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A tear spilled down her cheek as Fredericka choked out, “Yes.”
“Look at me, Fredericka.” He waited for her patiently, watched her square her shoulders before once again meeting his gaze. “I’m here for you. I will always be here for you, and I’ll be there for the baby, too.”
“You can’t promise me that,” she said brokenly. Because her father had promised her mother the moon and the stars, and yet in the end all his promises had turned out empty.
“I can and I am promising you that.”
“Life doesn’t work that way,” she cried out. “You’re you, and—-”
His jaw clenched. “If someone older – someone perhaps like Julian Alexeyev – was the one who has made you pregnant, are you saying that will be the only time you feel there is no need to worry? It is only because of my age that makes you think I am incapable of caring for you and our child?”
“No.” His words forced her to see the silliness in her thoughts, forced her to remember the kind of man she knew Sergei Grachyov to be. He wasn’t like her father and had never been like him.
“Trust me,pchelka.” He breathed hard. “Because I love you.”
Fredericka jerked.
“I have loved you for a very long time.”
“Don’t say that just because of the baby.” Her tone was strained. “It’s not necessary. If you’re worried about what people would say—-” She shut up when he looked at her like she had gone mad.
“My mother is an infamous gold-digging snob, and my youngest brother is dating our stepsister. Do you think I’d survive this far if I cared about what other people think?”
Right, right. But if that was so, then did that mean—-
Her eyes widened.
And just like he could read the question screaming in her mind, Sergei said flatly, “I wasn’t lying. You didn’t hear wrong.I love you.”
“You can’t,” Fredericka whispered.
“I do, and I know you heard me the first time I told you.”
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
“How can you love someone like me?” she choked out. “I’molderthan you. And I’mboring.And—-”
“I love you,” the billionaire murmured, “and I can love only you because you’re the only woman who pays for dinner when we go on a date.”
She laughed and cried, but when she saw him reaching for his pocket and pulling out a small jewelry box, her heart stuttered, and she burst out unthinkingly, “No.”
A shuttered look fell on the billionaire’s handsome face as he said stiffly, “I haven’t even asked you anything yet.”
“And you shouldn’t.” Her mind was shouting at her for being insane enough to preemptively turn down a marriage proposal from a confirmed bachelor like Sergei, but she knew her conscience wouldn’t have let her live with any other choice. Giving the billionaire a tremulous smile, she whispered, “Not just yet.Please?”
Ah.The billionaire studied her for a long moment before saying finally, “You still don’t trust me.”
She didn’t answer.
“You think I’ll leave you the way your father left your mother.”
She still didn’t answer, but when he started to move, she stiffened, the paranoid part of her already preparing itself to face his anger or disappointment.
But instead all he did was place a tiny kiss of her nose. It was a surprisinglycutekiss, and her toes actually curled hard at the billionaire’s gesture. “It’s okay.” His voice was quiet and gentle, strong and steady.
