Innocent’s Nine-Month Scandal

by Dani Collins

  “I would never hurt you like that.” He threw his head back with insult. “I will never step out on you. Ever.”

  Distantly, she knew that was probably true, given the betrayal he’d suffered at the hands of his first love and his brother, but all she could say was a tormented, “Why the hell would I give you the chance to? You can’t even—”

  “I trust you!” he cut in, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I came all this way to tell you that. To make you believe it.”

  “And started by asking why I was talking to another man? Kaine wanted me to make Gisella’s rings. Okay? That’s what we were talking about. He wanted to surprise Gisella and that’s why we quit talking when you two came up.” She looked blindly toward the blackened windows.

  After a pulse of silence, he said, “That’s what I asked Gisella to do.”

  “You asked her to make rings for me?” She had to drag her brain back from wondering where she would sleep tonight and looked blankly at him. “Why?”

  “Because you’re too sick to do it yourself. What did you tell Kaine?”

  “That I’m too sick. And that I don’t have a workshop. And that Gizi probably wants to design them herself, especially if he plans to wear one, so she can match them.”

  “Is that what you would prefer?”

  “Viktor...” Hopelessness overwhelmed her.

  “I can’t buy your rings from a shop, can I? You’ll only return them.” He ran his hand through his hair, seeming flummoxed. Maybe even edging toward despair.

  “But I told you,” she began with a tremor in her chest.

  “Don’t say you won’t marry me.” He closed his eyes and his voice was so hushed, it was a prayer. His hand fisted as though he was enduring great pain. “Don’t tell me you’re not coming back.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “YOU WOULDN’T LET me stay. Would you?” Her natural optimism flared, sensing a turning point. She waited for him to say of course he wouldn’t let her stay. He loved her and couldn’t bear to let her go.

  But as silence greeted her question, she knew herself to be deluded. Her last spark of hope was gutted in an agonizing burn, leaving her abandoned in a wasteland of loneliness.

  “I don’t know what to do anymore.” Viktor braced his hands on the back of the sofa, arms wide, head hanging, shoulders looking ready to buckle under a weight. “I haven’t seen you smile in weeks. Then, tonight... You were radiant.” The beds of his fingernails were white where he dug them into the sofa. “I wasn’t suspicious when you were talking to Kaine. I was jealous for an entirely different reason.”

  A despairing noise choked in her throat.

  He picked up his head and shook it in a way that seemed like indulgent affection. Gentle exasperation, maybe.

  “Men look at you, Rozi. Never doubt your attraction. Everyone notices you. You don’t see it, which is part of your charm, but everyone wants to be near you. I didn’t think you were flirting with your cousin’s fiancé,” he dismissed. “I was jealous because you were smiling at him. I can’t remember when you last smiled at me. Maybe I deserve that. I know I’ve hurt you. But that’s why I asked what you were talking about. I wanted to know what made you smile. I wanted some crumb of your life that isn’t the suffering I’ve inflicted on you.”

  “Oh, Viktor.” She sank into the armchair, defeated. “This isn’t something you’ve done to me.” She was the idiot who had fallen in love with a man who had warned her he had no heart.

  “Like hell it isn’t! Every day I think I’ll be lucky if you survive this pregnancy. I thought the morning sickness was what had sucked away that brightness in you. Or your family’s troubles. I thought that once the baby came, you’d come back to life. But that’s not what’s eating away at you. It’s me.”

  She couldn’t deny it. Could only swallow back her unrequited love, drained and grief-stricken by the effort.

  “I’m killing you by inches. I saw that tonight and it tears me up. I can’t make you come home with me, but I can’t imagine going home without you.” He clenched his jaw, looking as though he was taking a whipping and refusing to let his cries break free from his locked throat.

  “Because of the baby?” She could hardly breathe. “I promised you I would go back. I’ll keep my word. You’ll see your child, Viktor. Every day if—”

  “I want you.” He looked like he would snap the sofa in two. “In my bed. In my life. Every day. But I don’t know how to keep you without destroying you.”

  Nothing crushed her like pain. Especially when the people she loved suffered. In that way, she was exactly like those who had made her. She couldn’t witness his agony and not want to alleviate it.

  “Oh, Viktor.” She buried her face in her hands but knew she would have to release her heart to him. Lay it bear and accept the imperfection and inequality of their feelings for one another.

  “Don’t cry. Please don’t cry.” She looked up to see him taking the seat opposite her.

  “I’m not crying. But, Viktor, I—”

  “Wait. Shh. Let me do something. Will you give me your hands?” He held out his own.

  She tentatively set her trembling fingers on his open palms. Swallowed the thickness in her throat.

  “I know you have every reason to hate me—”

  “I don’t hate you. I lo—”

  “Shh. Let me say this. I shouldn’t have made presumptions that day when you found out about your family’s trouble. I’m ashamed that I took so long to act. You were worried and I should have taken that burden from you. It was wrong and I won’t let anything like that happen again, no matter where in the world you live.”

  “I’ll live with you.” She bit her lips to keep them from quivering. “If that’s what you want, I will come home with you.”

  “Because you want to believe in me. That’s who you are. But you’re afraid. Because I’ve damaged your trust in me. But listen.” He took a shaky breath. Dropped his mask so she could see the deep chasm of lonely agony inside him. It was so vast, her own heart pulsed with pain. She instinctively clung to his hands, unwilling to let him fall into that cavern.

  He looked down at her touch, smiling faintly. “I’m going to say it first, to prove I really do trust you.” He closed his hands over hers, so they were clinging tightly to each other. He looked into her eyes. “I love you, Rozi. I love you and I want you to love me back. I think you did, for a short while, but I fear I’ve killed it. I keep thinking if I can only keep you with me long enough, I hope—”

  She launched herself into him.

  “Ah, Rozi!” He gathered her in and they held one another in crushing arms, her damp cheek against his rougher one. It was pain and relief, a wrench as the final shields fell away between them, but healing as they pressed into one another.

  “Loving hurts,” she told him, wincing and shifting so her breasts weren’t totally mashed.

  “It does.” He settled her sideways on his lap, touching one chaste kiss to her mouth before tilting his forehead against her brow. “You humble me.”

  “That’s not what I want to do.”

  “I know. That’s why you do.” The reverent luminosity in his eyes was so bright, it brought tears to her own. “I’m in awe of you. Of your bravery and astonishing capacity to love. I need your love, Rozi. I need you in my life. It’s terrifying to me how badly I need you. That’s why I fought it.”

  “I know. But I do love you. I miss you.”

  “I’m right here. And I won’t lock you out again. Does it help to know, though, that pushing you away taught me how badly I need you?”

  “I thought I was just an awful person to be around.” She poked out her tongue at how unpleasant her nausea made her feel.

  “You’re not awful.” He frowned a scold. “You’re sick. And if one more doctor tells me you’re fine, I’m going to break every bone in his body.”r />
  “I’m fine right now,” she said with a suggestive lean into him and a sweep of flirty lashes.

  “Are you?” He kissed the corner of her damp eye. “Because it’s enough to hold you again. We don’t have to—”

  She whispered in his ear.

  He stood up with her in his arms. “I can definitely accommodate that.”

  She chuckled and kissed his throat as he carried her to the nearest bed.

  When he set her upon it, he did so with veneration. Tenderness and gratitude and love enveloped her as they kissed and caressed, slowly undressing each other. They moved without hurry, impassioned, but letting each moment stretch out. Giving each strand of trust time to anchor and bind and thicken between them. With each kiss and caress, belief in each other seeped into the marrow of their bones.

  When they were naked and united, she cupped the sides of his head in her hands. The unguarded emotion in his gaze transfixed her.

  “I wasn’t looking for an earring,” she realized with awe. “I was searching for my soul mate.”

  “You found him. He’s never letting you go again.”

  They began to move, celebrating the force that had pulled the two of them into a single space and made them, finally and for all time, one.

  * * *

  “It’s a big ask,” Rozi said to Gisella the next day.

  She sidled a glance to Viktor that invited him to laugh with her at the way she had taken her cousin aback. That playful smile did things inside his chest, creaking open doors that let bursts of sunshine crash in. He didn’t know how to be this happy. It made him feel foolish, but he wouldn’t give up this expansive, bright view of the world for anything.

  “Of course I want to.” Gisella blinked her long lashes, visibly moved. “I always presumed I would be your maid of honor.” She hugged her. “And this is perfect timing, since everyone is in town for a few more days. That hardly ever happens anymore.”

  “Not a double wedding with us?” Kaine suggested with a teasing look toward Gisella’s.

  “A kind offer, but we don’t want to wait,” Viktor said. He had Rozi’s hand in his and caressed her knuckles with his thumb. His urgency wasn’t driven by uncertainty. They’d been naked in the dark, reconnecting emotionally after their physical intimacy. He had asked her to marry him.

  I want to marry you, Rozi. The fact we’re expecting is pure icing.

  What if we married before we go back, since everyone is in town?

  He had carefully crushed her soft body into his own, whispering, I’d marry you this minute if I could.

  “If we wait to plan something bigger, I’ll be bigger,” Rozi pointed out, wrinkling or nose. “Or I’d be trying to nurse in a wedding gown.”

  “You don’t mind staying an extra few days?” Gizi asked of Kaine.

  “Staying is the easy part,” Kaine said. “Planning a wedding in a day and a half sounds like the challenge.”

  “Piece of cake,” Gisella said with a confident wave.

  Rozi stood and Viktor rose with her, immediately on alert.

  “I’m fine,” she hurried to assure him. “I just want my phone.”

  “When she’s sick, she’s really sick,” Viktor said to Gisella, staying on his feet until Rozi came back.

  “And when I take a pill, I need a four-hour nap. Then I’m fine for a while. Like now.” She smiled at him, in good spirits despite the fact she’d been sick in the early hours this morning.

  He had somehow gotten a pill into her before they had gone back to bed. She had slept late but had risen to shower and eat brunch with genuine appetite. Now she positively glowed.

  “I always thought we’d have babies at the same time, but you’re scaring me.” Gisella eyed her. “Sorry, lover. I may never try it,” she added to Kaine, but said it with a cheeky grin and a quick kiss to let him know she was joking.

  “Your mom wasn’t sick. You’ll probably be fine,” Rozi dismissed.

  “Is your mother coming?” Gisella asked Viktor. “After meeting you, my mother is curious about her.”

  “I spoke to her this morning. She’s bringing my aunt. They’re catching a flight in a few hours.”

  “Oh, Grandmamma will like that.” Gisella nodded approval. “Your story is so amazing, don’t you think? Eszti’s granddaughter is marrying Istvan’s great-nephew. It’s almost as if a higher power had a hand in bringing you two together.”

  “Viktor doesn’t believe in fate,” Rozi said, reaching for his hand to squeeze, silently telling him she was okay with his skeptical side, but she had changed him.

  “I didn’t believe in fate,” he corrected, lifting her hand to his lips, adding truthfully, “I do now.”

  EPILOGUE

  “MAMA?” ESTER QUESTIONED Viktor as he drew her out of her car seat a block from Barsi in Budapest.

  “You know exactly where we are, don’t you? Little smarty-pants.” His heart swelled with love. Pride, too. Their daughter was only just learning to talk, but her curious gaze was always taking in the world, pointing and exploring and yes, sometimes getting into things she shouldn’t. His wallet was a favorite along with her mother’s purse. But her tiny arms were quick to deliver an exuberant squeeze of his neck and something as simple as her excitement at visiting her mother at the shop made a chuckle rattle in his chest.

  He felt the same adoration and admiration for his wife. Her shop was an enormous success. The location and business plan had been carefully finalized after her morning sickness had let up in her second trimester. The doors had been opened days before she went into labor and she had recently hired more staff, including two new designers. Rozi worked part-time around their daughter’s needs and any of his work commitments that required her presence at his side. She managed a few custom pieces a month, most of them on commission since she was in high demand.

  “Our favorite browser is here.” The saleswomen offered smiles of greeting when they entered, even though it was minutes before the shop was due to close for the day and Ester’s presence guaranteed them an hour of polishing fingerprints off glass and shiny trim.

  Viktor set Ester on her feet and she toddled quickly to the door of steel bars that guarded the back of shop. She grasped two and stuck her face between them.

  “Mama!”

  Rozi’s rich laugh sounded, accompanied by a man’s surprised one.

  “I’m coming, sweet pea,” Rozi called. She appeared moments later behind the bars.

  The man with her seemed about Rozi’s age. He was tall and well dressed and abruptly hugged Rozi, delivering a heartfelt “Thank you.”

  “Oh.” Rozi stiffened in surprise, then patted his back. “Of course. It’s my job.”

  They came through the door, Rozi flashing Viktor a glance that invited him to laugh at the stranger’s effusive goodbye before she picked up Ester and gave her a much more enthusiastic hug of greeting. “How was daddy-daughter day?”

  “Excellent.” Viktor had wanted to be a more involved parent than his own, and while he thrived in being a unit with Rozi, he always enjoyed his one-on-one time with Ester.

  “What do I owe you?” the young man asked.

  “Nothing,” Rozi said, brushing off the offer. “If you want a formal appraisal, you can book an appointment.” She gave him the price. “That was just my educated opinion. Good luck.”

  “Thank you,” he said with deep sincerity and what might have been relief. After a self-conscious nod at Viktor, he departed.

  “He bought an engagement ring from a widower,” Rozi said as the door chimed shut. “His neighbor who needed the money. Then he worried it was fake or he had paid too much.”

  “And you set his mind at ease. As you do.” He wrapped his arm around her waist as she came close enough to kiss him in greeting, still carrying Ester.

  You don’t owe me explanations, he conveyed wit
h a brief moment of eye contact. People loved his wife. Family, friends, strangers, it didn’t matter. They all took to her and trusted her and he couldn’t resent or feel threatened when he was the most smitten of all.

  “Look?” Ester asked, pointing.

  “Yes, you can look. Just look. No touch,” Rozi warned, setting Ester on her feet.

  “That’ll work. It always does,” Viktor said, settling his arm around her again.

  “I know, right?”

  Ester could barely see into the cases, but that hadn’t stopped her from poking a hand into an open drawer one day when Rozi had been with a customer. Rozi had caught her in time to pull a tennis bracelet out of her mouth.

  Rozi relaxed into him, exhaling with contentment as they watched Ester plaster her little hands and button nose against a glass case.

  “That was me, when I was her age. Oh!” Rozi recollected. “Gizi called. I said we were thinking of coming to see the baby. She’s checking with Kaine for dates.”

  “Let me know. I’ll make myself available. You haven’t seen family in a while. I know you miss them.”

  “Excuse me,” she admonished lightly, shifting so both her arms were around his waist and she was pressed to his front. “I’m with my family every day.” She kissed his chin.

  He closed his arms around her, trying not to let their sexual charge affect him too deeply here in front of their daughter and her employees. He couldn’t entirely hide how deeply she moved him, though. He stroked her hair back from her face, tenderness and love suffusing him.

  “And I am grateful for that every day. For you.” He kissed her lightly.