Page 32 of The Bratva's Secret Baby

Both girls ran off to Kaity’s bedroom.

“Do you think they’ll still be friends at sixteen?” Paul smiled.

I let my eyes drift to him. “I’m sure they will be. They love each other like sisters. Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“I would, thank you.” He followed me into the kitchen.

“Thanks for taking my daughter to the park,” I said, handing him his coffee with shaky hands. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

He smiled and as if he could sense my nervousness, held my hand for a split second. “It’s nothing. Glad I could help.” He murmured as he took a sip from his cup. “I swear you make the best coffee.”

I blushed a little at his compliment. “Thank you.” Paul was the nicest man I knew, and yet I could not develop feelings for him beyond our friendship. “Did you think we'd ever be friends because of those two?” he asked, smiling at them with the same proud look Eric always gave me when I did something right.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don't know. I don’t think we would have been enemies either. At least not outside the courtroom.”

He chuckles, his eyes glinting. “Yeah, not outside the courtroom.

“Remember the first time we met?”

He scrunched his face. “How could I forget? You were still a rookie, but you were so confident and fierce.”

“And I won, too,” I helped him out.

“You won,” he leaned in. “You were pretty, too. All through the case, I kept thinking about how I could take you to dinner. I don’t think I’ve had the chance.”

My heart was jumping nervously; I couldn't think about going out with anyone right now. “Are you asking me on a date right now?”

He stroked his lips with his tongue. “Would you say yes if I did?”

“I... I don’t know..."

“You don’t have to answer that,” he interjected, trying to pass it off as a joke, as he did every time. “I was just teasing you.”

He wasn’t.

He squinted his eyes as if straining not to show that my rejection hurt him and clenched his coffee cup.

It wasn’t the first time he’d tried to be open about his feelings for me, and I felt terrible.

Over the past few years, he had repeatedly hinted, told me how beautiful I was, and openly declared that he wanted a woman like me in his life.

Paul was a single parent. His girlfriend had left him after their daughter was born because she wasn’t ready to be a mother. He raised Hannah on his own, and he did an incredibly respectable job of it.

Paul was a very handsome and genuine man. Tall, prominent jawline, thick gold-brown hair, dark brown eyes, and a smile that melted your heart. He was every woman’s dream man.

Any woman would be lucky to have a guy like him— - any woman, but me.

I loved Paul, but only as a good friend. I had tried to force my feelings for him. I had tried to see him as more than a friend, but it wasn’t enough.

My heart had never belonged to him and never would. Because even after all those years, there was only one man who could make my heart flutter. Only one man had the power to take my breath away.

Damien Varkov.

Chapter Thirteen

Damien

“Those fuckers will pay with their lives, boss," Andrei clenched his fists, and his eyes filled with rage.

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