Page 121 of Untamed Beast
“Your child?” Natalia’s eyes widen.
“I think so.” I nod, feeling like my throat is about to close over. “I have a son. Leonid. He was the only good thing I got out of that place.”
There’s a long pause while she takes in this information. She must be able to feel my heart pounding against her back.
“I know this might upset you…” I take a deep breath. “But I think I need to go and get him.”
Natalia’s eyes fall away from my face.
If this is a dealbreaker…
Fuck, I would be wracked with guilt every day, but I’d probably leave him there if this is something she can’t handle.
I know it’s a lot to ask, that she would accept this reminder of a past life, a past relationship. I know a lot of women wouldn’t want that. I’d hoped Natalia would, but maybe it was just a fantasy.
“He wouldn’t have to move in with us,” I say. “I just want to track him down, make sure he’s okay. Fuck, Yuri can train him up or something, I don’t know.”
Natalia’s fingers tracing absent-minded patterns over my thigh.
When she turns back to me, fear crawls up my throat. Her eyes blaze with that fiery anger. I’m not scaredof much, but my wife’s anger? That’s terrifying. We’re still working on trust, after everything that happened, and I thought honesty was the right approach.
I start to take it back. “It didn’t mean anything?—”
“What kind of a bitch do you think I am that I wouldn’t be okay with this, Leks?”
My mouth falls open. Natalia surprises me every day.
“I’m furious that you kept this from me. And I’m even more furious that you thought I couldn’t handle it.”
I’m too relieved at what Natalia is saying to regret the way I told her.
“This means you’re okay with it?”
“Of course I’m fucking okay with it. You have a child — who is a maximum of ten years old — and you’ve left him in Russia for months? Alone?”
“I didn’t know how you’d respond,” I explain. “And I’ve had some other priorities to sort out here.”
“If you could bring Arkady Romanov over, you could bring Leonid.”
“That journey almost killed Arkady. Imagine what it would have done to a child, Natalia.”
She narrows her eyes and tosses her golden hair, as though she’s trying to assess whether I’m being serious.
“I didn’t want to leave him behind, Natalia. Not at all.”
“Fucking unbelievable.”
She folds her arms across her chest, clearly pissed off, but my heart is warm, my limbs light with relief.
I press my lips to her neck and she relaxes against me.
“Now I really think you need to stop spending time with Yuri. You’re cursing like a sailor,zolotse.”
“If you don’t get your ass to Russia in the next few days, we’re getting a divorce and I don’t trust you to raise our children.”
“Children?” I spin her around so that she’s facing me, placing her thighs on either side of my legs. “I wasn’t aware we were having multiple.”
“We’re not, until you prove you can look after the one you already have.”
