No wonder Stefan had become so hard, so closed off. How could he not be, after everything he had seen? After everything he had gone through, the lie he’d had to live?
“I couldn’t risk getting you involved,” he said. “I wanted to keep you safe. Tracking you, hiring that bodyguard, they were never about keeping you in a cage. They were about making sure my father never took you the way he took Anja. Never used you as leverage against me.”
His hand came up to cup my cheek, his thumb brushing my tears away.
It all made sense now. His behavior. His need to know where I was at all times. No wonder he had been so furious when I would disappear, when he couldn’t find me, when I was out with people he didn’t know.
I would never put him through that worry again. Especially now that I knew the truth.
“I thought you were cheating on me,” I confessed. “I thought you were seeing other women, hiding a mistress from me…”
Stefan shook his head. “It’s only been you,” he said.
“All this time?” I asked. I had to be sure. I had to know the truth, once and for all.
He kissed me, slow and soft, and then pulled away to look me in the eye.
“Ever since our wedding, from the moment we said I do, its only ever been you,” he said.
Tori
Chapter 27
When I woke up the next morning, I lay there for a long time, replaying the events of last night in my head. I was alone. It was a Saturday, so I didn’t have any classes to rush off to, but Stefan might have gone into the office for the day. The condo seemed quiet. Hushed. Empty.
At first I was afraid that our night together had been a dream, or worse—that it had all been real, but that Stefan would be different in the light of day. That he’d go back to his old self, acting as if nothing had passed between us, as if he’d never opened up to me and told me his secrets. Never told me that he loved me.
Had it really all happened? Had we torn down all the walls that had stood between us? Was our marriage real now? Was it true? Or would I get out of bed, walk into the kitchen, and find the same Stefan that I had been living with for all these months? A man that was as shut down and closed off and dangerous as his father?
I couldn’t stand the thought of it, but when I caught the unmistakable scent of fresh-brewed coffee, I decided it was best to face him now, as soon as possible, and find out right away just how much things had really changed.
Cautiously, I wrapped my soft, luxurious robe around myself and then padded out of the bedroom, straining my ears for sounds of life in the apartment. The smoky smell of bacon in the hallway hit me immediately. Inhaling deeply, my mouth watering, I headed to the kitchen.
Rounding the doorway, I was shocked to find Stefan at the stove. The last time he’d tried to make me breakfast, I’d been too ill from my night at the club to appreciate it. But now, I couldn’t imagine anything I wanted more than to be cared for, and cooked for, by my husband.
“Who are you and what have you done with my husband?” I teased.
“I told Gretna to take the day off,” he said, turning to smile at me. “It’s just us.”
The food wasn’t the only reason my mouth was watering. Stefan was naked from the waist up, his jeans hugging his great ass and powerful thighs. I stood there silently for a moment, taking it all in. His gorgeous broad shoulders, his strong back, the way his muscles tensed and bunched as he tended to the pans on the stove. He was gorgeous. Beyond gorgeous.
I was starving now, but not for breakfast.
“Did you sleep well, beautiful?” he asked, his voice warm and full of promises.
“I did,” I replied, realizing by the way he was acting that everything last night had been real.
The Stefan I had spent all night talking to—and making love with—was still here.
I was so full of love I could barely see straight.
“Breakfast is just about ready,” he said, draping a kitchen towel over his shoulder.
It didn’t seem possible, but it made him look even sexier and more appealing than he had mere moments ago.
Then he poured a coffee into my favorite mug, added a splash of my coconut creamer, and handed the cup to me. I thanked him, unable to help the blush that spread across my cheeks. A blush that only made him smile more widely at me.
“Why don’t you have a seat and I’ll bring you a plate?” he said, gesturing toward the table.
