Page 31 of Protective Phlox

“Oh, I’ll make you grovel, but not for forgiveness,” I growled at her, and she blushed, wiggling on my lap.

“Focus, Mikhailov,” she said, making me smile. My heart pounded like a steady drum in my chest. “I would love for Cutter to have a younger sibling, but I figured it wasn’t in the cards. In the last few days, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’m now married into the mafia. Don’t get me started on how that’s screwing with my head, but the point is, I am all in with you and our family. I don’t do anything by half-measures. I want you to experience everything you missed with Cutter. Right from the moment we find out I’m pregnant, hearing the heartbeat, the birth, and the first steps. I can see what missing all of that means to you. So, let’s rectify it.” I stupidly just blinked at her, and her cheeks turned from pink to a vibrant red. “I mean, we don’t have to. I just thought….”

Words eluded me, but I cupped her cheeks and kissed her, pouring what was in my mind and heart into it. We gasped for air when we finally came up to breathe.

“Yes, I want all of that,” I said. Savannah smiled, and I kissed her again. “Fuck, I hate to ruin this moment, but we have a date tonight, and you’re not going to like it very much.”

“Then don’t tell me yet,” she said so softly it was almost a purr. She looked at the fancy clock on the wall. “Your mom said she could look after Cutter until one. That means we have an hour. Any ideas of what we could do with that hour, husband?”

“Say it again,” I ordered.

Savannah smiled. “Husband,” she whispered, and I shivered.

“Oh, I have one or two ideas.”

Chapter

Thirteen

SAVANNAH

I’d never been the type to think, Oh, isn’t that sweet when I saw men with their kids. There was no warm, gushy feeling that washed over me, and having kids wasn’t even at the top of my list. As far as I was concerned, a family would happen when I was ready, and fathers spent too little time with their children.

A man spending time with his family wasn’t something that should be celebrated but expected. Not that I had a great role model after my father died. Heck, my stepfather was spending the rest of his life in prison on countless sexual assault charges.

Yet, here I was, walking hand in hand with a mafia don who was holding his son in his other arm, and my heart was nothing more than sticky goo. My mouth had run dry when Nathan walked into Cutter’s room. The tailor-made suit hugged his muscled body, and his dark tattoos peeked out from the open V at his neck, while the rings he wore accentuated the artwork on his fingers and hands. He was lethal, and yet when Cutter ran to him to show off the fancy new suit—that looked like a miniature version of Nathan’s—I wanted to burst into tears for no apparent reason.

Nathan squatted, smiling, and complimented Cutter, and even though Cutter hadn’t called him dad, I could see the bond slowly building. Now, here we were, walking down a hallway lined with armed guards, and it felt like I’d stepped out of reality and straight into an episode of The Sopranos.

Goran and Ivan walked at our backs, and even though I told Nathan I understood and would only go out with protection, being shadowed like this was going to be hard to get used to.

I realized as we continued into the far wings of the mansion that I hadn’t grasped the sheer size. You could easily get lost, and I was never letting Cutter use the whole house for hide and seek. I’d never find him.

The door to a grand dining hall was already open, and as we walked in, all heads turned in our direction. I’d walked into many rooms filled with powerful men, but nothing could’ve prepared me to see all the Mikhailov heirs sitting together as one.

“Nathaniel, I was beginning to wonder if you were going to show,” Dimitri said, and Nathan’s hand tightened on mine.

“Work ran late. Do you want us to leave?”

There was a frigid tension between the two men, and I hadn’t forgotten Nathan confronting his father for bringing a mistress to his club and holding a gun to the girl’s head. Apparently, four years hadn’t improved their feelings.

“Don’t be foolish,” Dimitri said, standing. He walked around the table with a smile on his face as he stared at Cutter.

Nathan was holding my hand so tightly that I thought he was going to break my fingers. “Breathe,” I whispered under my breath, and his muscles relaxed some.

“So, this is my grandson. I’d almost lost hope that any of my children would give me any before I died,” he said, and Nathan’s jaw twitched. “Hello, and what is your name,” he asked in a baby-talk voice. I bit my lip as Cutter tilted his head and stared at Dimitri.

He stuck out his small hand, and Dimitri looked at it in confusion. “Здравствуйте, меня зовут Каттер,” Cutter said, and my eyes grew wide as everyone looked at one another. Dimitri stood up straight and reached out to take Cutter’s hand.

“Приятно познакомиться с вами, Каттер. Я твой дедушка Димитрий.”

“What did he just say,” I asked Nathan, who was grinning.

“He just said, ‘Hello, my name is Cutter,’ then my father greeted him back and introduced himself.”

“Great, he’s smarter than I am in three languages,” I said, making Nathan laugh.

“I’m still learning,” Cutter said but smiled wide as Helena clapped and gave him a thumbs up. “Do you speak Italian?”