Page 137 of Taken By My Grumpy Pakhan

We spent the next while talking through the practical parts: how visits would work, what he wanted his role to look like, how much space I needed and how much he was willing to give. It was easier than I expected, almost businesslike, and I was grateful for that.

Near the end, as I reached for my coat, he spoke again, quieter this time. “Would you let me come to one of your antenatal visits?”

I paused, coat half on. “Why?”

“Because I’d like to be there for at least one appointment. Only if you’ll allow it, of course,” he added hurriedly.

I pulled my jacket on the rest of the way. “It’s not necessary. Most couples don’t come together and I’m capable of making a doctor's trip alone.”

“I never said you weren’t, and we’re not most couples.”

“Kazimir—”

“It’s fine if you don’t want to, and you don’t have to decide now. I was merely putting it out there.”

“Alright,” I said. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

He nodded a bit too eagerly for someone who barely got a positive response.

“Understood.”

The driver was already waiting when we stepped out of the restaurant.

Kazimir paused, his lips parted briefly, but he shut them, settling for a smile and a polite, “Thank you for seeing me.”

I nodded, slipping into the car and releasing a breath I never knew I had been holding through the entire conversation.

As the car wove through the bright lights and traffic of Manhattan, I couldn’t help the growing warmth in my belly and the nagging feeling that I might’ve unwittingly agreed to something I couldn’t name.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Kazimir

Nikolai found it entirely too funny that I was standing in my own bathroom checking my collar in the mirror for the third time, so much that he almost snapped his neck stretching like a swan.

“You know this is not a business meeting, Kaz,” he said, leaning against the doorframe with a smirk he wasn’t even trying to hide. “It’s a doctor’s appointment.”

“I am aware.”

“Then why do you look like you’re preparing to negotiate a merger?”

I paused, pinning his reflection in the mirror with a glare. “Remind me why you’re here again?”

He gave a careless shrug. “Someone has to make sure you don’t fuck it all up like you did in the beginning.”

“And that involves you standing at my bathroom door?”

“Can’t blame me. Had to make sure all that alcohol didn’t get to your brain.”

I made a show of dragging my eyes to the exposed blade on the sink. Nikolai’s followed with glee.

“Is that a tie?”

“I can’t exactly walk into the room looking casual and ill-prepared. The doctor might think I’m not taking it seriously.”

“You’ve sat across from arms dealers and men who’d gut you for looking at them wrong, and you’re worried about embarrassing yourself in front of an obstetrician.” He shook his head. “I never thought I’d see the day.”

“Careful, Nikolai.”