Page 118 of The Last Hope

That same laugh—the one that made my whole body tremble every time I heard it—pulled me out of my thoughts.

“No, Alexei ! You can’t say that !”

She burst into laughter, her head tilting to the side, her braid swinging over her shoulder, the soft waves of her hair brushing against the high points of her cheeks—cheeks I had spent every night for the past two weeks kissing, worshipping, loving.

“It’s sheet, not shit,” she corrected, pressing a quick kiss to Alexei’s cheek, making the boy turn slightly red.

I smirked.

“This is Roman’s doing, isn’t it ?” I asked, stepping into the living room, my hands shoved into my pockets.

All heads in my little family turned toward me.

I sat down next to Selina and glanced at Alexei’s worksheet. The exercise was to translate the word ???? (sheet) from Russian to English.

He had written: shit.

I chuckled, reaching for his eraser to correct it before motioning for him to try again. He frowned in concentration, leaning forward to rewrite the word.

“With two ‘e’s,miopiccologenio,(my little genius) ” mySolnychkotold him, placing a hand on my thigh for support as she leaned toward Alexei.

A simple gesture. A natural gesture. A gesture she didn’t even realize she was making. And yet, it made me absurdly happy.

It was just a small touch, wasn’t it?

But at the same time, it wasn’t.

Not after everything she’d been through.

To willingly lean into a man’s presence, to touch a man, to let a man touch her—it wasn’t just a simple gesture.

I wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer until our thighs were flush against each other.

She glanced up at me with a small, knowing smile, but she didn’t pull away. If anything, she relaxed against my chest.

Mikhail threw us a quick glance before turning back to Rafael. It was time for a conversation.

The twins and Rafael were still too young, but Mikhail was old enough to have his own thoughts and opinions. And I wanted to know what he thought about my marriage to Selina.

Because it was happening.

Selina would say yes.

Because ‘no’ was not an answer I was willing to accept.

Chapter thirty-one

Selina

“You have to tilt it more ! How can you be this useless ?” Roman exclaimed, trying to guide Nikolai and Sasha as they carried the last mattress into the twins’ and Rafael’s room. Elif and I were stretching the sheets over the mattresses while Dimitri, Ivan, and Rafael bounced excitedly on them, with Roman tossing pillows their way as he carried them in.

He’d healed at an impressive speed. In fact, aside from a few lingering marks on his face and the occasional limp from two ribs that hadn’t fully mended, he was back to normal—thank God.

We’d decided to have a movie night with the kids to help them forget the intense emotions of the past few days, especially Rafael. So Sasha set up a projector, and the guys arranged mattresses to make enough space for all of us.

“The popcorn is here !” Sienna exclaimed, carrying large buckets filled to the brim.

Since she’d gotten back earlier today, she’d been glowing with happiness. She hadn’t argued once with Sasha, to everyone’s surprise—especially Sasha’s.

---