Page 75 of Crowned

Yet wants her.

He wants nothing else.

“What are you doing?” Konstantin asks, but he sounds amused. Almost affectionate.

I run my hands over my belly, still standing in the tub, not one little bit shy that a man is staring at my naked body. “I feel beautiful for the first time in my life.”

“You’re always beautiful, Lilia.”

I smile and cup my stomach. “Am I? I never feel that way. You probably don’t believe me. I was a runway model. I’ve been a bride. I’m standing in a chipped old bathtub with a pregnant belly and no makeup on, but…”

Konstantin leans against the doorframe, watching me. Those gray eyes of his were so flinty and cold the first time I met him, but now they’ve softened. He said on that clifftop that he just wanted me, crowned with those diamonds. That’s all he’s ever needed.

But the diamonds are gone. Now there’s just me.

“I feel like me,” I whisper. “Just Lilia.”

He holds out his hands to help me out of the tub, and I let him. With gentle fingers, he towels my hair dry, and from his touch I could almost believe he’s never done one violent thing in his life.

My gaze fastens on the scar on his temple. “Why do you hate women so much?”

Konstantin stares at me in surprise. “You think I hate women?”

“Only a man filled with hate could come up with that pageant.”

His fingers trail over the wet locks of my hair, pushing them back from my face. “I was very angry,malyshka. Angrier than I’ve ever been in my life.”

“What—”

But he stops me with a finger over my lips. “We are not talking about that. We are never talking about that.”

I push his hand away. “Did you know that trust grows from mutual respect?”

“Does it? I already trust you.”

I frown up at him. “What?”

Konstantin steps closer to me, his fingers caressing the wet skin of my shoulders. “I can trust you to look after that baby. You will never let any harm come to my child. I believe in your desire for me, even when you’re fighting me with every step of the way. All you have to do to be happy…”

His lips whisper over mine.

“…is stop fighting me.”

Give in to this beautiful, powerful man and everything he wants. I swallow. “And why would I do that?”

“Because the three of us would burn the world down to make you ours.” He cups my belly. “You and this baby.”

Insanity.

It shouldn’t feel so alluring to hear him say that.

“What if I didn’t want you to burn the world? What if I wanted you to make it better? That would be a true test of your heart.”

Konstantin talks right past my question. “Meanwhile, the four of us need to leave Prague. It’s becoming more dangerous here with every passing minute.”

Anguish fills my heart. These walls have become my security blanket. They feel even safer with the three of them in it. Here, we’re just four people existing on toast and sex.

Out there, we’re aPakhan, his foot soldiers, and their pregnant captive.

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