33. Adrik
ADRIK
I wasn’t going to hover over her in the bathroom, for fuck’s sake. The way she looked at me suggested she was dreading my doing just that.
After I left, though, she stayed at the forefront of my mind.
I had a couple of meetings to get through, one with Rico Johnson, again, that ass-kissing annoyance of a wannabe politician who was still trying to get on my good side.
He’d been on our radar even before my father had his stroke and we learned of his prognosis.
And my father didn’t have much patience for him either.
At the time, he suggested having Alexei deal with the up-and-coming potential politician.
Which was a cruel joke all around. My older cousin had the charisma and patience for speaking with a schmoozing politician as much as he had for putting up with fools. Which was a sum of zero.
I had taken over that angle of networking, so to speak, to spare Alexei wanting to kill the man or something.
My father ruled above the law of society.
He always trained us to view the politicians of the world as salesmen who were after whatever they could get their hands on to lobby for their own profit.
Taking my father’s place meant I would need to walk that fine line of balancing favors and annoyance with the smarmy idiots.
Yet, not even twenty seconds into the video call, I was losing interest faster than ever in what Rico rambled about.
If he could stop inserting those stupid chuckles that grated on my nerves, I bet I’d lower my blood pressure.
Fuck, was he annoying.
Since I didn’t see any critical value to fully listening to him, I reverted to who was on my mind.
Elena.
I could so perfectly envision her with her belly round, carrying my son or daughter. She’d glow, looking like a radiant queen. My queen.
Before I could allow myself to fantasize about how gorgeous she would be as an expectant mother of my child, I had to erase the more current images of her.
Scared.
Nervous.
Timid.
Worried.
She had hedged all through that conversation when she’d come out of the bathroom and I’d put her on the spot. But the rest of our talk hadn’t gone as well as I wished it could.
She looked like she was about to cry.
When I explained that I wanted to know the results of the test so we could know if we were guessing at something that wasn’t even happening, she looked mad.
But it was critical. I didn’t see how she would enjoy the unknown. She couldn’t have been having fun playing a game of what-ifs with herself about whether she was pregnant or not. We had to know if she was expecting. Because if she was, there was so much to do!
We’d need to move her into the main house, something that I wished she could’ve asked about and made it easier on me so I wouldn’t need to bring it up. I’d wanted her in my bed, but I couldn’t tell if she would think I was making her “move” too soon or not.
We’d need to get her set up with prenatal care. Vitamins and bloodwork and all.
We’d need to start planning a nursery, and so many other details about the baby.
I’d spent hours yesterday looking up what to do for expecting parents—that was how excited and hopeful I was.
And then we’d need to plan a wedding. She’d be my wife before our child arrived. That would take some thought as well.
Hell, even if she isn’t pregnant, I’ll marry her.
With the idea of her carrying my child so prominent in my mind, there was no reversing on it. There was no backtracking and removing this possibility now.
If she wasn’t pregnant now… I’d marry her as soon as I could. And we’d practice until we could start a family.
I nodded along with something Rico said on the screen, hardly caring whether he could tell I wasn’t listening.
In my mind’s eye, I was taken back to the car ride from Morovov Financials. When she’d told me that her name was Elena. Just Elena, because she no longer saw herself as a Morovov with her father giving her to me.
I’d told her curtly that she wouldn’t be a Volkov, either, to stress that she was given to me as a transaction.
Famous last words, huh?
I rubbed my hand over my mouth to hide a wry smile.
Now, she would be a Volkov. As soon as I could marry her. There was no complication in letting a woman into my life. I saw that now. It was only complicated when I fought that and tried to resist what was so strong between us.
She would never be a complication as my wife. She’d be?—
Oh, fuck this.
I can’t stand waiting.
She hadn’t texted me about the test. No call. Sacha and Igor would’ve let me know if she showed up for work.
Worrying that she was still at the other house and dreading taking that test, I gave up pretending to care about this meeting.
I shot to my feet. Maksim glanced up from scrolling on his phone. He was out of the video range but just there in case I needed him to relay something to me.
“I need to go.” I didn’t tell the pain-in-the-ass politician. I told my brother. He could handle it.
I’d never gotten up abruptly and left in the middle of a meeting or engagement. Not like this. I hadn’t when I was my father’s right-hand man. And I hadn’t since I started taking over.
But this matter with Elena was too important. And this asshole on the call was too unimportant to keep me away from her.
Without giving any further explanation, I grabbed my phone—since the call with Rico Johnson was on a tablet—and I left.
I strode right out of my office and practically jogged down the stairs to exit the house.
Sunshine baked me and roasted me as soon as I set foot outside, but I didn’t slow on the short trip to the guest house.
Waving off guards, I indicated for them to stand by outside the guest house. Privacy mattered here, and I didn’t intend to let anyone have a piece of my attention until I could know where things were with Elena.
I had to see her. I couldn’t get her or the chance of our child out of my mind.
“Elena?”
I called out for her as I took the steps toward her bedroom.
The urgency that strummed through me fueled me to hurry faster, almost as if I worried this was all a dream or a prank and I’d be back to the stressful, unfulfilling life I had before she’d brightened it.
“Elena?”
I opened the door, alarmed when her soft cries reached me.
She was lying on the bed, seeming to just wake from a nap or just trying to fall asleep.
Hearing her upset wounded me.
Seeing her eyes so wet and mournful broke my heart.
“Elena.” I dropped to my knees, cupping her face and turning her to face me.
No.
No…
She can’t be crying because… because she lost the baby.
“Elena. Please. Talk to me.”
“I won’t…” She sniffled, trying to sit up but too busy wiping her eyes.
I guided her to rest against the back of the bed so she could face me.
“I won’t…” She shook her head, trying to get a hold of herself. Her composure was so strong, even when she struggled. “I won’t give this baby up.”
Still cupping her face, I lunged forward. “You’re pregnant?”
She nodded, furrowing her brow as she watched me. “I am. And you’re not?—”
I dove in and kissed her. Tasting the salty tears on her lips, I felt a surge of fierce protectiveness charge me.
I was having a child. She was going to give me a strong son or daughter.
Me, a father .
This completed me more than knowing I’d be the Pakhan any day.
Smiling against her lips, I knew I’d commit this moment into my memory forever.
She pulled back, though, seeming slightly calmer but still wary of me. “Adrik?”
“We’re having a baby,” I confirmed, unafraid to let her hear the awe in my voice.
Opening her eyes wider, she sat up more. “You’re… not mad?”
I smirked. “Why the fuck would I be mad?”
“Because you said you wanted to know how to proceed.”
I laughed once. “Yeah. To know if we needed to start on a nursery now. And vitamins. Moving you into the house.”
Her mouth dropped open, and I laughed lightly as I leaned in to kiss her again.
She clung to me, threading her fingers through my hair so she could hold the back of my head toward hers. Light moans left her mouth, but I wasn’t ready to celebrate completely. Not yet.
“I’m not mad,” I explained. “I’m so fucking thrilled. Amazed. Shocked, yes, but Elena. Sweetheart. This is it. We will start our family with this one and?—”
She reared back and gaped at me again, almost comically. “ This one?”
I kissed her again, unable to help myself.
“I just found out and you’re planning more?” she squeaked.
“As many as you want,” I promised her before kissing her slowly and leaning her back against the bed again.
“Adrik, I’m… I don’t know what to say. This is so sudden and I was crying because I was so worried you wouldn’t want a baby or me and I’d need to leave because I’m not giving up this child. And I didn’t have anywhere to go and, and… and…”
While she rambled, I got the ring box out of my pocket and brought it up to her eye level. She stammered, trailing off at the end as she peered at it.
“And…” She tilted her head to the side.
“You say yes , sweetheart.” I popped the box open, revealing my mother’s ring, the one my father had given her so many years ago.
“Oh, fuck.” She opened her eyes so wide, they were practically bugging out.
I laughed, amused by how shocked she was. Perhaps this was taking it quickly, but who ever said I had to do anything slow and normal?
“Adrik.” She volleyed her gaze between me and the ring. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am serious. I would like to mark this as the day you can prove me wrong.”
She furrowed her brow.
“I told you on the day we met that you wouldn’t be a Volkov, when you didn’t see yourself as your father’s daughter anymore.”
She nodded.
“I was wrong. Because I intend to take you as my wife and make you my partner, Elena. To know that you will always be guaranteed my protection. Both you and our children.”
“Adrik!” She laughed once. “Singular. One child at a time,” she teased.
“We could have twins.”
She stared at me, alarmed.
“I love you, Elena. And I would be honored if you would accept my declaration with the promise to be my wife.” I held the ring out to her and searched her face as she bit her lip.
I never begged, but I wasn’t above starting now. I was that determined to secure my future—not the one that dictated I would be taking the throne once my father passed, but this one.
The future with this gorgeous, intelligent woman as my wife and my child on the way.