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Seri reached her next and the younger girl placed a kiss on her cheek. “See you later, Freddie.”
The two linked hands as they walked away, both of them at ease with being a couple made infamous by the fact that they were also stepsiblings.
When she noticed Misha reaching for her, she quickly tried pulling back, but because he had really long arms, he still managed to ruffle her hair in the end. “It’s my turn to babysit today, so I’ll be checking on you later on.” Although notorious for being coldly indifferent to everything and everyone outside his family and work, Misha had made an exception in her case.
Unfortunately.
“I can take care of myself,” she muttered.
“I know that,” Misha answered patiently. “But big brother over there—-” He inclined his head to Sergei, who was leaning against the breakfast counter and gazing at them with amusement as he took a sip of his coffee. “—-willdieif anything happens to you. The entire family, actually, will be devastated, so I need to do my part and make sure nothing happens to you while you’re on my watch.”
“I am not a kid,” Fredericka growled.
“I know that, too.” And this time, Misha slanted a pointed glance at her tiny bump, which her wraparound dress couldn’t hide.
The innuendo had her muttering, “S-shut up.” She glared at him as he walked away, but then she found herself face to face with Fyodor Grachyov. Although he was in his mid-forties, the older man looked more like a big brother to his grown-up children. Sergei was, in fact, the mirror image of his father, and looking at Fyodor, Fredericka already knew that Sergei was blessed to look beautiful for the rest of his life.
“Has the pregnancy caused you any discomfort?” Fyodor was asking.
Hurriedly pushing all envious thoughts of Sergei’s gorgeousness aside, she shook her head, mumbling, “It’s been great so far. Just a few unusual food cravings, but other than that, nothing.”
Behind them, Sergei coughed politely, but Fredericka pretended not to hear it. So ‘a few’ and ‘unusual’ were understatements, but so what? He had knocked her up, now he had to live with the consequences, and that included looking for an exotic Asian shrimp paste paired with an equally exotic variety of mangoes – in the middle of night.
“That’s good to hear. If you need any of us, do not hesitate to call, okay?”
She nodded.
He raised a brow.
Aaaaargh.He really was like the rest of them. Or rather, all of his children took after him. She said obediently, “Da, Papa.”
Fyodor grinned. “It gets easier, da?”
“Nyet,”she returned honestly, but her answer only made the older man laugh.
And then it was just her and Sergei, and she told him accusingly, “See what you’ve done? It’s like this every morning!”
But the billionaire only smiled, saying mildly, “All I told them was to make you feel like you’re part of the family because you’ve spent most of your life alone.”
“What you really mean is you’re all sadistic by nature, and you all enjoy torturing me by smothering me with hugs and kisses.”
“That, too,” he agreed.
She watched him place his cup down on the counter, and when he turned to face her again, the gleam in his dark gaze made her gasp. “No!” But her breathless tone gave her away, and when he took a step towards her, Fredericka’s knees buckled as a sweet, thrilling kind of dread filled her.
“N-no, Sergei.”
“You mean yes,” he mocked, “don’t you?”
This time she didn’t bother to answer and simply whirled away and ran out of the Grachyovs’ informal dining room. Unfortunately, she only made it as far as the stairs by the time he caught her, and Fredericka let out a little shriek when he swept her up in his arms from behind.
His slumberous dark gaze met hers, and her heart started to hammer. “Pick a place,pchelka.”
The husky, accented words made her shudder, but she tried to hang on to her common sense, saying weakly, “You might be late for work.”
He shrugged her concern off, saying, “Thisis more important.”
“But—-”
