Page 3 of The Quiet Smile

“I’ll tell him you aren’t far behind me. Thanks for driving Amelia. Missy, you’re crazy if you think the Baranovs are going to let you walk home. You’re a part of our family now and we take care of our own, okay?”

Amelia was blushing and nodding before she suddenly hugged Nik. Jealousy burned fast and hot as I watched them. I hated that she was hugging another man even if it was my married brother. I had to fight for control of my emotions, something I usually never had a problem with. I was the silent killer, the deadly assassin. Emotions were unnecessary and when they were out of control, mistakes were made.

Where Amelia was concerned was controlled by pure emotion. I loved this woman, my tiny angel, she was everything to me and she didn’t even know it. Nor would she. My world was nothing but darkness and death. I couldn’t darken her world. She already knew too much pain and hardship.

I watched as she quickly hugged Lei and wiped her eyes before I nodded at Nik and took Amelia’s hand in mine, guiding her towards the diner door and outside to my car. It was a chilly night and I was glad Amelia wasn’t walking in it.

“Nik told me you lived and worked at that beautiful building on Collins with the local market. They make the best sandwiches I’ve ever had.”

“They do. Mrs. Whitlock is magic in the kitchen. She makes sure I keep my curves with her food.”

“I love watching you sign. It’s like a beautiful dance,” I told her as I watched her face turn bright red. I wondered if her whole body would flush to a delicious pink as she orgasmed beneath me. I used the time I was holding the passenger door open for her and the brisk walk around the car to calm my body down. She didn’t need to see how hard just looking at her made me.

As I climbed into the driver’s seat, I smiled and said, “Get your phone out. I want you to have my phone number. Send a video message, text, call, or even Facetime any time you need to. Nik was right to say you were family and under the Baranov protection now.”

“Oh no I couldn’t, you are so busy. I’m okay, I promise. My apartment is right across from Mr. and Mrs. Whitlock and they make sure I’m good.”

I narrowed my eyes at her before parking the car in front of her building. “Open your phone anyways. It can’t hurt to have it just in case.”

As she unlocked the phone I took it from her and gave her my number as well as Kostya’s and Nik’s numbers. I always wanted her to be safe. Handing the phone back to her I told her, “Now I feel better.”

She smiled and shook her head before climbing out of the car. Coming around to my window she signed, “Thank you for everything.”

I wanted to climb out of the car and kiss her so that she never wanted to be anywhere but at my side. Holding myself in check, I satisfied myself by watching her go inside the building door and watching the light turn on in her apartment. I sat there for way too long just watching the light in her apartment.

Chapter 3

Daniil

I walked into Kostya’s office to find Nikandr and Konstantin waiting for me with smiles on their faces. “I wonder if we’d see you tonight,” Kostya teased.

“I had to make sure Amelia made it home is all. I’m not going to up and marry the girl simply because I gave her a ride home, Kostya. I was being a gentleman.”

“You? That’s a new one for you but then even I know how you feel about her, how you’ve always felt.”

Nik looked between us confused. “Wait, what am I missing here?”

Kostya’s smile turned wicked. “While your wife consumed your every waking thought, little brother here had his own crush for probably as long as you’ve been hung up on her best friend. Now he thinks she’s too good, too pure for him.”

“Hold up. How did I miss this? Amelia would be so good for you. You even know sign language already which was a shock to me,” Nik commented as he raised his eyebrow at me. I knew if I didn’t give him the information he demanded he would make sure to embarrass me in the worst ways until I surrendered.

I shrugged at him. “Nothing is ever going to come of it. She’s had it really hard with her disabilities, an alcoholic mother, on and on. Forcing her into our world wasn’t fair to her.”

“Disabilities? What kind of disabilities? Will she need a wheelchair ramp?”

Nik started, “Lei explained it to me the other day. Let me see if I can explain it correctly. Ame’s brain struggles to process language. She can understand spoken words just fine but she has a hard time with the movements of her lips, jaw, and tongue to produce speech. I think she has a beautiful voice but she was frequently bullied for her speech and has very little confidence in speaking so she usually doesn’t because it’s so hard for her.”

I nodded in agreement to everything that Nik said. “But that’s only part of it. She has a disconnect between spoken and written words due to a severe phonological disability. It makes reading very hard for her.”

“No wonder sign language is so important. It sounds like it’s the only way she can communicate. Daniil, have you thought about the fact that she is already a part of our world because of Leilani. She’s the only one you’ve ever had a real interest in. Everyone else was a way to try and forget about her. It didn’t work. If you love this girl as deeply as I suspect you do, make her yours.”

“Leilani always worries about her so much. If she lived here, Leilani would be ecstatic. We as your brothers won’t fight you on this. Amelia is a beautiful soul.”

I nodded at them. That’s all I could do. For so long I had stayed away from Amelia. What she didn’t know was to what lengths I’d gone to protect her. How would she react if she knew I hired the Whitlocks watch over her in the ways I couldn’t? How would she react to learning just how much I loved her from afar?

~~~*~~~

Amelia

---