And I love every second of it.
That night, after everyone’s gone and the house is quiet again, I find Vera in the nursery.
She’s sitting in the rocking chair by the window, one hand on her belly, staring out at the gardens that are just starting to bloom with spring flowers. The moonlight catches her profile, and she looks so beautiful it physically hurts.
“Hey,” I say softly from the doorway. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” She doesn’t look at me. “Just thinking.”
I cross the room and kneel beside the chair, taking her free hand in mine. “About what?”
“About how different things could have been.” Her voice is quiet as she reflects. “If Konstantin had won. If Alexei had taken me. This baby would have been born into darkness instead of love. Into manipulation and schemes instead of” —she gestures around the nursery— “instead of all this.”
The idea of Vera trapped with Alexei, pregnant and alone, raising our baby in that twisted version of reality?—
No. I won’t even entertain it.
“But that didn’t happen,” I say firmly, squeezing her hand. “We won. We’re here. And this baby is going to be born into so much love they won’t know what to do with it all.”
“I know. I just…” She finally looks at me, and her eyes are bright with tears. “You gave me this life, Dimitri, when all I expected was survival. When we first married, the best I could hope for was enduring a loveless marriage. You gave meeverything.”
I reach up and cup her face, wiping away a tear with my thumb. “No,” I tell her roughly, feeling the emotion swell in me. “You savedme. You made me remember what it feels like to love someone. To hope for something beyond power and revenge. You made me want to be better.”
“We make each other better,” she whispers, leaning into my touch.
I nod, pleased she sees it the same way. “We do.”
I stand and pull her up carefully, mindful of her belly, and kiss her softly, full of three months worth of love and gratitude and wonder at how we ended up here.
She kisses me back with the same intensity, and when we break apart, she’s smiling, before she places another kiss against my mouth.
“Take me to bed,” she murmurs against my lips.
My cock immediately hardens but I don’t want her to think she has to do this. “You sure? You’re not too tired?”
She nods. “I’m sure. I want—I need to feel close to you. I need to remember how lucky we are.”
Who am I to argue with that?
We make our way back to our bedroom, and in the privacy of our room, we discard our clothes. I’m hyper-aware of her belly, and the baby growing inside her. I’ve been gentle with her during sex even though Vera insists I don’t have to be.
When we’re finally in bed, skin against skin, I take my time. She’s so beautiful lying beneath me and I kiss every inch I can reach. Her neck, where her pulse flutters beneath my lips, her shoulders, the curve of her collarbone, down to her breasts, which are fuller now and more sensitive.
She gasps when my mouth encircles her nipples, her fingers tangling in my hair.
“You’re so beautiful,” I murmur against her skin. “So fucking beautiful I can’t stand it sometimes.”
“Dimitri,” she moans, tugging on my hair as I lavish her nipples with attention.
“I love you.” I remove my lips from her breasts and kiss lower, across the swell of her stomach, feeling the life moving inside. Our baby. Our miracle. “I love you more than I thought it was possible to love anyone.”
"I love you too," she breathes, pulling me back up to kiss her properly. Her lips are soft and insistent against mine, her tongue sliding against mine in a way that makes me groan.
I settle between her legs carefully, mindful of her belly, one hand sliding down to make sure she’s ready for me. She’s already wet and the knowledge makes my cock throb nearly painfully.
“Please,” she whispers. “I need you. Pl?—”
I swallow her words, two fingers curling inside her core as my thumb circles and presses on her clit. The other palms her breasts, pulling gasps and sighs as I kiss her.
