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I can’t say for sure what Wren means to me or what she is to me. All I know is that I cannot bear to lose her.
Every day, he kicks a little more, a little harder. Sometimes, I feel as though he’s trying to tell me something. Baby Morse Code, saying, Get us outta here, Mama. I don’t want to be born in captivity.
there’s a chance that Wren might have the steel required to survive in this world. Bee noticed that in her. So did my brother. Maybe it’s time I started noticing, too.
Because every time I smell your scent, my brain turns to pudding and my vagina feels like it’s about to jump off the nearest bridge. Because every time I think about this same fabric brushing your bare skin, I get jealous of it and want to throw IT off the nearest bridge. Because you drive me insane whether you’re near me or not. Because I’m crazy. Because you make me that way. Because I’m falling in love with you.
Is this how my son’s going to talk in twenty years? Will he be comparing gunshot wounds with his father and uncle and chuckling about ‘the one that almost killed him’?
“Big, bad Dmitri Egorov has a Pinterest page that’s filled with strollers and diaper dispensers and soothers with little soft toy animals hanging off the ends. I’m speechless.” “Those soothers came highly recommended,” he says with a stony expression. “The bloggers love them.” “You read the blogs, too? Stop. I can only take so much.”
His face looks as murderous as I’ve ever seen it as he leans ninety-nine percent of the way into kissing me and says, “If you tell anyone about my Pinterest page… I’ll kill you.”
“You’re the most capable woman I’ve ever met, Wren Turner. I have no doubt that you’ll make an exceptional mother.”
“I don’t think in hypotheticals. You are the mother of my child. And I’m happy that you are.”
I’m pretty sure there’s no support group for Women Who’ve Been Kidnapped And Accidentally Impregnated By Their Hot Boss Turned Bratva Pakhan Turned Personal Villain Who Robbed You Of Your Best Friend-Slash-Sister. Really rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? WWBKAAIBTHBTBPTPVWRYOYBF-S-S Anonymous. Membership includes: me, myself and I.
“That this is not a date.” “My mistake,” he rumbles with faint amusement. “The lip gloss and the cleavage-baring dress threw me.”
“Wren,” he rasps, sending a shiver down my spine, “since we’re here tonight to open the lines of communication, let me be clear: we are more than co-parents. And I think you know that already.”
“You shouldn’t care about being popular,” he growls. “You shouldn’t care about being liked. You’re too fucking special to care about shit like that, Wren. Do the job and do it properly and you will earn their respect.”
Project Manager. Never in human history have two boring-ass words sounded so exciting. Projects? Lame. Managers? Gag. But me, a project manager?! I feel like a motherfuckin’ rockstar.
Come for me like my good little slut and maybe I’ll give you what you’re begging for.” Well, when you phrase it like that, sir…
“I’m not teasing you,” he corrects. “Not really. I’m claiming you, baby. I’m reminding you that you are fucking mine. All mine. This pussy is mine. Those moans are mine. That baby in there is mine. Have I made myself clear?”
“You’re going to have to help me, moya devushka. I’ve never done something like this before. Show me how to be with you. I want to give you everything—but first, you need to ask for it.”
You’re living in my house, you’re carrying my baby, and I plan for you to be in my bed every night for the rest of our lives, so I think it’s time to be thinking about something else.” Wren frowns. “What kind of ‘something else’?” I tap the empty space on her left ring finger. “This kind of something else.”
lately, I’ve realized that I need someone who can push back. I need someone who’ll hold me accountable. I need someone who’s my equal.”
“Elena was a wonderful person. She was sweet and kind—but she was still just a girl when I met her. You, Wren… you are a woman. You’re the woman I need by my side from this point on.”
“Please. We all recognize your I’m worried voice. Kinda sounds like you have a stick up your ass. A different stick than the usual one, that is.”
“Speaking as a man who’s been inside you, it’s really fucking hard to come back out again.”
Well, fuck me sideways with a toaster. Now, I’m emotional and turned-on. That’s just what this little basket case temper tantrum of mine needed: an injection of horniness.
“I don’t want a new identity or four protectors or safehouses in Paris or Timbuktu or wherever the fuck. I want you, Dmitri Egorov. I want us to raise this baby together. I want us to be a family. So do whatever you have to do to win this war—because I don’t want to be a single mother. I refuse to be.”
“It’ll have to be after this war is over. And after the baby is born. I want to give her a real wedding, the kind of wedding she deserves. I want to be able to celebrate properly after we’ve declared victory over those Irish and Italian fucks.”
Stop being a chickenshit little bitch and just rip off the Band-Aid. Don’t let this be the self-fulfilling prophecy that you die on.”
“Because I want you to carry my name, Wren. I want you to have the protection it carries. But that’s just the practical side of things. You want to know the unpractical part? That I’m addicted to you. And I’m a jealous bastard. A vengeful one. A proud one. So I want to put a rock on your finger that announces to the whale world that you are mine. That you always will be. That I love you. That no one alive has ever loved someone the way I love you.”
“I see a tired pregnant woman who would chop off a pinky toe to not be pregnant anymore.”
Moya devushka, It is my greatest honor to marry you today. Please accept this gift as a token of my love and devotion to you. For today, for tomorrow, for all the days to come. Yours always, Dmitri
I don’t want you on your knees.” He says it with utmost seriousness, but something tells me he’s not wholly convinced. I reach out and palm his erection through his tuxedo pants. “Your cock seems to disagree.” “He usually does,” Dmitri grunts.
“Only a few hours married and you’re already issuing orders? This ‘queen’ thing has gone straight to your head.”
I could just eat him up!” Bee coos as she peers over my shoulder. “Seriously. I’m actually not joking. A little Nutella on that cheek and it’s bon appetit for me.”
I can’t think of any two people more suited for one another. And to all the powers that brought them together—” Aleks makes a show of looking up at the sky with a wrinkled frown. “—nice job. But also… twisted.”
