After a kidney transplant, it can take up to a year for the body to recover. Maybe it was because it was such a good match, or maybe it was because he was determined enough to get well enough to ice skate with his father, but Leo exceeded all expectations. His father also made a speedy recovery, like Nikolai Chernov would ever let a little pain or invasive surgery stop him.
I watched them out on the ice. Miller’s Pond froze over every winter. This year, a whole twelve months after the death of my father, for the very first time, Leo got to skate, just like he’d always dreamed of.
“Here, hot chocolate with a little something something,” Chiara said, plopping herself down next to me. She sighed as she leaned her body back. Her winter coat was tight around her growing bump.
“Something we’re allowed?”
She gave me her patented wicked smirk, then laughed. “Relax, it’s just a little peppermint syrup.”
I sipped the sweet, frothy drink. It warmed me like all the gloves and feather down coats couldn’t. I took a deeper drink and settled back in the chair Nikolai had carted out to the pond, just so I could take the pressure off my feet while watching Leo’s first skating lesson. Being pregnant was definitely easier this time around, with an overprotective, at times overbearing, and utterly devoted husband around to wait on me hand and foot. While I mostly enjoyed it, sometimes it could be maddening. Nikolai was still Nikolai, and he didn’t do anything by halves. He had it in his head that it was dangerous for me to shower alone, given my advanced stage of pregnancy. Therefore, he insisted on showering with me. Of course, that ended up being distracting for both of us.
“Go on, tesoro! You can do it!” Chiara yelled beside me.
I followed her gaze. “Are you shouting at Leo? I don’t think he heard you.”
“No, Angelo. That man can do a lot of things well, believe me, but skating isn’t one of them. He’s gonna fall and bruise his balls. I can’t wait,” Chiara chortled.
“How sweet of you.”
“I’m planning on kissing them better. He prefers that to sweetness, believe me.”
Smiling, I looked out over the pond. It was a brisk winter day. Christmas was just around the corner. School was going well, and I’d dropped down to teaching part time. I was painting more than ever. Nikolai wanted me to give up teaching horny teenage hockey players and teach adults, or better yet, paint to my heart’s content and fill our house with kids. For the lonely boy who had looked at the stars and dreamed of being loved one day, there wasn’t such a thing as too many kids.
We had moved to a new house. Edward Sloane’s house was even more fabulous when you owned it. If I had any kind of conscience, maybe I should have felt bad about living in the house of the man who my husband had killed.
I didn’t.
Nikolai had told me a little more about the kind of man Edward had been, all while pretending to be a local golden boy. He’d played in our world, just enough to get filthy rich, while still thinking himself above it. It didn’t work that way. Once you were part of it, you accepted its rules. In the world I had grown up in, it was survival of the fittest. Edward had been no match for a true predator.
Honestly, I’d forgotten he’d ever lived there after a month. I wasn’t the moral police. I had no authority to act like one. Nikolai and I had done what we’d needed to do to survive, and we’d keep doing it to keep our family safe. There was no judgment between us, only teamwork.
Nikolai effortlessly crossed the ice, skating with a natural-born grace. He helped Angelo to venture further onto the ice. I couldn’t help but laugh as the burly bodyguard clung to his support.
“Ladies, who are we laughing at?” a cheerful voice spoke from behind us. Bran picked up the nearest empty chair and plopped it down next to me. The charming Irishman came to visit often, despite his responsibilities in New York.
“Angelo, the abominable snowman.”
“Right, of course.”
Bran was carrying his own hot chocolate, and I could smell from here that he’d added something other than peppermint.
“So, how was physical therapy?”
Technically speaking, Bran didn’t need it anymore. He’d recovered well from his injury, but there was a therapist at the hospital who he liked. I didn’t think the terminally fun playboy would ever be able to settle down.
A twinge deep in my belly pulled my attention from the ice, just as my eyes met Nikolai’s. Angelo was standing with Leo now, and the two were moving at a glacial pace, hand in hand. A sharp kick inside me made me wriggle in my seat.
Only seconds later, the sound of cutting ice came from in front of me, and Nikolai was crouching, his hand pushing mine out of the way to place it firmly over my distended belly.
“Did she kick? Did I miss it?”
Another kick came just as he spoke. His mouth curved in a devastating smile. “There she is.”
“You know you don’t have to catch every kick, right?”
“I already told you, I’m not missing a thing this time. I already missed too much.”
“Hmm, I don’t think you’re in danger of missing anything, considering I can’t even take a shower alone anymore.”
Nikolai laughed and slid a hand up my body, gripping my chin in a firm hold. He tilted my head down, until his gray eyes stared into mine.
“That’s nothing to do with being pregnant, and everything to do with the fact that you’re mine. My prize. That’s just your life now. Get used to it.”
“You’re joking. You’ll get tired of it eventually.”
He chuckled. “When are you going to understand, my intentions for you are only just getting started, now that I have our son at home, a baby in your belly, and my ring on your finger. This is just the beginning of my obsession with you…”
My breath caught, and my heart pounded. Like always, I couldn’t tell if it was excitement or nerves.
He studied me, as if deciding how far to reveal his possessive madness. “The only thing I’ve ever wanted in my life… was you, prom queen, and now, I’ve got you. There’s no escape.” He smiled, a dark, hungry thing.
In the end, I really was as crazy as he was, because I knew exactly how he felt.
“Stop making it sound like a challenge. You’ll make me want to test you.”
Nikolai threw his head back and laughed. “Test away, I like a good game. I’ve already pursued you when you were dead to the world, and I’ll pursue you in your next life, too. I’ll never stop catching you, and you’ll never stop letting me.”
I ran a finger down the faint scar that I’d left across his face, so long ago. “You’re crazy, you know that?”
Nikolai turned his face into my palm, pressing his lips against the silvery N carved there. “About you? Always.”
