“Baby.” How could he not worry? When he called her mi vida—my life—he meant it. She was his life. “Don’t like you sick, mi amorcito. Want you to stop.”

She laughed softly, her breath warm against his ribs. She moved her head to cushion it on his belly, her long braid sweeping over his body, tangling for a minute with his cock. His body shuddered with pleasure. With contentment.

“I’ll get right on that, boss-man.”

“Glad you finally recognize what I am to you,” he said. “You sleep in this morning and eat something. Even if it makes you sick, baby. Doc says you have to eat. Small meals. A lot of them. And take those prenatal vitamins.”

She traced her name with the pad of her fingers into his chest. She did it often, her way of claiming him. He marked her body to brand her his. Her claiming was invisible but no less binding.

“Where are you going, Elijah?”

“Mi vida, I’ve got business to attend to.” Setting up a kingpin in Rafe Cordeau’s territory. Hunting down Robert Gaton and Paolo Riso. Killing them. Burning their carcasses. Burying them deep. The usual business men attended to.

She kept her eyes on his stomach. “I’m carrying twins.”

For a moment he thought he heard her wrong. She just said it straight-out in a low, whispery tone as if she was responding to his statement. He was thinking about killing and she was thinking about life. Bringing more life into his world. Giving him two children. More familia. Above her head, he closed his eyes. She gave him beauty. Too much. Almost more than he could handle.

“Doc tell you?” Because Doc hadn’t told him. They were going to have words about that. He needed to know how to take care of his woman. Doc had no right to keep anything from him.

“No. I don’t think he knows yet. My female told me. Last night. Before we went to bed.”

She knew, and she’d still come to him every way he wanted, giving herself to him. Wild. And she’d been wild. Begging him to be harder. Rougher. Matching the primitive savage need in him.

“Should have told me right away, baby. I need to talk to Doc. Find out whether our kind of sex is going to have to wait until they’re born.”

She pressed kisses into his belly. Swirled her tongue in his belly button. Nipped him with her teeth. “Don’t you dare talk to Doc about our sex life. I’d be embarrassed to ever look at him.”