She had completely succumbed to the insanity of their whirlwind romance. She didn’t care if it was too fast or too intense. She didn’t care what her family thought about it, or Nikolai’s either. She only cared that she was falling completely in love with him.
She had never imagined that she could feel this way about someone.
She had never seen real love, up close.
Her parents had a sort of business partnership, effective and usually amicable.
When she’d been with Maxim, she thought it was normal to be frustrated with your partner, even hurt by them at times. She supposed those were just the compromises of a relationship.
She’d never imagined that a person’s company could be so uniformly, consistently fascinating. She’d never thought that she could spend all day with a man, and only want more of him. She hadn’t imagined a passion that didn’t fade away over time, but only burned brighter and brighter.
But that was what it was like, loving Nikolai. Every day she only found more things she liked about him.
As she met some of his Bratva brothers, she saw that he was a good leader, a good boss. He had a close friendship with Leonid, Dima, Oleg, and the others, yet he was also direct and firm when he needed to be. She knew he’d been neglecting his business interests to spend time with her, but when he did consent to talk about the various companies the Markovs owned, and their projects around the city, she saw how intelligent and ambitious he was.
He didn’t want to talk much about work, however. Nor did he seem anxious to introduce her to his father.
“I just want you to myself,” he said.
She did have to meet Zavier at last, however.
Nadia insisted on it—she wanted to make sure that she wasn’t a secret, that Zavier Markov knew exactly who she was. There was no way her relationship with Nikolai could move forward otherwise.
But when the night actually came, she found herself horribly nervous. She spent hours trying on the four or five dresses she’d brought over and over again, wishing that she actually had visited the fancy boutiques of the GUM to find a frock that said, “perfect girlfriend for your son” or “forget all past prejudices between our families.”
In the end, she put on the simplest of the lot—a light, summery dress of eyelet lace that fell demurely to the knee, but showed just a hint of her smooth, round shoulders, which had become so brown from all her time outdoors with Nikolai.
When Nikolai came to pick her up, she could see that he was just as nervous, if not more so. It was strange seeing him in a suit again, after all the time they’d spent in casual clothes, or even shorts and tank tops as they tramped around the green spaces inside and outside the city.
He looked stiff and formal, but even more handsome than ever. He’d had his hair freshly cut, and the scent of his cologne gave her a Pavlovian response that she immediately tried to shake off. She couldn’t allow herself to be distracted by that—not yet, anyway.
She slipped her hand over his, which was on top of the gearshift as he pulled away down the drive.
“Are you worried your father won’t like me?” she asked.
“No!” Nikolai said at once. “I’m not worried about that at all.”
“What is it, then?” Nadia said.
“It’s just...” Nikolai paused for a moment, his eyes trained on the road. She could see a muscle jumping on his jaw as he clenched his teeth together, then swallowed hard.
She waited, not wanting to push him.
“Nadia,” he said, “I’m afraid that...”
He turned to look at her. The sight of her face, patient and expectant, seemed to stop his speech once more. She could tell he was debating within himself, struggling over whether to finish his sentence or not.
At last he said, “I’m afraid that I’ve fallen completely in love with you.”
Nadia sat silent.
She already knew that she loved Nikolai, and she thought he loved her too.
But neither one of them had said it out loud.
“It’s alright,” she said quietly. “So have I.”
“Have you really?” he asked.
