Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 30437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
There was nothing more she could do. She was in the process of putting her groceries away when her doorbell rang. She didn’t know anyone in town, as she was still job hunting and getting settled. There had been a few visitors to wish her well, and as she made her way toward the door, she didn’t bother to check the peephole.
Opening the door, she came face to face with the man she had fallen in love with.
Dmitriy was on her doorstep.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hi.”
Her heart started to race, and all she wanted to do was to reach out and pinch herself, but she was afraid to move, in case this was a dream. If it was, she didn’t want to wake up.
She licked her lips, and still, nothing. She had to be awake. He looked so freaking clear.
“You’re here,” she said.
He smiled. “Are you going to let me in?” he asked.
“Wait, did Nikolai change his mind?” Was he here to kill her?
“I’m in love with you,” he said.
Anastasia’s mouth dropped open.
“Nikolai knows how I feel, and he has ... released me.”
“What?” she asked.
Dmitriy stepped over the threshold. “I’m free, and that means I can live my life with you, without risk of looking back.”
She looked at him.
“I would understand if you don’t feel the same way.”
Anastasia didn’t know how anyone else would feel, but to her, in that moment, she threw her arms around him, hugged him, and kissed him at the same time.
Life was too short to hold a grudge. It was too short to keep waiting. Three weeks ago, they could have died, and all she could think of when the guard had his hands around her throat was that she hadn’t told Dmitriy she loved him.
Pulling away, she cupped his face and laughed. “I love you too.”
“Marry me,” he said.
“You’re just full of surprises today, aren’t you?” she asked.
“I want to marry you. I want to make you my wife, and I want you to have my children.”
“I need to pinch myself,” she said. This had to be a dream, and yet it felt so real.
She let out a little yelp as Dmitriy pinched her ass, taking her by surprise.
“How is that?” he asked. “Are you awake?”
She burst out laughing. “I love you.”
“And I love you, is that a yes?”
“Yeah, it’s a yes.”
Epilogue
Five Years Later
“You know, Santa does not like if you’re not asleep,” Dmitriy said, calling out to his sons.
He heard their giggling and knew it was going to be a long Christmas Eve, but he didn’t mind at all. The dishes were already done, and Anastasia was taking a nice, long bath, and she deserved it.
He had a towel on his shoulder, and the kids loved it when he would pretend to flick them with it. It always made them squeal and laugh. Of course, he would hit a counter with a lot of force, but when it came to teasing the kids, he never touched them. There was always a tease of a towel flick. This time, he intended to grab his sons and tickle them until they couldn’t control their laughter anymore.
Five years, happily married, and he owned his own business in the small town where they had settled down. There was no Bratva, no Mafia, no MC, no trouble. Just a bunch of nosy neighbors that wanted to know everyone’s business.
It was a community, which in the early days with Anastasia, he thought would be nothing short of a nightmare. Now, it was a dream. His dream.
The townspeople came to him when they wanted repairs or a redesign of their home. He didn’t know how it had become successful, but it had. It probably helped that they saw how he redesigned his and Anastasia’s home. He also built his kids’ tree house.
He currently had three kids, his twin boys were the oldest, were little terrors, and his youngest son, who was two, was a little stick of dynamite.