Page 154 of Wicked Proposal

I shake my head, but can’t help smiling.

As we make our way back up, I press myself close to Yulian. “Thank you,” I whisper. “For telling me.”

“I hadn’t meant to.” His eyes are still wandering away from mine. “I was supposed to tell you about the company.”

“You have. You’ve told me more than you think.”

“Have I now?”

Yes.You’ve told me you want to make the world a better place. That you don’t want the darkness of the underworld to spill into the surface. That you’ll do everything you can to prevent it.

You told me you care.

Before I can answer, we get ambushed by a tiny ball of excitement. “Tikhon says I can work here when I grow up! I can be his append—appro?—”

“Apprentice?” I laugh. “That sounds wonderful. But you have to work hard, okay? Do all your homework once school starts.”

“I will!”

We bid goodbye to Tikhon. “Thanks for doing this,” I tell him. “It means the world.”

“Are you kidding? I loved having a little intern around. Best brainstorming companion I’ve had since Pyotr took his sabbatical.”

We each take one of Eli’s hands and walk out of StarTech. Yulian suggests he treat us to the snazziest pizza in town.

Yulian.A brutal, hardenedpakhanwith no morals. That’s who I thought he was at first.

Now, I realize I couldn’t have been further off from the truth.

Because he’s also the man who saved me. The man who protected me from a rain of bullets, who shielded me with his body and dragged me to safety when he barely knew me. The man who stepped between me and Brad twice. The man who dropped everything to care for me and my kid when I needed it.

The man I love.

47

YULIAN

I take them to my favorite restaurant.

It’s a pizza place in the heart of Manhattan: white tablecloth, wine glasses, complimentary champagne. Not exactly hole-in-the-wall goodness.

Nor is it suited for a child.

But Eli is so busy staring at everything with wide eyes that he ends up behaving impeccably. He leaves most of his pizza uneaten because “the sauce is not right,” but practically inhales the crusts.

“You should take it as a compliment,” Mia laughs as we’re taking a walk around the block, Eli snoozing on her hip. “Henevereats the crusts.”

She’s beautiful. She always is. But tonight, there’s something about her I just can’t place. Something that makes her face shine brighter, her eyes light up like stars.

Soon, she won’t be looking at me like that anymore.

By the time we’re back at her place, Eli is still sound asleep. I start to ask, “Do you need?—”

Help carrying him upstairs?The words stick in my throat halfway out. I’ve got no right to ask that. Not when I’ve been placing his mother in unspeakable danger.

“—anything else?” I finish instead.

“Like the moon?” Her laugh echoes in the darkness of Brownsville night. A sound so pure has no place there, in the depths of everything dirty and discarded, but it rings out all the same. “Nah, thanks. I’m fine here, down on boring ol’ Earth.”