High Stakes Gamble

Chapter Forty-Five

Within minutes, Ham and Cory arrived and helped Aurora to stand. Her legs had given out completely. After the emotional scene inside the apartment, she’d stayed in the hallway, back against the wall, legs bent and her dripping face nestled into arms crossed over her knees.

Her yearning to hold Lily and never let her go had yielded to the recognition that Kai had needs also. Seeing such a man, so strong, so muscular… so… so damn manly loving his tiny daughter had to be the most poignant thing she’d ever witnessed.

She wasn’t worried about the perp anymore. Marc and Jane hadn’t moved from the chair where she’d sat. All the while he knelt in front of his wife, Marc stroked her face, whispering words of encouragement and love.

Aurora, aided by Cory, stepped into the room. She crossed to Kai who grinned his joy while his daughter, bubbling with her own satisfaction, pulled at his nose and patted both cheeks. As soon as Kai saw Aurora, he kissed Lily on the forehead and held her out to her mother’s reaching arms.

Oh God! Thank you!

Snuggling her baby’s face into her neck, Aurora leaned her own cheek against the soft downy black hair and breathed in deeply. Oh God! She’s really here.

Lily seemed to sense who held her, maybe Aurora’s scent or her sound, but when Aurora kissed Lily’s cheeks, forehead, neck, ears everywhere her lips could reach, Lily allowed the embrace. She lay still and if one believed in miracles, one would believe the child recognized her mother.

One stared at the other and for the first time since the day’s conflict began, Lily opened her mouth, scrunched up her body and wailed. Screams grew to ear-splitting levels as her tantrum continued. Panicking, Kai wrapped his arms around both his crying females and tried to shush them.

Jane, who’d slipped into a drugged stupor, returned. Upset by Lily’s crying, she pulled away from the capturers who were guiding her from the room and approached Kai and Aurora cautiously. “Lucy’s hungry. She’s crying because she hasn’t eaten.”

Instinctively, Aurora whipped Lily away from the woman to protect her with her own body. She couldn’t speak, but she knew her eyes did so for her.

Jane shrank back into Marc’s reaching arms and let Cory and Ham lead her away, handcuffed, pitiful, stumbling—a lost soul.

One of Kai’s trembling hands patted his daughter, while the other tried to calm a babbling Aurora whose words of love were gushing out.

“Shuu, my beauty. Mommy’s here now. Everything will be fine, Lily. Mommy’s here.”

The next thing Aurora knew, Kai had swept her up and carried her and a displeased Lily to the same large armchair Jane had vacated. He sat her down and then said, “She needs you to feed her so she knows she’s safe and that it’s you here with her.”

In the time it took for Aurora’s shaky fingers to unbutton her white, shirt-like blouse and free herself, Lily had worked herself up into a mess. Aurora had never seen her child act this way before.

Tear poured from under Lily’s long spikey eyelashes. Her hands had balled into fists that paddled at the air. Her chubby blue-clad legs kicked her wrath, keeping time to her howls.

“She doesn’t know me.” Aurora’s voice broke.

Panic crawled into her happiness, churned her stomach and promised retribution if she didn’t deal with the situation and soon.

“She’s probably pissed cause she’s just realized you haven’t been around. Once she’s fed everything will be fine.” Kai sounded as if he knew what he was talking about. His calm statement worked and she tried again to offer her body to Lily who still refused to accept her.

“See! She doesn’t want me.” Looking at Kai, Aurora knew her horror showed when she saw him flinch and turn pale.

Knowing that her hotshot was now floundering and wouldn’t be any help, she understood it would have to be up to her to persuade Lily to stop. So she let her intuition take over.

First she lifted Lily to her chest and let her cuddle in close, a habit they’d had since the day of her birth. Rocking back and forth, singing the song Lily loved, the one that had always worked like magic, Aurora patted Lily’s fanny and worked a miracle. The hysterics waned taken over by hiccupping, body-shaking breath heartbreaking in their own pathetic way.

This time when Aurora offered her breast, the hungry little lips closed and Lily suckled, drawing—her lips pursed, her globby eyes attaching themselves to Aurora’s. All the while she ate, she scrutinized her mother.

Kai watched, amazement spreading over his happy expression. “She’s settling down. Wow! She’s a hungry little rug-a-muffin.”

“Must take after her daddy. First she has a tantrum and then expects to be treated nicely.” Aurora dared Kai to smile back at her cheeky grin.

He did. Then he said. “If she grows up to be a gorgeous woman like her mother, she can have all the tantrums she wants and her grateful daddy will always be there for her.”

“Does that work the same for her mother?”

He kissed her lips, nuzzled her neck and then whispered. “Don’t push it, Darlin’!”