Page 67 of Lord of Passion

Hurry, hurry, comeon, hurry! Why is this taking so long?

"I can't imagine you would want any of them to suffer because of you,"he'd said.

Pulling my phone out of my bag, I call Liria. "Caro!" she says happily. "What's up?"

"Are you at home?"

Her tone turns cautious. "Yes, why don't you come over? You sound a little intense right now."

"Oh." An awkward laugh bursts from me. "I was just thinking about you, and…" I put my hand on my forehead. It feels hot, like I'm feverish. "Wanted to chat."

"Then get your shapely ass over here!" Liria is almost always cheerful. Nothing bad could have happened if she's cheerful.

"Be there in ten minutes. Do you want me to order those pistachio cream puffs from Blissful Bakery?"

She's struggling with that. "I want the cream puffs but not if you can't get them delivered."

"Sounds fair," I croak. I'm not going to tell her about Johann. He's talking out of his ass. The whole showing up and leaving unseen from my office thing is unnerving, but so is fucking with the Morozov Bratva. He can't be that stupid.

***

A half hour later, we're covered in powdered sugar, eating the last of the cream puffs. "Alexsey will never forgive me if he finds out we ate all of these and didn't save one."

"Then we destroy the evidence," I say thickly, swallowing my mouthful of pistachio cream.

She points her last cream puff at me. "That is an excellent idea." We hear a faint wail from upstairs and I hurry up the stairs behind her. Vasily and Anya are just getting big enough to haul themselves up by holding on to the slats on their crib. They look at us with their teary eyes and red cheeks and I crumble.

"Oh, you poor sweethearts!" I reach for Vasily and he bats my face with his little paw. "Come downstairs, we'll take care of you." He bats my nose again, which I take as a "yes."

I play with Anya as Liria nurses Vasily first. "My lactation coach tried to teach me how to nurse both babies at the same time, keeping them in a football hold." She does not look inspired by her coach's suggestion.

"Yeah, that's the very definition of double breasted," I say. She stares at me for a second before howling with laughter. Anya does not look impressed by her mother's merriment. "It wasn't that funny, fam."

"No, that was really funny," she wheezes. "Nursing humor. Who knew it was a thing?"

"I really don't think it is, Lir." I take Vasily, burping him while Liria feeds Anya. Kissing the top of his head, I swoon a little. The sweet smell of Baby. The perfume companies could make bank if they could re-create it. "How's Violet doing?"

"She's in the first stages of a morning sickness that can make its appearance at any time of the day or night," she says sympathetically.

"Roman was hovering around her like a lovesick hummingbird, the last time I saw them," I chuckle.

Liria smiles down at Anya. "I think he's even more excited than she is. He wanted to rip off the exterior wall of the nursery and send up all this giant, fancy furniture by crane."

"Oh, my god," I cackle. "I hope Violet talked him out of that plan." Studying her for a while, I note that the little furrow that's always between her brows is gone, she's relaxed, the happy Liria I remember from Boston. "You're happy, fam. Right?"

She looks up at me a little, surprised smile curving her lips. "O bozhe moy, yes! I'm so happy. Who would have thought it when I was dragged here?"

"I remember wanting to set Alexsey on fire a couple of times at first," I admit with a grin. "The man did redeem himself."

"Spectacularly."

We play with Vasily and Anya for a while, dancing with them while they cover us in drool. Alexsey comes home while we're waltzing to "A Tale as Old as Time."

"Aw, damn," he groans, pulling off his tie. "Are we really diving into Disney tunes this early?"

"Accept the Disney." I put Anya in his arms. "It's going to be a very big part of your life for the next ten years."

"Kill me." He looks so bleak, until he looks at Liria and his whole face lights up.