Kathleen knew she was in for trouble as soon as her husband walked in. She knew her laughter at his expense in response to Logan’s ‘she likes you’ comment would come back to haunt her. But nothing could have prepared her for what he had in mind. He prowled toward her, disrobing as he approached the bed, leaving his clothes strewn haphazardly on the floor.

“What’s gotten into you?” she asked with a frown. The man was a neat freak. What the hell was going on?

He laughed as he unbuckled his belt and lowered his zipper. “No, this is all about what’s about to get into you. I want another baby.”

“Have you lost your damn mind?!”

Glazov reached out as he stood by the bed and twirled a lock of her flaming red hair around his finger. “You’re getting awfully bold in your older years.”

“My point exactly,” she retorted. “I’m too old to have any more babies.”

“No, you’re not. Women do it all the time. They often build their careers and wait to have children until they’re financially stable.”

“There are health risks with having children past forty-five.”

“You are in fine form, Ptichka. You have no reason to worry.” His eyes flared with carnal heat at the thought of making his wife pregnant again. With the last of his clothes forgotten on the floor, he loomed over her. His cock jutted out proudly, as if assuring her of its ability to put new life deep within her.

Kathleen jabbed a finger in his chest and scooted away from him. “Now, Glazov, that is enough. There will be no baby making around here.”

Grabbing her by the ankles, he yanked her toward him and her negligee bunched up around her waist. With a flick of his wrist, he ripped her panties from her body and began kissing his way up her inner thighs. “Whenever I’m not buried deep inside you, I crave you. I long for you more now than I did even in the beginning, and I never would have thought that possible. I can’t imagine life without you, can’t bear the thought of it.” He paused to look up at her, his cheek pressed against the soft skin of her thigh. “If I’ve never said thank you, I’m saying it now.”

“For what?” She searched his face for any hint of what he was talking about. She never knew what to expect from him, even after all the years they’d been married.

“For saving me. For knowing better than to try to change me. So many wives of ‘made men’ try to get them out of the game. I’m Born Bratva. This life is my destiny and you have never once tried to stop me from fulfilling it. You take me as I am.”

Kathleen reached down and stroked his hair. “It’s not my place to change you or anyone else. Thank you for saving me from a life of loneliness. All I had was my career and maybe that would have been enough if I’d never known better. But you gave me your heart and a family. I can’t say I’m not glad that you’re going somewhat legit. I don’t think we’ll ever go completely straight, but I’ll sleep better at night knowing you’re building our life around legitimate businesses.”

“We still have enemies. If it weren’t for Romina, I’d have killed Lucca for putting us at risk with his drug smuggling scheme.”

“She’s a marvel, isn’t she? There must be a special purpose for her in this life.”

“Our granddaughter is destined for greatness.”

She released his hair from its ponytail. As the long blonde strands slid over her thigh, she thought of how good the years had been to the man who had claimed her so completely decades earlier. If anyone could get away with having another baby at his age, it would surely be Glazov. She shook her head at him indulgently. “The grandbabies have given you baby fever. It’s normal. They say there’s a hormone released when women hold a baby, even puppies can trigger it. I’m sure it’s the same for men.”

“It would be nice to have another little girl.”

Kathleen laughed, “I don’t think the world could handle another Roksana. She’s more trouble than both our boys put together. That girl is a lot like her father, maybe even more so than the boys.”

He moved up her body, settled between her legs, and thrust deep, reveling in the initial blast of heat as her pussy wrapped around him like a glove. Their lovemaking was always new, never predictable, and this time their union was a heady combination of rough and tender.

“I love you so much it fucking hurts. I want all of you. Your mind, your will, your emotions, and yes, all the babies you can give me.”

“What? Babies? Babies?” she squeaked. “What do you mean – babies?!”

“Shhh,” he said as he sealed his lips over hers in a kiss that sent all coherent thought about multiple babies flying out of her head. “I love you, Ptichka…want you. You’re thinking too much. Don’t think, just feel. Feel how I want you.”

“But–”

“Enough,” he grunted. “I love you. Now, I need to fuck you.”

“I love you, too. You have me, all of me, you always have. Every day that passes I’m so happy that you claimed me as yours. Nothing was going to stop you from having me.”

“Nothing,” he hissed as he moved inside her.

“You were a man on a mission.”

“As I am now,” he said before claiming her mouth in a fevered kiss. He took her with confidence of a man who knew what his lover needed to send her over the edge, and he used every move in his playbook to get her there.

He kissed her neck to hide his smile as her body stiffened on a groan. She gasped his name and surrendered to the climax that overwhelmed her senses. He followed her over, roaring with satisfaction, feeling his cock swell and pulse as he found his release deep inside her.  

Bracing his weight on his muscular forearms moments later, Glazov lowered himself over her and kissed her breasts, licking and sucking gently. Then he cradled her face in his hands and simply looked at her. “Are you mad at me?”

“No…No, I’m not,” she said slowly, sounding amazed. “I thought I would be, but I’m not.”

She knew why he asked. She had stopped taking the birth control pill the previous year. In his eagerness to be inside her, there hadn’t been time to insert her diaphragm. As if reading her mind, Glazov smiled wickedly and slid farther down her body, placing a kiss just below her belly button. “Perhaps the Bratva gods have already seen fit to bless us with another child.”

“You’re a crazy man. You know that, right? And what’s with all this talk about the Bratva gods, today of all days? It’s Christmas, Glazov.”

“Mmmm, so it is. Merry Christmas, Ptichka.”

“Merry Christmas.”

Kathleen found the thought of another baby overwhelming, yet unexpectedly appealing. She couldn’t believe they were thinking about this much less discussing it like it was a possibility – and having sex like they were teenagers who didn’t have a care in the world.

Theirs was a dark world where uncertainty was an unwanted but unavoidable companion. The only light to pierce that perpetual darkness came from the home fires of family. Maybe that was what life was all about after all – the desire to keep the home fires burning bright and keep the darkness at bay.