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He came to a stop and turned to face Kira, their hands still joined. “It’s a miracle. You’re a miracle.”
She laughed, and he was suddenly shocked he’d been able to live a month without hearing it. “Lots of women have babies.”
“Yes, but only one of them is my beautiful wife. Only one of them is our baby,” he said.
She smiled, and the sun lit her hair like a halo. “I think the Lion is becoming a romantic,” she said teasingly.
“That happened long ago.” People milled around them, entering and exiting the doctor’s office, walking past on the sidewalk. But all he could see was her. “The day I found you laughing at Dimitri and Odette, I think.”
“Was that the day?” she asked. “The day you fell in love with me?”
He could still see her, bent toward the elaborate cage that was home to her beloved birds, cooing softly to them and laughing while they picked apart scraps of paper. It was the first hint of softness he’d ever witnessed in her, and he’d suddenly seen her not as the icy, unattainable princess who had haunted his dreams most of his life, but as a woman.
He stroked her cheek. “I think I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember. I just didn’t know it.”
The light of her smile could have powered a small planet. “Do you know what that moment was for me?” she asked. “The moment I started to fall in love with you?”
He shook his head. He wasn’t proud of what he remembered from the early days of their marriage. He’d been domineering and unkind, using the obviously powerful physical attraction between them as an armor against the feelings he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge.
My god, she had excited him. She still did.
“It was when you gave me the book in Lake George,” she said. “Anna Karenina. Remember?”
He remembered the moment. She’d been wearing the bracelet he’d given her as a late wedding present. Seeing it on her wrist had made him flush with pleasure.
It had been like a brand.
“So not the family heirloom,” he said, making light of the moment. “A book from a second-hand bookstore?”
She smiled and nodded. “I love the bracelet — you know I do — but the book was personal. It was the first gift you gave me that made me feel like you knew me. Or that you wanted to.”
“I did. I do.”
“You don’t think you know me yet, husband?” Her smile was flirtatious, and he was transported back to the early days of their marriage, when she would surprise him with her savage toasts or bawdy sense of humor.
Laughter, strange and unfamiliar after so long without it, erupted from his throat like a runaway train. “I wouldn’t deign such a bold assumption. It will take a lifetime to truly know you, and I look forward to every moment.”
He leaned down to capture her lips. The kiss quickly turned heated, and he marveled that he could still want her with such fervor. He’d been so tired since his rescue, happy to fall asleep with her in his arms. Now, his fatigue all but faded, his desire for her returning like a sudden thunderstorm.
Her mouth was soft and pliant under his, her tongue urgently sweeping his mouth, matching him stroke for stroke. His cock hardened in his trousers, and he was suddenly desperate to be inside her.
He groaned, and she smiled against his mouth. “Shall we hurry home?”
This time his groan was filled not with lust but disappointment. “I’d like nothing more. Unfortunately, I have a call with Damian Cavallo.”
She looked surprised. “Damian Cavallo?”
“We have to find Vadim if we’re going to eliminate him. And if we’re going to find him, we’re going to need access to a cyberlab.”
“Which means — ”
“Which means,” he said bending to give her a quick kiss, “you need to hurry and pack for New York."
15
Kira flipped through the clothes hanging in her walk-in closet, trying to decide what to bring to New York. It would be a short trip, but it would be the first time she and Lyon had been truly alone since he’d come home, and she wanted to make the most of it.
Except she’d only had time to buy a few maternity outfits, and most of the old clothes no longer fit.
