Alexei #3
I hold her eyes. “Yes.”
She doesn’t believe me. That should irritate me more than it does.
Dinner begins with Ivy explaining each planet in her project, including why Neptune required “artistic freedom” and why glitter makes space feel more realistic. Maggie listens like there’s nothing more important in the world, asking questions that make Ivy sit taller in her chair with every answer.
I watch both of them. The easy rhythm between them is becoming familiar. Maggie passes Ivy the bread before she asks. Ivy leans toward her when she laughs. Daisy rests her head near Maggie’s foot, as if she has already chosen a side.
Winston sits beneath the table and growls at a piece of asparagus.
“Security issue?” Maggie asks, glancing down at him.
Ivy nods solemnly. “He doesn’t trust vegetables.”
“Smart dog,” Maggie says.
“You encourage this,” I remark.
“I encourage critical thinking.”
“That’s not what this is.”
She fights a small smile. “You sure?”
Ivy giggles into her napkin. The sound should ease the tightness in me, but it doesn’t.
After dinner, Ivy begins to fade quickly, her energy burning out all at once. She presses against Maggie’s side in the hallway, fighting sleep with the stubbornness she inherited from me, while Winston curls himself across the top of her feet like a guard stationed for the night.
Irina appears a moment later. “Bedtime, printsessa.”
“I’m not tired,” Ivy argues, despite the fact that her eyes are already half closed.
One of Irina’s brows lifts slightly. “Of course not.”
Maggie bites back a smile while smoothing Ivy’s hair behind her ear. “Go get ready for bed, sugar.”
Ivy groans dramatically but finally pushes herself upright while Daisy rises beside her with a tired stretch.
“Winston’s sleepin’ with me,” Ivy announces.
“That sounds less like a request and more like a hostage situation,” Maggie says.
“It’s emotional support.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Halfway to the stairs, Ivy turns back suddenly. “Can I come to the shelter tomorrow?”
Maggie glances at me before looking back at her. “That depends on your daddy, sweetheart.”
Ivy’s hopeful eyes swing toward me. “Papa?”
Tomorrow. The shelter. The place already watched by men tied to Enzo. My pulse slows.
“Yes. But Viktor takes you and Irina.”
Ivy’s tired face brightens. She hugs Maggie hard around the neck.
“Goodnight, Maggie.”
“Goodnight, sweetheart. Sleep well.”
When Ivy finally leaves, Winston trots after her, and Daisy follows with a patient sway of her tail. Maggie watches them go before turning back toward me, confusion on her face.
Her brows draw together. “Why are you suddenly insistin’ on Viktor taking Ivy and Irina to the shelter tomorrow?”
I step closer, lowering my voice. “Because I want security with all of you.”
“With all of us?”
“Don’t argue with me about your safety,” I say.
“My safety?” Suspicion floods her face now. “Alexei, you don’t just randomly start assignin’ giant Russian men to protect me.”
I almost smile.
“What happened?” she demands.
“Nothing happened.”
“That ain’t a real answer.”
Her eyes stay locked on mine, stubborn and searching, and for a moment I almost tell her more than I should. I almost tell her about the photographs sitting on my desk and the men watching the shelter.
Instead, I say, “I prefer caution.”
“With me?”
“Yes.”
Silence stretches between us before she studies my face more carefully, and her voice eases just enough to pull at something inside me.
“What aren’t you tellin’ me?” she asks.
Too much.
“Nothing that needs to ruin your evening.”
“That still sounds suspicious.”
“It probably is.”
That earns the smallest breath of a laugh from her, but the concern never fully leaves her eyes. Before I can think better of it, I reach for her hand, and the moment she lets me take it, her fingers slide into mine with an ease that irritates me almost as much as wanting it.
“I’ll have Viktor take you home,” I say quietly.
Her attention drops briefly to our joined hands before focusing back on my face. “Are you askin’ me to leave?”
“No.” I step closer until the space between us disappears. “I’m making sure you get home safely.”
“And after that?”
My thumb moves once over the inside of her wrist, feeling her pulse jump beneath my touch.
“After that,” I say, “you answer when I call.”
I lift her hand to my mouth and press my lips against her knuckles. She sucks in a small breath, and the sound slices through every disciplined thought in my head.
I lose the remaining distance between us.
My hand slides to the back of her neck as I pull her against me and kiss her deeply, the taste of wine and warmth and Maggie hitting me hard enough to make my pulse race.
She makes a small, startled sound before melting into, her fingers tightening against my shirt while mine spread along her waist.
It’s too easy. Too reckless. I deepen the kiss anyway.
Her body presses closer, and the quiet sound she makes against my mouth nearly snaps the last thread of restraint holding me together. For one reckless second, I think about walking her upstairs and locking the rest of the world outside the bedroom door.
Then the photographs flash through my head again. I force myself to pull back before I do something stupid.
Maggie’s breathing comes faster now, her lips pink and swollen from the kiss, while her eyes search mine like she’s trying to understand what just happened.
Viktor waits beside the car, his posture straight and his gaze constantly moving across the driveway and the surrounding trees.
Maggie pauses near the open door and looks back at me. She stands there, lips parted slightly like she has a hundred things she wants to say and no idea where to begin. In the end, she only smiles.
“Thank you for dinner.”
Then she slips into the car before I say something that would make her stay.
I stand there until the taillights disappear beyond the gates. Only then do I take out my phone and call Luka. He answers on the second ring.
“Boss?”
“Double the rotation around Second Chance Savannah by morning.”
He pauses, then, “Done.”
“And Luka?” I release a deep breath. “If Enzo’s men come near her again, I want bodies before names.”
Silence follows briefly before Luka answers quietly. “Understood.”
I lower the phone and stare at the closed gates. Maggie thinks my house is dangerous for her. She’s wrong. The danger has already followed her back into the world.