31. Elle

31

ELLE

Lev doesn’t say a word during the drive back to my apartment.

Dimitri kindly lent us his car, and Lev insisted on driving. I think it’s because he wants to keep his hands busy to try and distract himself from the thoughts that are likely racing through his head.

I desperately want to talk through what we just learned back at the house, but I know Lev is a very internal processor. I like to think that he’ll talk to me when he’s ready, but for the time being, I sit in the silence.

When he eventually parks outside my apartment building and kills the engine, I reach out and place my hand on his thigh.

He looks down at it and frowns, as if he forgot that he wasn’t alone in the car.

“Are you okay?”

Lev nods, but from the way his eyebrows are pulled together in a deep frown, I know he’s lying.

“This is good news, right?” He keeps his eyes on my hand. “What Dimitri found…it proves I didn’t kill them. That I didn’t kill my father.”

“That’s exactly what it proves.”

“I don’t really know how to feel.” He looks up at me under his dark lashes.

There’s such devastating sadness in his eyes.

I wish I could take away all of his pain, but I can’t. This is something he needs to work through. But what I can do is to be by his side every step of the way.

“No one is expecting you to process this immediately. What Dimitri found… It’s a lot to take in.”

“Yeah.”

“I know that what he found doesn’t erase the fact that for a long time, you thought you did kill them. That wound will take a long time to heal. But I’m right here, and I want to work through it with you, if you’ll let me.”

Lev hangs his head, and I can almost see the weight being lifted off his shoulders as my words sink in.

I squeeze his thigh. “Let’s go inside. We could order pizza and watch a film? Though that sounds ridiculously mundane and anticlimactic considering you just found out you didn’t kill your dad. Maybe we should get champagne or something?—”

“Elle?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m good with mundane.” Lev’s lips twitch at the corners.

Lev interlaces his fingers with mine as we head inside my building and take the elevator up to my floor. He keeps squeezing my hand the entire time, as if checking that I’m real.

“I think I prefer it when you climb in through the window,” I tease as I unlock the front door, using the spare key from under the mat. “Using the front door doesn’t feel nearly as forbidden?—”

“Wait out here.” He holds out a hand to stop me from stepping over the threshold into my apartment. “I want to check that it’s safe.”

“You think someone’s in there?”

“I just want to be safe. I’ll be right back.” He presses a quick kiss to my forehead.

The skin tingles from his touch, and I hold my breath as I watch him disappear inside my apartment.

I hover in the doorway, eyeing the coffee cups and bagel wrappers from my breakfast with Lucia and Mikhail, which are still littered across the coffee table.

Was that only this morning?

My eyelids feel heavy just thinking about the day I’ve had.

“All clear.” Lev comes out of my bedroom. He glances around the living room. “Though I think I’d feel better if I could stay for a while.”

I swallow a laugh at how serious Lev is being right now.

Does he not realize that we’re free to be together? He doesn’t need an excuse to stay the night.

Maybe I need to remind him…

“I guess that’s all right… I mean, you’re always watching me anyway. Maybe we should just move in together and be done with it.” I step inside my apartment and close the door behind me.

Lev blinks.

“Unless… you don’t want to…”

He takes a step toward me. “I want to do more than just live with you. I want to do everything with you.”

He takes another step. “Raise a family with you.”

And another .

“Grow old with you.”

He stops in front of me. “ Marry you.”

He drops to one knee in the middle of my living room.

My heart is singing, and my eyes are prickling. “Are you being serious right now?”

“Deadly serious. Today has only proven how quickly life can change, and I don’t want to waste another second.”

“Lev.” I place a hand on my chest.

“I know I don’t have a ring yet, but if you’ll let me, Elle Conti, I want to give you the world.”

I can’t fight the tears that start to fall.

Only a few hours ago, I had been so sure that we would never get our happily ever after. And now, seeing Lev down on one knee, promising to give me the world, I feel like my heart might explode from happiness.

“Of course, I’ll marry you.”

The smile that breaks out across Lev’s face as he climbs to his feet is breathtaking.

I’ve never seen him smile like that, and I hope that it will be the first of many to come.

He stands up, and one minute, my feet are firmly on the floor, and the next, they’re wrapped around Lev’s waist as he lifts me in the air.

“Lev!” I cling to his broad shoulders.

“You have no fucking idea how much you mean to me, Elle Conti,” he murmurs against my lips.

“I could say the same to you. You’re going to be the most amazing husband I could have ever hoped to have, and the most wonderful father to our child.”

Lev rests his forehead against mine and closes his eyes.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” I press my lips to his.

I barely notice that Lev is carrying me through to the bedroom. All I’m focused on is the feeling of his lips on mine. Of the taste of him as I slide my tongue into his mouth in a way that has him groaning against my lips.

For the second time today, we shed our clothes. But this time, there is no looming threat hanging over us, so Lev does the honors of removing each item of my clothing, kissing along my skin as he goes.

By the time I’m lying naked on the bed, I’m so hot and aching between my thighs that I have to reach down and start rubbing my clit to try and bring myself some relief.

Lev’s eyes darken with need as he watches me slide two fingers along my slick pussy.

“Elle,” he growls as he tosses his shirt on the ground.

I eye the hard lines of his chest and stomach until I land on the prominent outline of his cock that is straining against his zipper.

“Lev…” My pussy clenches, so desperate for him to fill me.

“So impatient.” He chuckles as he starts undoing his belt.

By the time he’s standing naked at the foot of my bed, I’m so close to the edge that I have to force myself to remove my hand from between my thighs to prevent from coming.

I want him to be the one to finish me off, but it seems Lev wants to take a moment to enjoy the view.

He wraps his fingers around his cock and starts stroking his length as he eyes my glistening pussy. “So fucking beautiful.”

He flicks his wrist over the tip of his cock.

“I need you,” I pant.

Lev grits his teeth as he strokes his cock again. The tip is already leaking, and my mouth waters at the thought of tasting him .

But before I can suggest taking him in my mouth, Lev is climbing onto the bed and burying his face between my thighs.

“You’re mine.” He licks along my core.

“I’m yours. Oh, god,” I reach down to sink my fingers into his hair to hold him in place.

He moves his hands to my ass, angling my hips so he can sink his tongue deep inside my pussy.

“Lev!” I cry out.

“You taste so fucking good.” He runs his tongue along my core before flicking it over my clit.

“Oh fuck,”

I’m so close to the edge that a few more flicks of his tongue over my clit will have me climaxing. And it seems Lev knows it too.

“Come on my tongue, Elle.”

I look down and almost climax at the sight of him staring up at me from between my thighs.

His dark eyes are glazed, and I watch as he eagerly licks and sucks at my clit.

“Don’t stop!” I cry as he wraps his lips around the sensitive bud and sucks. “Yes!”

My back arches off the bed as I climax, and I cling to Lev as my body violently trembles with each wave of pleasure that courses through me.

I’ve never come so hard, and when I’m eventually spent, I collapse back against the pillows, gasping for breath as Lev kisses along my inner thighs.

“That’s my girl.” He lifts himself up onto his knees.

The sight of his glistening cock has me whimpering.

“I-I need you.”

He moves to lean over me. “I’m all yours.”

As he reaches down to line himself up with my entrance, I trace my fingers along the scars that cover his neck.

The scars that serve as a reminder of how brave and selfless this man is.

“You saved me.”

“I could say the same about you.” He buries himself inside me.

“Oh, my god.”

He stretches me so perfectly. It’s like our bodies were made for each other.

“Fuck,” he hisses.

The muscles of his back flex beneath my fingertips as he slides his cock out of me, and we both stare at each other as he thrusts back inside.

No more blindfolds.

No more hiding.

We’re finally free to be together.

I didn’t think I would ever get a chance to feel happiness like this. For so long, I was too scared by the idea of losing someone I loved again that I didn’t allow myself the chance to love.

But somehow, Lev made me feel safe enough to open up my heart once more, and I couldn’t be more grateful to him.

“I love you,” I choke as my eyes sting with tears.

Lev takes my face in his hands and kisses me so softly that I can’t help but let the tears fall.

“I love you too.”

Lev rests his forehead against mine, our eyes locked on one another, as he makes love to me.

The only sound is our heavy breathing as we both chase our release.

When Lev’s brows pull together as he fights the urge to come, I take his face in my hands and kiss him deeply.

“Come with me,” I pant as my thighs start to tremble.

It’s all the permission he needs.

His pace turns from gentle to brutal as he thrusts his cock inside me, hitting me so deep that I’m screaming out his name as I come.

He buries his face in my neck as his body shudders, and his grunts have me seeing stars.

“Oh, fuck..” His cock jerks, and he spills inside me.

After he cleans us up, we slide into bed, and I snuggle into his chest as he wraps his arms around me.

“Thank you for loving me,” he whispers in my ear as I fall asleep.