Chapter 41 #3
Roman, Alex’s grandfather, stands tall behind us, his sharp eyes glinting with age and authority. He carries the kind of presence that makes everyone straighten their backs instinctively. But when he speaks, it’s not cold—there’s warmth beneath it, like embers under steel.
“Do you mind if I have a word with your Lucas?” he says, raising an eyebrow. “Because from the way I’m seeing it, you look like you’ll murder anyone who so much as breathes near him.”
Heat floods my face, blooming across my cheeks and down my neck.
Alex turns to me, brow furrowed slightly as he scans my face. You okay with this? His eyes seem to ask.
I swallow, then give a slight nod.
Still, he doesn’t look away. Not yet. He’s searching, maybe waiting to catch even the smallest crack in my expression. I smile, even if it’s tiny. Just enough to say I’ve got this.
Roman nods. “Let’s go for a walk,” he says, already turning away.
I squeeze Alex’s hand and rise to my feet.
“Do you want me to come with you?” he asks, voice even softer now, just for me.
I lift my hands and sign, I’m sure I’ll be alright.
But what I don’t sign is the other part—the part where I wish I had the courage to lean down and kiss him in front of all these people. To let them see that I’m his. To show them what he means to me.
Maybe one day.
I pick up my pace and fall into step beside Roman, but my heart won’t stop pounding. My palms are damp. My breathing feels too shallow.
There’s a heavy stillness in the air between us as we walk past the elegant courtyard. Laughter and clinking glasses fade behind us, and I wonder what he wants to say to me and what he thinks of me.
“I have never seen my grandson this obsessed with anyone,” Roman says, breaking the silence. “I wonder if he’s making a mistake.”
My heart jolts—pieces of me cracking, breaking. I open my mouth to say something, anything, but nothing comes out.
“And I have never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you,” his voice lowers like he’s telling a secret. “It’s surprising… because of the kind of person he is.”
My brows draw together. The kind of person he is? What does he mean by that?
Roman must’ve seen the question on my face, because he shakes his head and lets out a sigh.
“You know what he’s capable of?” he asks, his eyes hardening as they lock onto mine. “You know what he can do? Has he shown you that dark part of him yet?”
I swallow thickly. Somehow, I know exactly what Roman is referring to. I know what he’s asking me.
I give him a nod, my chest pounding.
Roman stops walking. Tilts his head, then looks at me with that same intensity, like he’s trying to see right through me.
“You know about the Bratva?” he asks, his Russian accent thick and deep.
I let out a slow breath, my lungs tight. I nod again, digging my nails into my palm as I look away from him.
“Do you know that he was trained to kill?” Roman says, voice stern, sharp. “Not just fight. To kill. To never let anyone he targets live. To watch them… until the life leaves their eyes.”
My breaths shudder out of me.
Is he trying to scare me? What’s his motive?
Yes, I know Alex is dangerous. Fuck, the first time I ever saw him, he was beating a man to a pulp. And even when I heard the man had later died, I still wasn’t scared of him.
Why is he telling me this?
“Do you think you can handle him?” Roman asks, his voice even but edged with warning. “Do you think you can face that dark side of him and not run for the hills?”
“I love him.”
The words leave my mouth before I can stop them.
My chest rises and falls with each shaky breath, my voice hoarse—barely mine.
I don’t know why it chose now to come out.
Maybe because I want this man, the one Alex says he holds dearly, to know just how much Alex means to me.
Just how deeply he’s changed me. How his touch, his care, his presence have shifted something in me.
How he made me want to live again… when I had long stopped trying.
“You love him?” Roman says, lifting a brow, like he’s challenging me to prove it.
“Yes,” I say again, this time steadier. Stronger.
“I’m not afraid of him. I never have been.
And no matter how many dangerous things you tell me he’s done, the only thing that echoes in my head is the way he looks at me—like I’m fragile, like I’m precious, like he’s scared he’ll break me.
The way he pulls me into his arms with no force, only intention.
The way he chooses to be gentle with me…
even when I know he could destroy anything. ”
I pause, throat tightening. Then I meet Roman’s eyes—open, exposed, and full of truth.
“I’m in love with your grandson,” I say, my voice trembling at the edges, but I push through.
“And honestly… I don’t think I deserve him.
But he still wants me. And I want him, too.
I don’t care about our social differences.
I don’t care about the worlds we come from.
I don’t care that he’s nine years older than me. ”
My voice breaks, but I keep going, raw and desperate.
“I just want him in my life. Please. I don’t think I can handle it if someone tells me I can’t have him. Not now. Not after everything.”
Roman studies my face for a long moment, his sharp gaze gradually softening. Then, unexpectedly, a small smile curves his lips, and something warm flickers in his eyes—like quiet approval, like understanding.
“You’re quite the charmer,” he says, voice tinged with amusement. “Those eyes of yours… that’s what you used to trap my grandson, right?”
There’s no accusation in his tone. It’s light, even teasing. The tension in my chest loosens a little, and I can’t help the shy smile that breaks onto my lips. It’s strange how easily his approval settles something inside me.
“Well, not that I could even come between you two, even if I tried,” Roman adds with a shrug, his tone casual. “Alex already threatened to cut us off—or kill anyone who dares.”
My eyes widen.
He chuckles at my expression, like he’s just told a harmless joke.
I let out a nervous laugh, trying to mirror his tone, but something in his gaze doesn’t quite match the lightness. Wait… Was that not a joke? Why would Alex threaten his own family?
“You think I’m joking?” Roman asks, brow raising slightly. The amused gleam fades, replaced with something firmer, almost grim.
My breath hitches.
“He threatened his—”
A sudden throat clearing cuts him off.
We both turn.
Alex stands just a few feet away. Calm on the surface, but there’s a charged intensity in his eyes, like a quiet storm always brimming beneath his skin. That same quiet power he carries without saying a word.
Roman smirks as if this timing is perfectly on cue.
“Well,” he says, stepping back a little, “I guess that’s my sign to head back.”
He walks past me, and his hand briefly squeezes my shoulder. It’s light, almost absent-minded—but comforting in its own strange way.
“Welcome to this crazy family, Lucas,” he says with a low chuckle.
I blink, the weight of his words sinking in. Family. Like I’m already part of it. Like, somehow, I belong.
Then, just before he disappears into the courtyard, Roman pauses beside Alex. He lifts a hand and gives his grandson a gentle pat on the cheek.
“I think you chose right, Sasha.”
And then he’s gone.
Alex walks toward me, and with every step he takes, my breath stutters.
I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the way he moves, slow, purposeful, commanding.
His presence wraps around me like a second skin, tightening with every inch he closes.
That aura of his—dark, magnetic, impossible to ignore.
It doesn’t just brush over my skin, it seeps into me, coils around my lungs, makes my heart stammer in my chest.
No matter how much time I spend with him, it still feels like that first time. That sharp, terrifying realization that I wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about him. That no matter how hard I tried… I wouldn’t be able to escape him. And the scariest part is… I don’t want to.
He finally stops in front of me, and my whole body tenses, held by nothing but the gravity of his gaze. Those striking eyes—ocean-deep, clear, and unreadable lock onto mine. They steady me, consume me.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks, his voice low and deep, the kind of voice that sends heat curling down my spine, pooling in places I can’t even name.
I blink up at him, but my brain is slow to catch up. He’s so close, his scent already invading my lungs, it’s warm and clean, expensive and familiar, like safety wrapped in danger. I forget, for a second, what he even asked.
“I want to kiss you,” I say, breath barely a whisper, but it’s the only thing I can think of. The only thing that feels real right now.
That wicked smirk pulls at his lips—lazy, beautiful, dangerous. My knees almost buckle. Dear heavens, that look on his—that mouth.
He steps in closer, until there’s barely space between us. His scent completely engulfs me now, sinking into my skin, my bones. It smells like home. Like comfort. Like addiction.
“What’s stopping you?” he asks, voice husky, gaze locked on mine like he can see every single thought I’m trying to hide.
“The people around… they might see us,” I murmur, my eyes not leaving his even for a second. We’re tucked just a little ways from the courtyard, but anyone could pass by and—
Alex tilts his head, that glint in his eyes shifting, darkening into something deeper. Possessive. Unshakable.
Then his hand lifts, wrapping gently around my throat. Not rough. Not forceful. Just firm. Intentional.
Just how I like it. Just enough to remind me that I’m his.
My breath catches, and something in me breaks wide open beneath the weight of his gaze. The way he’s looking at me, like I belong to him and no one else.
Because I do.
“You’re mine, Lucas,” he says, voice low, solemn, final. “And I’m yours. You can kiss me whenever and wherever you want. I don’t give a damn if we’re standing in front of the devil himself. I want you to claim me, just like I claim you. Do you understand?”
His words slam into me like heat, curling around my ribs, stealing the air from my lungs.
They feel like the truth. Like a vow.
Sincere, raw, unapologetic.
And hell, I feel it. I feel it everywhere, his claim on my body, I feel it in my bones, in his gaze and his touch.
“I need answers, krasivy,” he murmurs, his voice dropping an octave as his eyes drop to my lips.
The heat of it makes my stomach twist tightly, hot and aching.
“I understand,” I whisper, voice barely more than air.
But he doesn’t wait for the words to settle between us.
His mouth crashes into mine, and I meet him with everything I have. Everything I am. I give myself to the kiss like I’m starving. Like he’s the only thing keeping me alive.
The world could burn around us, and I wouldn’t care.
My arms wrap around his back, holding him to me like he’s gravity, and I’m scared of floating away. His hand stays at my throat—anchoring me, grounding me. And when his tongue swipes against mine, I moan into his mouth, helpless to the way he consumes me.
“Jesus, get a room,” I hear Maksim’s voice say, loud and amused behind us.
I flinch, instinct tugging me away from the kiss—but Alex doesn’t let me go.
He groans softly, dragging me closer, deepening the kiss like the interruption doesn’t exist. And I give in to him all over again, melting into him, lips parting for more.
Let them watch.
I don’t care.
He’s mine. And I’m his.
The rest of the world can go to hell.