Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Daisy
Ilya was nice.
Not at first, but even back then, he’d had moments where the man he truly was came out.
Like that first night when he had tenderly cleaned me up and given me his tee to sleep in.
Sure, the first week had been rough. It was all rules, all the time.
He dictated what I ate, what exercise I did, even what time I went to bed.
He tracked my cycle, and at first, only came into my bed when he thought I was fertile.
And then something changed. I could pinpoint the exact night. I had cooked for him. His favorite childhood meal, according to the housekeeper, and his face had grown soft. When he had crept into my bed that night, he made love to me softly and slept next to me until the morning.
That had been seven months ago, and things had gotten better and better.
Ilya laughed more than he frowned. He touched me every chance he got. After that meal, he had moved my things into his monochrome, ultra-masculine bedroom and told me I had to sleep with him.
The only time he went back to the icy, unfeeling asshole I had first met was when his grandfather came over. The old man wasn’t happy that it was taking so long for me to fall pregnant. They always argued about it.
Ilya always got distant after one of those visits.
And that’s why I was here. At the doctor's office. Waiting to be seen. I could have asked Ilya to get a doctor to come to the apartment, but I didn’t want to get his hopes up.
This wasn’t the first time I had missed my period, but the test had come back negative.
I didn’t want to give him false hope. In fact, I didn’t want to mention it to him at all until I knew for certain.
"Congratulations."
My head snapped up, and all thoughts of the past disappeared as I stared at the doctor with my mouth open. "You mean?"
"You’re pregnant." His face broke open in a wide, toothy grin. "Congratulations."
I couldn’t close my mouth. It just swung open uselessly as my mind raced at a million miles an hour.
"Are you sure?" I whispered, and I could barely hear the sound of my own voice over the pounding in my chest. I was pregnant. With Ilya Popovitch's baby. I couldn’t believe it. My hand cupped my stomach; it was still flat, but deep inside of my body, life was forming.
He smiled at me indulgently. "Yes, I am sure. About six weeks. So it’s very early, and you have to take care before—" His eyes scanned my face, and it was only then that I realized I was crying silently. "Is this not good news?" he asked evenly. "There are always options. We can discuss them—"
I moved without thinking, flinging my arms around him. "It’s the best. Oh my God, I need to tell—" Pulling back, I grinned. "I will need to find a way to tell my partner."
It was probably best not to mention who the father was here, but honestly, I couldn’t wait to see Ilya's face when I told him.
He was going to be so happy.
Ilya's face was murderous when I stepped out of the elevator, and my happiness evaporated.
"Where have you been, Daisy?" His tone was even, quiet even, and that meant he was pissed. He only got that quiet when he was really angry. It had been a long time since he had spoken to me in that voice.
I hesitated; this wasn’t how I wanted to tell him. This was meant to be a happy occasion. Biting my lip, I dropped my purse. "I had to run and do some errands." I shrugged, forcing myself to smile. "Shopping and things."
All the things he didn’t mind me doing.
Slowly, he lifted his eyes to me. "Shopping, and yet you have no bags. Why are you lying to me, Daisy?"
His tone told me he knew exactly where I had been. I didn’t know how; I hadn’t taken a car or security with me. I’d just hailed a cab.
For all I knew, he had a tracker somewhere on my person. Yeah, that was probably it. He had tracked me.
My shoulders slumped. "I didn’t want to get your hopes up."
Ilya settled back on the chair, his icy blue eyes scanning over me. "Is there a reason my hopes should be up? Why were you at a doctor's office?"
I couldn’t help it. My hand drifted across my flat stomach, and a small smile spread across my face as I nodded my head slightly. "Yeah, I think you should have your hopes up." I met his eyes. "Way, way up."
He was off his chair in a second, and I was in his arms two seconds after that. "Are you serious?" Lifting me from my feet, he spun me around in a wide circle. "Are we going to have a baby?"
Giggling, I let my head fall back. "We are going to have a baby."
My feet landed on the carpet, and he dropped to his knees. Lifting my jumper up, he pressed his lips to the skin just under my belly button. "You’re going to be so loved."
Lifting his eyes to me, he grinned. It took my breath away. I had lived with him for several months; I had thought he was happy, but it was nothing compared to the happiness shining out of his devilishly handsome face now.
"Thank you," he whispered. "Thank you so much, Daisy. You don’t know just how grateful I am for this amazing gift."
Gift.
And just like that, my happiness evaporated. I'd forgotten, because things had been so great between us, that I was nothing but a broodmare for the Popovitch family. I wasn’t Ilya's girlfriend. I wasn’t his anything.
I shared his bed, his life, but I wasn’t his anything, and he wasn’t mine.
"Daisy?" Climbing to his feet, he cupped my cheeks in his giant hands and forced me to look at him. "Why aren’t you happy?"
Closing my eyes, I shook my head. How could I explain to him what I didn’t want to admit to myself? "It’s nothing." I forced myself to smile. "I am happy."
"Baby." Back and forth across my cheek, his thumb brushed, drawing my attention back to his clear blue eyes. "We are going to love and cherish this baby."
"We?" I couldn’t help but whisper. I hated the flicker of hope that had just blossomed in my heart.
"Yes." Ilya was totally serious. "We. This is our baby.
" Without warning, he lifted me—giving me no option but to wrap my legs around his waist—and headed towards the bedroom, where he dropped me down into the middle of his giant mattress and climbed over my body, looking every bit the predator.
I felt my heart skip a beat like it always did when he got that heated look in his eyes.
"Did you think I’d kick you out—"
"Well, not straight away," I cut in, looping my arms around his neck. "But after." Tilting my head up, I accepted his kisses.
His soft, gentle kisses.
"Never." Grabbing my wrists, he pinned them to the pillows on either side of my head. "This is your home. With me. With our baby."
I let out a ragged sigh of relief as he put all of my concerns to bed. I’d thought our time together finally had an expiration date. And even though I had known from the beginning that this was a business deal, I had enjoyed my time here with him, and I wasn’t ready for it to be over.
"So you don’t want me to leave in nine months?" I whispered as he buried his head in the crook of my throat, kissing over my skin softly.
"No." He nipped at me. "I don’t want you to leave."
My eyes closed in bliss as his lips continued to skim across my sensitive skin.
"I think," I mumbled, my hand delving into his hair and tangling in the silky curls. "I think I—" I swallowed hard. I couldn’t finish. It was silly just thinking about it.
Ilya lifted his head, his eyes boring down into mine.
"Tell me what you were just about to say," he ordered.
I shook my head, a blush creeping up my throat to tinge my cheeks. "It doesn’t matter."
"It matters to me."
I rolled my eyes. Ilya Popovitch was bossy. "You’re a bossy-boots," I teased. "I was just going to say I am happy."
For a second he just stared at me, and then the tip of his nose came down to touch mine. And I was powerless to do anything but stare into his eyes. This close they were a hundred different shades of blue, and each one of them was more beautiful than the last.
"I feel it too," he whispered, rubbing the tip of his nose against mine.
"You love me?" The words just came tumbling out of my mouth before I could stop them. "Because I think... I think I am in love with you," I ended in a whisper.
He didn’t answer me; Ilya just caught my lips up in his, his tongue sliding into my mouth to tangle with mine.
"I’m never going to let you go, Daisy. Not ever. You don’t need to worry. I am going to look after you. I’m going to make sure all your dreams come true," he mumbled against my mouth. "And don’t worry about my grandfather. I’ll deal with him."
His words worried me, but his next kiss pushed all the worried thoughts out of my head. Kissing him back wildly, I wrapped myself around him.
"Is this—" He tore his lips away from mine, staring down into my eyes, and I could read the heat there. "Is this safe? For the baby?"
Fingers tangled in his dark hair, I nodded. "It’s safe."
"Good," he growled out, and then his lips were back on mine, and I forgot to be worried at all.