Chapter 34
Kane
The flight home was spent with Brielle hiding away in the bedroom while I got some work done.
One of the hotel expansions in northern Florida is dealing with some red tape that’s halting the renovation.
I should’ve gone up there myself to deal with it, but I wasn’t about to leave Harbor Point until I found Brielle, and now that I have, I’m not letting her out of my sight.
Since Giani and Kiril went to Russia with her, they insist on driving us home, and since I’m just thankful she’s agreed to come home, I’m not about to argue.
When we step inside the house, Brielle lets Molly out of her travel crate, and she prances straight to the guest bathroom that Brielle has turned into what she calls her “princess pad.”
“I’m tired,” Brielle says with a sigh.
I heard her throwing up several times during the flight, but she locked the door, so I couldn’t do anything to comfort her.
“You should take a nap. Do you need anything? I can run out and get you whatever you need …”
“As good as a nap sounds, I need to deal with my studio.”
I debate on telling her it’s already been dealt with, but now that she’s made it clear she isn’t sure she wants a future with me, I’m worried I overstepped.
“I’ll go with you.”
Her gaze lands on me. “You don’t have to. I’m sure you have other things to do.”
“The only thing I need to do is go with you.”
After she showers and changes into a gorgeous dress that shows off her perky tits and toned thighs, we head out.
“I have a doctor’s appointment scheduled for next week,” she says once we’re in the back of the town car with Giani driving and Kiril riding passenger.
“For the baby?”
“Yeah. I scheduled it on the flight back. I’m using the same OB-GYN practice Peyton and Dani used since my gynecologist isn’t accepting new obstetrical patients.
” She stares out the window for a few moments and then says, “I’m nervous.
I don’t know if the abortion did any damage, and I’ve been too embarrassed to ask my doctors over the years. ”
I reach across the seat and thread my fingers through hers, forgetting that I don’t have the right to do that anymore. But before I can pull my hand back and apologize, she tightens her grip on my hand.
“Whatever happens, we’ll deal with it together,” I tell her.
She nods and then goes back to looking out the window.
“Do you want to stop to get a coffee and a muffin?” I ask, imagining she’s missed her friend Nicole.
“Sure.”
Giani turns onto the street where the coffee shop is located—which is only one street over from Brielle’s Pilates studio—and parks.
“We can walk from here,” I tell them, hoping they’ll give us a bit of space.
They nod in understanding and disappear, giving the illusion that they’re gone.
“Oh my God!” Nicole screeches. “My main bitch is back!”
Nicole flies around the counter and bear-hugs Brielle, who laughs boisterously.
When they almost topple over, I jump in, worried about Brielle hitting the hard ground, and steady her.
“Protective much?” Nicole smirks, telling me she knows about the pregnancy.
We order two coffees—Brielle opts for one espresso shot instead of her usual three—and two muffins and have a seat at the table.
Of course, Nicole joins us, shooting questions at Brielle in rapid-fire succession.
But since Brielle has barely spoken a handful of words to me since we left Russia, I’m not going to complain. I not only get to hear Brielle talk, but Nicole is also asking a lot of the questions I want to ask.
“Have you seen the studio yet?” Nicole asks.
“No.” Brielle pops a piece of her muffin into her mouth and frowns. “Kane and I are going over there after we leave here. I can’t even imagine how bad it looks. Dominick refused to send me pictures, not wanting to stress me out since he overheard me tell Peyton I think I’m pregnant.”
“Theo is a dick,” Nicole says, making Brielle’s back go straight.
“What does Theo have to do with anything?” Brielle asks.
Nicole glances at me, which has Brielle doing the same.
“Theo is the one who vandalized your studio,” I tell her.
“Ugh, seriously?” Brielle groans. “He’s such a man-child.”
“Yep,” Nicole agrees. “But he got his. From what I heard, someone”—Nicole side-eyes me—“beat the shit out of him and then dropped him off at the hospital. Normally, I don’t condone violence, but in this case, he totally deserved it.”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t change the fact that he destroyed my studio, and now I’m going to have to spend weeks, possibly months, cleaning up the destruction.” She takes her last bite of her muffin and stands. “Guess it’s time to face the music.”
Nicole frowns. “If you need anything, I’m here.” She pulls Brielle into a hug. “I’m so glad you’re home.”
After we throw away our trash, we head to Brielle’s studio.
When she unlocks the door and walks in, I wait with bated breath for her response.
I ended up paying triple for the contractor to get it done in time, and since I was in Russia while they were finishing, I haven’t had a chance to do a walk-through.
“Holy shit,” she gasps, her hands covering her mouth as she takes the place in.
“What do you think?”
She whips around to look at me. “Did you do this?”
“That depends. Is it how you envisioned it?”
“It’s exactly how I envisioned it.” She walks through the main area and into the side rooms, a look of shock and awe in her features. “I can’t believe you did this in a month’s time.”
She runs her hands over the state-of-the-art equipment I had shipped on rush order and smiles. “Thank you.”
She throws herself at me, and for the first time since my wife walked out on me, I breathe a bit easier.
With her face against my chest, I take a moment to inhale her sweet scent.
She hasn’t let me anywhere near her since I showed up in Russia, and before that, I spent two weeks avoiding her.
It’s been too long since I’ve felt her body against mine, and like an addict, I’m craving my next hit.
“I would do anything for you,” I tell her honestly as I wrap my arms around her. “Whatever it is you want or need, Princess.”
“I just need time, Kane,” she whispers against my chest. “Just a little bit of time.”
“Is it okay if we go by Dominick’s house?” Brielle asks, glancing up from her phone. “Matteo and Dani are there, and they know I’m back and want to see for themselves that I’m okay.”
“Of course, but if you want to go alone, I can drop you off, or Giani can take you.”
I glance over at Giani and Kiril, who are standing guard on either side of the front door to Brielle’s studio.
“I’d rather you go,” she says. “You can be my buffer. I haven’t seen them since they found out I’m pregnant.”
“And what do you think they’re going to say?” I quirk a brow.
“I don’t know.” She shrugs. “Sometimes, they forget that I’m a grown woman.”
“They care deeply about you.” I slide my arm across her shoulders. “Let’s go. I’m sure they’ll be so busy threatening to kill me that they won’t even remember you’re pregnant.”
Brielle chuckles. “That works for me.”
We slide into the back of the town car, and Giani heads to Dominick’s house. When we arrive, Peyton and Daniella swarm Brielle, and Dominick extends his hand to shake mine.
“Brielle told us why you had the divorce papers drawn up,” he says. “You’re a better man than me. When I found out Peyton had my baby, I forced her and our son to come live with me.”
“Yeah, well, I’m done forcing Brielle to do shit she doesn’t want to do.” I sigh, glancing at my beautiful wife.
She’s holding Dani and Matteo’s baby girl, and she looks so natural with a baby in her arms. It’s crazy to think that before this year ends, she’ll be holding our baby.
“Now, I just have to hope she chooses to stay married to me.”
“Thank you for bringing our sister back,” Matteo adds. “I still don’t like you, but … I don’t hate you as much.”
“Matteo.” Brielle glares at her brother.
“What?” Matteo shrugs. “It’s progress. Besides, we don’t even know if you’re going to stay married to him. I’m not about to welcome him into the family, only for you to divorce him. Let me know once you decide.”
Brielle rolls her eyes and then goes back to rocking the baby while I think about all the ways I can convince her not to sign those damn papers.
“If you want, I can just move the mattress into the hall, and then you don’t have to decide where to sleep.” I chuckle, leaning against the wall.
I was in my office, working, and clicked on the camera to check on Brielle. I didn’t know what she was doing, until I checked on her again and found her in the same spot, her gaze bouncing between the master bedroom and guest room.
“I like sleeping with you,” she admits softly. “But I don’t know if it’s because I don’t want to be alone or if it’s because I like you.”
“Can’t it be a bit of both?” I ask, pushing off the wall so I’m standing in front of her. “Isn’t that why people go in search of someone to spend their life with? Join dating sites and go to bars in hope of meeting someone? Because at the end of the day, nobody wants to be alone.”
Brielle looks at the guest room, and my stomach drops. If she chooses to sleep in a separate room, I’ll have to accept it. I did this. I put us in this situation, and now I have to give her space while she sifts through her feelings.
“I … I think I’m going to sleep in the guest room tonight.” Her voice is so low that I almost don’t hear her. And when I look at her, her eyes are on the floor, as if she’s ashamed of the decision.
“Hey.” I tip her chin up. “It’s okay. You’re doing what you have to do … putting yourself first. I’ll be right down the hall if you change your mind.” I lean in and give her a soft kiss on her forehead. “I’ll see you in the morning, Princess.”
Since I can’t sleep for shit—and haven’t been able to since Brielle left—after I change into a pair of lounge pants and a T-shirt, I head back to my office to get some work done.
I’m neck deep in numbers when Brielle appears in my office doorway.
“Everything okay?” I ask, trying to keep the frustration out of my tone.
“I had a nightmare,” she admits sheepishly. “And I went to find you, but you weren’t in bed.”
I turn my chair to the side, and Brielle pads across the room and straight into my arms.
I slide her across my lap, and she burrows her head into my chest.
“After what we did at Elite, I was hoping the nightmares would go away, but when I went to Russia, they seemed to get worse.”
“You know,” I tell her, trying to keep my tone light, “when you were sleeping with me, you barely had any.”
She groans and buries her head deeper, and I chuckle at her lack of response.
After a few minutes, she glances up. “Are you working this late?”
“Unfortunately. I’ve been running these numbers for hours.” I glance at the clock and see it’s almost three in the morning.
“Don’t you have an entire team to do that?” she asks curiously.
“Yeah, but something is off. David, my accountant, flagged the quarterly reports and asked me to take a look because he’s not understanding why the numbers aren’t adding up. There’s a discrepancy internally. But when I asked Jim, my CFO, he swore that the numbers were correct.”
“I can take a look if you want. Sometimes, a fresh pair of eyes helps.”
I glance down at her. “Why did you major in accounting if you didn’t plan to get a job in that field?”
She laughs softly. “I wanted to prove I could do it. Andrey had always harped about how it was a man’s world and a woman’s only purpose was to marry and be on a man’s arm.
I was nothing more than a bargaining chip.
So, I majored in accounting, thinking once I graduated, I could show him that I could be useful to the family business.
But then he ordered Owen to be killed and … ”
“Forced you to have an abortion,” I finish, wishing I could resurrect Andrey Antonov from the grave so I could kill him all over again, only slower, making it hurt. My father shooting him was too easy of a death for him. He deserved to be tortured for what he did to Brielle.
“Yeah,” she breathes. “And then I left for Russia. I thought maybe once I was home and settled in, I could go to work for my brother, but then I fell in love with Pilates and decided to follow my own dreams instead of trying to prove something to someone else.”
“So fucking strong,” I murmur, cupping her face in my hands. “I wish I were half as strong as you are.”
The blush that creeps up her delicate neck and cheeks has me wanting to lay her out on the desk and see where else I can make her blush. But instead, I lay a soft kiss to her jawline, inhaling her scent.
She shudders beneath my touch, so I kiss her again before I pull back, not wanting to push her too hard.
“If you’re willing to look at the books, I would appreciate it. But not now. It’s late, and you need to get some sleep.”
I lift her into my arms and stand. She shocks me when she wraps her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck, enveloping me in her delicious heat.
I carry her toward the guest room, but before I step inside, she shakes her head.
“I think I’d rather sleep in our room,” she whispers, “if that’s okay. I sleep better in there with you.”
“You’re always welcome in our room.”
I lay her on her side of the bed, and after using the bathroom and brushing my teeth, I join her. When I get under the covers, she glances at me like she wants to move into her usual position with her head on my chest and her leg slung over mine.
“C’mere, Princess.”
“I feel like I’m leading you on.” She bites the corner of her bottom lip nervously.
“You’re not,” I assure her, even if her ending up in our bed gives me hope. “I know the score. You need time. But how am I supposed to convince you to stay married to me if you keep your distance?”
I lift the blanket as a silent invitation, and she edges over to me. She nestles her face into the crook of my shoulder and swings her creamy bare leg over mine.
I run my fingers up and down her back, and within minutes, she’s softly snoring in my arms, right where she belongs. Now, I just need to make her see that …
Her left hand is resting on my chest, and I can’t help but notice her bare ring finger.
“… the ring would symbolize that love.”
Careful not to jostle Brielle, I reach into my nightstand and pull out the box that I placed in there a couple of weeks ago.
I told her it would be her choice, and it is, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to do everything in my power to convince her that the right choice is me.