Page 182 of Wicked Proposal

Yulian looks breathless. Like he’s been running down all those flights of stairs instead of riding in his cushy elevator. He’s ruffled, tie askew, hair a mess, but his eyes…

His eyes have never burned brighter.

“This is the part where you say yes,” he rumbles, his husky voice vibrating through me.

“Why?”

“Because if you don’t, that means you’re going to say no.” His fists clench at his sides, not out of violence but something else,something softer.Hope.“And I really don’t want to hear that word coming from your lips right now.”

“That’s not— I mean,why?” I take a trembling step towards him. “Why would you…?”

Why would you propose to me? Why would you ask me to be your wife—yourrealwife—when I’ve got nothing to offer you? No money, no power, no advantage?

Why would you want me, when nobody else ever has?

I have no idea how to even begin to say all of that. To cut this tangle of emotions out of my heart and pick out the threads, one by one, until they make sense.

But Yulian doesn’t wait for me to do it.

He takes a step towards me. His face is burning with a kind of urgency I’ve never seen on him before—never since the night of Brad’s botched wedding, when he was fighting to save both our lives.

Does this feel equally important to him? A matter of life and death?

“Because you’ve made a mess of me,” he answers.

“Wait, what?”

“You heard me,” he almost snarls. “You’ve fucked me up, Mia Winters.”

“Now I’m confused. Is this a proposal or are we fighti?—?”

“I used to think I didn’t have a heart anymore,” he interrupts. “That it died that night, bleeding on that floor, the same way my family did. Cold, full of holes. Unfixable.” His gray gaze fixes onmine, burning like the ash of a fireplace. “Then you came along, with your disrespect and your attitude and your fucking tow truck?—”

“I said I was sorry for that!”

“—and I couldfeelit. I could feel it beating again.” He takes my hand and places it over his chest. The strongta-thump, ta-thumpof his heart echoes through me. “I’ve been killing myself trying to find a way to keep you without hurting you. A way to save you from this life—mylife. And from my choices, too.”

“Your choi?—?”

“I’m Bratva,” he cuts me off. “It will always be dangerous to be with me. Always, Mia.”

A small, watery smile twists my lips. “Haven’t I already signed up for that?”

“You have no idea what you signed up for.” His voice nearly cracks on those words. “But if you’ll let me, I’ll use the rest of my life to protect you from it. And from Brad. And from anything else in this world that so much as dares to fucking touch you.”

I’m so anxious I could burst. A small, cautious flame of happiness is starting to kindle at the center of my chest, and suddenly I’m terrified.

Because when’s the last time I’ve had that?

When’s the last time I’ve hadhope?

“Today, someone told me that the best thing you can do for the people you love is to let them go.” He squeezes my hand tighter, his anxiety almost matching mine. “But I don’t want to let you go. Not for a goddamn second.”

I can’t remember the last time he spoke for so long. I’m afraid to break the spell—afraid I’ll say the wrong thing, that I’ll ruin it. Like I’ve ruined everything else in my life.

“Yulian…”

I want to sayyesso bad. I’ve never wanted anything more.