Chapter 54
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
THORA
TWO WEEKS LATER
“All right, Cider. Don’t get jealous.” I brush a hand down her face as the new horse I’m helping noses closer, while Cider makes it clear she’s offended that my attention has been divided. “Remember how much you needed me in the beginning? Now you have to share.”
Cider makes a low sound, and I laugh as I cross the paddock toward Sugar.
Life has been better these last couple of weeks. Not perfect, but better. I’ve learned how to live with the truth of where I came from, and having my family welcome Anton so openly has helped mend a bridge I wasn’t sure we could ever fully repair.
Some days, the pain still sneaks up on me, reminding me of everything I lost and how badly I wish Drew had been different. But Anton has been there through all of it, holding me through the worst parts without needing to say much. I’ve never felt this safe.
Sugar pushes into me a little too eagerly, and Slava, my newest shadow—a.k.a. the bodyguard my future husband insisted on—jumps to his feet as though he’s ready to fight the poor horse.
“It’s okay, Slava.” I hold up a hand. “She’s not going to hurt me.”
He doesn’t look convinced. “Boss would kill me if she did.”
“Yes, well, the boss worries too much.”
Slava remains tense, but says nothing else, standing inside the paddock with a gun hidden under his jacket.
My parents didn’t even bother pretending to object when Anton assigned him to me. Daddy has wanted guards on me for years, and Anton handing him the perfect excuse only made them like him more.
Mama might love him most of all. She cooks for him every time we visit them in Texas, piling food onto his plate while he sits there and lets her talk at him for hours. She actually likes that he doesn’t say much because it gives her all the room in the world to fill the silence.
Bless his soul for having that much patience.
The sound of a motorcycle cuts through, and my heart swells before I even see him. As soon as I do, I open the paddock just as he stops short.
“Hello there, handsome.” I strut on over just as he removes his helmet, giving me a smile.
He winds an arm around the small of my back and pulls me in, kissing me senseless.
“Ugh,” Greer says as she walks past. “Do we all have to see that?”
Anton pulls back. “Yes.”
Greer groans. “Disgusting. I hate love.”
“No you don’t,” I tell her. “You just haven’t met the one yet.”
“Don’t wish that kind of evil on me.” She scowls before heading toward the bed-and-breakfast.
Anton’s mouth curves, and I laugh as she keeps walking.
He looks back at me, his thumb tracing along the side of my neck. “How was your day?”
“Good. Yours?”
“Better now.”
“That was overly romantic.” I grimace.
“Don’t tell anyone.” He kisses me again.
“Mm, never.” I throw my arms around him just as his gaze drops to my mouth like he wants to taste me all over again.
“Lunch?” he asks.
“Sure.”
He jumps off the bike and catches my hips, lifting me onto the seat. His eyes rake across my features, taking me in, while his knuckles drift lazily across my jaw, and my whole body heats beneath the simple touch.
“I love you,” he says.
Just like every time he says it, emotions grow behind my eyes. “I love you too, baby.”
I pull him in by the front of his shirt and kiss him, smiling against his mouth when his hands tighten on my waist. Reaching for my helmet, he fastens it over me before getting on the bike. As soon as my arms curl around his waist, the engine rumbles beneath us.
The second he takes off, laughter bursts out of me, and I lift one arm into the warm afternoon air while the other stays locked around him.
His hand drops briefly to my thigh, squeezing once before he speeds down.
As I press my smile into his back, I don’t think happiness has ever felt this freeing before.
We ride for a while before he slows and pulls to a stop beside a wide stretch of open land. I loosen my hold on him and remove my helmet, my hair falling around my shoulders as I glance around.
At first, I don’t understand where we are. Then, just beyond us, a large field of lavender comes into view. I press a hand to my chest, blinking past the knot in my throat.
“I know how much you liked them in Texas, so I found them here too.”
“Oh my God, Anton. This is the sweetest thing ever.”
He gets off first and helps me down before leading me toward the lavender, our hands linked between us. As we reach the field, I notice a large picnic blanket spread across an opening with a basket already waiting in the middle.
A suspicious look crosses my face as we head toward it. “Did you arrange this?”
He nods, and when we make it there, he lowers himself to the blanket and pulls me onto his lap. The basket opens to reveal fruit, cheeses, and all kinds of different food. Anton hands me a paper plate, filling it with as much as it can hold before preparing his own.
Seeing him like this, so giving and good to me, fills me with joy. In only a few short weeks, I’ll be his wife.
“I can’t wait to marry you,” I tell him as I pop a grape into his mouth.
“To me, we’re already married.”
“Well, tell that to Mama, because she’s been going crazy planning the wedding of the century. Her words, not mine.” A laugh slips out of me. “I told her I want something small. Just family. I hope she doesn’t invite everyone in the world.”
“I don’t care who’s there.” His focus dips to my lips, then rises again.
“All I want is you.” He bows his head and presses his face against my stomach, leaving a kiss there.
“Some days, I still can’t believe I get to have this.
Have you.” His features tighten as he looks up at me. “What do you even see in me?”
My palm cradles his cheek. “Everything.”
A groan leaves him before his mouth crashes to mine, his hands gripping my hips as though he needs to hold me in place to believe I’m real. I kiss him back with everything I have, with every yes I’ve already given him and every yes still waiting inside me.
When I pull away, my fingers dragging through his hair, nerves take over as the words I’ve been dying to say since yesterday begin bubbling to the surface.
“What is it, Thora?” Tension tightens his face.
“Well…” I pause, suddenly more nervous than I expected. “I didn’t think this would happen so soon, especially right before the wedding, but…surprise. We’re having a baby.”
He draws back a fraction, every muscle going still as his gaze lowers to my stomach and the meaning of my words takes hold.
“Really?”
A smile breaks through my nerves as I nod. “Yes. We’re going to be parents.”
He cups my stomach with the gentlest touch, not saying anything for a while, until his gaze fills with emotion. “I promise to do right by this baby in every way my father never did.”
Tears blur my vision as I throw my arms around him, vowing to never let go. When he kisses me this time, it’s with utter devotion, his mouth deep and possessive while his hands pull me closer against him.
The picnic is forgotten as he lowers me onto the blanket, careful with my body even as the hunger in his kiss grows.
Lavender surrounds us, shielding us from the rest of the world, and I drag his shirt over his head while he reaches for mine, our clothes disappearing between heated kisses and restless hands.
Anton takes his time touching me, drawing out every reaction, even though he already knows them all.
His mouth travels down my throat and across my chest while his hand slips between my thighs, his thumb circling my clit as two fingers press inside me.
Every stroke sends another quiver through my body until my hips arch toward him and my fingertips dig into his shoulders, desperate to feel his cock.
His restraint finally gives out when I reach for his belt, stroking him through his pants. I practically tear off the rest of his clothes, and once we’re both bare, skin pressed to skin with nothing separating us, he covers me with his body and guides himself inside me in one slow, deep thrust.
My legs wrap around his waist, my fingers delving into his shoulders while his mouth claims mine again, and the tenderness from earlier gives way to a rougher need that pulls me under.
The blanket bunches beneath us as his pace builds, each drive of his body dragging another gasp from my lips.
He turns me onto my stomach and lifts my hips, one hand gripping my waist while the other presses between my shoulder blades, holding me against the blanket as he sinks back inside me.
My fingers curl into the grass, and I bury my face against my arm, unable to contain my moans each time he pulls back and fills me again.
His breathing grows ragged behind me, control slipping with every roll of my hips until his hand slides around my body and settles between my thighs.
When my walls clench around him, his palm works over my aching center, the pressure almost too intense to bear.
“Anton, oh God…”
“Vot tak. Umnitsa.” That’s it. Good girl.
In our time together, I’ve learned a little Russian, and my favorite words will always be the dirty ones.
His thumb circles my clit while his pace turns relentless, keeping me balanced on the edge until one final thrust sends pleasure crashing through me. My body tightens around him in pulsing waves, and he follows soon after, holding himself fully inside me as he drags me close.
He lowers us onto the blanket without letting me go, keeping me tucked against him while the lavender sways around us.
With his palm resting over the life we created, I know I will never have to face the world alone again.
But Anton has taught me something far more important without ever needing to say it. He taught me what love truly means.
The man who was sent to end my life has become the reason it finally began.