“A marriage license?” she echoed.

“Baby, keep up,” he said, a little impatiently. “We discussed this.”

Her gaze remained steady on his. “You told me we were getting married and you weren’t nice about it. I didn’t think you meant it.”

“You love me?”

She nodded.

“You carrying my babies in your belly?”

She nodded again.

“I love you too. So we’re getting married before we have kids. I want my ring on your finger and your name to be the same as mine. Means we have to fill out bullshit papers, then we do it.”

She stared up into his eyes for so long he was fairly certain she was going to have a few words with him. The idea made him hard all over again. Or maybe he’d remained hard even while he cooked. His reaction could have been from just looking at her. That could do it as well. That face. Those eyes. Her hair. Mostly that expression. The one that told him she loved him even when he was bossing her around.

“Honey, you came home to me. You came home you.”

His heart clenched. “Yeah, baby. I did that.”

“It was bad.”

He didn’t want her to see that. “Yeah, it was bad,” he acknowledged, his tone warning her to leave it right there.

She nodded. “Thank you for coming home. I wouldn’t do very well without you.”

The knots in his belly unraveled just a little more. “Need to go whip up food for my woman, and I don’t want the shrimp to overcook. It looked perfect.” He gave her that because it had. He loved that she cared enough to cook for him. He didn’t want her to ever do it again, but still, his woman wanted to do that for him. “The kitchen should be aired out enough for you to come back inside.”

A slow smiled curved her mouth. Soft. Sexy. His. She stood up, and he wrapped his arm around her waist.

“You’re not going to give me shit because the notary is coming tonight?”

“I don’t give you the s-word, Elijah,” she said primly. “I give you words. Do you want our children to talk like that?”

He pretended to think about it. Dios, but he loved his woman. Especially when she gave him that sassy voice. Standing up to him when few men dared.

“I like it when you give me words, mi amorcito. Makes me hard.”

She rolled her eyes, just like he knew she would. He burst out laughing. Her green eyes jumped to his face, watching him. She liked watching him and he liked her doing it.

He pulled out a chair and she slipped into it while he made his way around the center island to pull out a pan.

“What’s the difference between my leopard showing me twins, or basically acknowledging two babies, and her indicating more than one?” she asked casually.