Yet, when he pulled me into the shower, he let out a deep sigh and smiled slyly at me. Water sluiced down his chest and he closed one eye to prevent it from getting in his face as he led me into the stall with him. “You’ll need to grant me some grace and room for error, Claire.”
“For what?”
“For learning how to have—and keep—a woman in my life.”
I beamed, giddy and so damn glad that he wasn’t closing off to me after all. Throughout the shower and after it, while we cuddled in bed again on this rare day “off”, he filled me in about his past. How Olga had been a contract bride who wanted nothing to do with him.
“Arranged marriages are common for you, aren’t they?”
“Yes and no,” he replied. “It is outdated, but some families rely on the practice heavily. I do not. I won’t.”
“So Andre and your nephews can pick their brides?”
He nodded. “Anya, too.”
I smiled, resting my head against him as he stroked his fingers over my upper arm, almost lulling me to sleep.
He continued, telling me about how Olga was never here except to conceive their children. Then he explained more about how she hated him, how her family, the Volkovs, brainwashed Anya against him. I might have been biased, but I didn’t care for thewoman, disliking how selfish she was to not want to be a mother and to sleep around when she wasn’t high.
“Hey, wait.” I sat up when he started explaining more about the Volkov family going bankrupt and sending Anya here to live with him. “I don’t need to…” I furrowed my brow, staring at him. “I don’t need to know it all.”
He smirked, brushing my hair off my face. “You won’t.”
I smiled back. It seemed mythe less I know, the betterapproach would stick.
“But I do intend to open up to you, Claire.” He kissed me softly. “Because I love you. And I don’t want to ever let you think that you aren’t wanted and loved here.”
We kept talking without going into too many details about what life would be like. Covering the basics of our pasts was important, but eventually, I shifted to lie facing him, my hands stacked on his chest and my chin atop them.
“What will happen next?”
He smoothed his hand over my ass and squeezed. “Right now?”
I grinned and crawled up to kiss him. “Not that. I mean… in general. I’m trying to figure out what my life will be like now.”
“I’m not sure I’ll be okay with your working at that hospital again.”
I shook my head and explained I’d already put my notice in. “I would like to stay busy, though. I didn’t go to school to become a doctor for nothing. I can’t shut off my need to help others.”
“Perhaps you can offer telehealth options.”
“Or… just help out around here?” I suggested.
“If you’d like. I don’t want you to think I’m keeping you around to use you.”
“I think I know what you’re keeping me around for.” I lowered my hand to stroke his growing erection beneath me while I kissed him slowly.
He rolled us until he hovered over me, pressing hot kisses down my neck. “I’m keeping you around so I can love you.”
I smiled.
“So I can marry you one day.”
My eyes popped open. “What?”
“Would you like that?”
I gawked at him. “Is that a proposal?”
