Page 39 of Paved in Hate

“I did,” I say, wiping away a tear. “I really did.”

He laughs and turns back to Lev. “By the time we build one for your baby, we’re going to be fucking pros.”

“God, I hope so,” he says. He looks around at his brothers. “We’re all buying the same goddamn cribs. No way in hell are we learning how to build different ones.”

It’s painfully obvious that he’s including Vitaly in this, and I’m too afraid to meet his eyes to see what he’s thinking, so I busy myself with painting again. He watches me work for several minutes while his brothers move the crib to the center of the room so I can still easily paint the walls.

“Who taught you how to do all this?”

I finish the tail feather I’m working on before I look up at him. “I started when I was very young, and I just kind of taught myself. I watched a ton of videos online and spent thousands of hours drawing very, very badly. It took a long time, but I eventually got better.”

“You’re extremely talented.” I blush at his praise, surprised by how happy it makes me that he likes my drawings. “I hope you’ll add a couple of magpies,” he says, giving me a quick wink.

I point at the only bare spot left on the tree. “They’re going right there.”

He smiles and then takes a step back to give me more room. I’m just getting started on them when Emily walks in the room and then squeals her husband’s name before running into his arms.

“No running,” he tells her, but there’s no anger in his tone, just love. I watch the two of them, convinced that this isn’t for show. They’re not performing for me, trying to get me to believe something that isn’t true. They genuinely love one another. I’ve never seen either one of my brothers act this way around anyone. They couldn’t even put on an act to fake it, because there’s no hiding their dead stare. Roman’s eyes soften every time he looks at his wife, though.

“I can’t believe you put this together,” she tells him, smiling up at him like he’s her whole world.

He smiles and kisses the tip of her nose. “Piece of cake,solnishka. It didn’t take us long at all.”

“You’re so full of shit,” Vitaly mutters in Russian with a laugh.

“I love it,” Emily says, running her hands over the beautiful, white crib. She looks up at the men standing around her. “Thanks for helping.”

“It’s not like we’d allow our nephew to sleep on the floor,” Vitaly says, giving her a big, innocent smile.

“You son of a bitch,” Lev says with a laugh.

Emily looks over at Vitaly. “You wanted our son to sleep on the floor, didn’t you?”

Vitaly laughs. I can see the easy relationship they have. It’s the kind of relationship I always wished for between me and my own brothers.

“That crib was crazy hard, Emily, like insanely crazy fucking hard. You need to keep having babies so that it’s always in use, because I don’t think there’s any way to tear it down unless you get a sledgehammer.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Roman says, splaying his hand across her belly and leaning down to kiss her.

“You should probably wait for this one to come out before you start trying to make another,” Vitaly says.

“Fucker,” Roman says with a laugh.

I go back to painting the magpies as Emily walks over and surprises me by wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

“This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and I can’t believe our baby’s going to be able to look at it every day.” She smiles up at me. “It’s perfect. Thank you so much for doing it.”

“I’m happy to do it,” I tell her, feeling fidgety from the praise and attention. “I’m glad you like it.”

“I love it,” she says, giving me another squeeze before walking back over to her husband. “Okay, I’m hungry again,” she tells him, making him laugh.

They all leave to go grab lunch, but I’m determined to finish my magpies. I ignore the look I know Vitaly is giving me. I can feel him staring at me. My body’s quickly become attuned to him, and I swear I could feel him walk into a room even if I was blindfolded. When he stands behind me and runs his hand through my hair, I bite back the moan I want to give.

“You need to eat lunch.”

“You’re way too obsessed with my calorie count.”

He gives a soft laugh while dragging his thumb along the nape of my neck, sending a shiver of pleasure down my spine and straight between my legs.

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