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“But you did. You came just in time,” she declared firmly and gave my hand a little squeeze. “I missed you.”
I felt a rush of air escape my lungs and blinked.
What was I supposed to say? That I’d missed her too, so fucking much, I thought my heart would explode if I didn’t see her again? Was I supposed to tell her how restless I’d been in the past two weeks becausesheclouded my thoughts and made it hard for me to concentrate on anything?
Thankfully, she spoke up before I did.
“But I don’t understand anything.” Her eyes turned sad. She kissed her teeth and leaned back with a sigh. “I don’t get what happened back there with Sophia. I thought... I thought I’d made it very clear that I wasn’t going to get in her way. So why did she want to kill me? And why did you... treat her like that?”
“I didn’t do anything she didn’t deserve.”
Except executing her with a bullet. That was still on the list of things Sophia deserved. But Mariana didn’t look pleased. She gestured with her shoulder.
“You walked away from your fiancée.”
“Ex.” I leaned back on my seat and turned my head to the side. Understanding filled her gaze, but she didn’t say a word. I knew what she wanted: the full, official announcementto confirm her thought; and I was happily going to give it to her. “Ex-fiancée. The wedding is off.”
Her head jerked forward and she frowned like the news was too good to be true. “What? How?”
Because I chose you.
I sat up and turned to face her. “I called it off,moya zvezda. I am not getting married to Sophia.”
“And... and what, both families are okay with it?” she sputtered, her long dark lashes fluttering as she blinked after every word.
I exhaled and bent forward. Then, I combed my hair with my fingers and the heat of her gaze followed my hand and flickered to my hair. “No.”
“What?” she mumbled, rubbing her stomach absent-mindedly. A ghost of a smile played on my lips.
She looked at me and then followed my gaze to her belly. “Do you want to touch it?”
My stomach flipped, my throat dried up. “I’m not…certain…” I still didn’t believe there was a tiny human growing inside her. A tiny human that was half of both of us and fragile. “It’s still hard to believe.”
She snagged my hand, hoisted it, and placed it on her stomach. I holstered forward. “Go ahead,” she whispered.
I rubbed her stomach gently, feeling for a movement, heartbeat or a sign the baby was in there.
Mariana noticed. She chuckled. “The baby is not big enough to feel. We can listen to her heartbeat together on my next appointment.”
I swallowed. “It’s a she?”
Her shoulders raised and dropped simultaneously. “I’m not certain. I just use she because it feels like the right term to use. Do you want it to be a boy?”
“No.” I shook my head, still rubbing her stomach. “Whichever one is fine. As long as they look like you.”
She kissed the top of my head. “You’re sweet when you aren’t frightening.”
A smile quirked my lips, and then it dropped when I remembered Sophia hitting her. “You were attacked. Is the baby hurt?”
“The baby is fine. I would be in pain right now if she wasn’t.”
I sighed, relieved. “Thank goodness.”
Without another word, she slid her fingers into my hair, her nails lightly grazing my scalp, and I shut my eyes, stifling the urge to groan. My hand stilled on her stomach. “My brother...” I started, to distract myself. “My brother was pissed. Almost strangled me, he did. But I expected it, you know? That he might have taken a dip for my throat, if I wasn’t his brother. The Russos? Well, Sophia is the best example to show you how upset they are. Though, her temper is nothing but a shadow of Vincent’s.”
I intentionally kept the details mild and light, and omitted the starting war between the Camorra and The Bratva not to scare her. The less she knew, the better.
“So, I take it that they are really,reallyupset,” she breathed out and I opened my eyes. Through the sliver of moonlight pouring in, I saw her pupils dilating and the greedy nibbling on her lips.
