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Hesitantly, and with a soft smile, I murmured, “For you, Lena.”
Her eyes twinkled. “You didn’t have to, dear.”
“I-I know you don’t like my roots, but it’s tradition.” My smile faltered as she tipped her head to the side when she tore open the box and stared at the soft pink, open back loafers. “When we enter someone’s home, we always take our shoes off—and houseguests are offered a set of guest slippers, or if they’re frequent guests, they keep their own at the home in question.”
Her hand slipped into mine. “Thank you.”
I wasn’t sure if she got the inference. “It’s my way of saying you’re welcome—”
“I understood, dear.” A kind of fierceness appeared in her eyes. “Truly, thank you.”
Eoghan snorted. “That’s why you wanted their shoe sizes?”
Lena grinned. “I did wonder at that.”
Aidan Sr. pinned me in a stare. “I get a pair too, then, hmm?”
“Of course.” Nervously, I reached for the box and handed it to him.
Unlike Lena’s, which were pink and dotted with the trademark Louis Vuitton square medallions, Aidan’s were flat slippers, black leather, with the monogram on the front.
His eyes twinkled. “I’ve never worn slippers in my life, Inessa, but for you, I will.”
Heat bloomed in my cheeks. “Thank you.”
“No, thank you.” He passed them back to me. “So, these are for you to take home with you, aren’t they?”
I nodded. “They’ll always be there for when you visit.”
Agitated, I shot Eoghan a look, hoping he approved of the gift.
Maybe it wasn’t flowers or chocolates, but it was my heritage. It was how we worked, and even though I wasn’t particularly proud of my ties to the Bratva, I was Russian before I was Bratva, and there was no evading that.
I almost thought I’d see scorn in his eyes, but instead, I saw a heat that wasn’t banked.
It seemed to pierce me like his dick had pierced me earlier, and this time, my cheeks weren’t the only parts of me that were flushing with heat.
Lena broke into the moment by tucking the slippers back into the box and saying, “For you, Inessa. I’ll be sure to visit soon.” She hummed. “Maybe tomorrow. Eoghan says you’re having a problem with Winifred. I’ll have a word. Woman to woman. It’ll go down better.”
“Oh! That isn’t necessary—”
But she didn’t let me finish the statement. “It’s very necessary. You’re Five Points now, not Bratva. It’s time Winnie remembered who her betters are.”
While the steel in her voice shouldn’t have come as a surprise, not when I knew who she was married to, it still did.
Aidan Sr. cackled. “I may have to join this visit. I always did like watching you put people in their place, Lena.”
“Winnie’s not that bad,” I argued, concerned if Aidan Sr. was getting involved. “She’s just—”
“Just nothing. The ring on that finger of yours changes everything, girl,” Aidan boomed, loud enough to make me jump and for the baby in Aoife’s arms, Jacob, to burst into tears, which had Finn glowering at him.
While the situation was beyond unorthodox, I had to laugh.
Especially when, upon rethinking things, I reckoned it entered the territory of batshit crazy. But they’d welcomed me, more than I could have imagined, and while I was still nervous, still uncomfortable with the hickey, and very aware of the fact I wasn’t wearing panties and my pussy was coated in Eoghan’s cum, I actually managed to settle in until Lena declared that it was time for dinner.
And the craziest thing of all?
I enjoyed it. All of it. I was grateful to be included in the family get-together, and I was even more grateful to think that, every Sunday, I’d be welcomed here again and again.
Because I was family now too.
And I’d never been so happy not to be a Vasov anymore.
