Page 75 of Knocked-up Bratva Bride
I kept my arms wrapped around her, like if I let go, she might dissolve into smoke and take this fragile peace with her.
She stroked my cheeks and ran her fingers through my hair. I groaned. I always liked it when she did that.
“I hope that wasn’t a guilt kiss? You know, because you’re secretly feeling bad about everything that happened. I’d understand if you needed that moment to be distracted.”
“Did you feel the same way last night?”
“Maybe a little? It’s like you grew hornieraftershe left. We do it everywhere now. The other day, you called me to youroffice and fucked me right after you had a meeting. I thought, maybe you needed something else to occupy your thoughts, and sex is your go-to.”
“Couldn’t it be your pregnancy hormones?”
She laughed. “Damien, that doesn’t make any sense.”
I closed my eyes. How did you tell someone the truth when you barely knew how to say it out loud?
“It’s not a go-to distraction,” I rasped. My voice cracked on the edge of something I hadn’t let myself feel for a long time. “You think I’d hold you like this…if it was only guilt? You think I fuck you the way I do, because ofguilt?”
Elena swallowed hard, her eyes searching mine. “Then what is it?”
I hesitated, my hands tightening around her waist. This was so fucking hard to admit.
“It’s you,” I said. “It’s always been you. Even when it shouldn’t have been. Even when I should have hated myself for it.”
I felt her breath catch. Her fingers trembled against my chest, but she didn’t pull away.
“Is that your way of saying that you…you love me?”
My jaw clenched. I looked into her eyes and finally let the last of my armor crack.
“I might as well get it over with. Yes, it is. I love you.”
The words burned as they left my mouth, burned like a brand searing into flesh, and yet they felt right.
With tears in her eyes, she exhaled and pressed her lips to mine again, softer this time. Slower.
“That took you a century to admit, but mine will only take a second: I love you, too,” she whispered against me. “Even when I didn’t want to. Even when it hurt. But I love you, Damien.”
I didn’t answer her with words. There was nothing left to say that wouldn’t unravel me. So I just held her tighter, like aman clinging to the only part of the world that still made sense. For the first time in a long, bloody life, I finally let myself believe I didn’t have to be alone in the dark.
Chapter 24 – Elena
When a child was born, it felt like being given a piece of your heart that you never knew was missing.
Holding them in your arms was like experiencing pure joy for the first time.
Every coo, every smile, and every tiny milestone felt like a ray of sunshine. It was as if your whole world had shifted, making everything suddenly make sense.
I had no idea it was possible to feel so wrecked and so full all at once. My body ached like it had run a marathon barefoot uphill, but in my arms, pressed close to my chest and still sticky with the mess of birth, was the most perfect, pink, squirmy little boy I had ever seen.
Our son.
He was wrinkled and crying his little lungs out—but to me, he was perfect. My heart did this ridiculous flip, like it had grown wings just to cradle him better. I laughed and sobbed at the same time, tears soaking my cheeks, and I held him like I’d been waiting my whole life to do exactly that.
Damien sat beside me on the hospital bed, somehow managing to look both stunned and smitten, like he’d just met a tiny god. His eyes were red, not from lack of sleep, but from crying—something he swore he didn’t do. But here we were.
“He’s got your nose,” he whispered, brushing a fingertip over our baby’s cheek with gentleness.
I laughed, exhausted. “Poor thing.”
