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He is not wrong there. Being the leader of a Bratva is probably pretty high on the list of things polite society would hold against him.
Briefly, I wonder what it says about me that I’m thrilled he’s in bed next to me. Or what it says about me that we dida lotmore than sleep in this bed last night.
But before I can fall into that shame spiral, I shove it away. “I know letting someone see you in a less than perfect state might be hard for you, but your bed head can’t be this bad,” I tease. “Take this blindfold off and we’ll comb out your tangles together.”
I can practically hear him roll his eyes. “Keep making jokes and I’m not going to show you the surprise.”
I perk up. “Surprise? What kind of surprise? Is it for me?”
“Come with me and you’ll find out.”
He takes my hand and coaxes me out of bed. I follow along reluctantly, bumbling against him as we leave the room like a newborn fawn with legs that don’t work yet.
I sigh. “I’d ask you where we’re going, but on second thought, I think I’ll save my breath. I know you well enough to know you aren’t going to answer my questions until you’re good and ready.”
“Took you long enough to catch on.”
We step onto the elevator together and it’s only as the doors are closing that I panic and lunge for the “doors open” button.
Timofey snatches me around the waist, pulling me back. “What in the hell are you doing?”
“Benjamin!” I gasp. “I can’t believe I—Who is watching him? Where is he?”
Timofey might have literally fucked the sense out of me last night. How on earth could I forget we have a baby upstairs who needs our attention?
“Oh, wow. You’re right,” Timofey says calmly. “I completely forgot about him. I’m sure he’ll be fine up there, though. Right? He’s sleeping, so—”
I swat around blindly until I make contact with his muscular torso, then I thwack him hard a few times as I screech, “Are you insane? He is a baby! He can’t be left alone. Especially after last night. Someone needs to be there in case he wakes up or is hungry or…or…or if there is a fire…” My voice trails off and then I slap him again. “You jerk! You’re messing with me! I thought you were serious.”
He chuckles just as the elevator stops. “Akim is watching Benjamin. He woke up an hour ago, but I let you sleep in.”
As my heart returns to its normal rhythm, I can once again be excited about the surprise. “Stay still,” he orders. He undoes the clasp of the blindfold and takes it off of me. We step out into…
An entirely empty parking garage.
I frown as I look around. “Where are all of the other cars? Isn’t this the garage for the entire building?”
He shakes his head. “Not at present. It’s safer this way.”
Right. Because there could still be gunmen coming after us. So much for a return to my resting heart rate.
“You cleared out a level of a parking garage for me? But when did you—” I stop, putting the pieces together. “Wow. This is asurprisesurprise. You planned this out.”
“It’s not aplan.” He says it like a dirty word. “It’s just something I arranged.”
I nod. “Yeah. A plan. You cleared out this floor of the garage; you asked Akim to come over and watch Benjamin. That’s a plan in my book.”
“It’s not that big of a deal. Lower your expectations.”
“Considering I expect absolutely nothing from you, that will be pretty hard to do.”
His jaw clenches, a line forming between his eyes. He looks…hurt. That’s the only real word for it.
"I didn’t mean I expect nothing from you. I meant I don’t expect anything from you.” I sigh. “Ugh. That sounded like the same thing. I just mean, you didn’t have to do anything for me. You’ve already done more than enough.”
His blue eyes peer over at me, and I instantly go from worrying I’ve offended him to worrying that I’ve said something far too vulnerable.
Thankfully, he doesn’t dwell.
