Page 278 of Hate to Love You

“But…I emptied the penthouses!” He blurts out suddenly.

My jaw drops as I stare at him.

“What?”

“I did it for you! So, you can burn it down,” he states, using his arms to lift himself from the floor without dropping his eyes from mine. “The whole building.”

“You did that for me?” I whisper, fighting the burn behind my eyes.

“For us,” he says, gesturing between us, trying to reason with me. “And I bought all your neighbors’ townhouses.”

“What?” I ask breathlessly. “But…why?”

“Because I know you love it there,” he says, still inching his way backwards. “We can turn that whole neighborhood in Forest Hills into its own gated Mafia community. Someplace safe for all of us. A home. You know, for our family.”

I shake my head slowly.

Sometimes I can’t believe how far we’ve come.

From the moment I met Roman Antonov, I was certain that one of us was supposed to die.

And four weeks ago, I nearly did.

But he got to me before the poison touched my tongue.

We rewrote our narrative. And even though we began with death, somewhere along the line, we created life.

A little heart that beats inside my womb, fathered by the man who even now is building our future one brick or emptied penthouse at a time.

But also the man who has coincidentally neglected to ask me the most important question.

“A home?” I ask softly.

He opens his mouth to continue, but freezes, hearing hushed whispers behind him. He whips around, coming face to face with his family, well… our family.

All of his siblings.

All of our most trusted men.

Jaxon Pace and his Alpha Squad.

All of them standing in front of a conveniently placed priest.

…Exactly as planned.

“What the…” He mumbles, looking back at me.

I throw him a dazzling smile, slowly lowering the dagger before sliding it into my thigh sheath.

“You took too long to ask me, Roman, so now you don’t get to ask. You just get to do.”

“You two are fucked in the head.” Ana says humorlessly, shaking her head. “Can we get this over and done with? There’s a gig tonight I wanna rock the fuck out at.”

“Ana!” Pasha shouts, his finger pointing at the priest. “Don’t curse in front of God!”

“What fucking God?” Lev laughs back.

“All of you shut up,” Cal mutters, slapping Lev on the back of the head.