Chapter 446

Alaric

I caught her wrist, holding it against my chest so she could feel my heartbeat. The rapid thud beneath her palm betrayed everything I wasn't saying.

"I'm paying for clothes for my son and his mother," I said quietly, my thumb stroking the inside of her wrist. "That's all this is."

Her pulse jumped beneath my touch. "His mother."

"Yes. His mother. The woman who carried him for nine months. W