“Your speed got a little out of hand on the highway,” he says.
“Oh yeah?” I tease. “I didn’t notice.”
“I did,” he says, giving me a stern look that makes my heart beat a little faster.
He puts the bags down and gathers me in his arms. “I notice everything about you,” he says, before he leans down and presses his lips to mine. “What you like and what you don’t. What makes you happy and what excites you. What you fear, what you hope, what you dream about.” He kisses me until my breathing’s labored and my knees grow weak, but my belly prevents us from getting too close.
“There’s a roadblock,” I mutter when I pull away. “I can’t get as close to you as I’d like.”
He gives me a teasing look and quirks an eyebrow at me. “I have some ideas about how we could get a little closer.”
“Oh, do you?” I ask. I turn away casually, very aware of what that predatory look means. I pretend I’m just sauntering, but as soon as I’ve turned fully away, I bolt.
“Marissa,” he warns, but I dodge furniture like a pro, leaving him behind. I make it to our bedroom with him in hot pursuit, and squeal like a little girl when he catches me and lifts me straight up in the air.
“I thought pregnant women could run marathons?” he teases.
I’m panting from the exertion, flailing in his grasp. “Not this pregnant woman,” I pant.
I’m on my back on the bed and he’s got me pinned down beneath him. The muscles on his shoulders flex and bulge as he braces himself over me. Those blue eyes of his make my belly warm and I stop squirming.
“I love you, Nicolai.”
“And I love you.” His voice is deep and husky, sending a thrill of pleasure down my spine.
I know he wrestles demons and always will. That he’s devoted loyalty to his brotherhood. That he breaks the law and lives by a code of conduct the entire Bratva swears allegiance to.
“And I love our child that you carry. No one will ever hurt you again,” he says. “And I will keep our family safe no matter the cost.”
“I know you will,” I whisper.
His father brought him back to Atlanta and appointed him head brigadier, for now. As son to the pakhan, Nicolai will eventually be appointed leader.
Stefan and Nicolai worked tirelessly for months, ensuring that no one who worked for my father had affiliations with the Atlanta contingent. The Bratva men found my father’s actions appalling, and welcomed me and Nicolai home with open arms. Tomas still checks in on occasion, and once a month, Nicolai flies back to Boston and works for him as well.
What my father did was inexcusable even to the most hardened men of the brotherhood. It brings me some consolation knowing as Nicolai’s, I bear the protection of the entire extended brotherhood. And now I carry an heir to the Bratva throne.
“Tomas is coming to pay us a visit,” Nicolas says. I once feared the head of the Boston Bratva, and though I still am not comfortable around him, I trust him.
“Oh? Why?”
“It’s time he found a wife.”
I give him a curious look, waiting for him to tell me more, but when he doesn’t, I prompt him. “Oh? And how will coming here help him with that?”
Nicolai sighs. “He’s been promised the daughter of a rival group, and my father will officiate.”
“Nicolai,” I say, pleading, but I don’t know for what. It seems every time we make any progress, and I’ve accepted the ways of the Bratva, something happens to remind me how they live by their own set of rules.
“It isn’t as terrible as you might think, Marissa.”
“No? Being wed to a man you’ve never met? And dragged away from everyone and everything you love?”
He shrugs. “Sometimes, unlikely unions happen as a result.”
“And sometimes you end up wed to a man you despise.”
But Nicolai shows no sympathy. “Fools marry every day,” he protests. “They know nothing about loyalty or self-sacrifice or honor. Any woman that belongs to Tomas will be glad to call him husband.”
I don’t agree, but it isn’t worth fighting with him. I can’t control this. And I know he’s loyal to Tomas.
With a sigh, I take his hand and place it on my belly. Our baby boy kicks, and I watch as Nicolai’s eyes grow misty. He swallows hard. Bratva men don’t cry, but they aren’t made of stone.
I’ll never forget the way his eyes lit up when the pregnancy test came back positive, or the way he held me when we accepted the news that we’d created new life. We’ve come through hell and back, but each step together—marriage, family life, reinstatement in our family brotherhood—moves the pain of the past further behind us and forges a new road.