Chapter 29
LILIANA
There’s something about being in Anton’s arms that instantly calms me. The closer my heart beats to his, the more level-headed I am.
It’s not some magical twist of suddenly, head-over-heels falling in love.
It’s something I haven’t felt in a very, very long time.
I can relax as he carries me out of the bakery because of something else.
Something like security.
He is the boss and he demands control, but like this, I realize it’s exactly what I’ve been missing for most of my life. To be able to have someone who can encourage me to lower my guard. That if I’m not on and managing everything, the world won’t fall apart.
Anton gives me that security—the one thing I never realized I was missing.
I sigh, resting my cheek against him as he steps around the counter and past the man who held a gun to my head.
His voice rumbles through his chest as he orders the men who came with him.
Viktor’s reply reaches me, but I tune it out, focusing on the hard cushion of Anton’s chest, the secure grip of his thick, muscled arms around me.
While he instructs the crew to wrap up the scene and handle the cleanup, I don’t have to wonder if he’ll see to Jenni and the others.
He wouldn’t whisk me away without leaving a plan for the bakery.
They’ll get it covered.
Because this man has me covered.
I’m not sure what to say as he carries me out into the cool spring morning. I stay just as wordless on the ride to his building, still processing everything that happened. Already, I’m starting to know the route by heart.
He thinks it’s my home, and as the building comes into view and the pressure of his hand stays constant in mine, I know it is. It will be.
In all the years of working at the bakery and seeing my parents make poor business choices, and then during the time I was with Roman and dismissed as being not good enough, I’ve never had stability.
No true sense of home. If anything, that small bakery that I want to keep going with Jenni is my home.
Since meeting Anton and feeling this deep comfort of his protection, I want to believe that he can truly change and not be overwhelmingly controlling. That he can give me the home I want.
With love.
With a baby to raise.
It’s not until we’re inside his building that all these revelations settle into place, in my mind and in my heart.
He doesn’t push me to talk, seeming to know I need a moment to process and get through the trauma.
All of it. Being threatened, hit, held at gunpoint, then forced to watch a man killed and another sentenced to death.
“Are you going to let him live?” I ask at last as we stand in the shower together.
I don’t even have to say anything for him to know how much I need this. With the hot water running down us, the steam curling like a gentle cocoon, I can fully relax.
He is still checking me over, his hands gentle as he looks at where I was hit.
“Yes,” he replies. He doesn’t ask me to confirm that I’m inquiring about Roman. “But you don’t need to worry. He will never hurt you again.”
I shake my head, hugging him loosely. “I know that. Did you really mean that about him not being your son anymore? About cutting him off and out of your life for good?””
“He stopped being my son the second he dared to threaten you and our child.” His face twists at that last word, as though he hates the connection our baby has to Roman. “I am done looking back, Liliana. I choose you. I choose what we can build together.” He presses his lips to my forehead.
“And I choose you too,” I whisper back.
“You’re not afraid?” he asks, rubbing his thumb up and down my back.
“I am.” I heave out a deep breath, glad I can always be honest with him. “But I think that I can trust that you’ll keep things like what happened today as far from me as possible.”
He cups my face as he slides his other hand to my ass, pushing me closer. “I will.”
“Does that mean you will keep me here and lock me inside where you know I’m safe?”
He smiles slightly and shakes his head. “I don’t want to own you, Liliana, like a thing to hide away and lock up. I want to love you and share my life with you.”
He just knows all the right things to say.
“What about what I want?”
He arches a brow. “Enlighten me.”
I smile, clinging to him and warming to the thrill of his shaft rubbing against me, his hard chest dragging against my nipples.
“You. I want you.” I kiss him but keep it shorter and sweeter than he seems to want.
He growls, frustrated, and follows when I pull back.
“But it’s always been my dream to have the bakery.
Thriving and successful.” I frown. “I refuse to ask you for permission to work.”
“That’s all?” he asks.
“To me, it’s a huge deal to know you’ll respect my independence instead of treating it like something you have to defeat.”
“Within reason,” he counters. “I can’t allow you to be somewhere that’s not safe.”
“I understand that.”
“Being with me means you’ll inherently face more danger.”
I nod, even though I hate it. “I understood that, to a degree, when I dated Roman.”
“It will be different with me.”
I laugh once. “Oh, I’m well aware of that.”
“I am willing to meet you in the middle, Liliana. I respect your drive to work. To be industrious. It’s one of the many things that make you all the more endearing to me.”
“Okay, but I can do that too. I can compromise. And once the loan is repaid and I have the capital to invest in more security for the bakery—”
He cuts me off, kissing me deeply. It’s a hungrier kiss than the others, but I’m not annoyed that he’s silencing me. The longer we stand here and talk and understand each other, the shorter my patience runs to have him again.
“The bakery is yours, Liliana.”
I open my mouth to protest. “I don’t want your charity.”
“Then take it as an engagement gift from me to you.”
Staring at him doesn’t change what he said.
“Engagement?”
He kisses me. “Yes.”
I open my mouth again to reply but kiss him instead. He’s being awfully presumptuous, which goes against his promise to not be completely controlling. But it’s what I want too. What I dare to dream of in all my fantasies.
“The debt is gone, Liliana. The bakery is yours. Not just because I love you, but because I can’t have you stressed about keeping it running and focusing on it as the business you’ve wanted to commit to.”
Happiness spills over in my heart. I grin, so grateful I ever took a chance on letting him matter.
“You mean that?” I ask, scared this is a dream, a figment of my imagination.
“Yes. I will always mean it.” He kisses me to seal the promise.
“Just like that?” I ask, uncaring if I sound giddy or breathless.
“No, not just like that.” He smirks, looking serious, yet mischievous. “We might have started this on a whim, but I intend for the rest of our lives to be handled with great care and my full attention to every detail.”
I nod. “What details?”
“I need you to consider making time for things other than the bakery.”
My deep kiss softens him. He walks me out of the shower, not taking his mouth from mine as he leans over and grabs a towel to wrap around me. He uses it as a way to hold me against him as he walks me to the bed.
“I intend to make time for you,” I tell him as he follows me onto the mattress, his hand easing between my legs that I part for him.
“And I need you to consider making time to be my wife,” he adds between hot kisses he trails down my neck.
“Is that a formal proposal?” I ask, holding him to me. Nothing can erase this smile from my lips.
He slides his fingers into my pussy just as I grip his hard cock. I moan at the stretch, knowing there’s more coming—the full, aching drag of him buried deep, driving me to the edge.
“It’s a necessity,” he replies. “I need you, Liliana.” He shows me how much by replacing his fingers with the head of his shaft.
I arch my back, watching him as he pushes all the way into me.
“I need to make sure the world knows that you are the woman I want.” He pulls out. “The woman I call my wife.” He plunges back in, lighting up my nerves. “And the mother of my child.” He leans in to kiss me as he withdraws. “My future.”
I hug him to me, stunned that I can be the happily-ever-after he wants.
After he seats himself again, he faces me with the adoration I never imagined having from a man like him. “Will you marry me?”
I kiss him, then as I drop my head back to the bed and relish the stretch of him so deep inside me, I smile. “Yes. I can’t wait to call you mine, Anton. Now and forever.”
My answer is what makes him lose control. Afterward, I smile as I doze off, knowing there’s nothing in this world that would bring me greater joy than this man choosing me as the woman to share his life with.