Beautiful Revenge (A Good Wife #1) - Sienna Blake Page 0,74

was going somewhere.”

My heart lets out a guilty thud. “Dimi,” my voice softens.

He squeezes my waist. “Just messing with you, lamb.” He walks over to an old gramophone and turns it on. I already know what song it’s going to be.

My heart soars when “Stormy Weather” begins to play. Dimitri has a wicked look on his face when he spins to me, holding out a hand. I take it and melt into his arms. We dance.

I cannot be any happier.

“Do you remember what happened in this apartment?”

I laugh as he spins me out. “Of course I do.”

I stop spinning and face him. He doesn’t spin me back in. In fact, he’s stopped moving. Before I can ask what’s wrong, he drops to his knees before me. “Alena…”

My free hand flies to my mouth.

“I asked you,” he says, his voice trembling, “all those years ago to marry me. I asked for the wrong reasons. I asked you because I wanted to keep you, to possess you. This time I am asking you to be my partner. My equal.” He opens a black box, a huge diamond ring sitting in the centre. “This time I have a ring. Alena…” his face shines with so much love, mirroring my own, “marry me.”

“Oh, Dimi,” I sob. “Yes, with all the beats of my heart.”

We kiss like it’s the first time.

We kiss like it might be the last.

He picks me up and carries me to the bed where he strips me naked, then places my new ring on my finger. We make love. And we fuck like we hate each other. Then we make love again.

Afterwards I lie against his naked body, our limbs tangled together.

Dimitri hums against my forehead. “You screamed so loud I think the neighbours might complain.”

I bury my face in his neck, my cheeks warming. “Oh God.” I was so loud. “If they complain, I might die of shame.”

He shrugs. “If they complain, I’ll just get new neighbours.”

I laugh. Then gasp. “You can’t kick them out just because—”

“Joking, lamb.”

I settle back into his arms and let out a happy little sigh. Now, I think, I cannot get any happier.

Epilogue

____________

Alena

One year later…

I sit at my desk, working on a new novel. This one is entirely fictional, I’m glad to say. Beautiful Revenge released a few months ago to strong sales and my publisher is waiting for my next manuscript. I’ve kept my pen name as Alena Ivanova. My real name is now Mrs Alena Wolf.

Dimitri’s presence warms my side, his hand stroking my hair. His other hand rests on the desk, rubbing that old fingerprint ink stain. He rescued my old desk from Worthington Manor before he sold the house back to Edgar for a very reasonable price. Edgar couldn’t stay mad at Dimitri when Emily spilled to him that Dimitri had helped make him rich again. Thankfully, he’s stopped doing business with Terrance.

“Hey lamb,” he says.

I smile up at him. “If I’m the lamb, what are you going to call the little one when he comes?” I rub my huge round belly.

“Or she.” He leans over and places a hand on my hand on our child growing inside of me.

I laugh. “Or she. What will you call her?”

“Little lamb.”

I snort.

We live in London now in a four-bedroom apartment facing Hyde Park. It’s close to Dimitri’s office, my publisher and not too far from the university where Emily is finishing her nursing degree. She stays with us for the semester and returns to Worthington Manor to see her father during her holidays.

“Do you think I have time to cuddle my lamb…naked?” Dimitri hums against my ear, his hand slipping over my bump and lower, making me shiver.

“Leni!” Emily’s voice calls out, the front door slamming behind her.

Dimitri groans. “That girl has impeccable timing.” But there’s fondness in his tone. He’s grown to love her like a sister as much as I do.

I shoot a later grin towards Dimi.

Emily bursts into my study room, which also doubles as a library with bookshelves against every single wall, comfortable couches and armchairs about the place. She’s chattering away. Even as she speaks there’s an anxiousness in her tone. Her smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes.

Before I can ask her what’s wrong, a familiar male figure walks in behind her, startling me.

“Javier,” I say with surprise. “I didn’t realise you were coming around.”

Dimitri frowns. “Neither did I.”

“Sorry to bother you both on the weekend,” Javier says. He seems nervous, too. He keeps shifting his weight and