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“Do you regret what we did?” I ask her, my lips brushing against her hair.
She reels back in shock, anger making her pretty face flush red. “No! Never! You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me!”
I can’t help the satisfaction that floods my mind, mixing with surprise and pride that this little woman of mine feels soardently about me. When the elevator dings, telling us that we’ve made it to the ground floor, I hurry us out of the building to the waiting car I ordered for us.
As soon as we’re inside it, I tell the driver to go to my penthouse before raising the privacy wall.
It’s only when we have true privacy that I start to ask her questions. Things like what happened, what her father had on her, what he wanted her to do—everything.
As she explains to me that her mother moved to the States when she was a toddler, her hand is in mine. I listen to her every word, learning that she came to the city as soon as she turned eighteen because her mother wanted it to be harder to track her. I learn that her father wanted to arrange a marriage between her and some no-name crime lord in Bucharest, and that my involvement was considered a threat. When she tells me how her father hurt her, the bruises around her neck proof of his cruelty, it takes several long, deep breaths to keep myself from turning the car around and finishing her bastard father off myself.
But then I watch Birdie begin to panic about her mother.
“I’ll make some calls,” I assure her. “I have connections all over. We’ll move her here to the city and I’ll put her in a safe apartment where no one will bother her.”
Birdie’s eyes widen. “What? How? That’s so expensive, I couldn’t possibly ask you to do that.”
That’s when I realize that I haven’t told her who I am. I know so much about her, but she knows nothing about me.
Yet.
I smirk down at her as the car pulls into the underground garage of my building. She follows me wordlessly to the private elevatorthat goes straight up to the penthouse, giving me odd looks as we go.
Only when she sees my home does she realize that I’m not only capable of taking care of her, but I’m more than capable of ensuring her mother’s safety as well.
“Ethan,” she breathes as she looks around, wandering to the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the city. “Is this place yours?”
“Yes,” I say as I wrap my arms around her from behind.
“But, you’re in construction. Does it really pay that well?”
“I’m not just in construction, Birdie. I run the entire project, start to finish. I’m one of the best and most successful builders in the region.”
She turns around to look at me, her mouth open with surprise.
“You don’t have to be scared anymore,” I whisper to her, cupping her face with my palm. “I mean it when I say you’re mine. No one will ever hurt you again, because no one gets to lay a finger on what’s mine.”
Birdie’s eyes flutter closed as she leans into my touch.
“I love you,” she says, her voice quiet but confident.
My heart skips a beat.
“Do you mean it?” I ask her.
She frowns at me cutely, almost pouting. “Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?”
“So none of this has been too fast for you? You aren’t worried about the fact that I rescued you from your father with nothing but some borrowed gangsters and my own two fists?” I ask, feeling more shocked than I probably should be. I mean, she’s still here in my arms, right?”
“If I was worried, I know you would have listened to me. I know you would have taken me wherever I wanted and left me alone,” she says.
This is it, I realize. This is the moment I tell her that I’ve been following her since I first saw her, shadowing her as she lives her life. That I wouldn’t stop doing that even if she told me to leave and never speak to her again.
“Birdie, do you know why I fell for you?” I ask her, pulling her close as I start to walk her back towards my bedroom.
“Because you think my cat’s really cute?” she jokes as she lets me steer her.
“I’ve wanted you since the moment I first saw you,” I explain. “It feels like it was forever ago. I saw you through your apartment window, and it was like lightning had struck. I became addicted to watching you day in and out. I started to look forward to it every single day.”
