Chapter 27 - Mira
Mira was pouting.
Ever since he’d learned of her pregnancy, Mikhail had undergone a complete transformation. He wouldn’t let her touch anything or so much as lift a finger to do anything. All he wanted was for her to be laid up in bed every second of every day. At this rate she would be bored to death before the baby ever got ready to be born.
It didn’t help that Sarah was in his corner. If he said to jump, she suspected Sarah would only ask how high. The woman was so beholden to him, and as far as she was concerned he could do no wrong. Yes, he had saved her, but surely that didn’t mean Sarah had to take his every word as law, did it?
Experimentally Mira stole a glance at where Sarah was currently brushing off nonexistent dust from her dressing table. Then she dropped one of her legs to the ground and tried to drop the second one.
“What are you doing?” Sarah screamed, rushing to her side immediately.
Mira rolled her eyes. “Getting out of bed, Sarah. Goodness, did you have to screech like that? Like a banshee?”
“The boss said—”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Sarah. I need exercise and so does the baby. If I lie in bed every day for nine months my muscles would atrophy and my legs would be too weak to support my weight, or the baby’s for that matter.”
Sarah frowned as she thought about that logic. “You’re probably right.”
“I’m definitely right,” Mira said firmly, taking advantage of Sarah’s hesitation and climbing all the way out of the bed.
“What are the chances that you would need me to help you with any of the chores? I’m bored,” Mira grumbled as she headed for the restroom.
“Well, I have a solution to your boredom,” Mikhail said as he swept into her room looking crisp and fresh in the bright morning light.
Mira let her eyes roam appreciatively up and down his tall frame. He was handsome in the extreme, and he managed to make her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world when he looked at her with that grin of his.
“Are you my solution?” she purred, instantly sliding into seductress role and totally forgetting that Sarah was in the room.
Mikhail, however, didn’t forget. He flapped a hand at Sarah. “You should get her ready for a dinner party tomorrow night. Black tie affair. So, go get things in order.”
Sarah frowned. “Everything I would need to get her ready is right here in her room. I’ll set them out.”
“Sarah, give us a few minutes before Mikhail forgets how to be a gentleman,” Mira laughed, noting his exasperation.
“I brought you a new dress, courtesy of Madame Pruitt,” he told Mira as soon as the door shut behind Sarah. “She’s been beside herself with joy at the news of your impending childbirth.”
Mira ducked her head with a happy grin as she immediately rushed to the box he had deposited onto her bed.
She unwrapped the box with the delight of a little girl, and when she pulled out an absolutely breathtaking black gown with diamond studs scattered all over the bodice, her lips rounded in a soft oh of appreciation. She had enough of her mother’s jewelry to know that they were real diamonds.
She looked at Mikhail. “I’ll probably need the entire Chicago PD guarding me when I wear this. You give such generous gifts, Mikhail. Thank you.”
He chuckled and drew her against his hard chest. “Why would you need the police department when you have me?”
Mira rubbed her cheek against his chest, feeling as content as a cat sunning itself. “You’re right. I have you, always and forever.”
She hadn’t realized when those last three words slipped out, but as soon as they did, she could have bitten her tongue.
But then, a part of her was glad she’d said those words; they needed to be said and he needed to hear them. Somehow, some way, when she hadn’t been looking, Mira had fallen head over heels in love with Mikhail Nikolai. She wasn’t even sure when it had happened.
Was it when he’d married her for real despite her protestations that she wanted a fake marriage? Was it when he’d risked his life to save Sarah just because she asked? Was it when he’d chartered an entire boutique of new clothes for her and acted like it was nothing? Or perhaps it was when he’d made love to her in this very room and treated her like she was the only woman on earth.
And what about the pregnancy? He’d been so impossibly happy and excited, as though she had given him the best gift on earth. And since then, he had been waiting on her hand and foot even when she begged him not to, uncaring of his macho image.
She stared up at him with a melting gaze. She had to tell him how she felt, she decided. If he didn’t feel the same way, it didn’t matter. She had to tell him how she felt.
“Mikhail, I—” she started.
But he pressed a hand to her lips, cutting off her words.
She stared at him out of wide, bewildered eyes. Why did it feel as if he knew exactly what she wanted to say and yet he had stopped her?
“I need to speak to you,” she muttered around his finger.
Mikhail released her at once, but other than that there was no indication that he’d heard her. His grin was still as boyishly handsome as ever as he told her, “I need to meet with Williams right away. You put away your new dress and get some rest.”
Then he vanished from her room with a great deal of haste.
Was he avoiding hearing her say that she loved him? It sure felt that way.
She was still bemused minutes later when she walked downstairs. She pushed open the door of Mikhail’s office, but he wasn’t there. Williams, however, was looking through some papers, chuckling with absolute delight.
It was the first time she’d heard the solemn, quiet man laugh out loud, and she was intrigued. Since he hadn’t noticed her, she walked quietly up beside him. It was the same pictures of yachts, private jets, and mansions she’d seen one time in this office.
“What are those, and why are you chuckling?” she asked.
Williams looked up at her, his eyes sparkling with unshed tears. “My boy’s done it. Mikhail’s done it.”
Mira started to smile in spite of herself. “Done it? Done what?”
“He told me he’s about to become a father,” Williams crowed.
She failed to see the connection between Mikhail’s impending fatherhood and the legal-looking documents, but she stayed quiet.
She looked up at Williams, her face shining with joy. “So I take it he is happy, really? I wasn’t imagining it.”
“Of course, m’dear. He swore off all marriages after Alena’s betrayal. Well, until you came along and forced his hand. And look, it’s turned out so perfectly.”
Hearing Alena’s name made Mira remember the pretty woman with cat eyes and a volcanic temper. She should ordinarily feel jealousy or hatred toward the other woman, but all she felt was a kind of sympathy. She had only just discovered herself that she’d fallen in love with Mikhail, but he didn’t seem ready to hear her confess it to him. Maybe he was one of those men who couldn’t accept love?
Mira sank onto the sofa beside Williams. “Why did they break up? Alena seemed to love him very much when I saw her.”
Williams peered at her. “Are you sure you can stand to talk about another woman’s feelings for your husband?”
Rationally she knew it shouldn’t hurt, because she had also only married him to get back at her father and escape an unwanted marriage. But now her feelings had changed, in addition to which they had a child on the way. She loved Mikhail with every fiber of her being and she needed to know if there was any hope in hell of him ever loving her back.
“I can take it,” she whispered.
Williams stared off into the distance as he said, “Alena was the love of Mikhail’s life. He is a passionate man and he does everything with his heart, ruthless though he might seem. Well, he was consumed with his love for Alena and he made no bones about it. Until one day, he walked into her room and found her in the arms of one of his men.”
Mira stared at him in mute shock.
He patted her hand and forged on, “He executed Dmitri, and banished Alena to an isolated island far away, because despite her betrayal, he loved her and he couldn’t bring himself to hurt her.”
His words echoed in her mind, and Mira felt a new wave of hurt begin to course through her chest. Alena had done the unimaginable, but Mikhail had been unable to hurt her.
And now she had escaped whatever island he banished her to and returned to Chicago, rubbing her disobedience in his face, and yet he still could do nothing to her. If that wasn’t a man in love, she didn’t know what was.
Mira recalled again how he had stopped her from speaking when it had been obvious she wanted to tell him she loved him, and her heart churned in her chest.
It hurt beyond words to know that the man she loved more than life itself simply saw her as a convenient outlet for his lust and a means to an end.
He had to still be in love with Alena, she concluded. Alena was right.