Epilogue
Two Months Later
Viktor
Cerys hid next to a potted plant, and I couldn’t blame her.
The other wives had been vicious when they thought I wasn’t listening.
But I’d heard every cruel word, and they would all pay.
I’d already spoken to their husbands and ensured they would be kept on tighter leashes and given fewer freedoms for a while.
I crept up behind my wife, and slid my palm against her belly, drawing her back against me.
“ Ya ne mogu zhit’ bez tebya .”
“Are you ever going to tell me what that means?” she asked.
I smiled and kissed the top of her head.
I’d said those words to her countless times since the first time I’d uttered them, and she always asked what it meant.
It was past time for me to tell her, but I had to admit it was a little fun watching the frustration enter her eyes, then kissing it away.
We’d ended up in bed nearly each and every time she asked me the meaning.
Unless I wanted to take her in the bathroom, now wasn’t the time or place, which meant that I needed to confess what it meant. I knew she needed those words, but I’d not been ready to utter them in English just yet.
“It means I can’t live without you.” I nuzzled her neck. “I love you, Cerys. In Russia, we don’t say that often. What I told you that night, and have said many times since, is so much more than a simple I love you.”
She melted against me. “I can’t live without you either.”
I rubbed her belly, wishing it was filled with our child, but the doctor had suggested we wait a little longer. Between the miscarriage and the trauma Cerys had suffered at the hands of Artur, I was more than willing to wait. I didn’t want to do anything that would harm her.
“They don’t like me,” she said. I knew who she meant. The women hadn’t been subtle.
“Their husbands will be handling the situation. None of them will be cruel to you ever again. If they are, then I will deal with them, and I can promise none of them want that.”
She reached up and brushed her fingers over my beard. “My fierce protector.”
“Always, myshka .”
“I feel like I should thank my father.”
I went tight at the mention of that man, fury filling me. “Why?”
My tone was harsher than I’d intended and I felt her retreat a little. I soothed her with my hands and a few kisses along her shoulder, and she began to relax against me again.
“If he hadn’t gotten into trouble with your people, then you never would have come to my house that day.
We might have never met, and you’re the best thing that ever happened to me, Viktor.
I would gladly endure all my father did to me all over again, as long as it meant we would be together in the end. ”
I turned her to face me, tipped her chin up, then kiss her soft and slow.
“We were destined to be together,” I said.
“I was just collateral damage.”
“No, you were the prize I’d been waiting for all my life. You own me heart and soul, Cerys. My light. My angel.”
She pressed her lips to mine, and I pulled us farther into the shadows. Maybe finding an empty bathroom wasn’t such a bad idea after all. I didn’t think I’d last much longer without being inside my woman. I needed her like I needed to breathe.
I hadn’t saved her that day. She’d saved me. And one day we’d have the family we both craved.