Sweet Child o' Mine (5 page)

He
led Ian through the doors of the waiting room, and Ian was shocked at how
they’d taken up all the space.

Li
and Avery sat with Jake and Adam and Serena. They’d set up a small playpen and
the boys were sitting in it while Carys held court between them. Grace was
talking to Eve while Alex was pacing the floor and talking on his cell phone.

“Yes,
Damon. I’ll be sure to call when they’re born,” Alex was saying. “Yeah, I know.
Two girls. They’re going to drive him absolutely insane. Say hello to Penny for
us.”

Simon
was sitting with Jesse and Phoebe, and at least half of the members of Sanctum
were here, too.

“I
know one thing in this world and that’s the fact that Ian Taggart knows how to
create a family. None of us would be here without you, you sarcastic asshole
brother of mine. So go and help your wife make our family a little bigger.”

Ian
did just that because the last thing he wanted any of them to see was the way
his eyes had watered.

They’d
come together because they’d all been defeated one way or another. They
’d all been broken
—by death or loss or failure. Ian hadn’t
wanted to lose them. He hadn’t wanted to lose himself, so he’d started
McKay-Taggart in order to give them all something to do.

How
had they become more than friends? More than colleagues? Those people had
become his family.
 

And
his family was about to welcome another two of their own.

He
slipped into Charlie’s room, ready to face the future.

Ten
hours later, he was fairly certain his hand was going to break.

“One
more big push and the first one will be out, Charlotte,” Dr. Bates said.
“You’re doing great. I wish all my twin deliveries went like this.”

Charlie
grunted and squeezed his hand and seemed to put all her willpower into her
task. Then again, she was trying to push two whole human beings out of her
vagina. She glanced up at him. “You could say something helpful.”

“Nope.”
He really couldn’t. He’d spent hours watching her in pain and not being able to
do or say anything that could make it better. He hated this. He hated every
part of it. They were never doing this again. These two girls better like each
other because they weren’t getting siblings. No way. No how. For the first time
he actually thought about getting snipped so she would never have to deal with
this kind of pain again.

“Wimp.”
Somehow Charlie managed a smile right before she screamed again. And then with
a long sigh, she laid back.

“Oh,
hello pretty girl,” Dr. Bates said. “Ian, do you want to cut the cord?”

He
wasn’t getting anywhere near that. He didn’t even like the symbolism. “I’ll
pass.”

He
needed to stay with Charlie. He needed to make sure she was all right.

“You
are lucky, Charlotte,” the nurse said. “Any longer and you would have been
giving birth to two toddlers. The first twin is five and a half pounds. She’s
perfect.”

“Go
and see her,” Charlie said.

“I’m
fine. I can wait until the other one is out.”

“That
could take a while,” the nurse said. She was holding a tiny bundle in her arms
that looked absolutely nothing like a toddler. Toddlers were resilient, if
Carys was any indication. The kid could bump all day and not really come to any
harm. But whatever was in that little pink blanket, that was a fragile thing.

He
was far more used to killing than nurturing.

“Show
her to your wife,” the nurse urged.

Ian
shook his head. “Charlie should hold her.”

Dr.
Bates looked up from between his wife’s splayed legs. Yeah, it was that kind of
a day. “No. I think this one is close. Charlotte needs to push again.”

Charlie
nodded. “I can feel it. This one isn’t going to wait. Let me see her, Ian.”

Deep
breath. He could do this. It was just one tiny baby that
had
recently been expelled
from his wife’s body. He could handle one small
female. Hell, he was the Dom of Doms. He was the ultimate authority figure.

The
nurse placed the little bundle in his arms and Ian looked down.

The
baby looked up. Not the baby. His baby. His daughter. She had Charlie’s eyes
and the sweetest little cap of strawberry blonde hair. There wasn’t much of it,
but it was there. She had a little bow mouth and a tiny little nose. And a
totally misshapen head.

“She
looks like an alien.” An alien version of a baby Charlie. A gorgeous baby girl
with a cone for a head.

“If
you don’t show me that baby right now, Ian Taggart, I am going to pull your
balls off,” Charlie growled.

He
knew when to obey. Even the baby’s eyes had popped open, as though she knew the
sound of her mother in a killing rage. “I think this is the one who tried to
take out crazy eyes. I’m naming this one.”

He
lowered his daughter down and watched in wonder as Charlie’s eyes softened and
she reached to touch her daughter for the first time.

And
then her body seemed to seize. “Oh, here comes your sister.”

He
cradled baby number one in his right arm and held Charlie’s hand with his left.
He kept switching his gaze between his girls. The baby in his arms was yawning
as though the whole event had really been tiring but no big deal.

Her
sister was born three minutes later, and ten minutes after that he found
himself following his daughters down to the nursery. He stood outside, watching
through the glass as the pediatrician began checking the babies over. Baby
number one
was wrapped
in her pink blanket and number
two was in yellow. It was a good thing because he couldn’t tell them apart by
looking at them. He wouldn’t let them out of his sight and explained in no
uncertain terms that his daughters
wouldn’t be left
there overnight. Charlie had been very specific about it. She was keeping them
in the room with her unless they needed to
be checked out,
and then Ian would be watching. At the time, he’d thought she was being
unreasonable. She was surely going to need sleep. He’d been planning on quietly
letting the girls go to the nursery.

Never.
Not even once was he letting those babies out of his sight. They were his.

This
was what Sean had meant. When they’d put baby number two in his arms and he
lowered them both down to Charlie, he’d finally understood. He’d protected
Sean, but Sean hadn’t been his.

These
two small things were his and Charlie’s. They were proof beyond all doubt that
they loved each other. Those girls were immortality, a way for his love for his
wife to always live on. In that one moment, he understood what it meant. His
love for his wife could be selfish. He wanted things from her. Love. Affection.
Sex. Submission.

He
wanted nothing from these girls except the right to love them, the right to
protect and teach them.

Loving
Charlie had made him a man, but these girls made him a father, and that was so
much more.

“Look
at that,” Sean said, coming to stand beside him. The rest had gone with
promises to come by in the morning, but his brothers had stayed. Oh, Case and
Theo had both fallen asleep in the waiting room, but they were here.

Ian
and Sean watched the babies through the glass as the pediatrician checked them
out. Kenzie, daughter number two, was lying peacefully while his firstborn had
already kicked out of her swaddling and was currently giving the doctor hell.
Baby girl didn’t like the eyedrops. She didn’t like the shot. She didn’t like
being
poked
and prodded, and now the whole hospital
knew it.

“That
one’s going to kick a little ass, Sean.” He smiled as his daughter screamed her
head off. He could already tell that scream wasn’t about pain. She was pissed.

And
then her sister tuned up with her, as though crying in sympathy.

Damn
but they could make a racket.

“Any
idea of what you’re going to name her?” Sean asked.

“Yeah.
I think I got that all figured out,” he said with a smile.

“K
ala? Isn’t that like the
goddess of chaos in Hindu mythology?” Adam stared at Ian like he knew something
was going on. Adam followed him out on the porch, away from the rest of the
team who were now getting ready to sit down to Charlie’s welcome back dinner.

She’d
only been in the hospital for two days, but Ian had made them wait two weeks
before getting together in a big group. Charlie needed peace and quiet, but now
she was ready to show the babies off to their family.

Naturally,
Kenzie had gone to sleep right after her feeding and Kala had fussed, so Daddy
was holding her close, cuddling her so she could rest. His Kenzie and his Kala.

Adam
was always far too perceptive. It was precisely why Ian loved to give him shit.
“I think you’ve watched too much Indiana Jones. And no. That’s Kali. Kala is a
perfect little name for a precious baby girl. In Sanskrit it means virtue.”

Adam’s
eyes narrowed. “You looked it up?”

Maybe
he shouldn’t have mentioned that part. At the time it seemed like a really good
way to throw people off the scent. Charlie had accepted his explanation of Kala
without blinking an eye. She’d told him she loved it and that it was perfect.

If
only she knew how perfect it was…

“I
can look things up, Adam. It’s my daughter’s name. It’s important.”

Adam
took a drink off the coffee he was holding. This little dinner party was booze
free since Charlie was breastfeeding. Sean and his sous-chef had made a grand
Italian dinner for the group. The smell made Ian’s stomach rumble. “I don’t
believe you. You’re the man who wanted to name them Bruce and Arnold.”

Ian
shrugged, patting his daughter’s back. She seemed to like to sleep on his
shoulder for some reason. Kenzie preferred
being cradled
,
but Kala always wanted to be up high. “I have a deep affection for
80’s
cinema. What can I say?”

Adam
frowned. “I’ll figure it out in the end. Hey, Charlotte. Did the other little
princess wake up?”

His
wife stepped out onto the back porch with Kenzie in her arms. “She never sleeps
for long if Kala isn’t close. We tried to force them to sleep in separate beds,
but they cried until we put them together.”

He
loved to watch them sleep. Honestly, he kind of loved to watch them do
everything. He’d never understood until he looked down at a baby that was equal
parts him and the woman he loved more than life. He would sit there like an
idiot and watch those babies sleep, cuddling together like they had in the
womb.

“I’ll
go see if I can help with the prep work, but I meant what I said, Tag. I’ll
figure it out and I’ll find some way to use it.” Adam grinned as he walked back
in the house.

It
would likely be fitting if Adam was the one who took him down. He gave Adam
more crap than all the others, but he was fairly sure his friend wouldn’t
figure it out.

God,
he hoped Charlie never figured out he’d named their daughter an anagram for
Kick A Little Ass.

“What
was he talking about?” Charlie said, suspicion in her voice.

Ian
gave her his most innocent look. “No idea, baby. You know how he likes to
torment me.”

Charlie
laughed and sank into one of the two rockers on the back porch. “Yeah, Adam
torments you. That’s one world view. Sit down for a minute. Sean will come and
get us when dinner’s ready.”

He
sank down beside her. “Too many people? I can throw them all out.”

She
shook her head. “Don’t you dare. That’s our family in there, but I wanted a
couple of minutes where it’s just us.”

Us
had been him and Charlie, and now that one word meant something more. Us meant
two sweet girls who would likely drive their father utterly mad.

He
reached for her with his free hand. He always wanted the connection with her.
“Think you’ll ever want more?”

Charlie’s
eyes widened. “Eventually, yes. I thought I would have to fight you on it.”

He
shook his head. “No. I get it. I think I thought if we had kids, I would have
to share you and I do, but I also thought somewhere in the back of my head that
I wouldn’t be me anymore. I’m just a different me. I like this me, Charlie.
Best thing I ever did was to open that door and welcome you home.”

Her
jaw dropped. “You are such a liar, Ian Taggart. You gave me hell.”

Sometimes
it was good to be him. “Not how I remember it.” He was good with his
revisionist history. When she started to argue with him, he hushed her. “You’ll
wake the babies.”

The
gorgeous gleam in her eyes promised retribution. And he would take it. He would
take everything he could get from her and give her back all of himself.

He
held her hand and rocked while inside his family waited.

A
man couldn’t ask for anything more.