Drake shrugged. “I wasn’t going to let him do to someone else what he put me through. I was in the hospital for a month, then it took me another six months of physical therapy before I was completely back to my old self. And every moment of that time after I left the hospital, I spent trapping your father in his own mess. When I finally delivered all the information to the FBI, there was nothing they needed to do but pick him up. The evidence against him was so strong, and I’d gotten many of his lieutenants as well since I didn’t want someone else filling in the vacuum once your father had gone. So I made sure that his organization was taken down.”
He waited a long time, wondering if she might be angry with him for destroying her father in such a calculated way.
She looked up at him, her mind slowly absorbing all that he’d just told her. “You risked your life to send my father to prison.” She said that with no emotion, her heart hardly even beating.
He wasn’t sure what she was thinking, her face a blank mask and her pretty eyes just looking at him. “I don’t see it that way.” His frustration was increasing. Normally he could read her pretty easily but she was a mystery at the moment.
She pushed at his chest and glared up at him. “You risked your life? You put yourself in danger just to get back at my father? He wasn’t worth it! You should have stayed out of it!”
Drake wasn’t sure what was going on. “Just to be clear, you’re mad at me for putting myself in danger or because I took your father down?”
She threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. “I don’t give a damn about my father! He was a low-life criminal who didn’t deserve to breathe air with actual human beings! He was a horrible man and I never really had any feelings for him other than fear because of all the things he did to others. But you!” she poked him in the middle of his chest, her fury rising as she thought about everything that might have happened to him… “You should have stayed away! You should have let the FBI and the police do their jobs! You should have never gotten near someone as cruel as that man and put your life in danger again!”
Drake breathed a sigh of relief. She was only angry with him for the danger and not because she actually cared for the man who’d sired her. He wouldn’t call Joe Berutelli a father because he’d done nothing more than provide fifty percent of her DNA. No, by some miracle, this woman had escaped from the criminal world and came out beautiful and wonderful.
And she was all his. “So you’re marrying me, right?” he asked, changing the subject so they could get back to something more interesting. Like getting her back into his bed now that all the confessions were finished!
Sierra paced in front of one of his windows, her hand pushing her hair back in frustration. Suddenly, she stopped and glared at him. “Will you ever put yourself in that kind of danger again?”
Drake knew exactly the right answer. “Of course not. I’ll be too busy making babies with you,” he said and grabbed her around the waist, kissing her at the base of her neck, exactly where he knew she liked it. “And you will be too busy loving me for anything else.”
“You think so?” she asked, but all of her willpower was draining away with his hands and his mouth doing those incredible things to her, making her knees weak so she had to lean against him.
“I know this to be the case,” he replied, his hands moving underneath the yellow sweater. “Despite the fact that you don’t have any underwear on, a fact of which I have been fully aware of during this entire conversation, mind you, but I have to let you know that you are wearing entirely too many clothes. A point I’ve tried to make ever since you woke us up at that crazy hour.”
She laughed and tried to wiggle out of his arms. “I’m not done being mad at you. And you should be mad at me.”
He shook his head. “I refuse to blame you for the crimes of another human being. Let them take responsibility for themselves. I, for one, am taking full responsibility for buying you the most beautiful wedding dress you can imagine.”
Sierra stopped with his words, love for this man washing over her in a wave. “I could go for that,” she said softly. And then laughed with delight when he growled, picked her up and threw her over his shoulder before carrying her into his bedroom. She laughed again when he tore off his clothes but all of the laughter died when he dispensed with her remaining clothes.
When he came down over her, both of them naked and writhing together he said, “I love you.”
She smiled gently, loving this enormous man who could make her blood simmer with just a look and replied, “I love you too.” With her fingers, she pulled his head down to hers and kissed him, reassuring him with her actions that she loved him with all of her heart.
Epilogue
Sierra slowly opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling, not sure if she wanted to smile or cry.
“I’ll take care of them,” Drake said, pushing himself out of bed. He wore pajama bottoms now because of just this type of thing.
“I’ll help you.”
“No, you were up until one o’clock this morning with Mitchell. Let me put them back to sleep.”
Sierra sank back into the pillows, grateful for the reprieve. She loved her twins but they were definitely a handful. At six months old, they were both sleeping through the night mostly. But every once in a while, Mitchell would need an extra feeding. Lindsey didn’t want to miss out on anything so she woke up as well, commiserating with her twin brother’s hunger.
The crying stopped and Sierra listened, waiting. Sure enough, a few minutes later, she heard his deep, vibrant voice. She wondered how such a macho, muscular man could sing so gently to their twin babies.
Unable to stay away, she pushed the sheets off of her and padded barefoot to the doorway of the nursery. She didn’t interrupt the three of them, just leaned her head against the doorway, watching and listening as Drake sang their twins back to sleep.
“You’re lurking,” he said softly when both babies were asleep in his arms, his strong arms cradling one in each arm as he rocked gently back and forth.
“You’re spoiling them,” she came back, walking into the nursery. “I love you,” she said, putting a hand on the top of each of her children while she bent low and kissed her husband. “They do too.”
“And you’re the sexiest mother I’ve ever seen,” he growled.