Epilogue #2
It’s perfect, and when it comes time to cut the cake, Sasha grabs my hand and leads me to the table that’s set off to the side.
The cake is gorgeous. It’s a five-tier cake with beautiful pink and red flowers that start at the top and cascade down in a wave.
At first I assume they’re real, but when I get closer, I can see they’re sugar flowers, each one perfectly sculpted and lifelike.
“This is gorgeous,” I say.
“It really is,” Sasha agrees, and then he looks over at his Uncle Vitaly. “Adele’s outdone herself,” he says.
Vitaly beams at him. “She has,” he agrees. He laughs and adds, “I bet you thought I was going to make a joke of it, didn’t you?”
“We all did,” Lev says, laughing at his brother.
“I can be serious,” Vitaly insists.
Everyone laughs while Sasha grabs the large knife. His long fingers curl around the handle, and as much as I probably shouldn’t think it, I still do—the man looks damn good with a knife in his hand.
When I lift my eyes to his, he gives me a wink and then slices into the cake, laughing when he sees the inside is blood red.
“Oh come on,” Vitaly says with a laugh when Sasha raises a brow at him. “Red velvet cake is the perfect cake for you, and we all know it.”
Sasha’s still smiling when he feeds me a forkful of it. I close my eyes when the sweetness hits my tongue, and then quickly feed him a bite, too.
As everyone else starts grabbing a slice, I tell him, “That’s delicious, Vitaly. Thank you.”
He gives me a big hug. “You’ll have to come by Get the Scoop. You get free dessert now that you’re family.”
I laugh and promise that we’ll go there soon.
“A toast to the newest Mr. and Mrs. Melnikov,” Lev says, raising his glass in the air. He pulls Jolene in closer and grins. “To our amazing son and our beautiful Russian daughter-in-law.”
“Finally!” Vitaly says with a grin while everyone laughs and drinks to our future.
We spend the next several hours visiting and laughing and it’s perfect in every single way.
My new family is loving and kind and crazy in all the best ways.
I laugh so hard I nearly cry when Vitaly puts on “Psycho Killer” by the Talking Heads for Sasha and I to dance to.
Everyone joins in, and we dance until our feet hurt.
By the time Sasha takes me home, I feel like I’ll never be able to stop smiling. I can’t imagine this day getting any better, but then he grabs my hand and leads me to the door. I can see the excitement in his eyes, but I have no idea what’s going on.
“I have another present for you,” he says, and in this exact moment I realize something about my husband, something I hadn’t been expecting.
I reach up and pat his chest while I say, “You are going to be a lot of fun at Christmas. For all your I’m a dangerous killer vibes, you’re a very cute gift giver.”
He laughs and wraps an arm around me, grabbing my ass through my dress. I’d detached the train earlier so I could dance and move around easier, and when he starts to slide his hand lower, I grin and cup the back of his head to pull him closer.
“Is this my present?” I ask, sliding my other hand lower so I can trail my fingers along the thick cock that’s pressing into my stomach.
“You already have that, krovinka. You already have every part of me.” His fingers thread into my hair as he kisses me slowly and all the love I feel for him floods my body so fiercely that it leaves me breathless.
“I’m so lucky to have you,” I whisper against his lips.
He gives the same deep groan he always gives when I say something sweet and then kisses me harder. He might not always use words to tell me how he feels, but he never stops showing me how much he loves me.
When I start to undo his pants, I feel him smile against my mouth before he breaks the kiss to say, “I need to give you your present first, krovinka, then you can have me as many times as you want.”
“I’m gonna hold you to that,” I say before he grins and starts to open the door.
I’m not sure what’s on the other side of it, but I know that I already have everything I could ever want right here beside me. I thread my fingers through his and follow him into our home.
Sasha
Cyn’s right about the gift giving. I’m not surprised, she’s right about everything, but I am surprised by how much I enjoy giving her presents. Yet another thing I hadn’t been expecting, yet another way she’s knocked me on my ass.
She smiles up at me when I lead her inside, and she’s so beautiful in that white dress that it makes my chest ache to look at her.
She’s perfect, and I know I’ll never be worthy of her, but that’s okay.
I’ve made my peace with it, and I’m keeping her anyway.
I can try to be worthy of her, and in my own way I can try to be the man she deserves.
When she walks in and sees Chort sitting proudly next to his new best friend, she lets out the cutest squeal I’ve ever heard and then falls to her knees, wedding dress and all, so she can wrap her arms around our Doberman and Maude, the newest addition to our family.
The beagle pup lets out an excited bark and then lunges into her lap.
“How did you do this?” she asks, looking up at me while both dogs love on her. “How did you even know I wanted to adopt her?”
I squat down and pet Chort before petting Maude’s cute head.
“I know you, Cyn, and I know how big your heart is. You also talk about her all the time. Chort and I have been making secret trips to the animal shelter. Barb’s been helping us,” I say, making her laugh at the mention of the woman who owns the animal shelter.
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah, I told her I wanted to surprise you, but that I needed to get Chort used to the idea first.” I scratch Chort’s head and tell him he’s a good boy.
“He was a little hesitant at first, but when he realized Maude wasn’t a snack, he warmed up to her pretty quickly. I think he likes having a friend.”
Maude’s tricolored little body is adorable as she squirms around in Cyn’s lap, but it’s my wife who has all my attention right now.
The look on her face is one of pure joy, and I’m going to make it my life’s mission to make sure she always looks like this.
I don’t ever want her upset or worrying about anything.
I just want her to be happy. It’s such a strange feeling to love someone like this, to not be able to imagine living the rest of my life without her.
I watch her as she keeps playing with our dogs, and then smile when she gets all teary-eyed at seeing Maude’s much smaller pink dog bed positioned next to Chort’s black one.
I’d bought her the bed thinking she’d actually use it, but when she gets tired, she crawls onto Chort’s instead and cuddles up right in the middle.
Chort looks back at me with a what the hell look on his face, but then he just grunts and curls up around her. Cyn snaps a quick picture.
“They’re so cute,” she says, and watching her excitement and love for our dogs has me finding my voice. I was going to wait until tomorrow, but I can’t bring myself to wait a second longer.
“When were you planning on telling me?” I ask.
She turns to look at me, green eyes wide with surprise, but then I see something flash across her face that leaves me with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. It’s not fear exactly, but it’s a hesitancy, a worry that I might not like what she’s about to say.
Unable to bear the distance between us, I step closer and cup her face. “Krovinka,” I start to say and then stop. My voice is thick with emotion, a sensation that’s so foreign to me it takes a second for me to realize what’s going on. “Did you really think I’d be upset?” I finally manage to ask.
“How did you know?”
I raise a brow at her and then kiss her forehead. “I know what day you start your period, Cyn, and you’re a week late.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” she whispers.
“Why didn’t you?”
“I don’t know.” She puts her hands on top of mine and then turns her head to kiss one of my palms. “I wasn’t sure what you’d think. I was afraid maybe you wouldn’t be happy, but I should’ve told you. I’m sorry.”
“Was it because you don’t think I’ll be a good dad?” I ask, voicing my deepest fear.
Her eyes jump to mine. “No, Sasha, god no,” she quickly says.
“I swear that never even entered my mind. I know what kind of father you’re going to be.
” A huge smile lights up her face when she says, “You’re going to be such a good dad, just like the kind I always wished I had.
You’re going to love this baby so much and protect them better than anyone else ever could. They’ll be so lucky to have you.”
“I’m the lucky one,” I tell her before picking her up and carrying her up the stairs. Now that I know for sure she’s pregnant, I’m desperate to get her naked. She laughs at my excitement and wraps her arms around my neck while she kisses me.
“I don’t want to quit school,” she says.
“I would never ask you to. You’re going to be an amazing vet tech, and we’ll make this work. You know my mom and sisters will love to babysit anytime we need them to. We can make this work, krovinka. I promise.”
She nods, looking relieved, and I hate that she worried about any of this for even a second.
“We are going to need to make some changes around here, though,” I say as I set her down.
“We are?”
I start undoing the delicate buttons that run along the side of her dress while I say, “We are. We need a bedroom with a door, because I think we can both agree that having a child walk in while I’m doing what I love to do to you would be a nightmare that would require loads of therapy to get through. ”
Her horrified look has me reaching out to soften the line between her furrowed brows. “I would never let that happen,” I say with a laugh. “We also need to build a nursery, and I need to take the dummies down.”
“But you love them. What about your training?”