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He scowls at me. “Call me cute or sweet or adorable again and see what happens."
"You’d punish a pregnant woman?”
He holds my gaze for a heated beat. "Absolutely."
My heart flips.
When I stare at him with that sexy rush of panic I get when he threatens me, he finallylaughs.
He has the nerve tolaugh.
“What?” I ask.
“Time for pizza, little hacker.”
I release a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. I needed to hear him call melittle hackeragain. I probably need him to take meover his knee, too, because I need some normalcy in my life when everything else is a swirl of confusion and fear.
But with the smell of pizza in the room, I can think of nothing else.
We eat crispy pizza on paper plates and talk about the party. “How did it go? Did they auction everything off?”
“Absolutely. My mother doesn’t let anything ruffle her. She made sure the auction still happened and they earned five point two million for the children’s hospital.”
I whistle. “Wow, that’s amazing. The Romanov Philanthropists it is, then.”
He winks at me and takes the crust I tossed into the pizza box. He eats it in one bite. “Exactly.”
“And did Volkov pull any more asshole tricks?”
“Of course, but nothing my brothers couldn’t handle.”
I take another slice of pizza. “I don’t know if I’ve ever hated anyone, but he’s definitely on the list.”
“He’s a man worthy of your hate, Aria.”
“Do you think he’ll leave us alone now that you’ve threatened him?”
He shakes his head. “No. You’re in the worst danger of all now.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Mikhail
I holdher until she falls asleep. Aria is in greater danger than she's ever been. Not only have we outed her to our enemies just by showing up at the gala last night, but she's pregnant. And unlike our original plan of finding out about her pregnancy in private, I took her to a hospital.
Volkov will have his revenge.
When she brings our child into this world, Volkov’s world is effectively over.
I lie beside her. Part of me wants to get out of bed and go to my piano. Being alone in my sanctuary, creating music under my hands, is sometimes the only way to soothe my nerves. Sometimes, it's the only way to feel emotion.
At least, until Aria.
But I will not leave her side. She will be glued to me whether she likes it or not for the next nine months. Yes, I'll have a securityteam on her. I'll have several. Yes, I'll have safety protocols put in place. But I told her that I would be her armor, and I meant that.
I mutter to myself for trying to remember what she said about crushing candy on an app. Turns out there are lots of apps where you can crush candy. It's not as relaxing to me as playing the piano, but I play the game until my eyelids grow heavy.
I'm dragged out of a sound sleep the next morning with the sound of my phone ringing.
