Sweet Temptation by Cora Reilly

Going through labor once was definitely enough, which was why I was entirely
grateful that we already had three kids, two of which I didn’t have to squeeze out
of me. I loved Daniele and Simona with all my heart, and Gabriel joining our
little family didn’t change it. Still, I was glad that I experienced pregnancy, not
so much the actual birth, just once.
The day after I’d given birth, Simona and Daniele visited the hospital with
Elia. They both stared down at Gabriel’s sleeping form in his crib as if he was an
alien.
I stifled a smile. Cassio touched their shoulders. His clothes were wrinkly
from spending the night in hospital, and his stubble looked much scruffier than
he preferred, but his eyes lit up with pride. “Now you have a little brother to
watch over. That means you’ll have to stop fighting all the time or it’ll upset the
baby.”
Daniele gave his dad a doubtful expression, looking right through him.
Nice try.
“You said he’d look cute, but he’s all wrinkly, and he’s shedding skin from
his head,” Simona said with a wrinkled nose.
Cassio sighed. With a laugh, I got out of bed and slowly made my way over
to them despite the pain in my lower body. “He’s a newborn. That’s how they
look. I think he’s impossibly cute.”
“Was I a cute baby?” she asked.
“Yes,” Cassio and I said at the same time.
Daniele frowned. I wrapped my arm around him, whispering, “I love you.”
He smiled, abandoning whatever dark thoughts had bothered him. “I’m glad you
got me a brother and not a sister like Simona wanted.”
“You need to thank your dad for that.”
Cassio narrowed his eyes at me when Simona and Daniele looked at him for
answers. Grinning, I walked up to him. “Maybe you need to have the talk about
the birds and the bees soon.”
“I talked to Daniele, and Simona doesn’t need to know anything until she’s
sixteen or seventeen.”
I rolled my eyes. “I was seventeen when we got engaged.”
“Don’t remind me.” He kissed my lips, causing our children to make
disgusted faces.
“It worked out well.”
“It did,” he agreed, peering down at our sleeping newborn son.
In the afternoon, Mom, Dad, and Christian came to visit. I had seen my parents