“All right, Katya’s left us with a shit ton of food, so I hope you’re all hungry,” Vasily says, leading the way to the kitchen.
While the others follow, I grab Evie and pull her against me. “Doing okay?”
She smiles and wraps her arms around me. “I’m doing great. I really love your family, Valeri. You’re so lucky to have them.”
I think about how lonely she must’ve been growing up with no one except an abusive father. I don’t know how in the hell she survived it, especially while remaining so sweet and nice.
“They’re your family now too,” I remind her, “and soon we’ll have our own kids running around.” I give a soft laugh and kiss her head. “The holidays are going to be so much fun.”
She runs her hands along my back and laughs. “They will be. I can’t believe how quickly my life has changed.”
“Me too, but I’m so fucking glad it happened.”
I cup her face and kiss her before we join the others in the kitchen. With loaded plates, we decide to eat on the veranda since it’s so nice out tonight. Ruslan runs around, eating scraps and then following behind Dmitri when he finishes up and runs for his little scooter.
It’s a perfect night. Usually I’d be the lone single guy here, and as soon as it was over, I’d hit one of the clubs, but just the thought of going back to that life is enough to depress me. As soon as Evie is finished, I pull her onto my lap, needing the reminder that I never have to go back to that again. She relaxes against me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and kissing my cheek.
“I love you,” she whispers in my ear, and fuck if that isn’t my most favorite thing ever.
I squeeze her hip and turn to meet her eyes before giving her a kiss. “I love you too, baby.”
When I look back at the table, everyone is staring at us. The women all have theaww, that’s so cutelook on their faces, while the guys are all wearing smugI told you solooks. I laugh and ignore all of them, kissing my fiancée again.
“So how do you like the house?” Vasily asks her.
“It’s so beautiful,” she says, resting her hand on mine.
“I was surprised when Valeri told me about it. He’s always insisted he would never move out of the city, but he’s doing all kinds of things lately that he swore he’d never do,” Vasily says with a laugh. “It’s a good property, though, and it’s equal distance from me and Volodya, so that’s nice.”
“We’ll have to have supper at our place next,” Maddie says. “You haven’t seen where we live yet. My mom has a house on our property with my stepdad.”
“Oh, that’s nice.” She hesitates for a second, and I know she wants to ask something.
I give her hip another squeeze. “What is it?”
She blushes when she looks over at Maddie. “I was just wondering what your stepdad thinks about all this,” she says, waving her hand around at all of us. “Like the Bratva stuff.”
We laugh, but she has no idea why.
Her brown eyes meet mine. “Should I not have asked that?”
“No, baby, it’s fine. We’re just laughing because Boris works for us. When Maddie and Volodya got together, her mom was going through cancer treatments. They moved her onto their property so they could look after her better, and she hit it off with Boris.”
“Is your mom okay?” Evie asks her.
Maddie smiles and nods her head. “She’s fantastic. Cancer free and never happier.”
“That’s great.” Evie smiles at her and then nervously fidgets with my fingers. I know she’s naturally shy and that this is a lot for her. I run my fingers over hers and then trail a line up her inner arm, smiling when she sucks in a quick breath. I love that I can make her breath hitch with just one touch.
Nina brings out the desserts, and I tighten my grip on Evie’s hip when she goes to scoot back into her own chair. When she meets my eyes, I give her a wink and keep her on my lap. Eating my own slice of pie, I run my thumb under her shirt, caressing the smooth skin of her hip. I’m completely infatuated with her, and I’m not embarrassed to show it. My lap is exactly where she belongs.
When she finishes her pie, she sets down the plate with a sigh and leans back against me. “I’m so stuffed.”
I smile and kiss her cheek. “Not yet, baby, but you will be,” I whisper in her ear.
She laughs and then starts to get up. “I want to help clean all this up,” she tells me when she sees Nina start reaching for plates. Svetlana hands Alina to Andrei, and Maddie also jumps up to help, giving Misha a kiss on the head before grabbing their plates. They disappear into the house, leaving the men on the veranda.
“I heard everything went well last night,” Andrei says, switching to Russian and reaching for his drink. He’s had to sit things out the last few weeks after a stab wound during a dispute in Vasily’s territory. He got lucky and will be good to go in another few days, but he still hates missing out on anything.
