Page 83 of Crowned

Elyah reaches out with his good hand and helps me to my feet. “Nothing anyone says about you matters to me,solnyshko. I believe Lilia.”

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, trying to make my heart return to normal. The past few minutes were a nightmare.

I open my eyes and glare at them. “If it weren’t for this baby, I would fight you all.”

Kirill laughs. “We can have our fun and games on the plane,detka.”

“The second you take your pants off, I’ll twist your goddamn balls off,” I snarl at him, and he smirks like the idea is interesting to him.

Elyah takes my face in his good hand. “I know I have made terrible mistakes. Will you believe me when I tell you that I have changed? That we have all changed together, and because of each other?”

I look from one man to the next. They’re all different from the men they once were. I’m a different woman.

“I love you,” Elyah murmurs, stroking my cheek. “I will not speak for the others, but Konstantin needs you. Kirill is obsessed with you.”

Love. Need. Obsession.

The cornerstones of any sane relationship.

Are we really doing this?

Can I allow myself to belong to them even if part of me is still terrified of the things they’re capable of? Konstantin and Kirill will never apologize for who they are. Elyah will never take my side against them.

Either I accept them, or I walk away.

I gasp and put my hand over my stomach.

“Is something wrong?” Elyah asks urgently, and I shake my head.

“The baby is kicking.” I stand with my hands over my belly, next to the body of my dead father, his men, the wrecked car. The four of us are together in the empty road.

If not love, there’s something between us that I can’t explain, and I don’t want to leave it behind.

I move Elyah’s hand from my cheek to my belly and then take Kirill and Konstantin’s hands and place their palms on my bump.

“I think the baby has something to say to its fathers.”

Kirill’s eyes are wide. “I have never felt this before. Our child is so strong.”

Elyah strokes the place where the baby is kicking and Konstantin smiles as he gazes at me, his expression filled with amusement and self-satisfaction.You are going to accept us, after all, Lilia?

Damn his smugness.

I think I am.

We stand far too long on a road littered with bodies for four people who have a plane to catch.

14

Konstantin

Irise from the bed reluctantly at dawn, untangling myself from the limbs, arms, and twisted sheets. Large male bodies have invaded my bed. Elyah is hard in his sleep, and his cock is pressed into Lilia’s ass. Kirill’s face is against her breasts, and he has one of her thighs hooked over his hips. Lilia’s belly is growing huge.

She fell asleep holding my hand, and while she’s still stubbornly holding on tight in her sleep, I try to extricate myself from her. A man needs to work, not lie around all day sleeping and fucking.

But as soon as I’m free from all of them, I stand naked by my bed, rubbing the back of my neck and gazing at their sleeping forms. This is becoming a daily occurrence.

I need a bigger mattress.

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