“You’re not a very bad man. That’s just what the world sees. Wasn’t it you who said, ‘I have a reputation to maintain’ once upon a time?”

He sighed. “This is different. This involves another life, Emma. A tiny little human being with itty-bitty fingers and a heart the size of my thumbnail. Like I said, I’m still trying to get my head wrapped around this.”

She smiled and wrapped her hands around his arm. “And you’re scared. Marcus Borden, the scariest man in New Raven, is scared.”

He frowned at her humour. “And you’re a little sadist.”

“The tables have reversed.”

He chuckled. She rested her hand on his face and stroked his cheek affectionately. “Borden, I’m going to be here with you the entire way. If you’re scared, we’ll face your fear together. Truth is, I’m scared too. I don’t know how we’re going to do it, but I know we’ve both come from shit upbringings and we’ll never do wrong by this child.”

He nodded and kissed her softly. “Yeah,” he whispered. “You’re right.”

When they reached the house, Darlene opened the door. She smiled brightly at her daughter and glared resentfully back at him.

“Borden,” she snarled, glancing at his feet, “take your shoes off before you enter my home.”

Before it was take your shoes off at the door, and now it had migrated to take your shoes off outside the door. Soon enough she would ask him to leave it at the edge of the sidewalk, or he’d just ditch them altogether. He clenched his jaw, finally having come to terms with the Warne women bossing him around, and took his shoes off outside the fucking door.

They came in and had dinner, and he watched Emma cheerfully converse with Darlene. The old lady didn’t bat him an eye, and he couldn’t be fucked caring. He spent that dinner staring at his wife. The mother of his child. A child he had suddenly started to wonder about. Would it be a girl or a boy? Would they have her eyes? Her hair? Her smile? Please, he thought, let that child have that smile.

What would be better than having Emma? Another small Emma, and just that thought made him breathe a little harder. He took a large gulp of his water, fighting the sudden emotion circling behind his eyes. Fucking hell, was he going to cry? Fuck no. No, no, no, Borden did not cry.

“Why are you crying?” Emma suddenly asked him, having turned her attention to him.

“I’m not crying,” he answered on a shrug. “My eyes hurt.”

“Your eyes hurt?”

“Clearly your grandmother cut onions for this pasta.” This fucking pasta she made and knew he hated.

“There are no onions in this pasta,” Darlene said. “Emma, why is your husband crying? Isn’t he meant to be a criminal?”

Emma smiled widely as she stared into his misted eyes. She knew exactly what he was thinking.

“He’s going to be a father,” she whispered as they stared each other in the eyes, hearts beating as one.

“You’re going to be a mother,” Borden whispered back.

Darlene gasped and choked on a cry. “You’re pregnant.”

Emma didn’t reply. She stared at her husband and mouthed “I love you.”

“I fucking love you more, doll,” he replied.

Epilogue

Emma

“Look at his eyes,” Borden whispered, staring down at our baby asleep in his crib. “They’re changing colour. Turning brown.”

“A very light brown,” I noted as we gawked at our three month old monster.

Lincoln was a handful. Everyone kept telling us he would get easier, but I begged to differ. Lincoln never got easier. He was a never ending cycle of screams, tears and – just recently – giggles. He was also extremely attached to his father.

And Borden was a good father.

He stared at Lincoln like he was his world, and he was. They were both attached to each other. I was only good for the boob and then it was the Borden and Lincoln show. I didn’t mind it at all. I was actually relieved. Borden had been borderline crazy throughout the pregnancy. His self-doubt and worries had escalated to a point I couldn’t help him rest easy. But then, Lincoln came, and the second I took that last push and they rested him on my chest, Borden stopped his questioning. Everything just…clicked together. He held our son and his world suddenly made sense, and he never worried about a thing again.

“Do you think we’ll have a night to ourselves?” Borden asked me, finally moving his lovesick eyes from Link to me.

“Oh, you’re looking at me for once,” I remarked dryly. “I thought I stopped existing.”

He smiled broadly, and I swooned. “For real, doll, you think he’ll stay down?”

“Why?”

“I’ve got blue balls.”

I laughed and stepped out of Link’s bedroom and down the hallway of our brand new house. Borden followed after me, shutting the door only halfway outside of Link’s bedroom. He paced quickly behind me and I picked up my pace, hurrying into our master bedroom. I nearly tripped over an unpacked box, but he caught me around the waist and pulled my back to his front.

“Baby,” he murmured, kissing me along my neck, “I need to be inside you. The doctor gave you the green light. Don’t think I didn’t know about that.”

“You know everything.”

“Damn straight.”

His hand ran down my front, grabbing at my breast before trailing his fingers beneath my pyjama bottoms. He rubbed me urgently, and I moaned against him, already feeling the flutters.

“You’re already wet, you little skank,” he remarked.

“And you’re hard.”

“I’ve been hard for three months.”

“I’ve sucked you off plenty of times, asshole.”

“This is a kind of hard your mouth can’t soften.”

I laughed again as he picked me up and hurried me to the bed. His movements were quick and desperate. He stripped me in less than a few seconds and then worked on himself. I moaned just at the sight of him, my sexy bad man, looking ridiculously good while I was still in my post-baby body.

He took my lips with his own and ravaged me, tongue swirling against tongue. I was hot in no time and needy.

“Condom,” I told him just as I felt the head of his length against my entrance. “I don’t have the shot in.”