Page 48 of Mafia Pregnancy
Danielle
I watch Radmir’s chest rise and fall in the steady rhythm of deep sleep, counting each breath like a prayer of gratitude.
The private doctor left an hour ago after confirming the bullet passed cleanly through his side without hitting any vital organs, but infection and blood loss remain concerns for the next forty-eight hours.
He also examined me but determined my mild concussion just requires monitoring unless I feel worse.
The guest room that’s been converted into a private clinic in the estate overlooks the ocean through large windows. With evening settling over the estate, the room feels peaceful and protected in ways I never thought I’d experience again.
I haven’t left his side since the ambulance brought us back six hours ago.
Mrs. Yranda tried to convince me to rest in my own room while he recovered, but the thought of being separated from him for even a few minutes makes my chest constrict with panic.
I came too close to losing him today to take his presence for granted.
A few minutes later, his eyes open slowly, blinking against the soft lamplight as consciousness returns.
For a moment, he looks confused about where he is, but then he sees me and something in his expression settles.
“Hey.” His voice is rough from anesthesia and pain medication, but the relief in his tone is unmistakable. “You’re really here.”
“I’m really here.” I reach for his hand, needing the confirmation of warm skin and steady pulse beneath my fingers. “How do you feel?”
“Like I’ve been shot.” He attempts a smile that doesn’t quite hide the discomfort he’s experiencing. “I’m alive, which is better than I expected a few hours ago.”
The casual reference to how close he came to dying makes my throat constrict with emotion. “Don’t joke about that. Please.”
“I’m sorry.” He squeezes my hand gently. “How are you? The baby?”
“We’re both fine. The doctor checked me when we got back, and everything looks normal.” I press my free hand to my stomach, where our daughter continues to grow despite the trauma of the day. “She’s strong.”
“She gets that from her mother.” Radmir tries to shift position and winces at the movement. “What about Leo? Is he safe?”
“He’s at the safehouse in Orange County with Molly and Carmen. They’ll bring him back tomorrow once you’re feeling better.” I help him adjust the pillows so he can sit up more comfortably. “He doesn’t know what happened. They told him it was a short vacation because we were busy with work stuff.”
Relief crosses his features as he processes that our son is protected and unaware of how dangerous the day became. “Good. He doesn’t need to know about any of this.”
I nod before we settle into comfortable silence for several minutes while I study his face for signs of pain or distress.
The through-and-through bullet wound was serious enough to require surgery, but the private medical team Andrei arranged provided excellent care without the complications that would have come with a hospital visit.
“Danielle.” Radmir’s voice draws my attention back to his eyes. “About what you said before you walked away from me… About choosing between you and the bratva …”
I tense, not ready for this conversation while he’s still recovering from surgery. “We don’t have to talk about this now.”
“Yes, we do.” He turns slightly to face me more directly, despite the obvious discomfort the movement causes. “What happened today proved you were right about everything.”
The admission surprises me with its immediacy and completeness. “Radmir?—”
“My world nearly got you and our daughter killed. It put Leo in danger and forced you to make choices no one should have to make.” His voice carries absolute conviction despite its weakness.
“I can’t ask you to live like that, and I can’t raise children in a world where loving me makes them targets. ”
I study his expression, looking for any sign that pain medication or stress is affecting his judgment.
Instead, I find only clarity and determination that suggests he’s been thinking about this decision for longer than today’s crisis.
“What are you saying?” My stomach clenches as I prepare myself to hear he’s sending us away, even as I hope he’s choosing a different path.
“I’m saying I’m done with all of it.” He meets my eyes directly. “Andrei can have control of the organization, or we can dismantle it entirely. I don’t care what happens to the business as long as my family is safe.”
The words should fill me with relief and joy, but instead, they make me worry about what he’s giving up and whether he’ll resent the sacrifice later. “That’s your life’s work. Everything you’ve built.”
“Everything I built was just a way to survive until I found something worth living for.” He brings my hand to his lips and presses a gentle kiss to my palm. “You and Leo and our daughter are worth more than any empire I could ever create.”
Tears blur my vision as the weight of his choice settles over me. “You’re sure? Once you walk away, there might not be a path back.”
“There’s no path back from being dead either, which is where I was heading if I’d kept prioritizing business over family.” He reaches up to touch my face with careful fingers. “I love you, Danielle. I should have said it weeks ago, but I was too afraid of what it might mean.”
The confession breaks down everything I’ve been holding back since the day I walked away from him. “I love you too. That’s why I was so scared of your world, because losing you would destroy me just as surely as losing our children to your world would.”
“You’re not going to lose me or them.” He pulls me down for a kiss. “Not to enemies, business, or anything that doesn’t matter more than this, which is nothing. You and the children are my world.”
When we break apart, I rest my forehead against his and breathe in the reality of having him alive and safe and choosing us over everything else. “What happens now?”
“We figure out how to be a family without looking over our shoulders for threats.” He traces patterns on my cheek with his thumb. “We find somewhere safe to raise our children and teach Leo about dinosaurs and help our daughter discover what she loves about the world.”
The picture he paints sounds like everything I’ve wanted but never dared hope to have. “Do you think you can just walk away from fifteen years of building an organization?”
“I can do anything if it means keeping you.” His voice grows stronger despite his physical weakness. “Today taught me power means nothing if you can’t protect the people you love.”
I lean into his touch and let myself believe this might actually work.
The man I fell in love with can become the father and partner Leo and our daughter need without the constant threat of violence shadowing our lives.
“I was so scared when I saw you collapse.” The memory of him falling to his knees, blood soaking through his shirt, makes me shiver despite the warm room.
“I thought I’d lost you before I could tell you how I really felt. ”
“What do you really feel?” He studies my face with the intensity he brings to everything that matters to him.
“That I want to build something with you. Not just survive together but actually create a life worth living.” I take a shaky breath.
“ I want to wake up next to you every morning and fall asleep in your arms every night. I want to watch you teach our children about the world and help them become whomever they’re meant to be. ”
“That sounds like a pretty good plan.” He shifts carefully to make room for me on the bed. “Come here.”
I settle beside him with careful attention to his injury, curling against his uninjured side while he wraps his arm around me. The position allows me to rest my head on his shoulder while keeping weight off his wounded side.
“This is the first time we’ve been together without either of us planning to run away afterward.” His observation carries wonder and relief in equal measure.
“It feels different.” I trace gentle patterns on his chest, avoiding the bandaged area where surgery repaired the bullet damage. “Like we’re both finally in the same place at the same time.”
“We are.” He tightens his arm around me. “I’m not going anywhere.”
The simple promise carries weight that has nothing to do with geography or physical location. He’s talking about emotional availability and choosing to stay present and committed instead of maintaining the distance that’s characterized most of our relationship.
“Show me.” The words come out softly, and I don’t take them back.
He frowns. “Show you what?”
“That you’re not going anywhere. That this is real.” I lift my head to look at him directly. “Make love to me like you mean it.”
Heat flares in his eyes despite his physical condition. “Danielle, I just had surgery. I don’t think?—”
“I’ll be careful.” I sit up slowly and begin unbuttoning my shirt. “I need to feel alive with you. I need to know we both survived this.”
He watches me undress with growing hunger that makes me feel powerful despite everything we’ve been through today. When I remove my bra and let it fall to the floor, his breathing becomes noticeably deeper.
“You’re so beautiful.” He reaches for me with his good hand, tracing the curve of my breast with reverent fingers. “I can’t believe you’re really here.”
“I’m here.” I lean down to kiss him softly. “I’m alive, you’re alive, and we love each other. Everything else is just details.”
The kiss deepens as he responds with careful passion, mindful of his limitations but unwilling to hold back completely. I can taste the relief and desperation and love in the way his mouth moves against mine.
I work at his clothes with gentle efficiency, removing everything I can reach without requiring him to move too much. When I have him naked except for the bandages covering his wound, I step back to appreciate the view of lean muscle and power that’s been scared by violence but not broken by it.
“My turn to take care of you.” I remove the rest of my clothes and rejoin him on the bed, straddling his hips with careful attention to his comfort. “Let me love you the way you deserve.”
I start with kisses along his collarbone and throat, working my way down his body slowly. He responds with soft sounds of pleasure and encouragement, burying his hands in my hair and holding me close without directing my movements.
When I take his cock in my mouth, his sharp intake of breath tells me how much he’s enjoying the attention. I work him with lips and tongue until he’s trembling beneath me but pull back before he loses control completely.
“I need you inside me.” I position myself over him and sink down slowly, taking him into my pussy with careful precision. “I need to feel you everywhere.”
The sensation of being filled by him makes me gasp with pleasure and relief. This physical confirmation that we’re both alive and together and safe is what I needed, along with the emotional connection that makes everything else fade into background noise.
I set a gentle rhythm that accommodates his injury while building tension between us. He watches my face with intense focus, as if memorizing every expression and sound I make. His hands rest on my hips, guiding my movements without controlling them.
“I love you.” The words come out breathlessly but certain. “I love you so much it scares me.”
“Don’t be scared.” He reaches up to touch my face with gentle fingers. “Love makes us both brave.”
The combination of his words and the way he’s looking at me pushes me toward the edge faster than I expected. I increase the pace slightly, chasing the release that will seal this moment between us permanently.
“I love how your pussy tightens around me when you’re close.” His voice is rough with his own approaching climax. “Let me feel you come, lyubimaya .”
The words completely break my control. My sheath convulses around him as I cry out my pleasure with a sound that echoes through the quiet room. The sensation of my inner walls milking his cock triggers his own release, and he follows me over the edge with my name on his lips.
I collapse against his chest, careful to avoid his injured side and my gently protruding belly, just letting him hold me while we both recover. Our breathing gradually slows to normal while aftershocks continue to pulse between us.
“That was worth getting shot for.” His attempt at humor makes me lift my head to glare at him.
“Don’t even joke about that.”
“I’m sorry.” He strokes my hair with gentle repetition. “I meant what I said though. You’re worth everything I’ve been through to get here.”
I settle back against his shoulder and listen to his heartbeat beneath my ear. It’s strong and steady, broadcasting he’s alive, which is exactly the way I plan to keep him for the next sixty years. “What do we tell Leo tomorrow?” I ask as exhaustion begins to catch up with both of us.
“We tell him his father loves him and his mother very much, and we’re going to be a family from now on.” Radmir’s voice carries drowsy contentment. “Everything else we can figure out as we go.”
“And if he asks about why you were hurt?”
“We tell him that sometimes adults have to handle difficult situations, but the important thing is that everyone he loves is safe now.”
The simple honesty of his approach to parenting makes me smile against his skin. “You’re going to be a good father to both of them.”
“I’m going to try to be the father they deserve.” He pulls a blanket over us with his good arm. “Also the partner you deserve.”
“You already are.” I close my eyes and let sleep begin to claim me. “You chose us over everything else. You’re choosing to make us the priority and keep us safe. That’s all I ever wanted.”
“Then you have it.” His lips press against the top of my head. “You have all of me, for as long as you want it.”
I snuggle closer. “Forever sounds about right.”
He laughs softly. “Forever it is.”
I drift off to sleep in his arms, finally at peace since the man I love has chosen our family over the empire he spent fifteen years building.