This was far too domestic for it to be my reality. I hadn’t eaten a family dinner since the night my mother died. I’d never cooked a meal in my life unless toasting a bagel counted. Here I stood in front of Matt like it was normal for me to cook his meal—normal for us to sit at the massive table—normal for us to act like a family. None of this was normal, but I wanted it to be.

There had been so much talk about babies that as I looked down the table, I could see little Italian boys with their dad’s dark hair and brown eyes.

“You cooked?” He lifted a brow.

I took the seat to his right. Stella told me I should always sit to my man’s right. It was a position of power, and it said something about my place in his life. It gave the saying 'his right-hand man' some weight. I wanted to be Matt’s right-hand woman.

“I helped cook.” Stella showed me how to make her sauce from tomatoes and spices. She gave me her secret meatball recipe. She told me the key was to make sure the balls weren’t rolled too tightly, otherwise, the sauce couldn’t season them.

Matt served me first and then put a healthy mound on his plate. “I’m impressed.”

“Don’t be until you taste it. It could be crap.” I spun my fork around until it was circled in spaghetti.

He took a bite, and his eyes opened wide. He smiled and nodded. “So good.”

I beamed at his praise. Never had I nailed something the first try, but after my bite, I agreed. This was damn good pasta.

“How did the meeting go?”

“It was crap. He wants the casino in exchange for you.”

I gasped. “You told him no, right? I’m not worth that much. I’m worthless, actually.” My chin fell. “At least when I was Yuri’s daughter, I had the power of the Petrenko name behind me. Now I don’t know who I am. I could be the gardener's kid, for all I know.”

“Isn’t your gardener Hispanic?”

I laughed. “No, he’s Japanese.”

He looked at my distinctive European features. “You’re definitely not his daughter.”

“Probably not. About the casino…”

“While I believe you are worth far more than Old Money Casino, I did not barter my family legacy for you. I will figure out a way for us to be together.”

“Okay, but it has to be a way that doesn’t involve murder or an Elvis Presley wedding.”

He offered me his hand in a shake. “That’s a deal.”

We finished our dinner and took the bottle of wine to the living room.

“I love your place. It’s so big and open and airy.” I’d had plenty of time to explore. I’d even sat at his desk for an hour today, hoping to get a glimpse of him in one of the monitors, but I never did.

“It’s a great place. I’m not sure it’s my forever place. Why my father wanted to work and live here is beyond me. I imagine he left the house so he wasn’t haunted by memories of my mom.”

“Did you sell the house?”

“No, we gave it to Rafe. I got the apartment and run the casino. Alex is in charge of the property development company, and Rafe will keep us out of trouble when he gets back.”

Matt sat on the leather sofa and patted the cushion next to him. I happily snuggled into his side. I felt vulnerable and raw, but when he was near, I was safe.

“Where is he?”

“With all the stuff going down and Yuri putting the hit on me, we thought it was a good idea if he took a vacation. He’s waiting on his bar exam results but should be back with a tan in a week or so.”

“I’m sorry my family has caused you so many problems.”

He set his wine glass down and pulled me into his lap. “You have nothing to do with it. You’re an innocent bystander.”

I laid my head on his shoulder. “I’m not always that innocent.”

“I like your bad side. You’re like one of those German chocolate eggs. You break it open and never know what surprise you’ll find inside.”

“Speaking of surprises, I still can’t believe how much my life has changed since yesterday. What’s worse is, Yuri hasn’t come looking for me. That worries me.”

“Yuri is a problem, but he’ll be taken care of. Do you have your mother’s journal?”

It never occurred to me to bring it with me. Not that I could have maneuvered down the trellis with it tucked under my chin anyway, but I could have tossed it to the lawn and got it when I climbed down. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

“No, it’s in my room.”

“Damn,” the gruff word rumbled in his chest. “That was the smoking gun.”

“It didn’t say much of anything. All it did was spark a lot of questions.”

Matt sat forward to get his wine, and I reluctantly moved off his chest.

“That’s what we need. While the crime is too old to prosecute, we could get Agent Holt to use it as a way to get nosy, and hopefully, he’d find something else while he was snooping around.”

While I didn’t want to go back to the house, I would if I had to. “I’ll go get it.”

Matt tabled his wine and gripped my shoulders. “No, you won’t. I don’t want you anywhere near Sergei or Yuri. Neither one of them cares about you, but they will both use you.”

I moved to the edge of the sofa and turned toward him. “I’m no longer worth anything to them. Did you tell Sergei that I wasn’t Yuri’s daughter?”

He nodded. “He still expects to marry you because I believe like he does that’s what Yuri told you in the heat of anger, but he doesn’t want anyone else to know. If he thinks like my father did, he’ll kill anyone who does to save face.”

I laughed. “He’d have a hell of a time killing Sergei. Men surround him all the time. I swear Timur is stuck to his hip. He’s never more than a few feet away. Then there’s you. If killing all who know is his plan, he’ll try to kill you again.” A tear slipped from my eye.

“He won’t kill me. I’m like a cat, and I’ve only used a few lives so far. Don’t worry.”

Matt lifted me to straddle his lap. He leaned forward to lick the tear from my cheek. A delicious shudder ran down my spine. I shimmied forward so our hips touched and his length sat trapped hard and needy between us.

His hands skimmed my body from hips to back. Nimble fingers unzipped the back of my dress and let it fall off my shoulders.

“Why are we talking about Yuri when we can be making love?”

With his hands cupping my breasts, I couldn’t think of one reason to discuss Yuri. I loosened his tie, unbuttoned his shirt and let my fingertips dance across his chest. Up and down, I memorized every hill and valley of muscle that made up the man I loved. I shifted away until I could slide to the floor in front of him.

Heavy lidded, his long lashes sat on his cheeks while I unbuckled, unbuttoned and unzipped his pants. When I pulled his length free and wrapped my lips around him, his body turned to butter on the soft leather sofa.

His gruff voice began to hum with the sounds of satisfaction as I took him inside the heat of my mouth.

“Perfect. So damn perfect,” he said as his fingers threaded through my hair. He never once demanded I change the depth or pace. He enjoyed what I gave him without taking anything. It was such an odd concept for me. I’d never been given the option to give freely.

His body tensed. The muscles of his thighs tightened. In a swift move, he pulled me up and lifted us both from the couch. With my legs wrapped around his waist, he carried us to the bed, and within minutes I was naked and he was inside of me. Only this time it wasn’t desperate, but slow and steady and purposeful.

I knew once again that every stroke was a message to my mind, body, and soul that I belonged to him.

When we lay sated and sweaty in each other’s arms, I knew no other truth. While I never wanted to be given away like a piece of property, I was happy to give myself to Matt.

When his breathing became deep and steady, I slipped from the bed. In the dark of the night, I cleaned up the kitchen and tried to figure out a way to sneak back into the house without risking my life or limb.

In the early morning hours, I crawled back into bed and curled into the body of the only man who tried to protect me.

The days passed in a blur. The closer my wedding day got, the deeper the lines on Matt’s face drew. I knew things were tense by the number of men who showed up to guard the floor we stayed on. Matt used to have only Sam, but now there were guards everywhere. They seemed to come out of the woodwork with each passing day.

When I walked into the kitchen, I found Matt on the phone. He didn’t notice my presence, so I stopped to listen.

“Hey Alex, I wanted to tell you we got robbed last night.”

My hand came to my mouth to stifle a gasp. I pulled out of sight completely because I knew if Matt saw me, he’d end the call, and I wanted more information.

“It was Yuri.”

My fists knotted up. If the man was in front of me, I’d kill him without a second thought to anything.

“I know it was him because he left an itemized bill at the cage where his men took the precise amount of $86,732.00. He’s charged me $5000 a day for the company of Katya and took back the money I donated in his name to charity, which was $15,000 plus additional interest he thought fair.”

What man sells his daughter for $5000 a day? Then I remembered I wasn’t his daughter, but a piece of property he’d been bartering with all my life. This had to stop. Somehow, I’d find a way out so I could get the journal. Tonight was the night. Being in the penthouse, there wasn’t a trellis for me to slip down, so I had to get creative.

I made some noise as I turned the corner into the kitchen. Matt swung around to look at me. Though his forehead was marred with the lines of worry, his downturned lips lifted into a bright smile.

“I’ve got to go.” He ended the call and wrapped his arms around me.

“Who was that?” I breathed him into my lungs. In case things didn’t go as I planned tonight, I’d need to have something to remember. I loved the way his skin tasted like sugar and smelled like citrus.

“It was Alex. We were going over the financials.”

“You don’t have to lie to me. I realize me being here has put you all at risk.”

Matt stepped back. “You being here has been the best thing to happen to me.”

“You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me too. I love you, Matt. I want you to know that in case things get ugly.”

He cupped my face and pressed his lips to mine. “You love me?” he asked as he pulled away.

“Yes, I think I’ve loved you since I was a little girl and you rode that black pony at my party. I told my mom that day you’d be my prince. She laughed at me. She knew that was going to be impossible. At that time, I didn’t understand anything about our life.”

“Nothing is impossible, sweetheart. You have to want it enough. You have to be willing to risk everything to get what’s important to you.”

I tenderly kissed him. “I am.” What he didn’t realize was, a few hours after we’d make love tonight, I’d sneak out of bed and go back into the lions' den to get what I needed to hopefully bury Yuri.

“Me too. I’ll do anything to keep you.”

That was what I was afraid of.

“How about room service and a movie?”

I ordered a ton of stuff I knew we wouldn’t eat, but that was part of my plan. Lot’s of stuff meant they’d roll in a table. A table that would also need to be rolled away, and if I was lucky, I’d be able to climb inside to make my escape.