This was why I knew I had to be pregnant. We didn’t use protection. We never had.

Slavik kissed my lips. “I’ve been thinking about doing that all day.”

“In the pool?”

“No. I imagined you in our bed.”

My heart fluttered whenever he would talk about us. We, our. I liked it.

“We got the pool dirty.”

“I own the building. I can pay for them to clean it.”

“I don’t know if people are going to like us constantly closing off rooms to them.” The other day, Slavik had found me in the gym. My weight-loss goal had come back in full force since we returned. He’d distracted me by taking me over the bench, on my knees. There had been a full mirror in front of us, and as he took me, he made me watch.

“Do I need to remind you not to care about what people think?” he asked. “I’m the only one who matters in your world.”

I touched his cheek. “You are the only one that matters.”

****

Slavik

With everything kicking off around me, I didn’t have time to spend with my wife. Another attack on two of my businesses, another brothel, not as high maintenance as Cara’s, as well as a casino, had my men stretched. We were doing constant patrols. There had also been another attempt on Ivan’s life. The bastard hadn’t managed it, but he’d been paid a small fortune with promises to the Volkov Bratva if he succeeded. This required me to fly out to Ivan to check on him.

Much to Ivan’s annoyance, I put him on twenty-four-seven protection. All the brigadiers had supplied men to stay with him at all times. He hated this level of fuss. The bastard who tried to kill him hadn’t succeeded, but it had been close. One wrong move, and Ivan would have been dead. As much as Ivan pissed me off, he was the only person in this world who was like a brother to me. I’d die for him. The only other person I’d die for was currently lying naked beside me, sated.

All day, I’d been making love and fucking my wife.

This time was a luxury to me. Stolen to have what I wanted. With all the shit going down, and me putting more people into play, the less time I had for this woman. The less time I had, the more I wanted to spend with her.

“You’re thinking again,” she said. “How can you be thinking?”

“I’ve got lots of thoughts.” I ran my fingers up the curve of her back. Each time I caught sight of her naked, I found myself looking at her stomach.

This morning, she’d vomited again. I held her hair back, soothing her, trying to distract her. After her sickness abated, I’d often leave to return to work. This time, I’d stuck around, feeding her dry toast. I’d sent my man off, and Aurora started the morning curled up against me, watching a movie.