Page 57 of Marrying the Silver Fox

“What do you mean?”

I lace my arms around her, resting them on the small of her back. “You said it yourself,” I remind her. “You can be useful, right? With all you’ve learned about how to read people, you can help me see things in a different way. Tap into a different side of this business.”

She raises her eyebrows. “You would let me do that?”

“I don’t want you to feel trapped here,” I tell her. “I never want you to feel the way you did when you ran away from me. Not as long as you live. And if that means letting you into my world…” I let out a long breath. “Then that’s a small price to pay.”

She smiles as she reaches up to touch my cheek, as though making sure she really heard me right. “You mean that?”

I nod. “I mean that.”

She leans her head against mine, breathing deep, like she’s letting the reality of this wash through her. There’s a part of me that is profoundly uncomfortable with the idea of even letting the world see her as my wife, but then, it’s already out there now—no point trying to deny it or hold back the information. The best I can do is to show her that I’m willing to protect her with everything I have, and to give her the kind of life that she can take pride in. The kind of life that ensures that she’s not limited in what she can do or how she can express herself.

“Thank you,” she murmurs, tracing a finger along my cheek. “By the way, I think those eggs are cooked now.”

“Oh, shit,” I mutter, having half forgotten that there was anything on the stove at all. She laughs as I go to rescue our breakfast, swiftly lifting the pan off the stove and grabbing a couple of plates from the cupboard above me.

“Hmm, you know, I think we should hire some home help before the baby comes,” she teases me. “Can’t rely on you to make breakfast when you can forget about it so easily, hmm?”

“Or maybe you could learn to cook it.”

“Hey, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves now,” she replies, and she hops off the counter, peering over my shoulder to get a look at what I’ve made. “Damn, that smells good. Could I have a little extra? I’m eating for two now, you know…”

I serve up our breakfast and hand her the plate, and as we head to the dining room, I find myself wondering how it became this damn easy. I don’t know if I deserve all the patience she has shown me, all the second chances she has given me. But I’m determined to do whatever I can to make sure she knows that I appreciate each and every one.

But right now, I’ll just start with making her breakfast.

29

ANDIE

“You sure you want to come out tonight?”

Nikolai leans in the door, watching as I put the finishing touches on my outfit. I slip my earrings on, looking at him in the mirror.

“I told you, I really want to do this,” I reply. “Now, more importantly—do I look okay?” I get to my feet and give him a little twirl, letting him inspect the outfit before I take it out on the road.

He pauses for a moment, adjusting his tie where he stands in the door, and slowly lets his gaze trace up and down my body. “No,” he replies. “You look fucking amazing.”

I laugh. “Okay, I think I can work with that.”

Truth be told, I am a little nervous about going out tonight—not just because it’s going to be the first real business event I’ll be attending with Nikolai, but because it’s the first time I’ve really dressed up since I found out I was pregnant. Most of my clothes still fit me, but Nikolai insisted on getting me something new for the occasion, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to argue.

He settled on a red velvet dress, gathered at one hip to disguise the slight pouch in my belly where the pregnancy is beginning to show. While it’s not going to be long before I have to come clean about it to the whole world, right now, I’m glad that it will not overshadow me.

“The car is waiting,” he tells me, offering me an arm. “Are you ready to go?”

“I think so,” I reply, taking his arm and hanging on a little more tightly than I entirely need to. I know it’s probably kind of silly for me to be so nervous, but I can’t help it—this is the first time I will really have stepped out into the world as his wife, and I want to make sure I make a good impression on everyone I meet tonight.

Even if that’s not entirely the goal of this evening.

After the conversation we had the other day about his mother, Nikolai has been trying to involve me more in matters of the business—asking for my advice on this or that, getting me to sit in on phone calls so I can try to parse where they might be trying to hide something in conversation. Tonight, we’re going out to a charity gala for one of the major museums in the city, which a few of his potential new business partners will be attending. He wants to make a good impression, and has insisted that my insight could be what makes or breaks his chance to work with them.

I was more than a little surprised when he suggested that I attend this event with him, but pleasantly so. Because it tells me that he meant what he said when he assured me that he never wanted me to feel trapped, the way I felt when I made a break from this place before.

I can understand now why he was so strict with me, why he saw the same fate his mother might have faced waiting for me if he didn’t do all he could to protect me, but he seems to have started to trust in the fact that I’m not at risk the same way she was. That he’s not his father, and he will not make the same mistakes that led to her passing.

He leads me down to where the car is waiting for me, and holds the door for me, a true gentleman. As he slips inside, he reaches over to rest his hand on my thigh, a possessive gesture that I know is meant to remind every man we encounter tonight that I am well and truly his.