43. Vitali

FORTY-THREE

Vitali

P eople have epic fairytale stories of proposals, Stasi won’t and I lay on my side with my head propped up on my fist. I want to see her eyes when she notices. I’m a grown-ass adult, I know what I want, and she’s laid in front of me wearing my T-shirt. My beautiful fiancée, well she will be as soon as she opens her eyes. She’s going to look breathtaking in a crown.

I get impatient and trace her features with the tip of my finger when the lazy shit continues sleeping. She slaps out my hand and grumbles, “Let me sleep, puppy.”

This is going to be my life, every morning I’ll have her being moody and every night I’ll work it out on her body, but she doesn’t turn away from me and shuffles closer, the cute fucking thing.

“Wake up, got a surprise for you, sweetness.”

There’s too much excitement in my voice and her eyes freakishly snap open. She scans my body, her brows coming together when she sees that my dick isn’t out yet.

She does the same to her own body and she springs up, holding her hand out like she’s never seen it before. I’m vibrating with joy and press an obnoxiously loud wet kiss to cheek as I say, “Congratulations, I decided a few weeks ago.”

Weeks isn’t technically a lie – they can be used instead of months. Or years.

She moves her head away from me, blinks slowly then shakes her head. “You’re a crazy bastard.”

It’s an accurate description so I don’t say anything.

But she hasn’t said no. As long as a refusal doesn’t come out of her pretty lips I’m on cloud fucking nine. My woman can’t admit anything for shit, she hides herself behind other people’s opinions and I’m loud enough to force my way through. I know her more than I know myself, Stasi isn’t arguing. She isn’t taking the ring off or throwing it at me. She’s admiring it and trying to hide her smile. The large diamond is worthless, but she stares at it with awe and moves closer to me.

I’m two seconds away from giving her another surprise when there’s a little knock on my door with a small voice to match.

“Tali, Stas. Mama said knock.”

I sit up and extend my voice. “Come in, Verochka.”

The door is pushed open, and the cup leaves a trail of water or whatever liquid is in it as she carefully walks to me. Her fingers are clasped around it tightly and she doesn’t look away from her concoction until she stops beside me. When I try to take it from her she scowls up at me and shakes her head. “Not yours. For Stas.”

What the fuck?!

I can’t keep the hurt of being snubbed out of my voice.

“What happened to me being your favorite?”

She rolls her eyes and holds the cup out with both hands. My woman is adorable as she takes the hazardous liquid while my niece is a traitor and she says, “For Stas, only. You no drink my tea.”

I grab her and lift her above my head as she scowls.

“You don’t normally bring me tea. What’s in the cup, Vero?”

Stasi’s arm moves in my periphery, and I can’t let her drink whatever concoction it is so rush out before it can touch her lips.

“Pool water?” I ask.

Verena shakes her head with an eye roll like I’m a dumb fuck. Stasi hesitantly moves her face away from the cup as I stand my Vero on the bed and go through the list of substances she could get her little hands on.

“Toilet?”

Her grumpy face comes out and she shakes her head while Stasi burns a hole in the side of my face.The kid has the attention span of a goldfish and starts twirling, playing with the hem of her dress. I don’t trust whatever is in that cup to be fit for human consumption and I’ll need to burn the dish. So, I hold her above my head again and tickle her sides.

“Where did you make your ‘tea’? Who helped you? Was it that little shit Viktor?”

Her hands slap out and she’s definitely her mother’s daughter from the sting alone, but my brows go up in surprise as she gives her breathless list. “Papa’s tea, Val done hot water, and Dani give sugar.”

She’s spent years coming to me as soon as she wakes up. Never has she been empty handed, and it’s always been something that I spit out. But Stasi leans on my shoulder and my niece is a traitor as she pushes her weight down to stand between my thighs. Her hands go to her hips, and she plugs authority into her voice.

“Not for Tali, only Stas.” She points at each of us as though we’re too dumb to know our own names, then turns sweet as she smiles at my woman. “Like?”

Stasi takes a hesitant sip and there’s no lie in her voice.

“It’s very nice. You’re a clever girl, aren’t you?”

Vero beams up at her and then her eyes sparkle seeing the ring on Stasi’s finger. She stretches her finger out without touching the stone and her voice is lower like a little gremlin.

“Pretty.”

My door being open means I hear the terrible trio before I see them as Dom and Vasy’s giggling echoes through the hallway with their steps. I can’t hear Viktor telling them to leave him alone and quickly take the cup from Stasi’s hand to set it down on the nightstand and pull the sheets over the three of us to hide. We’re all sitting up and I hold my finger in front of my lips as I whisper, “Shh, they might not realize we’re here.”

Stasi doesn’t understand how crazy they are and rips the sheet over her head as they come into the room. Adrik stands back and I narrow my eyes at him as he lingers outside of one of the spare rooms. He ignores me and walks back down the hallway and I hear Viktor’s bedroom door open so I leave him to play with the books Viktor has outgrown.

The other two are carbon copies of their fathers and somehow so much fucking worse than I’ve ever witnessed my brothers being. They pause before running at me and jumping onto the bed. Vasy flexes and I’m sure he tries to wink at my woman. That pisses me off more than him swinging at me, so I grab his leg and turn him upside down as Verena drags Dom back by his collar. “No, nice.”

Stasi actually laughs and she speaks calmly to the psycho. “Dominic, don’t hit Tali, okay?”

He listens. He actually fucking listens to someone.

Holy fuck, she’s magic.

We all freeze in awe of her as he nods his head and sits his crazy ass down. I’m sure my jaw is touching my chin as she does the same to his partner in crime.

“Vasili, you’re not going to fight either, are you?”

His head moves in a blur with how quickly he nods, and Verena stands with her arms limp at her sides as I let go of his leg and he copies Dom at her other side.

My voice comes out low, with reverence, as I say, “Fuck, sweetness, if I didn’t already love you I definitely do now.”

She avoids my eyes and falls silent as Vasy makes kissy faces like a fucking idiot. I’ve never claimed to be mature and push my hand flat against his chest, so he falls backwards. Dom jumps up, screaming at a volume that has me wincing. “TALI LOVES STASI!”

His dipshit cousin keeps making kissy faces and they both jump around the bed, alternating between screaming and fake kissing gestures.

Verena holds her hand up, moving it side to side in a wave and orders us around shouting, “Mwah.”

Kissing her cheek because it’s her way of telling us she wants us to, Stasi does the same and the little traitor runs off, leaving the terrors behind as she hums to herself and calls out, “Addy? Want to play?”

I grab them both by their T-shirts and drag them closer as I deepen my voice.

“You have five seconds to run or I’m giving you a swirly.”

They look at each other before asking, “What’s swirly?”

“I’ll put your head in the toilet then flush it.”

My threat doesn’t work because they’re crazy and they restart their jumping and screaming.

“Yeah, swirly!” Vasili jumps up with both fists in the air.

“SWIRLY! Swirly. SWIRLY!” Dom sings.

I pick them up and place them on the floor as I lie, “Go downstairs and wait by the bathroom door and I’ll do it.”

They both take off running like idiots, it’s more like they’re waddling, and I take my phone to record so I have material to embarrass them with when they’re older. It looks stupid as fuck and I deflate against the headboard when they fuck off, hoping they haven’t scared Stasi off.

Turning to my woman when we’re alone, I pull her into my side and ignore the cup of doom.

“You going to give me a mwah too, fiancée?”

Her laugh is adorable, light, and carefree even if it’s at my expense. “Apparently you drink from the toilet, definitely not.”

I spat it out as soon as I knew but she laughs louder at her dumb-ass joke.

“Just like a puppy.”

There are tears in her eyes, and she falls into me. I love the sound of her laugh, and cup her cheek, watching her eyes dazzle me as I trace the edges of her smile.

“Ask me if I’d rather have food or you?”

Her laugh dies and her smile slowly straightens into an uneasy line as she whispers, “Food or me?”

“You,” I say without missing a beat. “I love you, sweetness, and,” I plant a noisy kiss on her cheek, “I know that you love me too, so shut up and accept it.”

I’m a stranger in my own house as I watch my woman become more comfortable around her new family. She’s taken my place in the face mask tradition and Inessa hasn’t even looked at me. The woman can hold a grudge for the entire continent, but she puts up with her husband’s shit so mine can’t be that bad. Val’s annoying ass points out my lurking too fucking loud for a normal person as he asks, “Shouldn’t you be pampering yourself?”

Everyone’s eyes come to me and I’m going to beat the shit out of him.Stasi gives me a small smile and nudges mother to do whatever they’ve been speaking about. Inessa’s sigh is the first sign of hope, and she holds the face mask tub up over her shoulder without looking at me or saying shit. These fuckers are my family, not just because I was born with them or they’re married to my brothers, each of them hold a special purpose and role and some of my guilt eases knowing she’s going to be forced back to normal by my girl.

I nearly trip over my own feet as I go to the back of the sofa and take the tub from her hands. I don’t lurk anymore, and the sofa is taken up with Dani and Viktor at Inessa’s side. Stasi is in my usual seat, so I pull her to sit on my thigh and she doesn’t push me away. She uncaps the tub and she’s comfortable as she spreads the paste over my skin. The others have their face masks on with their heads tipped back. But Inessa cracks one eye open and ruins it.

“I’m Stasi’s maid of honor.”

The underlying threat has me holding my girl tighter. No one has mentioned the rings on her fingers, I thought I’d got away with slipping it past their need to meddle.

Once my face is covered, Stasi leans against my chest and closes her eyes, sounding bored. “We said that when we were ten, and I don’t think Tali will even tell me when I’m supposedly getting married. I’ll wake up in Vegas with another ring on my finger.”

If she kept them on I wouldn’t have to fucking do that shit. She’s wrong, am I fuck eloping in some random-ass chapel. I’m going to marry my girl, crown her and give her everything she refuses to admit she wants.I’ve heard enough from Inessa about the Stasi who was excited, before I gave her shit advice, and she killed that part of herself. Now it’s buried inside, haunting her with the wishes that she had.I’m responsible for them leaving and I’ll bring each one back to life.