Page 74 of All the Dangerous Things

I closed my eyes and laughed incredulously. I expected my brothers to fight with him again, but after muttering under their breath in Russian about what a pain in the ass Gio was, they left the locker room and gave us privacy.

The room was silent as we stared at each other.

At that moment, the only thing I could hear was the promise of our future.

The three of us.

30

GIO

Ibrought Tatiana back to my penthouse after the blowout with her brothers and the pregnancy revelation just an hour before.

The bedroom was quiet, with the only sound coming from my girl as she breathed softly while tending to me. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her as I traced the long fall of her dark-brown hair, with the strands falling over her shoulder. Her locks were wavy from being wet under the spray of the shower as she sucked my cock.

The scent of her hair nearly had me groaning. It was sweet and slightly floral, and I had to curl my fingers into my palms until my hands were tight fists, just to stop myself from reaching out and gripping it.

I sat on the edge of the bed, shirtless, the minorcuts and bruiseson my face and chest a physical reminder of the fight with Dmitry and Nikolai. I still felt the rush of adrenaline from what happened in the shower, my male aggression still raging inside me.

But at the forefront of my mind was the revelation that Tatiana was pregnant withmybaby.

The storm of emotions swirled inside me, and just as I was about to reach out and pull her in close, Tatiana stood and went into the bathroom to grab more first aid items. When she came back, I kept my hands to myself as she took care of me. Her hands were gentle as she cleaned the cut on my bottom lip.

Her touch was soft, the softest thing I’d ever felt. God, she was so careful, like she thought I’d break or that she’d cause me more pain.

The sting of her cleaning my wounds was there, but it was so minimal compared to how mesmerized I was. “I’ve never had anyone take care of me before,” I said under my breath, not meaning to say the words out loud at all.

She glanced up, and I could see the worry etched in her eyes, the lingering tension from everything that happened earlier reflected at me.

“My mother never tended to me like that,” I admitted. “And I never let Claudia and Amara seemy wounds after a fight… or when my father got done beating the shit out of me.” Although my sisters knew what had gone down and that I fought back, I refused to let them see the brutality that covered my body and that was now hidden under my tattoos.

I’d never uttered those words out loud, never admitted what I perceived as a weakness.

She glanced at me again, the sadness and empathy in her expression so strong I couldn’t stop myself from leaning in and resting my forehead against hers. For long seconds, we stayed in that position, neither one of us moving or speaking.

We just lived in that moment, and it was fucking perfect.

“I’ll always take care of you,” she whispered, and then she let out a shaky breath. And just as quickly as she said it, the moment was broken, and she went back to cleaning my cuts.

I stayed silent as I let her do her thing, but I couldn’t stop myself from staring at her and realizing I was the luckiest fucking bastard alive. The way she focused on me, so intent on mending my broken body, made something deep inside me stir. There was this feeling I’d never known before, one that Ifelt growing from the moment I killed that motherfucker for her.

I hadn’t known what it was, this feeling that had multiplied within me to the point I was consumed. I was obsessed. Tatiana, my little Russian doll, was ingrained in every single part of me. There was no going back. I couldn't live without her.

My sisters had been the only things that mattered to me in my fucked-up world. They were the only ones I loved. But this… what I felt with Tatiana… was different.

She was everything.

She ran her fingers lightly over a bruise forming on my side, hidden amongst the dark lines of ink. She looked up, her gaze meeting mine since I was already staring at her. My world seemed to stop. Nothing else mattered because the only thing that existed was her.

I knew what this was. This feeling. And I wanted her to know and realize it meant everything.

“I’ve never known love like this, Tatiana,” I confessed, never having uttered these words in my life. Even though I loved my sisters, telling them was a rare occurrence. I showed them how I felt rather than using words that didn’t embody my commitment to taking care of them.

I heard her breath catch after I admitted how I felt.

“Aside from my sisters, I never thought I needed anyone else. But then you came along, and everything changed.” I reached out and cupped her cheek. “Because when I look at you, nothing else means more to me. When I stare into your blue eyes, the entire fucking world just stops.”

My gaze drifted down to her abdomen that was still flat but would grow big and swollen with my baby over the coming months.

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