“Thank you,” I murmured. The word Ruslan reserved for me carried weight and Konstantin knew it.
I glanced at Vadim, who sat in his armchair studying everyone in the room.
“He’s changed, you know.”
“I think we all have,” I said with a sigh.
“Never change,sestra,” he said, chuckling as he walked away.
His words warmed something in me. The brothers rubbed one another the wrong way more often than not, but the camaraderie and history between them was what held the bond together.
I toyed with the smooth pendant, turning it between my fingers. The love for the next generation was like a balm for old wounds—that was what I had come to believe. Some might think it macabre, carrying a piece of my son with me, but the pendant was a quiet source of comfort. No one could fully understand unless they had suffered a similar loss.
His eyes were on me. I could feel them before I looked.
I glanced away from my family and Runa.
A shiver ran down my spine—not fear, not dread. Anticipation.
His gaze dropped to my hand before moving over me slowly. Calculating. I watched the moment an idea formed and locked into place behind his eyes.
He sipped his vodka and licked his lips.
Such a small thing. On anyone else it would appear innocent.
I supposed neither of us had that title.
??????
The family visit had left Runa overstimulated and the poor dear hadn’t known how to process it all. Slapping her father several times must have helped because she fell into an exhausted sleep by eight o’clock.
The house settled into quiet around us—the stillness that followed a full day of noise and people, the kind that made the air feel different. Softer. The lamp on the bedside table threw a warm amber glow across the room as Vadim came to bed.
“She didn’t even stir when I put her in the cot,” he whispered.
“She’s tired.”
“Are you?” he asked, pulling my dress from my shoulder to press his lips there.
His mouth moved across my shoulder to my throat, warm and deliberate, as he eased me back into the pillows. The scent of him—cologne and something warmer underneath—reached me before his weight did. My dress lay open from feeding Runa and he moved in without hesitation.
“I’m not tired. Olya did most of the work,” I said, combing my fingers through his hair.
He glanced up from my chest.
“You must hire a nanny before the due date,” he said. From the look in his eyes and the set of his jaw, no was not an option.
I nodded.
“Good girl,” he said, shifting his weight over me.“I need all of your spare time.”
I smacked his shoulder.
His lips closed over my nipple and he sucked. The hand I’d used to hit him now held him closer. His knee nudged between my thighs until I parted them and he settled there—the solid warmth of him, the familiar weight. While his tongue worked, his hand closed around my other breast. It took mere seconds for my breathing to change and that slow tension to begin building.
“If I could keep you like this forever I’d die a happy man,” he murmured against my skin.“My child in your belly and these breasts full of nectar.”
I stroked his hair, the dark strands sliding between my fingers.
