Chapter 15: The Price of Breathing

The island looked different when we came back.

The guards were doubled.

The windows were now bulletproof.

The ankle chain was gone, but the invisible one felt heavier than ever.

Czar hadn’t slept in four days.

He stood on the terrace at 3 a.m., shirtless, gun on the table, staring at the dark ocean like it had personally betrayed him.

I watched from the doorway, one hand on the small curve that had finally started to show.

He hadn’t touched me since the rescue.

Not like before.

Not even a kiss that lasted longer than a second.

He touched my stomach every hour, like he needed proof we were still real.

But the rest of me he treated like glass about to shatter.

I walked out barefoot, wrapped a blanket around his shoulders, and sat beside him.

Silence for a long time.

Then: “I killed my brother today.”

His voice was flat. Dead.

I didn’t ask how.

I didn’t need to.

“I put three bullets in his chest and watched him sink,” he continued. “He smiled the whole way down.”

I reached for his hand. He let me take it, but didn’t hold back.

“I thought it would feel better,” he said. “Ending the man who tried to take you from me. It doesn’t.”

He turned to me finally, eyes red-rimmed.

“I’m becoming my father, Eden. Everything I swore I’d never be.”

I climbed into his lap, straddled him, forced him to look at me.

“You’re not him,” I said fiercely. “You came for me. You chose me over everything. That’s the difference.”

He buried his face in my neck, arms locking around me so tight I could barely breathe.

“I can’t lose you,” he whispered. “I won’t survive it.”

“Then stop pushing me away.”

He pulled back, eyes searching.

“I’m terrified if I touch you I’ll break what’s left.”

I took his hand and pressed it between my legs, right where I was already wet just from being close to him again.

“Break me then,” I said. “I’m not glass. I’m yours. Remind us both.”

Something feral flashed in his eyes.

He stood with me still wrapped around him, carried me inside, laid me on the bed like I was both sacred and sacrilege.

Then he worshipped.

Slow.

Painfully slow.

Every kiss an apology.

Every lick a promise.

He tasted me until I was sobbing his name, until I came twice on his tongue and begged for mercy.

Only then did he slide inside me: bare, deep, shaking.

He moved like a man drowning, forehead pressed to mine, tears mixing with sweat.

“I love you,” he said with every thrust. “I love you. I love you. I’m sorry. I love you.”

I wrapped my legs around him, met him stroke for stroke.

“Show me,” I gasped. “Show me you still can.”

He did.

He fucked me like the world was ending and this was the only prayer left.

When we came together, it felt like dying and being reborn in the same breath.

After, he didn’t let go.

He stayed inside me, arms locked, face buried in my neck.

“I’m sending you away,” he said quietly.

I froze.

“What?”

“Switzerland. Tomorrow. Private clinic. New name. Guards who will die before they let anyone near you. You and the baby stay there until it’s born.”

I pushed at his chest, forced him to look at me.

“No.”

“Eden—”

“No. I’m not leaving you to fight this alone.”

“You don’t have a choice.”

I sat up, furious.

“I married you. I’m carrying your child. I chose this life. You don’t get to decide when it gets too dangerous and ship me off like luggage.”

He ran a hand through his hair, looking suddenly exhausted.

“Dimitri wasn’t working alone. There’s a list. Powerful men who want me broken. They’ll come for you again. And next time I might not—”

“Stop.” I cupped his face. “We do this together. Or we die together. Those are the only options.”

He stared at me for a long time.

Then, slowly, he nodded.

“Together,” he whispered.

He pulled me down, tucked me against his chest.

“But if anything happens to you—”

“Nothing will,” I said. “Because you’ll burn the world first. And I’ll be right there holding the match.”

He laughed: broken, stunned, real.

“God help our child,” he murmured. “Raised by two monsters who love too hard.”

I kissed his chest, right over my name inked into his skin.

“They’ll be the most protected monster in history.”

He was quiet for a long time.

Then: “I’m stepping down.”

I went still.

“What?”

“After the baby is born. I’m out. I’ll give the empire to whoever wants it. We disappear. New names. New country. Just us.”

I looked up at him.

“You’d do that?”

“I already lost everything once when I thought I lost you on that yacht. I’m not doing it again.”

Tears filled my eyes.

“You mean it?”

He wiped them away with his thumb.

“I’ve spent my life taking. I’m tired, Eden. I want to build something that isn’t stained in blood.”

I kissed him: soft, slow, full of everything we’d never said right.

“Then we’ll build it,” I whispered. “Together.”

He held me until dawn crept through the curtains.

And for the first time since I’d met Czar Aslanov, the future didn’t feel like a cage.

It felt like a promise.

But promises with men like him always come with a price.

And three weeks later, the bill arrived.

In the form of a positive paternity test.

And a letter addressed to me in handwriting I hadn’t seen in five years.

From the man I’d once loved before Czar destroyed him.

The man who now claimed the baby in my womb was his.

To be continued…