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“About you know who?”
Fredericka nodded.
“No. I haven’t.” Alyx took a deep breath. “He just thinks I’m a bitch to him because I’m wired that way.”
“Oh, Alyx. Do you really love that man?”
“Nathan’s a huge help in making me forget,” Alyx admitted, “but I’m...terrified. What if it’s not enough?”
Fredericka impulsively reached for her cousin’s hand to give it a comforting squeeze. “You haven’t done anything wrong, Alyx.”
Alyx bit her lip hard. “I just...I just don’t get it. Why did this have to happen?” Anguish darkened her gaze. “It’s so stupid, and you know how much I hate being stupid, but I’m the idiot in this case. I’m the idiot because I still fell for him when he was hers from the very start.”
Pulling her hand away, Alyx wiped her teary eyes furiously. “I even hated him at first, but somehow, it just happened. The more time I spent with him...I just...” Her chest rose as she dragged oxygen into her lungs. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything,” Fredericka stressed, wanting to help her cousin in any way.
Alyx swallowed. “Would you...would you want to know about how I felt – if you were her?”
Ah.Fredericka said quietly, “No.” She thought about Alyx being secretly in love with Sergei and knew it would hurt too much, even if she could understand that Alyx hadn’t meant to fall for him. “I wouldn’t want to know, and especially if you don’t plan to let anything happen beyond...beyond loving him from afar.”
Alyx smiled shakily at her. “Thanks, Freddie. I needed to hear that.”
“But that’s just me,” Fredericka cautioned gently. “It could be she’d choose differently.”
When Sergei returned home long past dinner, it was to find Fredericka curled up in the armchair in her study, a lost, pensive look on her face as she stared at the darkness outside the window.
Frowning, the billionaire swiftly made his way to her, and hearing his footsteps, she turned to him, a smile slowly forming on her lips.
He crouched down in front of her. “Everything okay?” He pressed a protective hand on her bump just before reaching to cup her face. In a rare gesture of dependence, she turned her face to his palm, her eyes closing, and Sergei’s frown deepened. “Somethingiswrong.”
“It’s nothing.”
He swept her off the chair so he could take a seat instead and place her on his lap. She immediately curled up against him, and his arms around her tightened. “Is it about living here?” It was, in truth, his greatest fear, that she would not appreciate living with the rest of his family. And if she didn’t, he knew she had a right to feel that way, just as he knew that if she chose to leave, he would leave with her.
She raised her head, making a face at him. “Stop worrying about that, seriously,” she chided him gently. “I know you’re thinking I could be like other women, wanting a house of my own, but that’s never been my dream.” She traced his lips, whispering, “I didn’t even know what my dream was until you showed it to me.”
“Am I your dream then?” he asked lazily.
“God, you’re so cocky.” But the way she was staring at him told the billionaire that she loved him that way. “My dream is to have a family again, and you gave me that by sharing your family with me. So for the last time, please stop worrying. I love it here. I would love it if we could all live together forever.” She paused. “There’s also the added bonus of seeing how unbearably cute you are when you’re doting on Seri. It just makes me want to steal her away from you so I can make you cry.”
“Pregnancy,” the billionaire said mildly, “has made you remarkably weird.”
Fredericka laughed.
“You still haven’t told me why you looked so sad.”
“It’s Alyx,” she said. “That’s all I can really say.”
Ah.“Is there anything I can do to help?”
She laid her head back on his chest. “If you ever end up falling for someone else—-”
“It will never happen,” he interrupted flatly.
“But if it does,” she insisted, “but you also think it’s just a passing thing, then...don’t tell me, okay? Just let itpassand then come back to me.”
“Is this about the Beasts article?”
