Page 118

He was a keeper.

I could only imagine how he’d be when our little princess was born.

His protectiveness would escalate. His patient would deepen. I was sure that most of all, his capacity to see and treasure the good in the world would increase too.

He wasn’t Brady’s biological father, but he was the perfect replacement for the man I hadn’t ever wanted to marry back then.

“Uh-oh,” Viktor said from the nursery. He’d come over to help too. Paul, his assistant, was there as well.

“It’ll clean up,” Paul said.

“Fuck,” Nikolai said.

Paloma and I deadpanned.

“You spilled the paint, didn’t you?” I called out.

“Yeah, Mama. We did,” Brady replied in his cheery little voice.

“At least we can count on him to be a snitch with the boys,” Paloma joked.

“We’ll clean it all up,” Brady added.

I shook my head, amused that my husband was this insistent on doing this task himself.

We had months to go before our daughter would be here. We had contractors and house staff who could paint the nursery and build the furniture. He had brothers and cousins and so many men in the organization to lean on.

But no.

He wanted to do it himself.

Maybe it was some personal goal or something, and I wouldn’t stand in his way. If he wanted to directly get the nursery prepared, I wouldn’t stop him. It was cute, actually, if such a mild word could apply to the big, tall, handsome man.

I got up and walked toward the room. Paloma joined me, also curious.

But when we walked in and only a small mess was to be found, I shrugged. “That’s not so bad.”

“It’ll come right up,” Viktor said.

I checked on the progress of the room, admiring how it was all coming together.

When Wren showed up, calling out to us, they all filed out of the room. She had come with dinner, pizza per Brady’s request since he’d started a reading challenge and he’d hit his goal for the month.

I lingered in the room with Nikolai, smiling as he loosely hugged me. He watched me, melting me with that smoldering stare of love.

And desire.

“I know the hormones are supposed to make me hornier than usual,” I teased. “But it seems that they’re rubbing off on you.”

He kissed me deeply, leaving me breathless when he pulled back.

“I want you to rub against me,” he admitted in a husky growl. “Hopefully when Brady will be able to not get up in the middle of the night…”

“I’m sure it’s just a phase.”

He nodded but didn’t lose the chagrined expression. “A cock-blocking phase.”

“There’s no rush, Nik. We’ve got the rest of our lives to make love.”