His Revenge, Her Freedom

Chapter 30- 'It didn't matter'

"And I know, I said I didn't need it

I said I wasn't built for this."

Louis POV

She was beautiful. It was hard for me to look away.

I mean, Liz was beautiful; I knew I would have to be fighting guys, or girls, off of her soon enough. That was a given.

But to know that I was going to have to do that for more than one child...well, that was a blessing in itself.

I was there in Elle's nose and lips. But, everything else was Reagan. Everything else from the hair color all the way to the way she stood when she was obviously uncomfortable was that woman who I just couldn't bring myself to hate...no matter how hard I tried.

It was hard to hate a woman who had given me yet another beautiful child that I didn't deserve.

"Mum, why he not talking?"

Oh.

Well, I was probably making it a little awkward, the fact that I was just inspecting this little girl without saying anything.

Nice going, Louis. You've known your daughter for approximately three minutes and you're already making her a little uncomfortable.

"Lou? Babe?"

I shook out of my stupor when Reagan called my name and tried to recover.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I tend to zone out a little sometimes. What's your name?"

"I'm Elle."

"Well, a little birdy told me that your name was Elouise."

"That's what Mum calls me when I'm in trouble."

"So if you're not in trouble now, I should call you Elle."

"Yup. That's what my friends and Uncle Josh calls me."

Ugh. No matter how much of a good guy he tried to prove to me that he was, I just didn't have it in me to like him.

Reagan could tell how annoyed I was at the mention of his name because she called Bentley and Portia over to get Elle's attention. After realizing that there were dogs in the house, she raced over to where they were both playing outside. After checking to make sure that Elle was still in our line of sight, Reagan turned to me.

I was still frustrated over the fact that Josh was in my daughter's life before I was. Yeah, she may have had a good reason or whatever and he may have had no say in the matter, but it still bothered me. He had a four-year head start on me, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Without warning, as I was trying to figure out another way to start a conversation with Elle, Reagan kissed me. Putting her hands on both sides of my face and standing on her tiptoes, she pulled my face down to hers and kissed me in a way that would've been extremely inappropriate if Elle was still in the room.

And me, being the man that I am, I just let it happen. I pulled her body to mine and momentarily forgot that our daughter could just walk back in at any moment and see the act of passion that was happening right now.

All too soon, Reagan pulled away and I was left wanting more.

"Want to explain what that was for and why it stopped?" I asked when the stars in my eyes had finally disappeared.