You and I will be.

He’d said it clearly. Unflinchingly.

And something inside her had whispered back a single Yes.

The ding sounded again. Definitely not her imagination, but the low sound of a text message coming from the living room.

Kir stirred behind her, drew in a long, sexy inhalation and nuzzled the spot just behind her ear. His low, sleep-sexy voice stoked all the memories of last night and promised more on the horizon. “Someone wants to talk to you quite badly, vozlyublennaya.”

“They’ve only texted twice. That’s not urgent enough to make me move.”

His rumbling chuckle and the languid press of his lips at the back of her neck sent a shiver down her spine. “You must have been sleeping quite deeply then because you missed the three that came before the last two.”

No way. No one ever texted her that often. Not unless something major was going on at work, or Aunt Frieda was out with her girlfriends tying one on—the latter of which shouldn’t be happening this early on a Monday morning.

With a groan, she shoved the covers aside and scooted out from the comfort of Kir’s arms. “Figures. The one day I decide to sleep in and be lazy, something newsworthy decides to happen in New Orleans.”

She padded to the bathroom and grabbed her short-yet-cozy blue chenille robe off the back of the door.

Kir watched her every step with unabashed delight, his sleepy smile only dimming when she pulled the sides of her robe around her and cinched the belt around her waist. “You know, you don’t have to get out of bed. You could ignore your phone and stay here with me.”

She aimed what she hoped was a stern look at him on the way out the door. “I have to work.”

“But you’re off on Mondays.”

“Only if there’s not an emergency.” In the living room, she snatched her purse from the coffee table. “It’s taken me two years to get to the point they call me first for big stories. No way I can ignore my phone, no matter how cozy I am.”

“Ah, the life of a cutting-edge news reporter.” Bedcovers shuffled and the soft swoosh of movement against the mattress followed. “I guess I’ll have to save my next bout of seduction for after you’re done sharing the latest developments with our city’s fine citizens.”

The phone’s display lit up, and the device vibrated with another text just as she flipped it over for a look at the screen.

WHERE R U? I NEED DETAILS STAT.

Cassie reread the text from her Aunt Frieda then scanned the other equally urgent ones that had come in before it. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Kir slipped his arms around her waist. “Is it the end of the world?”

“No. More like my aunt being nosey.” She thumbed through the messages once more and noted each of them had come in ten minutes apart starting at seven thirty.