Page 42 of The Beauty Who Loved Him

Maybe, she wanted to say back.

He didn't know for sure.

Couldn’t possibly.

“I’ll forget seeing you through the gallery glass. I’ll forget the file that I have about you that I read every day just so I have it here,” he said, pointing at his head. “And when you look at me like you do, when you think I don’t see you doing it, when you look at me like you’ve been doing it your whole life, I won’t even know that anymore, either.”

But even so ...

“I’ll still be here,” Vera said. “Even then, Vas. I promise. If that happens, I’ll be here then, too.”

She wished it didn’t cut so deep when he barked out a laugh. “Yes, because I’ve had my hands in practically every aspect of your life these past months, I didn’t exactly give you a choice.”

Or she didn’t need one.

Vera was entirely capable of choosing her own path. Why would he be any different?

She shook her head, not bothering to suppress the tremble in her lower lip or the sniffle that escaped when she swiped away a stray tear racing down her cheek. “No, because I want to. I love you, Vaslav, whether it’s your misery that loves my company, or it’s meant to be ... I’m here. And I am not leaving.”

“Vera,” he started.

Almost placating.

Vera tipped her chin up, her stare hardening. “Throw another desk. Be mean. Keep pushing. I don’t mind pulling back.”

“Stop.”

She didn’t.

“I’m not even asking for you to love me back, ty zver'—you beast, just that you’ll let me at least love you.” Vera gulped down a ragged breath that caught in her throat on the way down. “Please ... please, let me love you.”

That meant a lot of things. Vera didn’t even think it would be easy. He wasn’t an easy man, after all. She welcomed anything he brought with him, every single good and bad bit.

“Yeah, okay,” he whispered.

Vera blinked, and another tear fell down. She wasn’t sure she heard him correctly. “What?”

Vaslav nodded, and without warning, kneeled in front of where she sat on the chair. His head found her lap, and he turned his face to the side while his cheek nuzzled against the denim of her jeans. Her hands fluttered above his head, unsure of what he wanted or even what he was doing, before settling down one on his neck and another along his forehead. She didn’t say a thing as one of his hands wrapped tight around her back, and the other clasped the top of her thigh.

“Okay,” he said again.

Her shaking fingers stroked his hairline and the back of his neck featherlight.

“Okay,” Vaslav repeated, as if he needed to say it again and again until he believed it, and settled into the softness of her touch. His upper body weight fell further into her lap. “Then, love me.”

9.

Breathless giggles were Vaslav’s favorite sound. As long as he got to hear it while Vera straddled him in nothing but her skin and a sly smile. Her skin pebbled from the cool air because he hadn’t even given either of them time enough to wake up properly and get moving around before he’d pulled her black panties off to get better access to the heaven between her thighs.

The fire in the fireplace was probably out.

It felt cold enough for it.

He barely even noticed with her on top of him, and he didn’t think the way she shivered up above him was from the cold. With his back resting against the headboard of the king size bed and his arms acting as a pillow behind his head, he had a good, comfortably reclined view of the woman attempting to tease him.

She was succeeding.

He wouldn’t let her know it.