Lev

Getting on my knees in front of him, I crawled between his open legs and looked up at him tenderly. “Oh, sweetie. I don’t need romance,” I told him. “I just need you exactly how you are.”

His jaw tight, he couldn’t even look at me. This meant something to him. So I tried something else.

I spoke softly, “Lev, it’s just me and you right now. Although your presentation was very informative, I was never one for flowery words. Just give me words from the heart, baby.”

He looked down at me, a sad frown etched on his features. He took a deep breath and when he opened his mouth, beauty came out. He started on a whispered sigh, “You’re everything to me.”

My eyes were already watering.

“I would give my life rather than disappoint you and I would hurt anyone who tried to remove you from my side. I have never met a kinder woman. You’re wonderful with Lidiya. I want to have children with you, as many as you’ll allow, so we can experience parenthood together.”

I bit my lip but it didn’t stop the tears from coming. They blurred my eyes and trailed my cheeks.

“I’ll be a good father to them. I pray that our babies will be like you but if they are like me, I don’t want you to worry, because I’ll guide them and show them they are loved even if they don’t understand what that means. I will teach them.”

My eyes closed as broken sobs escaped me. I held onto Lev’s knee for support.

“I will spend my life loving you and you will spend your happy life making me a better person, as you already have, from your mere presence.” He held out the box and whispered a nervous. “I will be the man you deserve. I’m not quite there, mouse, but I’m working on it. Marry me and my sole purpose in life will be to take every action so you don’t ever regret it.” He took my hand and with shaking fingers, slipped the ring in place. It fit perfectly. “Will you marry me, Mina?”

I stared at the ring, gleaming in the light, blinking away tears as a broken laugh escaped me. “Yes.” I laughed again, reaching up to throw my arms around Lev’s neck, kissing his stubbled cheek. “A thousand times yes.”

And Lev breathed again, his chest heaving, his arms coiled around me tightly. His only response to that was a whispered, “Oh, thank God.”

We laughed together, making love into the night and I couldn’t remember a time I was happier.

Chapter Fifty-Two

Mina

Lidiya’s birthday came the following week, and Lev wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to do anything for it. I, however, disagreed. While I understood her mother had recently died, Lidiya was a child. She didn’t understand that. I explained to Lev that by having a party for her, we were giving her our love and showing our support.

She deserved a party.

With Nas, Anika, and Cora on my side, Sasha and Vik were won over soon after, and finally Lev came around to the idea of doing something to make his daughter happy.

Honestly, I think being a father came naturally to Lev, but being a daddy was a whole new thing for him. He wasn’t used to needing to provide something more than monetary support for Lidiya, and now that the role had freed up, he was falling into it like a dream, enjoying it immensely.

When Lidiya got a boo-boo, she ran to Lev. When Lidi needed kisses, she puckered her lips up at Lev. And when she needed to go potty, although Mirella was around, she wanted Lev to stand by the door so she could sing to him.

Smart man that Lev was, he quickly got used to putting Lidiya to bed at night, singing her songs and reading her stories, and I wondered if Mirella was even needed as a full-time caregiver. Part of me was sure she was kept around as a grandmother figure. She was family, after all. And she said it herself—where Lidi went, so did she.

I happened to stumble across Lev singing Lidi to sleep the other night. And when I say stumble, I mean I creeped like a goddamn stalker to get a glimpse of how he handled her. His version of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” went something like this:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

Burning gas is what you are,

Up above the world so high,

You’ll burn gas until you die,

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

Burning gas is what you are.

With my head titled in thought, I was impressed. And kind of turned on.

Who knew nursery rhymes could be so informative? And sexy?

I sent invitations out for Lidiya’s third birthday. I was almost cruel enough to make it a dress-up party, but decided to be kind to our guests and scrap the idea. Although, seeing Lev dressed up as a cowboy, in chaps and wearing a Stetson, was almost enough to change my mind.

When the day came, our home was overrun with people. We rarely got one guest a day usually, and that was normally family, but seeing the house full of smiling faces, pink balloons, and purple streamers was heartwarming.

Lidi, dressed as a princess in a bright pink dress with a silver tiara arranged around her curls, was overwhelmed with glee. Every time a person would arrive, she would smile, take their hand, and lead them inside, muttering, “Dank you a coming.”

Her ‘thank you for coming’ was a little off, but she was so adorable that even Alessio was won over by her. She reached her arms up to him and, hesitantly, he lifted her onto his hip. She prodded his scarred cheek with gentle fingers and looked up into his face with her doe eyes. “Owie?”

He turned to me, desperate for a translation. I smiled into his ‘help me’ expression. “She wants to know if it hurts.”

Alessio shook his head. “No owie,” he uttered, taking her little chubby hand and putting it against the puckered flesh there. “It doesn’t hurt, angel. Not anymore.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Cora standing against the wall, holding a glass, and she looked at Alessio like he was the sexiest man alive. Her lust-filled eyes were giving her away, and when she caught me looking, I smirked.

Cora bunched her nose and discreetly flipped me the bird.

It was going to happen—mark my words. I would do what I had to for them to hook up. She wanted him. He wanted her. Why was that so hard to understand?

God, people were dumb.

Nas looked at Vik from across the room, and when he felt her eyes on him and lifted his head, she lowered her glance. It wasn’t the first time in the past two weeks that I saw them do this. It also didn’t escape Lev’s notice that Viktor had stopped coming around. They hadn’t spoke in that time.

Something had happened between them, and Nas was not opening up, probably because it was still too painful to talk about.

All I knew was that Nas was miserable and Vik had developed the temper of a T-Rex with itchy balls.

Relationships were collapsing around us, but Lev and I were going stronger than ever.

I smiled to myself and gazed down at my sparkling white gold engagement ring. It was chic with only three small diamonds, but I loved it more than anything I’d ever owned in my entire life. And what was more…Lev had chosen it.

The hardest thing I ever had to do was tell Lev that I decided on a long engagement. I shouldn’t have been worried. He simply responded with an, “Okay,” then added, “But we’re still going to marry, right?”

I emphatically assured him we would, but I just wasn’t ready for that right now. There was so much going on, first with the club, then with my newfound inheritance, and finally with the photography course I was doing. When I was ready to get married, I wanted to be selfish and have it be all about us as a couple, and I didn’t want to rush that, because we deserved more than a pressurized wedding full of stress.