What did this mean for me? For us?

Slow as can be, a crack began to form through the center of my heart. This could be it. I could lose him. And so soon after I finally got him.

His gorgeous honeyed eyes met mine. “Wait. Has she been making you feel uncomfortable?”

Fear and anger had me spitting, “Only all the goddamn time.” Panic had me revealing it all. “She flirts with you. She touches you. She made sure I saw you beating on that idiot Moretti guy.” If it was over, it was over. My shoulders slumped. “She loves you, Lev.” I whispered this in a way that said If you want her, now’s your chance. “And she’ll do anything to get you.”

Lev held out his hand, waiting. I blinked down at it a long moment then sighed in relief, placing my hand in his. His fingers twined through mine and it felt like home.

He chastised me gently, “I told you I don’t read people well. Why didn’t you tell me, mouse?”

My heart slowed its pace. The feeling of his warm skin on mine calmed me. “Why would I? It would have caused problems. What can you do? It doesn’t matter.”

“Your feelings matter to me very much.” His free hand came up to softly pinch my chin. He lifted my face to look into his fierce glare. “I would have told her that my affections belonged to another, that I was happiest with my mouse. That all I could ever offer her was friendship.” He shook my chin lightly. “But you didn’t give me the chance to do that. And now you’re pouting.”

My eyes narrowed and my lips puckered. “I am not.”

“You are,” he called me out. Then his eyes softened and he kissed my pouting lips hard. “Now stop it or I’ll kiss them raw.”

He let go of my chin and stomped up the stairs, leaving Nas and me alone in the foyer. After a moment, I called up the stairs, “Now, was that a threat? Or a promise?”

The sound of Nastasia’s gagging had me laughing softly.

Chapter Thirty

Lev

“We need to talk,” I spoke into the receiver as soon as he answered.

Igor Alkaev was a hard man. Luckily for him, I understood men like him.

His Russian accent harsh, I heard his sneer through the phone. “Unless you are calling me to arrange initiation into Zakon, I don’t want to hear it, Leokov.” A slight pause. “What do you want?”

“I believe I made things clear to you. Your family would have no contact with mine. No excuses.”

Igor sounded tired when he began with, “If this is about Lidiya...”

For once, it wasn’t about Lidiya. I cut in with, “Corinna approached my woman today.”

I heard him breathing, but he didn’t speak for a long while. “So it’s true then?” He sighed. “I had hoped you and Irina would get past your problems and unite in marriage.”

My lip curled. “I know that’s what you wanted, but I have told you time and time again that Irina and I would never be married.”

He spoke quietly, but the anger wasn’t hard to miss. “Who is she, the girl?”

My hand came down on my desk, the harsh slap reverberating through the room. I stood and snarled into the cell, “None of your concern.”

Igor enjoyed my sudden outburst and tried to feed it. “Some of my men say she looks like an angel. That her beauty is unmatched. Perhaps I will have to meet this woman.” I growled, but he went on, “Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer to marry Irina?” He came across as bored. “You would do well to remember my promise, Lev. It would be a shame for Lidiya to disappear with her mother. You know how Irina can be. So flighty. All she would have to do is board a plane with her daughter and—”

My fury rose and I cut him off with a shout, “My daughter. Lidiya is my daughter. Irina was nothing more than a vessel.” My voice shook with anger. “Irina is not fit to call herself a mother, and I will bide my time until the day Lidiya is returned to her home, here with me.”

Igor clicked his tongue. “Such animosity.” Then he sighed, “I understand your concern, Leokov, but Irina is not the monster you make her out to be. She may not be very maternal, but she does love Lidiya. We all love Lidiya.”

My eyes closed and I swallowed hard. I had to remind myself that Irina was a good actress and could lie so well that even Sasha was shocked by the sudden turn in her character. Igor didn’t know his own daughter.

If only he knew.

He would know soon enough. They all would. Mirella was good at her job. I didn’t want to rush the situation. When you rushed, you became sloppy, and if Irina thought for one moment that I had a plan, she would disappear into the night with my baby.

I couldn’t let that happen. Lidiya was my world, and if she were taken away from me, I don’t know what I would do.

This conversation was giving me a headache. “Tell Corinna to stay away.”

Igor responded with an uninterested, “I’ll talk to her.” Then he hung up.

My heart pounded in my chest. Every day away from my little girl was a painful death on it’s own. I needed her. She was the only thing I had done right in my entire life. She was proof that even the most damaged person could produce something special.

Wait. Just wait.

I closed my eyes and shook my head. No. I was done with waiting.

It’s too soon.

If I felt I had the strength to wait any longer, I would, but too much time had passed already. I needed my daughter.

I dialed the number and held the phone to my ear. Mirella answered with a happy, “Hello, Mr. Lev. What can I do for you?”

“I need you to speed things up.”

At my tone, she spoke quietly, “How much time do I have?”

“A week,” I responded. I couldn’t wait much longer.

She said confidently, “I’ll get it done, Mr. Lev.”

“Give Lidi a kiss for me, will you?”

She whispered her response. “In a week, you can give it to her yourself.”

Chapter Thirty-One

Mina

It was the third night in a row that Lev and I would be sent home early from lack of customers. It was worrying. If things kept on the way they were, half the staff of Bleeding Hearts would be out of a job.

Was it so terrible that the only thing on my mind was sex?

Lev and I had become thoroughly acquainted with each other’s bodies. There was not a place on his tall, strong frame that my lips had not grazed, a place I had not sucked, licked, or sighed against in pleasure. But the main deed…it still had yet to happen. From the intense stares Lev had given me from across the floor during the night, I had a feeling that tonight would be the night.

As it turned out, I was not wrong.

Hooray!

As we undressed for bed, I watched in awe as Lev stripped down to nothing, his muscular body bare, sauntering over to where I lay in nothing but a pair of white panties and bra. His eyes hooded, he climbed over me, sitting up, reaching down to unclip the front hook of my bra.

The material fell away and my small breasts reacted to his adoring gaze, my nipples taut with arousal. His hands glanced my waist then up past my ribs until he gave me the contact I so needed, running his thumbs over the tightening buds.

At my small gasp, his hard cock jerked lightly in response, the dewy precum at the head of him all but begging to be licked away. He towered over me and I loved it, the feeling of being so small under him, the feeling that he could overpower me, but knowing he never would.

It was a powerful thing to cause a want so fierce in the person you loved.

His head dipped and he took one sensitive nipple into his mouth. It was something he did often. I wasn’t sure if it was because he knew how wet I got when he did it, or if it was just because he liked my nipples in his mouth. Either way, it worked for the both of us.