I haven’t come that hard in a long time.
Reluctantly, I slide out of her, but I don’t pull away. We stay like that, my weight on top of her, both of us panting.
Lucy reaches up and runs her hand through my hair, and I lean into it. Her hand cups my cheek, and she smiles up at me. “What do you want?” she asks. “Boy or girl?”
I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I’m still reeling from the news that she’s actually having a baby. “I don’t know,” I admit. “A girl would be nice. My mother only had boys.”
Lucy cracks a smile. “Mine only had a girl.”
“Do you only want one?”
“For now,” she says. “I don’t want to have to split my attention between two little monsters. With one, we can give them all our love and make them the center of our worlds. And then maybe down the line, we can have more.”
The idea of more than one kid scares and excites me. Lucy was where my world stopped, but now there will be even more love to share. I can already see it all. The tiny clothes. Lucy designing the bedroom until it’s just perfect. Teaching the little tyke how to ride a bicycle and how to swim. How to hunt, like my father taught me.
It’s too sweet for me to handle. Who am I becoming? What happened to Roman the hitman? He’s still there, deep inside me, but he doesn’t come out as often anymore. He doesn’t need to, and I think that’s probably for the best. He’ll never be gone for good; the speed with which I grabbed the gun from the nightstand proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt. And there are some things I still need that side of me for.
To keep my family safe, first and foremost.
But I’m learning – slowly – that that doesn’t always require force. Brute strength and violence can keep you safe in this world, but they can also make things more dangerous. Those things change you when you let them. Hurting others can hurt yourself just as badly. I have only to close my eyes and picturing Konstantin’s ugly, twisted scowl to understand that the things we do are done to us, in a perverse sort of way. I have only to remember my family’s history to remember that violence stains forever.
I want to spare my child – or my children, rather – from ever having to go through what I went. I can never truly abandon the life I’ve led, but I can protect them from it all the same.
I couldn’t protect Lucy from it, not fully. But I can already see the shadows fading from her soul. A little bit more every day. Me, I’m scarred for life. And that’s fine. That’s what I chose. But she deserves better. Brighter. Freer.
I can give her that. I can give my children that. So that’s exactly what I’ll do. I’ll be the barrier between their light and the world’s darkness. I’ll protect them from the things they should never have to see. In that way, I can honor my past and embrace my future. I can make their world a good one to live in, full of laughter and love and the bright, shining eyes of their mother.
I look down at Lucy and know that I’ve made the right choices – for once in my life.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” I chuckle, kissing her neck. “We’ll have as many as you want, but only if we get to keep practicing our technique on how to make them.”
She clings to me again, turning her head and exposing more of her neck to me. “Seems fair to me.” Then her tone changes to more serious. “You know you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, right?” she asks.
I pull back and look into her eyes. She’s so full of hope and sunshine. My woman. My daisy.
“Yeah?”
“Yep. And in a few months, you’ll lose that role to this little thing.” Lucy places her hand on her bare stomach.
Slowly, I kiss my way down towards it. I press a longer kiss to her stomach. “I’m happy to give that up.” For this kid, I’d give up anything.
THE END
***
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I kidnapped her to break her. Now, I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her.
YURI
In this business, you cannot afford to lose control.
No emotions. No weakness.
I’ve worked too f**king hard building my mob empire to let one feisty little girl ruin everything.
But Bella refuses to fall in line.
I’ve pushed my prisoner to her limits, and yet she will. Not. Break.
She takes every savage kiss...
Every cruel touch...
And asks me if that’s all I have to offer.
Breaking her down will require breaking a rule of my own:
Never, ever fall in love.
But when Bella’s senator father doesn’t follow orders like we expect, things get more complicated.
I’ll need her help to take my rightful place on the throne of the city.
And more time with her by my side means unleashing something inside me that cannot be contained again.
As our fates become entwined, betrayal barrels towards us.
I’m forced to make an impossible choice:
Do I follow my destiny to become the mob boss I was raised to be?
Or do I sacrifice everything to save the woman who has stolen my heart?
Chapter One
Bella
Every paparazzi picture ever taken and printed of
