I rolled over and hit a solid mass of muscle. Naked muscle.

“Good morning, Katya.” Matt’s voice was slow and sexy.

When I looked up, he was propped on his elbow, staring down at me. I took him in, from the top of his head to the perfect V of his muscles that disappeared under the sheet at his hips.

“Good morning,” I croaked out. Every muscle ached, from my throat to my eyeballs. Who knew I could cry so much? “Thank you for taking me in.”

His lips stretched thin. “What did you expect me to do, toss you on your ass?”

I pulled the cover over my head. I felt a mess. I knew I looked a mess. This was not the way I wanted Matt to see me.

“As a matter of fact, I did since you tossed me on my ass once this week already. Besides, I’m a mess.”

He pulled the sheet from my face. “You’re a beautiful mess.” He pressed his lips to mine in a sweet closed mouth kiss. I tried to turn my face from him. “I mean…ackkk! Morning breath.” But he cupped my cheek to keep me in place.

“I need to borrow a toothbrush if you’re going to kiss me.”

“I’m going to kiss you whether you brushed your teeth or not. All I want is your lips on mine.” He covered my mouth with his, and all thoughts of brushing my teeth disappeared. The kiss was slow and languid, and when he pulled away, I felt the loss profoundly. “That’s more like it. How are you feeling today?”

I looked down at the scratches on my arms. “Like I climbed down the trellis outside my bedroom and fell into my mom’s rose bushes.” The mention of my mother made my stomach twist and ache. Tears filled my eyes.

He pulled me into his arms and hugged me tightly. “I’ve got you.”

“Don’t let me go.” I burrowed into his body, seeking his warmth and strength.

“Not a chance.” His hands glided over my body. It wasn’t sexual in any way, but comforting. “I’ve got to take a shower so I’m ready for my meeting this morning. Stella is in the kitchen making breakfast. She’s going to fuss over you all day.”

“Will you be back?”

“Yes, of course.” He tilted his head. “Unless Sergei has me killed.”

I sat up. “You can’t meet with him.” My whole body started to shake. “He’s not a good man. He will kill you.”

“He can try.” Matt sat up and swung his legs off the mattress. That’s when I saw the purple bruise on his back.

“Oh my God, your back. The bullet bruised you so badly.” My fingers traced over the fist-sized purple mark. “Does it hurt?” I moved off the bed and sat beside him.

“I’ve felt worse.” His hand rubbed along the scar where he’d been shanked in prison. He turned to me. “I have to meet with Sergei. He’s not going to let you go without a fight, and I’m plain just not letting you go.”

He meant it when he said I was his. “I’m not holding you to words said in distress.”

He rose from the bed. The globes of his ass were solid and flexed with each step. “I’m holding you to your words whether said in distress or passion.”

“I never promised anything.” I stood and followed him to the bathroom.

“You said you’re mine, and you are.” He turned on the shower. Jets pulsed from every angle. “Are you taking that back?”

Was it possible to be his? There was nothing I wanted more. “No, but…”

He pulled off my T-shirt and tugged down my flannel pants. “But nothing. Let’s get you cleaned up and fed. I’ll have the gift store send up everything you’ll need.”

He placed his hand on my back and led me into the hot shower. The water stung the scratches on my arms, but the pulsing of the jets kneaded my sore muscles.

“You don’t have to get me clothes.”

He pressed me against the cold tile with his body. “I take care of what’s mine.”

“And I’m yours,” I said to see if the words rang true and they did. I felt the certainty deep in my marrow.

He squirted body wash that smelled like lavender into his palms and rubbed it over my skin. “Tell me what you know about Sergei. I hate going into a meeting blind. I have to find something he wants bad enough to let you go for it.”

How was I supposed to think with his hands gliding over me? Every nerve ending was on fire, every brain cell dead. “I can’t think with your hands on me.”

He laughed. “Get used to it because I can’t keep my hands off you.”

I figured two could play at his game, and the longer I kept him in the shower, the higher the likelihood I could get him to miss his meeting. I soaped up my hands and ran them down his body until his heavy length sat in my palms.

“As good as that feels, this isn’t happening right now, sweetheart, but I’ll take a rain check.” He moved my hands from his shaft. “Now talk to me about Sergei.”

Nothing killed desire like a conversation about Sergei Volkov. “I don’t know much about him. While he seems to have a conscience one minute, he appears to have none the next. He was sent here with a purpose, but I get the feeling he has his own agenda.”

Matt lathered my hair and then his. “Do you think it’s about money or power?”

“You know their type, you’re woven from the same thread.” While I hated to put him in the same mix as the Bratva soldiers, he was a mobster born and raised. For that matter, so was I. It might not run through my veins, but it was pounded into my head over the last twenty-four years.

“I’d like to believe I’m better.”

I wrapped my arms around his waist and set my soapy head against his chest. “I know you’re better, but with mafia men, money and power are one and the same.”

He stepped us under the stream of water. The bubbles rinsed from our heads and pooled at our feet.

“You think he’s here to kill Yuri?”

I was so happy he didn’t refer to him as my father. “Yes, think about it. For years, things haven’t been great. He’s pulling in tons of money, but he’s also lost a lot too. It all started because of me.”

Matt turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. He took two soft plush towels from the cupboard and wrapped me in one while he stood gloriously naked and dripping water in front of me. If we weren’t in a serious conversation, I would have dropped to my knees and licked the droplets from his body.

“Don’t blame yourself.”

I tucked my towel in the front so it stayed and took his towel and dried him while we spoke. “If I hadn’t stolen that money, none of this would have happened. You wouldn’t have been called over to find the error. There would have been no jail time. No stabbing. Maybe your father would still be alive.”

He grabbed my hands, making me drop the towel and pulled me in. Standing in front of him, I looked up to his beautiful brown eyes.

“And we wouldn’t be standing here together naked.” He dropped one hand and plucked the towel from my body. “Now we’re both naked. As for my father, you stealing from Yuri would have never kept mine alive. Yuri wanted it all.”

A chill raced through me. “I think Sergei wants what Yuri has.”

He turned me around and tapped my ass as he walked past me. The man had no shame, but then again, what was there to be ashamed of? The hands of the gods made him.

“He can go after Yuri for that. Would you be unhappy if Yuri met the same fate as my father?” Matt opened his drawer and handed me a T-shirt and a pair of his boxers. “Wear this for now.”

I slipped on the clothes. They hung from my body but comforted me to know I wore something of his. It was like marking my territory.

“I want to kill him myself.” The man deserved to be tossed out from the same balcony as my mother. He should know what it feels like to plummet to his death.

“I won’t allow the future mother of my children to have his death on her hands.”

He was talking about children with me. Was that even a possibility? “You don’t even know if we are compatible.”

He slid into a pair of black slacks and picked out a crisp white shirt. “We are. There are few things I’ve known for certain, and yet, you’re one of them. I’m so certain that I’d take you to the drive-through-chapel and marry you today.”

“You can’t mean that.”

He rummaged through his ties and came out with a dark red. “This is for you. I know how you love red.” He lifted his collar and proceeded to put his tie on. I loved a man in a suit. There wasn’t anything that looked so powerful and manly except for Matt naked.

“My brother did it. I don’t see why we can’t.”

I reached up to straighten the crooked knot. “You suck at tying ties.”

“Mrs. Price usually does it for me.”

“As for the drive-through-chapel, I don’t want to rush things.” I stepped back and looked at Matt standing in his suit while I stood wearing his underwear. “I’d really like to find my father if I can.”

A little smile lifted his lips. “You will find your father. I’m sure of it.”

I got the impression that he knew something. “What do you know that I don’t?”

“I know nothing but what you told me.” He threaded his fingers through mine and walked me down the hallway to the kitchen, where the air smelled like bacon and maple syrup.

In seconds, I was in the arms of Stella. “You poor thing. Matt tells me you need some mothering.”

I looked at him, and he winked. He grabbed a piece of bacon and kissed me on the cheek. “I’ll be back around dinner. Don’t leave the apartment. I’ll send someone up with clothes. They’ll call you for your sizes.” He was already dialing someone on his phone as he walked away.

Stella led me to the table in the kitchen and pointed to the spot that was set for one. “You can eat in the dining room if you prefer, but Matt hates eating alone. I thought maybe we can get to know each other over coffee and breakfast.” She poured me a cup of black coffee and dosed it with cream. “Matt says you like more cream than coffee.”

I was touched by how much he knew about me. We went to the same school, we socialized in the same circles, but I never knew he paid that much attention. Maybe he was right and we were meant for each other.

“Thank you.”

She filled my plate with pancakes and bacon. “Mangia,” she said with gusto. “You must eat if you’re ever going to fatten up.”

“Fatten up?”

Stella stood beside me and shook her head. “You’re so thin, you could hula hoop with a Cheerio.”

I took a bite of the bacon and hummed at the crunchy salty goodness. “I’m not that thin.”

She pinched my cheek and smiled. “I’ll plump you up so you’re healthy enough to have fat little babies.” She picked up the syrup and drowned my pancakes in it.

“Why is my uterus so popular?” This was the second time today babies were mentioned.

“It’s those eyes. They’ll look so good on our babies.”

Her enthusiasm was contagious. I’d never been around women who were mothering and nurturing. All I had to go by was the love of a mother who died too young.

When I tried to eat a few bites and push the plate away, Stella stomped her foot and told me I owed her five more bites. I was certain she’d spoon-feed me if I didn’t comply.

Stuffed to the hilt, I waddled into the living room. The wall of windows looked over the city. From this high up, the cars looked so small. The phone rang, and Stella asked my size. A half-hour later, we were rummaging through a rack of clothes brought up by a cute redhead who worked in the boutique downstairs.

“This one,” Stella said as she held out the red sundress. “Matt says you love red.”

Again, the man knew way too much about me. I tried it on and found it a perfect fit.

Stella pulled most of the clothes off the rack and placed them in the closet. She’d organized the space so one side was Matt’s and the other mine. By lunchtime, it looked like I’d lived there forever.

“Come and eat,” she called from the kitchen.

“I don’t eat lunch.”

“You do now.” She pulled out my chair, and I sat down in front of a plate of lasagna and a glass of red wine.

“This is good for you and our babies.”

“I’m not pregnant.”

“Not yet, but you will be.” She sat across from me and joined me for lunch. “What else do you need? I’ve sent for makeup and the essentials women must have because we are women.”

I swallowed the best lasagna I’ve ever tasted. “What do you consider essentials?”

She smiled. “Perfume, accessories, makeup, sexy lingerie.” She lifted the skirt of my dress to show Matt’s boxers. “These will never do. It’s like trying to lure a honeybee with tar.”

Laughter bubbled inside me. It had been too long since I’d spent time with a woman. Sure I had Darya and her mother at the house, but they weren’t allowed to talk to me in the way Stella did. My father separated what he called the grain from the chaff, as if somehow we were valuable and the help was inferior.

“Matt doesn’t seem to mind.”

“No, but that boy's been in prison for too long.”

Guilt stabbed at my insides. If I was going to be a part of Matt’s life, then the people he cared about needed to know the truth.

“You should know that I sent him to prison.”

She wiped her face with her napkin. “I know. You put him there because even then you loved him.” She said it with such conviction.

“I’m not sure it was love, but I cared about him.”

She stood up and cleared our plates. “It was love. Even then, your heart knew what your mind could not accept.”

“We came from rival families.”

“You came from mafia families, and that is not your fault.”

She was right. I was not my father. Or at least the father I knew and hated. I was Katya Petre…no, I was simply Katya, and that would have to be enough for now.