Page 61 of Marrying the Silver Fox

“Are you kidding?” I snort. “Natalie—I hardly knew her. I was only going through with that wedding so I’d have a wife to show my father. I didn’t expect anything meaningful to come of it. And I know nothing would have, if it hadn’t been you I’d made my wife that day.”

I can see her eyes growing a little glossy as I speak, the emotion getting the best of her. I brush my thumb against her cheek, every touch a promise that I mean everything I’m saying right now.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, Andie,” I swear to her. “I want you. Only you. For the rest of my life.”

She closes her eyes and leans her head against mine, and as she catches her breath, I can tell that this is overwhelming her—the sound of my words a balm on some deep wound that she has been carrying for so long. I wish I could go back in time and save her from the hell that she went through before she met me, but then she would never have become the woman I fell in love with—the strong, intelligent, witty woman who knows her own mind and knows what she wants and knows that, above all, she wants me.

When she opens her eyes again, I can almost hear the words before she says them, but I make no move to rush her. When she’s ready, I will be here. Just the way I always intend to be.

“I…I love you, Nikolai.”

Those words, they’re like an incantation, a spell binding the two of us together. I know that we’ve done all of this backward—falling in love after we got married—but if I had never taken her as my wife, I would never have had a chance to see her with clear eyes, to understand that she was a love I would have searched my whole life for if I hadn’t married her on that day.

“I love you too, Andie.”

For a moment, we just let those words percolate in the air between us, their sweet weight settling over the conversation. It’s the first time we have said them to each other, but I know that they’re true. I’m not sure I have ever loved anyone the way I love Andie, with the certainty of a future, the promise of a family, with the ring on her finger a reminder of the commitment that she has made to me that I know she will never break.

And then I kiss her again, wrapping my arms around her and holding her close. I can feel her pulse racing in her veins, and she smiles into the embrace, like she can feel it all too. The woman I love—my wife, the mother of my child, my partner. Everything I’ve been waiting for.

And everything that I didn’t know I was missing until the day I kissed her for the first time.

EPILOGUE

ANDIE

“Okay, I can do this,” I mutter to myself, as I look up at the steps leading to the private jet sitting before me. I cup a hand around my belly, which is protruding beneath the pair of maternity leggings I have on, and grip tight to the railing as I make my way up the steps.

“I’m right behind you,” Nikolai tells me, his hand on the small of my back, as though he’s fearful I might go tipping over at any moment.

I almost want to tell him off, remind him that I’m capable of taking care of myself, but I’m certain he wouldn’t listen anyway. Ever since I started showing a couple of months ago, he has been all over me, taking care of every little detail to make sure there’s nothing I have to manage on my own.

I reach the top of the steps and catch my breath, and turn to see Nikolai behind me, his brow slightly furrowed.

“Are you sure you should be flying in your state?” he murmurs, glancing downward.

I laugh. “Niko, we already went over this with the doctor,” I remind him. “I’m fine to fly. And besides, it’s a private jet. Not like I’m exactly going to be traveling with anyone other than you, right?”

“I suppose,” he replies, and I smile at the attendant on the door.

It takes me a moment to recognize her, but then I realize that she’s the same one who tended to me on the day of the wedding, who sped off to get me new clothes before I flew out to Russia for the first time. She beams back at me, and I wonder if she’s surprised to see that we’re still together. I doubt that we were exactly the picture of a happy couple on that trip, but that was months ago now. A different lifetime, it feels like, compared to where I am now.

She leads us to the cabin, where a leather seat has been specially modified to allow for my baby bump to fit under the seat belt. Nikolai offers me an arm to help me settle, and I sink down in relief, glad to take the weight off my feet. Doesn’t matter how many times I try to break in shoes before I go anywhere, I always find myself with aching feet within about ten minutes of leaving the house, or at least, that’s what it feels like.

“Can I get you anything to drink?” the attendant asks.

“Let’s skip the champagne this time,” I joke. “How about a sparkling water?”

“The same for me, thanks,” Nikolai adds.

She bows her head. “Coming right up.”

She steps out of the room, and Nikolai takes his seat beside me, reaching out to lace his fingers through mine. His touch has become almost second nature to me now, the most natural thing in the world. It’s hard to believe that it was ever anything but.

“You remember the first time we came on this plane together?” I remark, as he lifts my hand and presses a kiss against it.

He nods. “Of course I do. The day of the wedding.”

“Well, the night of the wedding,” I remind him, cocking an eyebrow playfully.