Lev: a Shot Callers novel (39 page)

Chapter Fifty-One
Mina

Something was up.

I wasn’t sure what exactly but Lev was acting distracted and kind of off, even for him.

When I asked him what was wrong, he shook his head and muttered something about having too much on his mind. I told him he could talk to me and when he turned to me and smiled, he stated that he would talk when it was needed.

I trusted Lev with every piece of me and if he told me not to worry, I would try my hardest not to. But I loved him, which meant I would go ahead and worry anyways.

It was Sunday and after having a predictably late Saturday night at the club, Lev woke to get his workout in and although part of me wanted to be the early bird, the other part of me didn’t give a flipping flip if I got the worm or not.

I was tired and because of that, I slept my way through to eleven thirty, and Lev would be arriving back from his run at anytime now.

Walking my sleepy ass down the stairs, I shuffled into the kitchen to pour myself a cup of coffee. I’d taken the first sip when Lidiya came into the kitchen, an empty Sippy cup hanging from her hang while the other one rubbed her tired little eyes, and she whined. “No nap. No
nap
.” Then she stomped one little foot.

Mirella followed her in. “Lidi, sweetheart, you’re tired. And when you’re tired, you need a nap.” Mirella rolled her eyes slightly and smiled in a way that read ‘kids, huh?’

Lidi was already at my side, holding up her arms and without hesitation, I picked her up, rocking her from side-to-side and kissing her forehead lovingly. Her eyes were already starting to close when Lev walked in from the back door. And when he spotted me, holding Lidi, rocking her grumpy self to sleep, his eyes went warm.

He made his way forward and kissed her chubby cheek before turning to me and kissing my lips, feather soft. A now sleeping Lidiya dropped her sippy cup to the kitchen floor with a clang and clap and she jolted but didn’t wake.

Lev pulled her out of my arms, held her close and walked her to her bedroom where she could nap in comfort. I followed him upstairs so I could watch him undress and when I arrived back to our bedroom, he already had his tee off.

“We have the night off,” he threw out into the silence.

My nose bunched. “What? Why?”

Lev looked over at me, his hands on the waistband of his sweat pants. “Because you deserve it.”

I liked the club. It was my home away from home. I enjoyed it there.

With a light shrug, I uttered a sincere, “That’s okay. I don’t need a night off. I love club nights, besides, it’s only three days a week.”

He blinked over at me, seeming surprised that I wouldn’t want a night to myself. “I thought we could go to dinner. To that Russian place you like.”

Ooh.

Blini
and
Pelmeni
. I didn’t think I could pass that up but it was a work night. We could go anytime.

The he added something that would have me giving up my fight. “Like on our first date.”

My smile was slow to form and catlike. “You want to have a date night?”

He nodded. “Yes. Just the two of us.”

Shit, that was sweet.

How can I say no to that?

“Okay.” I smiled harder. “But, just so you know, for you, I’m a sure thing, baby. Always.”

His lip twitched and he threw down his sweats, leaving him in the nude. I let out a low whistle of appreciation and his body shook in silent laughter. Then I followed him into the bathroom to watch him bathe because… well… I could.

Arriving at our dinner destination, Lev talked to the woman at the counter, speaking in rapid fire Russian, getting more and more frustrated with every additional word, he slapped his hand down on the counter and turned to me, his face hard, his lips thin, “They’re booked for a private function.”

It didn’t bother me that the short journey was wasted. I was just happy to be there with Lev. “That’s okay, sweetie. We’ll go eat somewhere else.”

He looked down at me, his voice clinical. “No, it had to be
here
.”

I blinked at his unlikely tantrum. “Well,
here
isn’t available. So we’ll go somewhere else.” I took his hand and led him out of the restaurant, running my thumb along his knuckles. “It’s no big deal, Lev. We’ll come back another time.”

His jaw tight, he nodded but I could tell he was upset, and I didn’t understand why. I couldn’t believe I was saying it but, it was just food.

When we got into the car and Lev asked me where we should dine, I was brutally honest with him. “Honey, all I want to do is go home, watch movies and eat pizza with you. Follow that with getting naked for playtime and that would be the best date night ever.”

He looked over at me a long moment before he took my hand, lifted it to his mouth, pressed a soft kiss to the back of it and sighed, “If that is what you wish, mouse.”

We came home to an empty house and I kicked off my shoes, holding them and walking them up the stairs with me. Halfway up, I squeaked as Lev hefted me up into his arms and walked me the rest of the way and into the bedroom.

Someone had cleaned up the mess I’d left in the form of a pile of clothes by the sofa, the bed was made immaculately and the bathroom light was on, a wonderfully sweet smell coming from inside.

Lev took my hands in his and looked down at me, his eyes warm. “I wanted tonight to be special. So far, it hasn’t been but I’ll make it up to you.” He walked me over to the bathroom, opening the door all the way, revealing what the sweet smell had been.

A bubble bath had been run, smelling of vanilla with rose petals scattered throughout it.

My breath caught. “Oh, sweetie. It’s beautiful.”

His hands came down on my shoulders from behind and he rested his chin on my head. “Why don’t you soak for a while? I’ll call for pizza and when you’re done we can find a movie to watch.”

I turned, forcing his arms to dislodge. I looked up at him and stated fiercely. “This is the best date night ever. I know this and it’s barely even begun, but I know this.” I reached out to squeeze his hand. “This
is
special.”

His eyes softened even more and he reached for the bathroom door handle. “Go. Soak. Relax,” he uttered, closing the door behind him.

I did as I was told and, undressing and slipping into the tub, I soaked in the warm water in the tub for a long while, until the water started to take on a slight chill to it.

Where had all this romance come from?

It sounded like Lev was feeling the need to prove himself or something of the like. I would need to set him straight. I didn’t need romance, not like this. I just needed Lev to be himself and I’d be forever happy.

I let the water out, wiped myself down then dressed in my white robe. When I made my way out of the bathroom to tell Lev to cut it out, my breath left me in a whoosh.

Why, you ask?

Because standing in the middle of the bedroom was Lev, with the lights off, hundreds of tea candles lit all over, the room glittering in the soft illumination. The bed turned down, he swallowed hard, taking in my expression of shock as my gaze flittered across the room. Still dressed in his three-piece, Lev shifted his weight on his feet and held out his hand.

I hesitated only a moment before I came to him, reaching out to place my hand in his. “What is this?” I asked quietly, awestruck.

He took a step back, away from me and reached into his breast pocket. When he pulled back, he looked down at what he’s just pulled out of his pocket and when my eyes settled on the cue cards he held, my brow rose.

Lev cleared his throat, once, twice, a third time. “Mina,” he read. “The way we met was highly unusual and I admit I was most relived when I found out you were not a thief.”

My brows rose higher but he didn’t see, so he continued.

“And I”—he looked around the room, down on the bed, over at the sofa before he got distracted and announced—“I forgot the flowers. Hold on.”

He whizzed past me and out of the room, leaving me in the middle of the bedroom, mouth gaping. He returned in under a minute and held a beautiful bunch of flowers in his hand. Clearing his throat again, he went on. “And I am grateful for having met you.” He thrust out the flowers and read robotically, “Here in this bouquet you will find vines of Ivy, Lilac and Camillia.”

He switched to another cue card and went on. “Ivy symbolizes fidelity. Lilac symbolizes first love. And Camellia symbolizes thankfulness and appreciation.” He pushed the flowers out farther into me and I took them. He looked relieved when his shoulders drooped. In the candlelight, I saw a sheen of sweat beading his forehead. Reaching up to loosen his tie, he swallowed hard and read on, “With this bouquet, I give you a promise. A promise that I will always be faithful to you, adore you and never take you for granted.”

Waving the cue cards across his face, he lifted his gaze to me and asked, “Is it hot in here?”

I shrugged, holding my flowers but he didn’t see it. He was in presentation mode. Switching cue cards, he spoke clinically but his voice croaked, “They say penguins mate for life.” He reached up again and jerked hard at his tie. “And I want to be your penguin.” He jerked the tie harder until it came undone, hanging from his neck. He quickly undid the top button of his shirt and glanced across the room, glaring at the nightstand and muttering, “Damn candle went out.”

Wait? He wanted to be my penguin?

Huh?

He moved to relight the tea candle but I stopped him.

It was obvious. He was distressed.

Holding onto his arm, I pulled him back in front of me and asked, “Honey, what is all this?”

Lev closed his eyes and he shut them tight. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he let out a long sigh, using his forearm to wipe the sweat from his forehead and reached into his pants pocket.

He pulled out a black velvet box and set it on his knee.

Breathing deeply, he opened the box, brought his eyes to mine and shook his head, “Can’t you see I’m trying to ruin a proposal here?”

I looked down and blinked down at the ring sitting inside its beautiful box. “But we’re already engaged. Sort of.”

He held the box, running a hand down his face and he uttered a hushed, “I just wanted this to be romantic.”

Getting on my knees in front of him, I crawled between his open legs and looked up at him tenderly. “Oh, sweetie. I don’t need romance,” I told him. “I just need you exactly how you are.”

His jaw tight, he couldn’t even look at me. This meant something to him. So I tried something else.

I spoke softly, “Lev, it’s just me and you right now. Although your presentation was very informative, I was never one for flowery words. Just give me words from the heart, baby.”

He looked down at me, a sad frown etched on his features. He took a deep breath and when he opened his mouth, beauty came out. He started on a whispered sigh, “You’re everything to me.”

My eyes were already watering.

“I would give my life rather than disappoint you and I would hurt anyone who tried to remove you from my side. I have never met a kinder woman. You’re wonderful with Lidiya. I want to have children with you, as many as you’ll allow, so we can experience parenthood together.”

I bit my lip but it didn’t stop the tears from coming. They blurred my eyes and trailed my cheeks.

“I’ll be a good father to them. I pray that our babies will be like you but if they are like me, I don’t want you to worry, because I’ll guide them and show them they are loved even if they don’t understand what that means. I will teach them.”

My eyes closed as broken sobs escaped me. I held onto Lev’s knee for support.

“I will spend my life loving you and you will spend your happy life making me a better person, as you already have, from your mere presence.” He held out the box and whispered a nervous. “I will be the man you deserve. I’m not quite there, mouse, but I’m working on it. Marry me and my sole purpose in life will be to take every action so you don’t ever regret it.” He took my hand and with shaking fingers, slipped the ring in place. It fit perfectly. “Will you marry me, Mina?”

I stared at the ring, gleaming in the light, blinking away tears as a broken laugh escaped me. “Yes.” I laughed again, reaching up to throw my arms around Lev’s neck, kissing his stubbled cheek. “A thousand times
yes
.”

And Lev breathed again, his chest heaving, his arms coiled around me tightly. His only response to that was a whispered, “Oh, thank God.”

We laughed together, making love into the night and I couldn’t remember a time I was happier.

Chapter Fifty-Two
Mina

Lidiya’s birthday came the following week, and Lev wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to do anything for it. I, however, disagreed. While I understood her mother had recently died, Lidiya was a child. She didn’t understand that. I explained to Lev that by having a party for her, we were giving her our love and showing our support.

She deserved a party.

With Nas, Anika, and Cora on my side, Sasha and Vik were won over soon after, and finally Lev came around to the idea of doing something to make his daughter happy.

Honestly, I think being a father came naturally to Lev, but being a
daddy
was a whole new thing for him. He wasn’t used to needing to provide something more than monetary support for Lidiya, and now that the role had freed up, he was falling into it like a dream, enjoying it immensely.

When Lidiya got a boo-boo, she ran to Lev. When Lidi needed kisses, she puckered her lips up at Lev. And when she needed to go potty, although Mirella was around, she wanted Lev to stand by the door so she could sing to him.

Smart man that Lev was, he quickly got used to putting Lidiya to bed at night, singing her songs and reading her stories, and I wondered if Mirella was even needed as a full-time caregiver. Part of me was sure she was kept around as a grandmother figure. She was family, after all. And she said it herself—where Lidi went, so did she.

I happened to stumble across Lev singing Lidi to sleep the other night. And when I say stumble, I mean I creeped like a goddamn stalker to get a glimpse of how he handled her. His version of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” went something like this:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

Burning gas is what you are,

Up above the world so high,

You’ll burn gas until you die,

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

Burning gas is what you are.

With my head titled in thought, I was impressed. And kind of turned on.

Who knew nursery rhymes could be so informative? And sexy?

I sent invitations out for Lidiya’s third birthday. I was almost cruel enough to make it a dress-up party, but decided to be kind to our guests and scrap the idea. Although, seeing Lev dressed up as a cowboy, in chaps and wearing a Stetson, was almost enough to change my mind.

When the day came, our home was overrun with people. We rarely got one guest a day usually, and that was normally family, but seeing the house full of smiling faces, pink balloons, and purple streamers was heartwarming.

Lidi, dressed as a princess in a bright pink dress with a silver tiara arranged around her curls, was overwhelmed with glee. Every time a person would arrive, she would smile, take their hand, and lead them inside, muttering, “Dank you a coming.”

Her ‘thank you for coming’ was a little off, but she was so adorable that even Alessio was won over by her. She reached her arms up to him and, hesitantly, he lifted her onto his hip. She prodded his scarred cheek with gentle fingers and looked up into his face with her doe eyes. “Owie?”

He turned to me, desperate for a translation. I smiled into his ‘help me’ expression. “She wants to know if it hurts.”

Alessio shook his head. “No owie,” he uttered, taking her little chubby hand and putting it against the puckered flesh there. “It doesn’t hurt, angel. Not anymore.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Cora standing against the wall, holding a glass, and she looked at Alessio like he was the sexiest man alive. Her lust-filled eyes were giving her away, and when she caught me looking, I smirked.

Cora bunched her nose and discreetly flipped me the bird.

It was going to happen—mark my words. I would do what I had to for them to hook up. She wanted him. He wanted her. Why was that so hard to understand?

God, people were dumb.

Nas looked at Vik from across the room, and when he felt her eyes on him and lifted his head, she lowered her glance. It wasn’t the first time in the past two weeks that I saw them do this. It also didn’t escape Lev’s notice that Viktor had stopped coming around. They hadn’t spoke in that time.

Something had happened between them, and Nas was not opening up, probably because it was still too painful to talk about.

All I knew was that Nas was miserable and Vik had developed the temper of a T-Rex with itchy balls.

Relationships were collapsing around us, but Lev and I were going stronger than ever.

I smiled to myself and gazed down at my sparkling white gold engagement ring. It was chic with only three small diamonds, but I loved it more than anything I’d ever owned in my entire life. And what was more…Lev had chosen it.

The hardest thing I ever had to do was tell Lev that I decided on a long engagement. I shouldn’t have been worried. He simply responded with an, “Okay,” then added, “But we’re still going to marry, right?”

I emphatically assured him we would, but I just wasn’t ready for that right now. There was so much going on, first with the club, then with my newfound inheritance, and finally with the photography course I was doing. When I was ready to get married, I wanted to be selfish and have it be all about us as a couple, and I didn’t want to rush that, because we deserved more than a pressurized wedding full of stress.

But it would happen. Eventually.

I glanced around the room just in time to witness Anika raising her hand, rearing back, and slapping Sasha across the face so hard that it echoed through the room. The tall redhead stood there a moment, chest heaving, eyes shining bright before she looked around the room at enquiring eyes, blushed furiously, and whispered a hoarse, “Excuse me.”

She left the room, and Sasha, looking unaffected with a blazing red mark on his cheek, turned to the people watching and glowered, “What? You never seen a woman slap a guy before?” He looked to me and muttered, “I think it’s time for cake.”

I looked over at the time. “No, it’s not.” At Sasha’s fierce scowl, my brows rose and I called out, “Um, I mean, it’s cake time everyone!”

Lidiya, who was now being held by Uncle Laredo, was brought to the table where Ada had placed the pink-sprinkled double layer cake with white chocolate butterflies around it. A chorus of “Happy Birthday” started, and Lidi sat on Lev’s lap, smiling, clapping, and singing, even though she didn’t know the words.

When it was time to blow out the candles, she leaned forward and blew with all her might, her tiny fists clenching from exertion. The candles were extinguished and a cheer went out around us.

I was smiling so hard it hurt.

More cheers were heard after Lidi had conned Lev into lighting the candles again and again, just so she could blow them out.

Nas called for pictures to be taken, and lifting Lidiya off Lev, I sat in his lap and placed her down on mine. I hugged Lidi tightly, and Lev wrapped his arms around my waist. Lidi pointed to the camera just before the photo was taken and a laugh escaped me. The photo was taken that way, Lev looking at me lovingly as I closed my eyes and laughed, and Lidi smiling wide, pointing at the camera.

This picture would be the first of many. It was enlarged and framed, and Lev hung it in the living room for all to see. Anyone with a pair of eyes could make out what we were.

We were a family.