Chapter 21 - Leon

If I have to stand one more fucking minute in this damn tuxedo that's scratching the back of my neck, I'm going to lose my shit. Where the hell is she?

I've spent too much time planning tonight for her to be running fifteen minutes late.

We'll hardly make it on time if she doesn't hurry.

I'm about to walk down the hall to the bedroom and shove her into the dress myself when she comes down the hall in a stunning sage-green satin dress, the slit climbing up her long leg and parts with every step.

The dress hugs every inch of her body, accentuating the curves of her breasts and the dip in her waist. When she turns to the side, the dress hugs her tiny baby bump in a particularly flattering way. Okay, fuck me, she looks stunning.

If there is one thing I've learned about Natalie, it is that she's a perfectionist.

She slips gold hoops through her ears, an apologetic smile on her face. "I'm so sorry. I thought I had the earrings on the top of my suitcase, but they weren't there. And these earrings match my rings perfectly, so I really wanted to wear them tonight."

Even if I should admonish her, I do not.

It's hard to find words when the woman in front of me has taken my breath away.

Natalie's dark eyelashes look longer than ever, her warm brown eyes shine with excitement. "You still haven't told me where we're going tonight. I'm beginning to think you like surprises more than you"re letting on."

I take her hand, towing her through the door and outside to the waiting car. "Trust me, you're going to love it."

Her eyebrows climb high, but she humors me, climbs into the back of the car with me, puts her hand in my lap, and says, "Oh, a man of so many words."

I ignore her snarky comment but smile as I close my hand over hers. I glance again at my gold watch. We'll make it just in time if my driver hurries.

Natalie leans her head on my shoulder. "There's something about you in a tux that makes me think we should have stayed in tonight.

"Definitely not. This is not a surprise that was waiting for just anyone." I kiss her forehead, unsure of the man I'm becoming.

The Leon before Natalie didn't waste time wining and dining with women. He propositioned them and then fucked them. Before they could even fall asleep, he sent them home.

The Leon I am now sits in the car and wonders if my family was right about settling down.

I put my hand on her stomach, enjoying the feeling of the small bump beneath my hand. Although I knew I would become a father at some point in my life, the prospects looked bleak. Now, I still have about five months until someone else wraps me around their little finger in one way or another.

Natalie puts her hand on mine. "It's hard to believe we're already a third of the way through the pregnancy. It seems like only yesterday that I was at the doctor."

"I wish I had known sooner. I wouldn't have behaved the way I did if I had known."

She squeezes my hand. "I don't think you should waste time worrying about what you would have done differently. It won"t get us anywhere, and we're working on things now."

"Are we, though? We got married, and I've barely been around." A small tinge of guilt gnaws at me that I never thought I would feel.

I admit that a naive part of me thought life would go on as before when I got married.

I'm the one in control of the household, I didn't realize that I am still accountable to another person. Natalie is undoubtedly a strong woman, but she also needs me to get through everything that life has thrown at her.

Three days already spent in Saint Tropez have shown me how much I have neglected my wife. Natalie is too good for my world.

She puts her hand on my jaw and turns my face toward her. "I like to think that we're friends who have really great sex, even if we fight and drive each other crazy sometimes."

"It's a good thing I like feisty women then." I lean closer to her, my mouth grazing over hers.

Natalie laughs against my lips as the car rolls to a stop outside the concert hall.

Her quiet gasp when she sees the old baroque building in front of us is proof enough that I did the right thing by booking the tickets for the orchestra tonight.

When she turns and looks back at me, she shakes her head. "There"s no way we're seeing the European Orchestra tonight. Absolutely not."

I glance at the posters advertising the orchestral performance. "Yeah, I think we"re here to see it. Unless you don't feel like it. You did say something about wanting to rip my tux off my body."

Her face beams. "I believe you have found the one thing for which I will reject your body."

I huff, wrap my arms around her waist, and rasp in her ear. "I think you"ll pay for that comment later tonight when I finally get you alone."

"How did you know I wanted to see them?" She grabs my hand, frees herself from my arms, and drags me up the stairs.

"I hear you listening to classical music almost every time you paint, and I know that you have been playing the violin for years."

She turns to me. Surprise is written all over her face, her eyes wide, and her mouth gaping open. "How did you know that?"

Shit.

I wasn't going to tell her that I had rung Marina to find out what she liked.

All I wanted to do tonight was surprise her with something special—something she had always wanted to see in person. I pressured Marina to tell me everything about Natalie, everything since the day she arrived in Russia, especially since she hadn"t come to our wedding. It was a very long conversation, but I didn't let her off the hook; she owed me that much.

"I did some investigating." I pull the tickets from the pocket inside my tux jacket, handing it over to the attendant.

Natalie frowns. "Investigating?"

"I thought it was only fair. After all, you googled me and then abandoned me in my bed," I say, teasingly leading her to the front row. "And then you let that pathetic little schoolboy track Boris down, even though that douchebag made it clear he"s not a man you could ever see yourself with."

She purses her lips and pauses to straighten my tie. "Sounds like you were a little jealous of Tyler."

"Impossible." I put my hand around the back of her neck, gently tugging her head back until I can lean in and kiss her. "Unfortunately for him, there were some drugs found in his belongings. It looks like schoolboy is going to be spending some time in jail."

"You framed him because he helped me?" She shakes her head, pressing her lips together as she struggles not to smile. "You didn't, did you?"

"Natalie, you haven't the faintest idea what I'm capable of when someone tries to touch what's mine."

My hand slips down her back, pressing against the small of it as I guide her to our seats in the middle of the first row.

Her hand flies to her mouth, tears glistening in her eyes as she realizes how close we are to the stage. "You really shouldn't have done that. I don't even want to think about how expensive these tickets were."

"You could ask me to buy the world for you, and I would find a way to do it, solnyshko." I wait for her to sit down before taking the seat next to her. "I know this probably isn't the way you envisioned settling down or finding a husband, but I think we can make it work."

She grins and looks back and forth between the musicians, who emerge with their instruments as the lights dim, and me. "So, friends with benefits, huh?"

I laugh and settle down next to her.

Although I don"t want to listen to hours of classical music, it's worth seeing Natalie's happy face as the cellos fill the room with a haunting melody.

She takes a deep breath, reaches for my hand, and laces our fingers together.

This moment is worth it, even if it was a pain in the ass to get the tickets at the last minute.

Natalie deserves the best I can give her.

It's the first time I"ve ever felt this way about someone. It's a foreign feeling, but it settles in my chest and makes me feel completely at home.

I would spend the rest of my life trying to be her source of happiness, and for a moment, that scares the hell out of me.

I don't know what Natalie did to me, but I"d do it all over again.

***

Hours later, the orchestra leaves the stage to a standing ovation.

The lights in the concert hall are just coming on as Natalie wipes a tear from her eye.

I don't know if it's the pregnancy hormones or just happiness, but she seems too emotional for an orchestra performance.

We let some of the other people move out of the hall while she admires the stage. Another tear slides down her cheek and makes its way through her make-up.

I catch the tear with my finger. "Is something wrong?"

Maybe she didn't like it after all.

Maybe she wanted to see the performance with someone other than me.

Natalie spins to face me, throwing her arms around my neck; even in her heels, she needs to stand on her toes to reach. "Thank you. This has been the best night of my life. I still can't believe you cared enough to get tickets for us."

Smiling, I press a kiss to the top of her hair. "You're welcome."

"I've wanted to see them ever since I started playing the violin. As I got older, I became more interested in oil painting, but the European Orchestra was always the soundtrack to those paintings."

"If there's a famous artist you want to go see, let me know." I run my hands up and down her back as goose bumps appear on her skin. "We could go to the Louvre for our anniversary next year."

Natalie's jaw drops as she looks up at me. "You mean that?"

"Of course." I cup her face in my hands, kissing her long and slow, the salty taste of her tears on her lips."

I hum, tracing a hand over the curve of her hip. "Tell you what, you like nude women in paintings, right?"

Her eyebrow arches, curiosity shining in her gaze. "I do."

"Then I want you to take a picture of yourself, naked or in lingerie, and then I want you to paint it for me."

She gasps, her cheeks turning pink. "You're not going to hang it up in the house, are you?"

"You bet I am. In my private study, though. Nobody is going to get to see your body other than me."

"Well, if you want the painting, then consider it yours. I'll start when we get home after the honeymoon."

"Actually, I need two paintings. One of you with this bump, which is going in our room, and then I need one after the baby."

"You sound like the house is going to be covered in naked paintings of me."

"Solnyshko, I would build a whole damn shrine for you if that's what it takes to see you naked every day."

The corner of her mouth twitches as her pretty blush spreads down her neckline. "I think that could be arranged."

"Good." I chuckle and wipe another tear as it falls. "You want to tell me why you're crying?"

She steps away from me as the last people leave our row, making a clear path for us. "Marina used to talk about the day we would go and see them. I don't think that she thought we would ever get to go, but she still liked to plan an entire trip for us."

"I'll book tickets for you and Marina if you want me to." I keep a hand on the small of her back as we move through the crowds to find our car outside.

Natalie stops dead in her tracks, looking at me. "Are you serious? Leon, that's too much. You don't have to spend that kind of money on me."

"I have more money than I"ll ever need. If I can do anything to make your dreams come true, I will. Whatever the cost."

The words come spilling from my lips before I have the chance to stop them.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've given a lot of thought to what I'm willing to do for Natalie, and it all boils down to one word:

Everything.