Paige Eleanora. Marilyn had given Pavlos the option of naming her, and Pavlos had shared that weighty responsibility with his stepson.
He had imparted something that went far deeper though. An acceptance, a lent, overwhelming verification that Khalid, the child who had heard too much, who had seen too much in international courts concerning the hell his unknown father had put his too-small, too-gentle mother through, was indeed a part of the family, and as loved as that tiny, delicate babe.
And Khalid had chosen Eleanora. Because the name sounded as delicate to him as the babe had seemed.
“What do you see then?” She frowned fiercely. “You’re confusing me, Khalid. As usual.”
He breathed out heavily. “Because I never told you, did I, that to me, you have never grown past that delicate innocence of fifteen.”
“Your birthday,” she said softly, and he saw the memory in the soft smile that curved her lips. “You were twenty-five. You had just gotten out of the hospital.” Her expressive eyes flashed with remembered pain.
It was a pain Abram knew as well.
Khalid refused to look at his brother, too afraid he would see in Abram’s eyes exactly what Khalid feared. That Abram could never let the memory of his first love go enough to give Paige his heart.
“You were there when I awoke,” he said softly. “You were like an angel staring down at me.”
“I told you you couldn’t ever leave me again,” she said softly. “Because if you were gone, there would be no one to protect me from all the big bad wolves that were trying to touch me where they shouldn’t.”
“You terrified me,” he admitted with a smile. “You were a baby, and grown men were trying to touch you. You made me want to live again, Paige. You made me have to live again, so nothing or no one in this world could ever harm you like that. You forced me to live, Paige, when all I wanted to do was die from the guilt I felt.”
He had no choice but to turn his head and look at his brother then. It was a time of their lives that they had shared. Lessa had been the wife they had shared. She had been Abram’s wife, and she had died for their dark hungers.
It wasn’t that sense of agony he saw on Abram’s face though. There was a gentle smile of remembrance, the pain of the knowledge that she had suffered because of them, but, as he stared into his brother’s black eyes, Khalid didn’t see the love, the heartrending agony he had seen so many years before.
“We were young men playing secret agents,” Abram said softly then. “And Lessa was our ally, our cohort, and our coconspirator. She died for us, and I could never forget her sacrifice, or the fact that I would have died for her. But she was a young man’s love. I’m not that young man any longer, brother. I’m an adult, and I know the woman I love.”
Abram looked at Paige then, and Khalid saw it.
His throat tightened. His chest seemed to loosen marginally until the only ache he felt was that of the hole that had been left in his chest by the bullet that had nearly killed him.
Azir would have never given up. Eventually, he would have had both Abram and Khalid killed. And he would have killed Paige, after he had raped her, punished her for the sins he perceived her mother committed, and for the unforgivable sin of looking so much like the one woman who had escaped him.
“Khalid, be happy for me,” Paige whispered with all the love he knew she held in her heart, despite the fact that he had been born of the horror their mother had suffered.
He had never forgiven himself for it.
Pavlos had forgiven him, and had given him the unforgettable gift of bestowing a name on the child created by his love for Marilyn Girard Galbraithe. And Paige had shown her love by demanding he live, and by demanding he never forget that he had to protect her.
“Don’t hurt her.” He cleared his throat as emotion threatened to overwhelm him. “She’s my sister, Abram. You’re my brother, but break her heart, so much as tweak her feelings and cause a tear to fall, and I promise, we will fight.”
At the moment, it would be a fight Abram would win, he thought with a touch of morose mockery. Hell, he was as weak as a kitten.
But as he looked up at his fiancée, he felt his c**k begin to harden, felt his blood begin to thunder through his veins and was amazed once again by his attraction and his love for her.
Hell, his dick had been hard within hours of consciousness, once he had begun refusing the pain medication they were trying to pump into him.
He lifted his hand to where hers lay at his shoulder, gripped it gently, and pulled her fingers to his lips.
How could he ever tell her the difference she made in his life?
He might not be able to tell her, but he could show her. Again.
He gave her a wicked smile, reminding her, pressing home the knowledge that it had only been just last night that he had convinced her to sit on his hungry mouth and allow him to bring her pleasure with his lips and tongue.
And he would have her again soon.
“Oh my God. I’m leaving. Khalid, that is so gross.” Paige was laughing though as she rose. She threw a quick, light hug around his shoulders and kissed his cheek.
Ashe moved back, Abram stepped to him, his broad hand clasping his shoulder affectionately. “Thank you, brother,” he said softly, somberly. “For the greatest gift a brother could give another.”
“And that is?” Khalid grunted.
“The gentle innocence, and the safety of the woman who stole my soul.”
Abram’s grip tightened, then he was leaving the bedroom, his hand laying low at Paige’s jean-clad h*ps as the door closed behind them.
“She’s still a baby,” he whispered on a sigh.
Marty lowered her head, her lips pressing to his lips. “She’s a woman, Khalid.”
“She’s my sister. A baby,” he growled.
“She’s a woman, and one day, she may have a baby of her own.”
He grimaced. “I’m not going there.”
“If they hurry, then their child would be just the right age to play with ours.”
And he froze.
Play with theirs?
He swallowed tightly. “You want a baby?”
He felt hot. Cold. His stomach tightened. A surge of adrenaline raced through his system.
“Too late to want, Khalid,” she whispered. “We’re having a baby.”
He remembered. That virus she’d had, the antibiotics, his impatience one night, and her laughing declaration that he could become a daddy.