Lap of Luxury (Love Don't Cost a Thing)

Chapter Thirty

Damir

I grin at Bethany. “Not forgive me? There’s nothing to forgive. And don’t forget I love you.”

“Do you?” she says icily.

My smile falters. I haven’t been able to get my hands all over her or taste her since I found out she was going to have my baby, and I feel like I’m going burst open if I don’t get to soon.

“Do you think,” she goes on, “that you can just say I love you and that erases all the torment that I’ve suffered at your hands these past weeks? Damir has had his revenge, so all is right with the world? I don’t think so.”

I glance at Mikhail and Ciara, inviting them to explain to me what the hell is going on, but Mikhail is frowning at Bethany, and Ciara shoots me a baffled look.

“Bethany,” I say, turning back to her, my hand on my heart. “We are at the ends of the earth. I dragged you here, kicking and screaming, to show you how much I love you.”

“And how much is that?”

I spread my arms, taking in the beach, the sea, the island in the middle of nowhere in the Indian ocean. All of it. “To the ends of the earth. Is it enough?”

She considers this. “What about to the ends of the earth and back again?”

I frown. “I don’t understand.”

“Love me to the ends of the earth and back again. Then I might believe you. Take me back.”

“What, back to London?”

“Yeah. Where you stole me from. That should just about prove it.”

“But Bethany, the police are still—” Mikhail starts to say, but I wave him into silence.

“Princesa, I can’t go back. Mikhail can’t undo what’s been done. We’re going to need new identities and a place for the four of us to live, otherwise the authorities will hunt me down and I’ll be sent to prison.”

Bethany just glowers at me.

“You…want me to go to prison?” I ask slowly. “That’s what it would take for you to believe I love you?” My eyes dart from her to Mikhail to Ciara, who are both looking at me like they don’t understand, either.

All right, maybe I deserve Bethany’s coldness after everything I’ve put her through, but I’ve changed. Things are going to be different now. I reach out a hand to touch her belly.

She draws away from me, and my gut wrenches. “Bethany, please. I love you.”

Those are the words I wouldn’t say to her on the yacht because, I don’t know, I’m a fucking asshole. I should have said them then because I meant it then, and I mean it now, more than ever. But looking into her eyes, I see it’s too late.

I take a deep breath and nod slowly, trying to work up to something. “All right. If that’s what it takes to prove I love you, then I’ll do it. It might not be so bad. I know they can get me on money laundering, but with a good lawyer I can fight the murder charges. I’ll be looking at fifteen years or so. Maybe ten if I’m lucky. I won’t miss…everything.” I swallow, and cast another look at Bethany and her belly.

I guess it was too good to be true that I could undo the events of the past weeks with a few smiles and a bit of charm. I thought Bethany would understand, though. I was doing what I had to do.

“I’ll go into the town. Turn myself in. Misha, you’ll see that Bethany gets somewhere safe? She and the…baby.”

I rub my hands over my face. I’ve fucked everything up. My child. Who’s going to bring it up? Mikhail is going to be its father, not me.

Mikhail nods, his lips pinched tightly together. Even Ciara is looking reproachfully at Bethany, but her chin is raised like royalty, and she ignores them.

All right. The sooner this is done and I’ve served my time, the sooner I can get back to Bethany and beg her forgiveness. I’ll spend fifteen years in prison if it means I can earn her love again. Shoulders back, spine straight, I turn and start heading down the beach with the air of a man who doesn’t want anyone to try and stop him.

“Damir, wait!” Bethany calls after me.

I whirl around, hope surging through me.