*Adrik*
It took me a few days, but I finally managed to talk to my father without Sephie around. I had to enlist the help of all the guys to keep her busy while I had a conversation with him. I wanted to make sure she didn’t overhear what I was going to ask him.
“How did you propose to my mother?” I asked him after he walked into my office, closing the door behind him at my request. I’d even asked that Aleksei not be present. He was slightly worried.
He exhaled, the relief visible on his face. He got a sly smile across his face. “I was wondering when you were going to think of this. I was worried you would wait too long.”
“I’ve been thinking about it since right after I met her. I didn’t want to scare her by asking her too soon. I’ve had the ring made for months now. I was going to ask her before she and Ivan were taken. After, she was so hurt that it didn’t make sense to ask her then. Now, she’s dealing with finally being forced to feel her fear and she’s insecure for the first time in her life, I think. I want her to know without a doubt that I’m not going anywhere. Or that the guys aren’t either. She’s worried they’re all afraid of her now.”
He scoffed. “How could they be afraid of her?”
“I don’t know, but that’s what she’s worried about. She spends so much time taking care of everyone else, sometimes she forgets to take care of herself. She has six of us that she expertly takes care of, but we have one of her and I feel like we fail miserably most of the time. I want to do something special for her to try and help make up for that.”
“That’s women, son. That’s what they do. Your mother was much the same. Aleksei will tell you. She had a similar bond with him and a few of my men, but not as strong as what Sephie has. My men were not the same. Your mother was not the same. But it was similar enough.” He was thoughtful for a moment. “I see why you love her. I haven’t met a woman like her, including your mother. When you have a woman like that by your side, you become unstoppable. Everyone worries about men when it comes to business, when it comes to war, politics, all of it. Men are in charge. But it’s the women that hold the world together. She’s what will hold you and your men together so that you can rule this city the way it should be ran. For the benefit of the people, not only those few in charge. That’s what I could never make happen, but you will. With her.”
I ended up talking with my father for a few hours. He told me more about my mother in those few hours than he had in 30 years. I knew it was all because of Sephie. She made me see him completely differently than I had when I was growing up. She helped me understand why he did the things he did. I had a new perspective on why he was the way he was when I was a kid. She was right. I would’ve been the same as him, had the roles been reversed and I had lost her.
Viktor finally stuck his head in the office. “It’s getting difficult to keep her from coming down here. She’s starting to get worried about you,” he said, a small smile on his face.
Vitaliy stood up. “Come. We mustn’t make her worry.”
--
It took a few more days to make the plans, with the help of the guys, but we were on our way to the house that weekend and Sephie was none the wiser. She just thought I wanted a couple nights to ourselves. Which I did, but there was more to it.
I needed her to know, without a doubt that I wasn’t going anywhere and that I was never going to send her away from me for any reason ever again. I was tired of waiting for the perfect moment to ask her, so I made my own perfect moment.
The guys did a great job of acting completely normal and coming up with a reason to not go to the house until after dinner. Once there, they all pretended to be very tired and went straight to their rooms, leaving me and Sephie to go upstairs on our own.
She walked into the bedroom, immediately surprised by the candles and the roses that filled the room. She walked a few steps into the room, taking it all in before she turned back to me. I was nervous. I never get nervous. I took the ring out of my pocket as quietly as possible, got down on one knee and waited for her to turn around.
“Adrik, this is beaut…” she didn’t finish her thought when she turned toward me. Her hand went up to cover her mouth, her eyes wide. I couldn’t help but smirk at how cute she was when she was speechless. It didn’t happen often.
I also couldn’t stay on my knee for very long. It meant I couldn’t have my hands on her. Unacceptable. I stood up, grinning at my inability to keep my hands off of her. I pulled her to me. She, of course, immediately picked up on my amusement. “I like this better, too,” she said quietly, as I took her hand and slid the ring on her finger.
“Sephie, I’ve known I was in love with you from the first moment I laid eyes on you. But with each day that passes, you’ve proven that the love I have for you knows no depths or no bounds. I fall more in love with you each and every day and I want to keep falling in love with you every single day for the rest of this life. And the next. Will you…”
She cut me off. She pressed her lips to mine before I could finish. “Don’t ask stupid questions,” she said, smiling against my lips. I couldn’t help but laugh as I kissed her back. I felt the warmth spread over my entire body, warmer than usual even, and I knew her answer was yes. But that didn’t mean that I didn’t want to hear her say it. I leaned my head back to look at her, about to ask her if that meant yes.
She smiled her wide smile at me. “Of course I will. I want you to be stuck with me too,” she said, her arms around my neck. Her eyes were the deepest depth of the ocean blue when she said it, making it mean that much more to me. I wrapped my arms around her, picking her up off the floor, hugging her to me for a few moments.
I felt her let go with one arm, as she looked at the ring on her hand as I held her. “Holy shit, I’m gonna have to have Bubba’s help to build muscles big enough to carry this thing around all day long.”
I laughed. *God, I love her*.
“I wanted it to be very obvious to anyone and everyone that you belong to me, solnishko.”
“Message received,” she said, hugging my neck tightly once more.