Sweet Temptation by Cora Reilly

Nine years after the wedding
Cassio came home in the afternoon. He’d reserved a table in our favorite
restaurant for our ninth anniversary, a small place that served rustic French food.
Mia had agreed to watch Simona and Daniele. Though it was more of a
sleepover, considering that they were nine and almost twelve. They didn’t need
to be watched 24/7 anymore, even if they were up to no good more often than
not.
We’d just finished a delicious liver paté with warm Brioche and two glasses
of Viognier, my favorite white wine, when I gathered my courage. “Do you still
not want any more children?” I meant to ask it in a calm, low voice, but instead
I’d blurted it out.
Cassio lowered his glass slowly, brows pulling tight. “Are you…?”
I gave him a look then raised my almost empty wine glass. “Really? You
think I’d drink two glasses of wine if I were pregnant?”
He chuckled. “I didn’t think about it.”
“Men,” I muttered, but I couldn’t help but smile. “So, what do you say?”
I was oddly nervous about this. Cassio and I talked about almost everything,
except for the kind of business dealings he deemed too brutal for me—and the
secret about Simona and Daniele I still carried in the deepest corner of my heart.
Cassio put his hand on mine. “Do you want another child?”
Another child. Not a child, not your own child. We’d come such a long way,
and now there was absolutely no doubt that Simona and Daniele were my
children too.
“I don’t feel like our family is complete yet. I want to have a baby to cuddle
again.”