Page 128 of Sinful Scars

“I don’t really know how to feel.” He looks up at me under his dark lashes.

There’s such devastating sadness in his eyes.

I wish I could take away all of his pain, but I can’t. This is something he needs to work through. But what I can do is to be by his side every step of the way.

“No one is expecting you to process this immediately. What Dimitri found… It’s a lot to take in.”

“Yeah.”

“I know that what he found doesn’t erase the fact that for a long time, you thought you did kill them. That wound will take a long time to heal. But I’m right here, and I want to work through it with you, if you’ll let me.”

Lev hangs his head, and I can almost see the weight being lifted off his shoulders as my words sink in.

I squeeze his thigh. “Let’s go inside. We could order pizza and watch a film? Though that sounds ridiculously mundane and anticlimactic considering you just found out you didn’t kill your dad. Maybe we should get champagne or something?—”

“Elle?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m good with mundane.” Lev’s lips twitch at the corners.

Lev interlaces his fingers with mine as we head inside my building and take the elevator up to my floor. He keeps squeezing my hand the entire time, as if checking that I’m real.

“I think I prefer it when you climb in through the window,” I tease as I unlock the front door, using the sparekey from under the mat. “Using the front door doesn’t feel nearly as forbidden?—”

“Wait out here.” He holds out a hand to stop me from stepping over the threshold into my apartment. “I want to check that it’s safe.”

“You think someone’s in there?”

“I just want to be safe. I’ll be right back.” He presses a quick kiss to my forehead.

The skin tingles from his touch, and I hold my breath as I watch him disappear inside my apartment.

I hover in the doorway, eyeing the coffee cups and bagel wrappers from my breakfast with Lucia and Mikhail, which are still littered across the coffee table.

Was that only this morning?

My eyelids feel heavy just thinking about the day I’ve had.

“All clear.” Lev comes out of my bedroom. He glances around the living room. “Though I think I’d feel better if I could stay for a while.”

I swallow a laugh at how serious Lev is being right now.

Does he not realize that we’re free to be together? He doesn’t need an excuse to stay the night.

Maybe I need to remind him…

“I guess that’s all right… I mean, you’re always watching me anyway. Maybe we should just move in together and be done with it.” I step inside my apartment and close the door behind me.

Lev blinks.

“Unless… you don’t want to…”

He takes a step toward me. “I want to do more than just live with you. I want to do everything with you.”

He takes another step. “Raise a family with you.”

And another.

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