Page 84 of Fractured Empire

Katya doesn’t stiffen at my touch, but embraces it, tipping her head back to rest on my chest as she exhales.

“I didn’t get a chance to tell you how well I slept with you by my side.” Her voice is soft, bordering on sultry. “You’re so warm and unexpectedly cozy for someone with so much muscle.”

My hands tighten without meaning to, pulling her back an inch to make her back mold to my front. Chills visibly break out on her arms, her pale skin pebbling as my nose inches down closer to her ear. “I slept well too, baby.”

A small noise catches in her throat. “You know what that word does to me.”

“I know,” I agree huskily, slowly dragging my hands down from her waist to her hips. “Saying it does things to me too.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” I echo, trying not to groan. “Being near you is making it more and more difficult to keep my hands off you now that I know how soft you are, tesoro.”

“You said that last night, didn’t you?” she rasps, spinning around to face me without pushing any space between us. My thumbs dip under the hem of her shirt, slowly caressing her bare stomach while my hands tighten around her hips.

“I said I would repeat myself if you still wanted to hear it.” Her lips part as she breathes and my wife nods as if answering a question I haven’t truly asked. “I know you understand what it means, and you speaking Italian is one of the many reasons you’re a treasure, Katya. Tesoro is entirely fitting for you since you’re the best thing I’ve ever found. You’re a gem, and I can’t believe I was lucky enough to stumble upon you.”

“You’re romantic, do you know that?” Her tongue pokes out, wetting her bottom lip. “You say the sweetest things, you make me breakfast and tell me to lie in bed longer. You carry me to my bedroom after finding me asleep on the couch, and you always make sure to let me know I can ask for help if I need it even when I’ve told you that I won’t. We’ve never even been on a date and I feel like you’d sweep me off my feet before one could even start.”

Swallowing at her assessment, I slowly shake my head in denial. “My brothers have called me a romantic since I was six, but I don’t know if it’s true. If I am one, I’ve done a poor job of showing it. I’m groping you in our kitchen, thinking of very ungentlemanly things I want to do to you, and you’ve just reminded me that I’ve never even taken you out on a proper date.”

I wouldn’t even know where to begin with taking my wife out. I know things about her, that much is true. I know what food she tends to favor, and that she prefers privacy over popularity. She wouldn’t enjoy a fancy crowded restaurant as much as she would like a quiet place with good food. But feeding her and talking with a table between us doesn’t even begin to cover the things I would want to do for her.

A proper date for my wife would take planning, and plenty of it.

“I’d like to hear about these ungentlemanly things you want to do to me,” Katya tells me, her lips spreading into a smirk I’d like to kiss off her mouth. “And we’ve been a little busy to consider going on a date, don’t you think? You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself, bohatstvo.“

My eyebrows arch up at the unfamiliar word and she grins wider.

“Riches,” she defines, reaching up to place a hand on the side of my face. “If I’m your treasure then you’re certainly mine as well, Leon. You don’t seem to understand how happy you’ve made me by giving me this life. I adore everything about living here and being a part of our little family. I know it hasn’t been long, and things are moving quicker than you probably imagined, but I can’t feel sorry for it.”

“I don’t want you to be sorry,” I reply, leaning into her touch. “You’ve been a light in the darkness that has surrounded us, Katya. You’re making our lives better every single day, and I don’t think my sons could fault me for seeing you the way I’ve begun to. They love you so much already, and I find it hard to believe that they might look back on me someday and begrudge me for falling for their new mother.”

“I can’t wait until they see me that way,” she confesses, eyes growing misty. “I can wait as long as they need, but I already consider them my own. I’d kill for them, Leon. Die for them, commit war crimes and all kinds of atrocities for them. I know it sounds crazy from the outside looking in, but I feel like I was meant to be their mother after Cleo’s passing. I know I couldn’t have them without her, but I think our paths were always meant to meet as one.”

I know the feeling.

Fate seemed like a fickle fantasy before I met my wife, and now it feels like nothing else could explain how right she is for us.

“And,” Katya continues, inhaling deeply. “As much as I love how open to communication you are, maybe we should just let things progress naturally from here? Neither of us wants to slow down or push away what’s growing between us, and I think that’s all we really need to know.”

The apples of her cheeks go from pink to red, and I resist the urge to kiss them and feel the warm rush of blood rushing under her skin.

“You don’t think we need to talk about where things are going…physically?”

“I think we need to do less talking about where things are going physically and more doing those things.” Katya practically purrs the declaration. “I’m not overly experienced when it comes to intimacy, and I wouldn’t want to hide that from you. So I’ll admit that I may technically be a virgin, but I refuse to be treated like one. I’m a grown woman who has been picky about sharing herself with other people, but I know my body and I know what I want.”

The word virgin should worry me, but given how she was raised, it’s not that much of a surprise. Not all mafia daughters are brought up to be untouched until marriage these days, but it’s still quite common. Katya is twenty-three, not eighteen, though. She’s an adult and if she says that she’s ready to take the next step with me, I’d be a bastard to misbelieve her.

“I’ve always needed to feel trust and a strong emotional connection—or potential for one—to even kiss someone before you, Leon. And last night, I would have let you do whatever you wanted to me.” She shivers as she says the words, licking her lips. “That’s never happened to me before, and I’m not going to shy away from the way you make me feel. Not when we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together.”

The urge to take her right here against the countertop is quickly smothered by the sound of little feet.

“Daddy, my tummy hurts.”

Katya untangles herself from me faster than I can even comprehend.

“Oh, my,” she coos, switching into a concerned mother in a flash. “Come here, little love. Let me see if we can get your tummy ache to go away, hmm? Do you feel warm?”