Page 71 of My Ex’s Dad

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—”