“I was born the heir. But Czar was always meant to rule. He’ll prove to the world what an incredible leader he is.” The tension in her face dissipates, and I swell internally at her empathy toward my brother. “Besides, I may have left him something to entice him along.”
She pulls back. “Are you going to share?”
I dart up and push her over, and she squeals as I grind my cock into her core.
“I left him a light of his own.”
Our destiny is finally written, and Czar’s is about to begin.
Epilogue
Azrael
My heart is full and so are my balls. After months of being with them, I’m desperately eager for another child. Hevan dresses our daughter in her unicorn pajamas while she clutches a soft toy to her chest like it’s her lifeline, and I have to divert my train of thought. It’s sure as hell not appropriate to think of sex around our toddler, despite my mind constantly wandering there.
Being around my own little family has only reiterated that, sooner or later, the move I made against my flesh and blood was inevitable. There’s no way I would have been okay with children succumbing to the clutches of evil that were my father and his warped associates. None.
I’d witnessed firsthand his depravity, and I may have been unable to help Stone in his torture, but I sure as hell would have fought harder for a child. I can live with the fact that my actions have torn the underworld apart, obliterated a chain of events so cruel to most that they were beyond compare. But that was my reality, and watching Lucie, Iknow I will do everything in my power to never let it be hers.
Her soft giggle has my heart melting and squeezes it tightly as she wraps her little fingers around mine.
I bend and place a kiss on her thick, dark hair, and my mother’s face flashes before me, and as always, Nonna’s too.
“Stars?” she asks in that adorable voice I’ve come to relish, and she points toward the window.
“Come.” I lift her into my arms while Hevan brushes past me with a smile playing on her lips. She knows this time between me and my little girl is everything to me, to both of us, and I love the fact that she gifts it to us.
I push the curtains aside and stare out of the window while Lucie rests her head against my shoulder. I scan the small backyard with a grimace.
I’m still unable to get over the fact that she chose this place.
A house no bigger than my old garage, and a garden even smaller.
Seriously? Her library was bigger than the entire upstairs.
At some point, I’ll break the news that I have a couple of offshore accounts at our disposal and we will upgrade, but right now, I’ll continue basking in the way this small property she calls home allows us to be in close proximity of one another. Something I’ve become obsessed with.
If she goes to the park, so do I. If she walks to the café, I just so happen to need a latte too, and worse, if she attends a mother-toddler event, I feign a smile and endure the little demons and their grotesque mothers who think it’s okay to hit on another woman’s husband.
Hevan finds it amusing, whereas I sit idly back, calculating their demise. Especially the little bastard who daredto pull my daughter’s ribbon from her hair. Fortunately for us all, Lucie has her father’s blood pumping through her veins, and she bit the little fucker until he squawked like a wounded animal. I’ve never been prouder. Apart from the elaborate crayon drawing she presented me with when she first called me dada.
“Do you remember what Dada told you? That even the stars need the darkness to shine.” She nods, and I tighten my hold on her. Sniffing her hair, I bask in her strawberry scent. The same smell I’ve come to need in order to survive. My little girl and her momma are my light.
“Can you see the brightest star, mia luce?”
She nods against me, and I glance down to see her stick her thumb in her mouth.
“Can you really?” I ponder, looking out into the night sky searching for her star.
She releases her thumb and points toward the sky, and I crane my neck to see.
“You’re right, Lucie. Nonna is looking down on us.”
Her soft giggle has me smiling, and with another kiss, I stare at my little girl whose eyes are battling sleep, and love surges through me. A love so strong and fierce, I know, without a shadow of doubt, that Nonna bestowed me my light.
“Are you proud of me, Nonna?” I whisper. “I hope so.” Emotion claws at my throat.
I close the curtains and walk over to Lucie’s crib and place her beneath the sheets, tucking them gently around her small form, then I reach for the book I’ve been reading to her and make a start.
