11. Oleg
Oleg
S he stilled and looked at me for a long hard moment. I hated the mask she had covering her features, the way she schooled each and every expression as she stared at my laptop.
“What am I looking at, Oleg?” Her voice, calm and collected without a mere tremble, fed fear into my gut. I had been so sure she would freak out. Scream and storm out. But there she was, looking at what I watched every single day when I came home from her place.
“Oleg, answer me.” Her voice was harder than before.
“You know what it is, babochka .”
“Why… why are there cameras in my place.”
“It’s what I do.” Her eyes popped up, and I winced inwardly, hating how terrible that sounded.
“What you do?” She straightened. Coral subtly looked around my office, and I could read what she was thinking. My girl was smart, fucking brilliant. She was trying to figure out a way to get out. To run away from me. Not that I was going to let her.
“I told you?—“
“You told me you have a security firm.”
“And I do,” I confirmed, but I could see the rigid way she held her body. “But I am also very… talented with a keyboard,” I shared.
“Keyboard,” she repeated, and I knew the moment she cottoned on to what I meant. “As in hacking?”
“Yes,” I admitted, knowing that I wasn’t doing myself any favors. But when it came to Coral, there wasn’t a sin I wasn’t willing to confess to her. She paled, and her hand moved to her stomach. Something about the movement had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end.
“Coral—“ I started to step forward, but that same hand that had been on her abdomen popped out to stop me.
“You’ve been watching me?” she asked, and I nodded. It was time to lay it all out. We hadn’t had as much time together, and I knew it was going to be hard as hell to convince her to give me a chance after this, but she deserved to know the man she had been sharing her bed with for the last few weeks.
“Since the night you and your sisters went out for karaoke.” I was probably oversharing, but I couldn’t stop the words as they slipped past my lips. Her brows bunched, and then her eyes widened.
“Kar—“ she started to say then cleared her throat. “That was just before Valentine’s Day.”
“And why I chose to stay in Moonlit Pines.”
“Oleg, that’s crazy!” she whispered, moving three slow steps closer to me before she stopped in her tracks. “Are you… are you saying you’ve been here for me? That you stayed because of me?”
“Only you,” I pressed, needing to make it crystal clear to her just how obsessed I was. How fucking in love I was. Jesus, I didn’t even recognize the man I was anymore. If someone had told me this was who I’d turn into after getting curious when Merritt called and booking it to this mountain town, I would have laughed. Me? Obsessed and in love with a woman who could literally figure out a way to put me in jail? Never. But there I was, in love with an attorney, knowing and confessing that the things I did weren’t always on the up and up.
“I came here for a job I did for… a friend,” I shared, and her pretty lips parted.
“A friend.” I could see the wheels turning, and when she spoke again, I knew she had put the pieces together. “The only person you know is…” Her voice drifted to nothing, and her eyes widened. “Ohmygod,” she gasped, and her hands turned to fists. “Scarlett. Merritt hired you to watch my sister?”
“He wanted to keep her safe.”
“Safe?” she scoffed, shaking her head before running her fingers through her hair. “Someone needs to keep her safe from him, from you. That’s stalking!” She stomped adorably. It didn’t go amiss that she didn’t say she needed to keep herself safe from me.
“Baby—“
“No!” she clipped. “That’s what you’re doing! Do you still watch her?”
“What? No!” I exclaimed. “That ended when the job ended. And I wasn’t the one watching her cameras?—“
“No, but you watch me?” she all but growled. “Why?” I was done with giving her distance. Her eyes widened, but before she could step back, I was right in front of her, picking her up. “Oleg! Put me down! This isn’t funny!”
“I’m not laughing, babochka,” I growled, sitting down on my office chair and setting her down on my lap.
“Oleg!” she yelled, but I smacked her ass instead.
“Sit still,” I ordered. “You’re mine, babochka. Only mine.”
“That’s not…” she started to say but stopped. Almost like she wasn’t able to outright lie to me.
“I love you.”
“This isn’t love.” Her shoulders dropped, and now it was my brows that bunched.
“Excuse me?”
“You watching me. Controlling—“ This was where I was going to have to stop her.
“When have I ever tried to control you?” I rasped. She opened and shut her mouth and then pressed her lips together.
“I’ve watched you. Watched us. But never have I ever tried to steer you away from doing anything you want to do. I’ve gone on hikes with you and swam in that lake with actual fish.” I shivered, and she chewed on her bottom lip.
“You’re right.” Her hand rose, and when her palm touched my cheek, something inside me started to slowly relax. “You watch me?” Her eyes were watching me closely, as if afraid to somehow miss something or catch me in some kind of lie.
“I do.”
“When?” I could see the curiosity gleaming to life behind those pretty eyes of hers.
“All the time.”
“How?”
“Do you really want to know?” She stared at me for a moment, silence creeping around us like a cloak. I just wasn’t sure if the quiet that lay between us was good or bad.
“I do. I think… I think I need to know.”
“Why?”
“Just indulge me? Please?”
“If I do—” I swallowed hard. That inkling of fear I had just started to shake off came back to life. “If I do, will it change things between us?”
“I don’t know,” she answered so damn honestly, I couldn’t fault her. “What if… what if after you tell me, I tell you something that will most definitely change things between us?”
“What?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head, readjusting herself on my lap. I was ready to reach for her if she tried to jump off and get away, but I should have known better. My girl, my sweet, beautiful butterfly, simply straddled me, and her hands cupped my face.
“Tell me,” she pleaded, distracting me from what she’d alluded to. “Please.” Fuck, her little please would ruin me. There wouldn’t be one thing I’d ever be able to deny her when she asked so sweetly.
“On your laptop,” I rasped. “Both at home and the one you have at work. The desktop was tricky because that thing should have been retired a long time ago.” Her eyes widened, and because her thumb started to stroke my chin, I kept sharing.
Like a fucking psycho telling her all the ways I’d kept watch on her.
Hiding in the shadows.
Keeping my distance even when it killed me because her path crossed with her dumbass ex.
She didn’t say anything. She didn’t react. Her face stayed neutral as I got into the nitty-gritty details of having cameras in her home and a tracker in her car. The way I watched us in bed when I got home, stroking myself to the sight we made on screen. It wasn’t until that little confession that her breathing changed. It became shallow. Quicker.
“That’s how you knew which one was my car the first night we had dinner at the brewery.” I nodded. “That first night… when we bumped into one another and you pretended to be my?—“
“Man?” I cut in, and she bit down on her bottom lip to stop herself from smiling.
“Sure, when you pretended to be my man.”
“There was no pretending, Coral. I was yours from the moment I first saw you.” I might not have known it then, but I knew it now.
“Singing horribly?” she asked, and my shoulders relaxed.
She knew it all. The bad and the worse. Yet she wasn’t leaving.
Coral hadn’t run away like I was the devil reincarnated. If anything, she was snuggled against me perfectly, holding on to me like I was some kind of anchor to her. And fuck me, I wanted to be that and more for her.
“No.” I shook my head. “I’d seen you in the biker bar. Dancing and drinking. Glancing around.” She listened and blinked. I recognized the moment she remembered. It was like a lightbulb turned on inside her head.
“You were there,” she said. “I remember seeing you and thinking…” Her voice drifted to nothing, but the slight tinge of color in her cheeks made me curious.
“What?” I asked. Not because I needed my ego stroked but because the color on her face was coming back, letting me believe maybe, just maybe, I had a chance.
“That you were seriously hot but way out of my league.”
“You weren’t ready. I’ve always been around, baby.”
“How didn’t I see you?” she whispered. “Why didn’t we meet before?”
“You weren’t ready,” I repeated, but she had a stubborn look on her face.
“But I was ready that night a little over a month ago?”
“I hope so. Because despite all this, and I know how crazy it sounds and how many boundaries my invasion of your privacy broke, you’re not getting rid of me. I meant it when I said I loved you last night. The question is, do you think you can keep loving me through my obsession with you?” I asked, putting my heart on the line.
“Oleg,” she whispered my name. “This is a lot. I mean… you know I have to tell Scar now about?—“
“She knows,” I cut her off, needing her to know her sister knew and was safe from whatever threat she thought Merri might be. “She knows everything.”
“She does?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “You two can talk about it later. I hate to be a dick but…” I swallowed. “Now that you know it all, did it change things between us?”
“Oleg.”
“Coral.”
“Baby, you know I’m an attorney, right? You can’t keep doing things like that. Illegal things.”
“I could hire you and put you on retainer so you can be the keeper of all my secrets,” I half teased.
“Oleg,” she sighed. “I’m a divorce attorney,” she reminded me, as if I didn’t know exactly what she did. Like I didn’t know everything there was to know about her.
“Okay, what if I promise I won’t take on any dangerous hacking jobs?”
“That’s subjective,” she argued, and my lips twitched as my dick started to wake up. If she was arguing with me using legal jargon, that gave me hope.
“Okay, what if I promise only to use my special skills on seriously important jobs?” I asked, and she shook her head.
“And take down the cameras in my place?” My hand cupped her face as I leaned in closer, resting my forehead against hers because I needed to be as near as possible for these negotiations.
“Only if you move in with me,” I countered, and if I wasn’t mistaken, she paled.
“You don’t live in Moonlit Pines, though.” Not officially, but that was an easy fix. I could buy out the cabin I was staying in if it was where she wanted to live. We could find something else if she didn’t like the cabin. “What if I did? What if I make my move permanent. Would you move in with me?”
“Oleg.” She chewed her bottom lip, and something in her gaze changed. “You might want to rescind your offer when I tell you something.”
“I highly doubt that.” There was nothing she could do to make me want to take back my offer.
“I don’t know… it might get cluttered and messy and…” Her eyes were wild and panicked. For whatever reason, she was freaking out more about what she needed to tell me than what she’d just found out.
“Hey,” I soothed, holding her gaze as I stroked her face. “Life is messy. What’s this about?”
“I was in the bathroom before I came out here,” she blurted, and I frowned.
“Okay,” I drew out slowly.
“Oh god!” Her eyes fluttered shut, and I didn’t like missing her stare.
“Babochka, look at me.” Her eyes opened, but I could see the worry and panic that lingered.
“Two-story cabins aren’t a good idea for kids,” she said then swallowed. My brows bunched.
“What?” I was confused because she wasn’t making sense. “Why would it matter if the cabin is safe for?—“
“I’m pregnant,” she blurted, and the world stopped spinning. That was the only thing that would explain why it suddenly felt like nothing was moving. It was just her and me, staring at one another. Her body straddled mine as her fingers nervously stroked my shoulders.
“What?” I asked.
“You’re freaked.”
“Babochka, repeat what you just said,” I demanded gruffly. Fuck. She was pregnant. My beautiful woman was pregnant. I’d never thought about kids and a family. Not really. Liar , a little voice spoke up in the back of my head. I was a fucking liar. I’d come inside of her without anything between us knowing very well she wasn’t taking anything to prevent this. I’d wanted to breed her. Why I’d watched my seed drip out of her pussy time and time again from that very first time. Coral was the only woman I’d ever taken bare. The only one I would ever have till I drew my last breath.
“Repeat it, Coral,” I demanded, my voice hard. “Repeat what you just said to me, gorgeous.”
“Why?”
“So that when you tell me you’re going to have my baby, I can take back my offer,” I growled, and her eyes widened.
“What?” Her lip wobbled.
“It’s no longer a request but a demand, Coral. We’re moving in together.” I couldn’t help the words that spilled past my lips and how much of an asshole they made me sound. All I could think about was having my woman and child under the same roof.
“Because I’m having a baby? That’s a stupid reason to move in.”
“How is that a stupid reason?”
“People co-parent all the time!”
“Co-parent?
“Okay, I mean, if you don’t want to be a part of?—“
“Don’t even finish that thought,” I clipped. “You’re going to move in with me and marry me because we love each other. We’re having a baby because something out in the universe thinks I’m worthy of something so fucking beautiful for some damn reason, and I am going to work the rest of my life to be worthy of this. Of you.”
“Oleg,” she whispered with tears in her eyes.
“It’s true, Coral. I love you. I know…” My voice cracked. Every fiber of my being was filled with raw emotions. “I know I fucked up. My needs, watching you…” I drew in a deep breath. “It wasn’t right, and if you want me to stop, I will.” She shot me a look, and I sighed. “Okay, fine, I’ll try.”
“We weren’t talking about marriage.” She ignored my offer, and I reached into my pocket and pulled out the ring I’d carried with me for the last two weeks.
“Let’s talk about it, then.”
“Oleg,” she gasped, her eyes on the oval-cut diamond with three smaller diamonds on each side. I picked her up and settled her pretty feet on the ground before I dropped to one knee. As I reached and held her delicate hand that was so much smaller than mine but so much stronger in other ways, I had to swallow back the feelings that bombarded me.
“I love you. I want you. I know this is fast and fucked up on a million levels, and if you say no, I understand. But you gotta understand I’m going to keep asking. I won’t stop. I—“ Her fingers covered my lips, and a sneaky gleam shined in her eyes.
“You’re already arguing with me before you’ve even let me answer.” I kissed the tips of her fingers before pulling them off my mouth.
“I just want you to know that I’m a man with a plan when it comes to you and our life together. And the life of this little guy or girl.” My palm dropped to her stomach, and she laughed.
“This is crazy.” She blinked tears away, but they were as stubborn as the woman in front of me. I reached up and swiped them away.
“What’s crazy?”
“This. You and me and… I was with someone for so long, and I never had to take one test. Not ever. Not even close to having ever worried about being pregnant.”
“Coral,” I warned. “I don’t think talking about your ex at this moment?—“
“Shh,” she hushed as a smile grew on her face. “I was a little freaked out when I read the test but… not because I thought I was having a baby with the wrong person. I just… I didn’t see having a family in my future. Not really. Not even before…”
“But now?”
“Now…” Her smile was so bright and beautiful it made me feel alive. “Now I can’t see a life without you and anything that might happen from here on out.”
“Coral, babochka, will you marry me?” I asked. Vulnerability dripped from every syllable. She blinked away the tears that kept streaming down her face.
“Yes.” She shook her head. “Yes!” I stood and kissed her before placing the ring on her finger. “It’s a perfect fit,” she whispered.
“Like you and me.” I winked, and she laughed as I picked her up and spun her around.
“My parents are going to freak out.”
“Why?” I pulled away.
“I’m engaged to someone they haven’t met yet.” She laughed, and I chuckled.
“They have the rest of our days to get to know me. I’ll win them over, I promise. You like it here?” I asked, looking around the cabin.
“I do.”
“You sure? If you don’t, we can look for a new place or?—“
“I just want to be with you. I want to build a life together. I don’t care where.” Fuck, she had no idea how those words were making all my dreams come true.
“Okay. You’re moving in this weekend. I’ll hire a crew to get your things here by Saturday.”
“Oleg!” she exclaimed but didn’t argue with me.
“Fuck,” I cursed, cupping her face and leaning down. “Are you really okay with this? With everything I did?”
“I don’t know… seeing the cameras… they took me off guard but… is it weird they didn’t scare me? You don’t scare me, Oleg.”
“You like me watching,” I surmised. She chewed on her pouty lower lip before nodding.
“I do. And honestly, I don’t think I would mind watching us together,” she whispered.
“Fuck.” I swallowed then picked up my future bride. “Later, we can watch whatever you want. Right now, we need to celebrate.”
“Celebrate?”
“Yeah. You’re having my baby and agreed to marry me. If I thought I had a chance of getting you to agree to heading to the courthouse right now, I would be carrying you there instead of our room,” I gruffed, lifting her up higher, loving the way her legs wrapped around my waist.
“You’re crazy,” she giggled, holding my face and pressing a quick kiss on my lips.
“Crazy about you,” I growled. I hurried us up the stairs because I had plans for us to stay in bed all day and night long.
I had no idea life could be so damn good. I never knew looking forward to the future could ever be so damn exciting. But with my butterfly by my side, I knew even in the low’s life might toss our way, the future would be bright. Together, there wasn’t a thing we couldn’t get through. I just needed time to show her that.
Thankfully, my babochka was going to give me that.