Leopard 03 - Burning Wild

anyone enough to give them much room. Drake, Joshua and perhaps her, were the few he gave a little leeway to, but not much. He would be hell to live with.
    He would want complete control. Why that made her want to cry all over again, she didn’t know. But tears burned on the ends of her lashes, further humiliating her.
    “I’m sorry, Jake. I honestly don’t know what’s wrong with me. I don’t. It isn’t you. I’m just falling apart. I wasn’t even like this when I was pregnant.”

    His hand slipped over her shoulder and down her arm to nudge under the hem of her shirt and splay across her belly as if he could feel a child growing there. “I think you just need to have someone hold you while you fall asleep. Remember when you had your nightmares.” He bent his head to hers and brushed a kiss along her temple. “I held you and you went to sleep.”
    That was true, but her body hadn’t been on fire. He’d been hard then too, just like he was now, and completely unashamed of it. But now was different because she was too aware of him, lying hard and thick, burning against her thigh like a brand.
    “Do you want more children?”
    Her gaze jumped to his face. “Why do you ask?”
    “I’ve been thinking about it lately. Wondering how you felt about it. With Kyle and Andraya so close in age I thought you might feel they were more than enough.” He pulled his hand from her stomach, the pads of his fingers sliding across her ribs while his knuckles brushed the undersides of her breasts.
    She was looking right into his eyes and couldn’t tell if it was an accident or if he’d meant to touch her so intimately. Before she could ask, he added in that same low tone, “I’ve asked John to prepare the adoption papers for you to adopt Kyle.”
    She felt a quick burst of pleasure that he not only remembered, but that he’d already instructed his lawyer. She had no idea when he could have found the time, but that was so like Jake, making the adoption a priority when they’d barely mentioned it.
    “Thank you. I feel as if I’m Kyle’s mother already. Making it legal takes a huge load off my mind.”
    “You didn’t answer. Will you want more children?”
    “I don’t know. With the right person.” She didn’t want to leave. She didn’t want to break up Andraya and Kyle.
    He rubbed the pad of his finger back and forth over her eyebrow, in the now familiar stroke he often used to help her fall asleep. The gesture soothed her for some unknown reason, almost as if he was petting her. The palm of his hand covered her eyes as he stroked, and she lowered her lashes and let the tension drain from her body.
    “What about you, Jake?”
    Jake drew in a deep breath. He was going to have more children and he was going to have them with Emma. “In another year or two, before Kyle and Andraya get too much older.” Because it would keep Emma close to him.
    He didn’t know much about love, but he knew how to seduce a woman. Whether or not Drake was right about Emma, she was the one he was keeping. He would tie her to him in as many ways as possible, including with more children. He could afford them, and he could hire help. If his other children were at all like Kyle and Andraya, then he could learn to care for them in his way.
    “Were you an only child?” His finger traced across her closed eyelid, along her high cheekbone and down to her full lips.
    “That’s another thing we have in common. I don’t have any other siblings. I lost my parents in a car accident just before I turned nineteen. I had no one else, no other relatives.”
    “What happened? Were you in the car?”
    He felt the small shudder that went through her. “No, but I found the car.”
    He stroked her hair to soothe her. “I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.” He wasn’t certain which was worse—having monsters for parents or losing parents you loved right in front of you. He didn’t know that kind of loss. He couldn’t imagine losing Emma. The idea left him without air, with a blank, numb mind, and he wasn’t even in love. He didn’t know the meaning of the word. He wasn’t capable of love, but he knew she was.
    “I’m sorry, honey, that was thoughtless of me to bring up your parents and the accident before you went to sleep. I had no idea.” He bent his head the scant few inches to brush a kiss over each eye and then he resumed stroking her face with the pads of his fingers.
    “It was a difficult time when I lost them,”