“I asked if you are serious about having Natalie in your life,” Mikhail said with a sarcastic drawl. “But let’s not mark this day as the one when I start asking useless questions.”
“You’ve had your head in the clouds and looking all distracted since you got here,” my cousin teased.
I shrugged, not bothering to confirm or deny what he said about how little I was paying attention. “Yes, Uncle. I’m serious about her.”
Perhaps that was foolhardy. I’d only just slept with her last night. There were still obstacles to overcome. All I could claim was this consistent desire to keep Natalie happy and safe—and with me.
Mikhail nodded, not bothering with questions about the when, why, or how of my admission. He dove in and concentrated on all the questions he wanted to ask. Mainly, he wanted to know more about Natalie’s background. I had already provided what Ihad about her, all the intel that George had dug up for me with the IT specialist’s help.
“You understand that if you plan to keep her,” he said after our long discussion, “that she will always be atmorerisk.”
I cleared my throat and nodded. “Obviously. That was why I didn’t try to be seen with her before that night when the Popovs followed her. I didn’t want anyone to see her as collateral.”
“That night changed all of that,” Andre quipped.
I nodded and splayed my hands out. “It did, but it’s not like I could’ve changed anything about that. It was happenstance that I was near her building.”
“Were you stalking her?” Mikhail asked.
“That’s a matter of semantics.”
He rolled his eyes, not bothered that I could’ve been stalking her. “It’s a matter of someone noticing your interest in her.”
“Potentially,” I argued. “No one saw me stalking her. Hell, I went to that shitty bar and anyone could’ve seen me talking to her there. About that night. I would have reacted to save her no matter who was watching. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I stood back and let her be hurt.”
“Then you are claiming her officially?” Mikhail raised his brows. “She’s going to be tied to the loyalty we expect of everyone in the family.”
I bet she’d remain loyal tome. I had yet to guess if she’d ever reach the point that she’d be okay with staying loyal to a Mafia family and all that we represented. Violence wasn’t something she would ever welcome. But that didn’t mean she had to,either. Claire had struggled with the ugliness of what we faced sometimes, but she’d figured it out with Mikhail.
“I’m taking it slow with her,” I replied instead. Not committing to a solid answer felt like a mistake to make with my uncle, with my boss, but it was the truth. No matter how Natalie and I let things progress between us, it had to be a gradual process. I couldn’t rush her or manipulate her.
Over the next several days, though, I felt certain that we had direction. We were together in the apartment not as friends, but as lovers who were mutually conscious of hiding our interest when Maisie was around.
Stolen kisses became our “thing”.
Secret looks and smiles were how we spoke.
Accidental touches were the triggers that had us desperate to fall into bed together each night. And we did. Once Maisie was asleep, we explored this building sexual tension. The logic that scratching an itch would end it didn’t apply to us. The more I fucked her and showed her how sweet it could be to trust me and to submit to me, the more intense my desire for her became.
She was burrowing under my skin, changing me from a cool, collected employee of the Orlov Family to a man who’d bend over backward and move mountains for another chance to pleasure her.
“Hurry,” she whispered to me in the pantry. She’d urged me to follow her in here, to steal a quickie while Maisie colored in her room.
“I never want to hurry,” I teased back, slipping my finger into her cunt and stroking her steadily. She closed her eyes and rode my hand as she kissed me.
How can I want to rush through this when you make me feel so alive?
I grinned as she breathed harder, already so wet for me, like always. Her body was getting tuned in to me. Aroused with just a look. Horny after just a kiss.
I rubbed my finger over her clit as she stroked my dick with her hand in my pants. “I want to take my time and?—”
“Mommy?”
I froze. So did Natalie. She cringed as she went still, and I sighed at the sound of Maisie’s voice outside the closed pantry doors.
Dammit.
That girl was winning me over. She was a precious little innocent, so mild-mannered and sweet. But fuck, was she starting to be a nuisance, cock-blocking me like this.
