Page 110 of Immaculate Corruption (Romanoff Bratva)

“This morning?”

He nods slowly, though he doesn’t look convinced of his answer, and backs towards the ballroom door.

I shake my head and grab his sleeve. “Okay, why is everyone being so weird today? Is there something in there?”

I try to move towards the door, but Gennady blocks my path. “The stripper. Is in there. Behind me. In the ballroom.”

I roll my eyes. “You’re the worst liar in existence. What is going on?”

Before I can press Gennady for answers—and I feel confident he would crack under my interrogation—Ernestine interrupts.

“Time to go!” she bleats. She hurries me to the foyer and out the door.

From there, the morning is a whirlwind of brunch and manicures and a much needed haircut. Taras Kreshnik may have been richer than sin, but he bought shit quality shampoo for his sex slaves and my split ends are crying for salvation.

When I leave the salon to head back home, I’m so pleased with my cut and blow out and my pale pink nails that I don’t even notice Dima until I’m right in front of him.

Ernestine and June hang back, so I have a full, unobstructed view of him standing in the entryway with a large bouquet of flowers.

He looks unbelievable in a crisp white button-down rolled to his sleeves and fitted navy blue trousers that hug all the best parts of him in all the right ways. It looks like he has had a haircut, too. His beard is trimmed down to just a shadow of stubble.

I wolf-whistle. “What on Earth is going on?”

“I could say the same,” he says, reaching out to take my hand and spin me around. “You look gorgeous.”

“Somebodyarranged for me to get my hair cut and my nails done.” I narrow my eyes. “Any idea why that may be?”

He smirks, his full lips pulling into a pout. “I might have a few ideas. These are for you.”

The bouquet is huge with blue carnations and chrysanthemums with pockets of babies’ breath and yellow daisies. It’s a bright, cheerful bouquet—but I have no idea why he’s giving it to me.

“What are these for?”

Dima reaches around the bouquet and pulls a card from between the flowers. It has a cartoon picture of a stork carrying a baby with the words“You had a baby!”typed next to it in a word cloud.

“I had a baby over two months ago.”

“And I never got you flowers,” Dima says, wrapping an arm around me and leading me down the hall. “There’s a lot you never got to do as a new mom, and a lot I wish I could have done for you. So…”

His voice drifts off. I’m still looking up at him, waiting for an explanation, when he grabs my shoulders and turns me towards the now open doors of the ballroom.

“Surprise!”

I almost scream in shock as a crowd of people shout at me. They’re surrounded by blue and gold streamers and balloons dangling from the ceiling. Tables fill the room, each with a bouquet much like the one I’m holding in my hand, and covered in the same gold confetti I saw in Gennady’s hair earlier this morning.

“It’s a baby shower,” Dima whispers in my ear, pushing me into the room.

Ernestine and June are at the front with Lukas in their arms, but next to them is Marsha from the vet clinic I used to work at, along with two of the other nurses. And next to them is Lauren Malone. As I go around the room embracing everyone, thanking them for coming, Lauren tells me Dima called her and flew her out.

“You came all this way for a baby shower?” I ask, shaking my head in disbelief.

“I wanted to meet the baby I helped save,” she says with a casual shrug. “Plus, I needed a vacation, and your man flew me here for free.”

My man.

Dima is standing with Gennady, sipping on pastel-colored punch and smiling at me whenever our eyes meet.

He is my man. My rock. My partner, with all the pros and cons that come along with that. I’d say today is a very serious pro.

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