by Amber Lynn
Tipping the glass down, she frowned. She hadn’t checked to see if the glass was broken and some glass had fallen in. She didn’t have a habit of doing that, but it was the only thing she could think of inside the glass making the noise. If there was glass in there, it wasn’t from the glass in her hand.
“Seriously? You’re looking at the glass like we broke it and glued it back together with a chunk missing. Give it here.”
Vasily took the glass before she could protest. He drained the liquid. She would’ve said something about him drinking it in one gulp, but there wasn’t even a full gulp. Not to mention the fact that as he drank, she found out what had made the noise.
“What is that, Vasily?”
Lacey didn’t need to ask the question. She could see the ring clear enough. Her life was out of control and crazy, and some days she was lucky to remember her own name, but she knew what a ring was.
“I might have picked up a little more than just my clothes.”
“But you said…” Lacey didn’t know how to finish the thought.
She’d just thought about how she could think somewhat logically with all the craziness in her life, but it wasn’t just a ring if Vasily was admitting he picked it up. She had no reason to doubt he’d been serious about buying an engagement ring. She had wondered, though. He kept talking about marriage, but she’d thought her previous insistence that they didn’t need to get married would eventually make sense to him. She never dreamed he really went out and bought a ring.
And what a ring. Her eyes were glued to the platinum band as he pulled it out of the glass. She couldn’t see it clearly to check out the stone, but it was from Vasily. It could’ve been out of a cereal box and it would’ve been perfect.
He grabbed a towel and dried the ring off. Lacey was so lost in the moment that she hadn’t considered the ring was probably on the sticky side after being in the juice. She didn’t care if it was covered in frosting and then dipped in chocolate. She wanted that ring on her finger.
“I said I don’t want to get married because of fear. I’m pretty sure I made it perfectly clear that it doesn’t change the fact that we’re getting married.”
There he went again reading her mind. There were tons of things she could’ve been about to say before her mind went blank and started rambling.
Vasily held out an empty hand. She stared down and maybe for the first time noticed how big and calloused his hands were. Those hands had run over every inch of her skin, so she knew how meaty they were, but she’d never taken a good look at them.
His skin was shades darker than her pale skin, like a cup of tea with cream. Hers looked like the cream alone. The difference stood out to her as she placed her fingers gingerly on his. She’d have to spend a full week in the sun, and pray she did more than just burn, to get close to his coloring.
She’d known since the moment she saw him in the bar that he was gorgeous, but she’d never stepped back to take in the small bits of him that made up the whole. The feel of his rough skin, his tan coloring. And this panty-wetting-causing man was about to put a ring on her finger.
“It’s up to you whether you want to wear the ring now, but I would like to make it official.”
Vasily grasped her hand and then turned so he could slide off the bed and drop down on one knee. Her breath caught, and her lungs instantly felt like she’d been holding her breath for hours. They burned like she had a volcano erupting inside of her. There was no other way to put it.
“I told you last night.” He scrunched his face slightly and shook his head. “Actually, I think that was this morning. Either way, I love you, and there’s a good chance I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you without even knowing it. You are the mother of my child, with hopefully more to come, and I promise that I will love Kevin and Rachel as if they were both my own. You are the woman I’ve always dreamed of, and this is the family of those dreams. I will protect you all from anything that comes at you and I will love you with a fierceness you have never felt before. Will you marry me?”
The volcano inside of her erupted the second he started talking about the kids. She never doubted he cared about the kids. Even when she wasn’t sure his real feelings for her, she saw how he was with them. He adored them.
As he slid the ring on her finger, she tried to get the lump in her throat to clear. She felt her head moving, but it could have been her imagination. If it wasn’t moving, she hoped his eyes could see the answer in hers. He had to look past the tears, but the answer was there.
She tried again to speak, but the solid mass obstructing her voice seemed to only get bigger. Whatever sound made it out sounded like nothing more than a burble.
“Maybe I should’ve woken you up a little sooner, because we really only have time now for you to slip on a dress. I think you’re going to have to forego the shoes. Good thing I’m driving, and you don’t have to get out of the car.”
“But she didn’t say yes.” Rachel’s voice whined from the doorway.
Vasily smiled and leaned forward to kiss Lacey on the cheek. He reached up and wiped some of the tears streaking down her face and kissed her again.
“She said yes, pumpkin. So, you’ll get to be a flower girl like you want,” Vasily said. His voice was deeper, filled with emotion Lacey felt ripple through her as he spoke. “Why don’t we head in the other room and start talking about what kind of dress you want to wear while your mom throws on some clothes.”
Lacey hadn’t moved much, and somehow through the unexpected proposal she’d kept the sheet in place. Eventually, when her emotions calmed down, she was going to punch Vasily for springing it on her while she was naked and had only minutes to get dressed. She had to wait until she came down from cloud nine, but he had some kind of punishment in store for him.
“Now, love, don’t give me that look. You’ll hurt yourself if you punch me.”
The comment about made her fist fly in his direction. She didn’t think she’d really ever hit him. There were people she’d love to hit, her ex-husband came in number one on that list, but she wasn’t a violent person.
“Stop reading my mind.” The words croaked out of her. They weren’t the first words she wanted to say after hearing how much Vasily claimed to love her, but she’d been saying them so much they flowed right out of her mouth.
“That time I read your face, but I’ll try to keep that in mind, lyubimaya. I’ll get the kids in the car. I’d say take your time, but you’re better about being on time than any of us, so hurry.”
He kissed her quickly on the lips and bounced up to his feet. She didn’t want him to leave. She wanted to find a babysitter for the kids and just stay locked in the room all day. Lacey learned long ago kids made it impossible to give up responsibilities. For the first time since the kids were born, she wanted to be something more than just a mom.
Chapter 24
Watching Lacey pace was one of the hardest things Vasily had ever done. There were a lot of moments with her, like watching her go down after getting hit and learning he was going to be a father that were harder. But feeling the anxiety rolling off of her was also rough.
He wanted to take the anxiety and somehow fight it for her. Nothing he could say or do was helping, and he was good at fighting. He needed that anxiety to take a physical form. The form they’d expected it to come in was late. And that seemed to worry Lacey even more.
They’d dropped the kids off at school, both of whom were excited about the events of the morning. Kevin tried to play it cool, especially after his blow up the night before. The kid seemed to think the proposal was all his idea, and it wouldn’t have happened without his suggestion.
Vasily didn’t have the heart to bring up the fact that he’d had the ring for just a little longer than the night before. He had asked both kid’s permission before he did it. Rachel had come up with the silly idea to hide it in the orange juice. In the end, he had to admit it wasn’t a horrible idea, but it was on the corny side.
; Anyway, that was behind them. Lacey had said yes, and they’d gotten the kids to school just in time.
An hour later, they were back at Lacey’s, waiting for her dick of a ex to show up. He’d said he’d be there at nine. It was nine-fifteen.
Vasily wasn’t sure why they were waiting around for him. He wanted to kill the guy. He had for months, and the longer he had to think about it, he wasn’t sure it was a good idea for him to be there. That’s not to say he was in any way suggesting he leave.
Lacey didn’t need to see what a monster he could be, though. And he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t grow claws and horns and tear the guy limb from limb.
“Something’s wrong,” Lacey said as she turned and walked towards the door. “It just doesn’t feel right.”
Sitting on the couch, trying to ground himself hadn’t been doing Vasily much good, so he stood and went after her. He didn’t want her swinging open the door to step right into trouble. He’d already told her that if she wanted George to continue breathing, she needed to stay at least ten feet away from him at all times.
“Kitten, you have to calm down.”
He used the nickname on purpose and got the glare he expected. It wasn’t as heated as he’d hoped, but it at least caused the manic pacing to stop for a second. He pulled her in his arms, not close enough to bury her head in his chest like he preferred. He wanted to see her eyes and try to use his to calm her down.
Not that he was calm. Sometimes he could feel a sense of ease before a battle, but it was different this time. Maybe when George showed up the calm would come. Until then, his emotions were a twist of needing to punch something and soothe Lacey.
“Can’t you just hope he wanted to make a scene and thought better of it?”
Vasily didn’t believe the words himself. He couldn’t understand how any man had given Lacey up. He would fight for her with his last breath.
“I know he’s not like you, Vasily. He didn’t show up last night because he realized how much he loves me and wants me back. I’m not stupid.”
The hurt in her eyes pissed Vasily off even more. He didn’t want George to be in love with her, but the fact that it hurt her that he wasn’t grated on Vasily’s nerves.
“I don’t want his love,” she continued, making him think maybe she had her own mind-reading abilities. “I don’t want anything to do with him. But I know him. I know he’s decided he wants us with him and he saw you as a roadblock to getting what he wants last night. Even if he changed his mind after seeing me, you standing in his way is going to make him try harder.”
“I’d like to see him try harder to get through me. I’d give my left nut for him to take a swing at me.”
That brought a smile to her lips. Vasily wasn’t joking, but the smile made his lips quirk up just a little.
“I kind of like your left nut,” she whispered.
“Well, I don’t like to play favorites, but I’m kind of partial to it myself. And it’s just getting to know you, so I guess I should take back the offer. What about the right nut? You like that one?”
He hadn’t meant to lighten the mood when he first brought up the subject of his nuts, but she laughed. It was a sweet laugh that was only out of place by the fact that her muscles in her shoulders were still tense. He wanted to strip off the light pink dress she’d hastily thrown on and give her a full body massage.
One of his hands roamed up to the back of her neck, kneading the hard knot festering there. She didn’t need all this stress. The worry about the baby was already stressful enough. George only piled on what a mother had to deal with on a daily basis.
Vasily saw it every day. From the moment she got up, her life revolved around making sure Kevin and Rachel were taken care of. Kevin had calmed down a little from his trouble at school, but Vasily could see fear crinkle at the edges of her eyes. And it wasn’t just the almost teenager getting into trouble she worried about.
Rachel was a sweetheart. No one could question that. Vasily had never seen her in the shell others mention. She had a hint of shyness about her, but even from the first day when she found him in her mother’s room, she seemed fine with him. And as far as he was concerned, there wasn’t anything wrong with her.
Wrong wasn’t the right word. Being different isn’t wrong. But her mother worried about whether her shyness would get taken advantage of. Vasily could understand that.
If a person didn’t speak up, others around them could believe they were okay with what was being said or done. He’d already decided that as soon as he had Lacey’s blessing, he was going to teach Rachel self-defense to make sure she didn’t find herself in a situation she couldn’t handle. She was only ten, so he suspected he’d have a while before it was needed but being ready never hurt.
His hand pulled and pushed deep in her skin. Firm, but not enough to hurt. With every motion, he tried to work out all the worries running through her head. He tried to make her forget they were waiting for her ex-husband to show up and make an ass of himself.
The guy was completely clueless if he really thought Vasily was only there as a friend. Out of everything that was said, or not said, the night before. That part kept niggling at him.
He had no idea when George had shown up. Apparently, it had been after the kiss, but no man who wanted a woman would buy that the hug had been platonic. Yet, George had let it pass.
Lacey moaned, causing his misgivings to be forgotten. Her eyes fluttered, and the moan turned to the little cat noises that earned her one of her nicknames.
Fuck.
It wasn’t the time for his cock to stir, but the noises. How could a man not respond to the noises? He wanted to put out a saucer and take her from behind as she lapped up some milk.
“Maybe we should save the massage for a little later. As much as I would love George to come over and find us fucking like rabbits, I thought we were trying to end this without violence.”
He stopped the kneading but left his hand where it sat. Where it belonged.
Her bottom lip sticking out didn’t help matters. There was a reason he’d stayed away from her for so long. Every single thing she did made him want her.
The feeling was alien. Before Lacey came into his life, there was never a need to be with a woman again. Vasily liked flavors, of ice cream and women. Sometimes he liked to repeat, but more often than not he liked to keep the variety going.
Women tried to keep his attention. Oh God, did they try. But saying no was easy.
When it came to Lacey, he wasn’t sure what was different. Just that everything was different.
“Do you have any idea how much I love you?”
Vasily didn’t give her a chance to answer as he bent down and sucked her lower lip into his mouth. A slight taste of cinnamon teased his tongue as he opened his mouth and deepened the kiss. He wasn’t sure where the cinnamon came from, but he liked it.
Lacey’s arms went around his neck and tried to pull herself up. Her arm strength left something to be desired. Maybe the whole family could spend some time in the gym. Vasily didn’t think anyone needed to bulk up, but the ability to climb him like a little monkey did have some appeal.
Feeling her need to get closer and push the kiss to more, allowed him to clear his head some. He hadn’t been totally swept away, but one of them needed to keep some sense. And, since he was guilty as charged when it came to kissing her senseless, it had to be him.
He didn’t pull back, just gave her one last kiss and snuggled his face next to hers. He hadn’t shaved since the morning before, so he felt his stubble rub against her smooth skin.
“You’re addicting, Lacey. I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of you, kitten.”
She groaned at the nickname. Even the sound of disgust was sexy. He’d put the nickname on the back burner because it clearly annoyed her, but it definitely had a place.
“I don’t know why you insist on calling me that. I don’t have whiskers.”
Her nose scrunched up like she’d smelled a fart or
something, then it twitched slightly. If someone asked Vasily, he’d say she looked very much like a cat.
“Do you honestly not know you purr and mewl when we’re having sex?”
That question caused the kitten to grow fangs. Her arms slipped from around his neck and glided down to his chest where she pushed. The force wasn’t enough to make him budge, but it was cute that she tried.
“I do not purr.” She insisted as her hands fell to her hips and she took the stance of a pissed off goddess.
The few specks of gold she had in her eyes seemed to multiply as if they were charging to set off lasers any minute. Damn, she was beautiful.
“As if that’s not enough,” Vasily said, acting like she hadn’t said a thing, “you have claws, kitten. Would you like to take a look at my back to verify?”
He could still feel her nails digging into him. That wasn’t evidence the marks made it through the night, but he knew at one time there were probably thin lines from his shoulders to his ass.
“I didn’t scratch you.” She pouted at the thought.
Vasily liked the idea that she was so lost in him that she didn’t know how she reacted to him. She didn’t know the tiger that came out to play.
“I don’t like that smile on your face.” She added narrowed eyes to her aggrieved look.
“Well, I don’t like the fact that we aren’t both naked on that couch over there. Do you want to rectify that? I’ll make sure to point out every time you act like my own personal kitten.”
He let the amusement in his voice show in his eyes, which only made her stomp one of her feet. They hadn’t spent nearly enough time together for Vasily to pick up all her quirks. It was going to be fun learning them all.
The sound of her phone ringing put a damper on the mood of playful fun Vasily was trying to build. At least it wasn’t the asshole knocking on the door.
Her eyes remained in their pissed off position, or at least playfully pissed off. She stomped over to the table by the couch. He managed to keep from telling her she reminded him of Kevin when he didn’t get his way. It was unclear whether she was still acting up because of his words or the phone.