun, chained him, and Cordeau had used his claws to rake him open from his chest to his belly and then he ordered his men to get started on the real torture.
“You’re beautiful, Cat, with or without them. Jake has found a plastic surgeon, a shifter, one of us, so we’ll see him.”
“I’m pregnant.” Instantly her hands covered her belly, still flat, her body still not giving away their secret. “I don’t want cosmetic surgery enough to endanger our child.”
He loved her for that alone. “We’ll do whatever you want, baby.” He dipped his head to trace her hip bone, to find the soft indentation where he could feel her heart pounding through her body. He closed his eyes, savoring the sound and feel of life.
Her breath hissed out of her lungs as he wedged his shoulders firmly between her thighs, stretching her legs with his width, leaving her open and vulnerable to him. He scented her, the call of his mate. Already the taste of her was in his mouth. Still, he needed to feel every pulse point. For the moment he was content to just feel her heart right there. Waiting for him.
He kissed her other hip, lapped at the little indentation and then kissed his way down her thighs. First one, then the other.