I pick up my pace and fall into step beside Roman, but my heart won’t stop pounding. My palms are damp. My breathing feels too shallow.
There’s a heavy stillness in the air between us as we walk past the elegant courtyard. Laughter and clinking glasses fade behind us, and I wonder what he wants to say to me and what he thinks of me.
“I have never seen my grandson this obsessed with anyone,” Roman says, breaking the silence. “I wonder if he’s making a mistake.”
My heart jolts—pieces of me cracking, breaking. I open my mouth to say something, anything, but nothing comes out.
“And I have never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you,” his voice lowers like he’s telling a secret. “It’s surprising… because of the kind of person he is.”
My brows draw together. The kind of person he is? What does he mean by that?
Roman must’ve seen the question on my face, because he shakes his head and lets out a sigh.
“You know what he’s capable of?” he asks, his eyes hardening as they lock onto mine. “You know what he can do? Has he shown you that dark part of him yet?”
I swallow thickly. Somehow, I know exactly what Roman is referring to. I know what he’s asking me.
I give him a nod, my chest pounding.
Roman stops walking. Tilts his head, then looks at me with that same intensity, like he’s trying to see right through me.
“You know about the Bratva?” he asks, his Russian accent thick and deep.
I let out a slow breath, my lungs tight. I nod again, digging my nails into my palm as I look away from him.
“Do you know that he was trained to kill?” Roman says, voice stern, sharp. “Not just fight. To kill. To never let anyone he targets live. To watch them… until the life leaves their eyes.”
My breaths shudder out of me.
Is he trying to scare me? What’s his motive?
Yes, I know Alex is dangerous. Fuck, the first time I ever saw him, he was beating a man to a pulp. And even when I heard the man had later died, I still wasn’t scared of him.
Why is he telling me this?
“Do you think you can handle him?” Roman asks, his voice even but edged with warning. “Do you think you can face that dark side of him and not run for the hills?”
“I love him.”
The words leave my mouth before I can stop them. My chest rises and falls with each shaky breath, my voice hoarse—barely mine. I don’t know why it chose now to come out. Maybe because I want this man, the one Alex says he holds dearly, to know just how much Alex means to me. Just how deeply he’s changed me. How his touch, his care, his presence have shifted something in me. How he made me want to live again… when I had long stopped trying.
“You love him?” Roman says, lifting a brow, like he’s challenging me to prove it.
“Yes,” I say again, this time steadier. Stronger.
“I’m not afraid of him. I never have been. And no matter how many dangerous things you tell me he’s done, the only thing that echoes in my head is the way he looks at me—like I’m fragile, like I’m precious, like he’s scared he’ll break me. The way he pulls me into his arms with no force, only intention. The way he chooses to be gentle with me… even when I know he could destroy anything.”
I pause, throat tightening. Then I meet Roman’s eyes—open, exposed, and full of truth.
“I’m in love with your grandson,” I say, my voice trembling at the edges, but I push through. “And honestly… I don’t think I deserve him. But he still wants me. And I want him, too. I don’t care about our social differences. I don’t care about the worlds we come from. I don’t care that he’s nine years older than me.”
My voice breaks, but I keep going, raw and desperate.
“I just want him in my life. Please. I don’t think I can handle it if someone tells me I can’t have him. Not now. Not after everything.”
Roman studies my face for a long moment, his sharp gaze gradually softening. Then, unexpectedly, a small smile curves his lips, and something warm flickers in his eyes—like quiet approval, like understanding.
“You’re quite the charmer,” he says, voice tinged with amusement. “Those eyes of yours… that’s what you used to trap my grandson, right?”
