Mia

“Finally,” I groaned, stretching my neck to work out the kinks that had developed over the past six hours. I wasn’t used to cutting it so close to a deadline, and I was incredibly relieved to be done at last. The passports were due to the Russians today, and missing a deadline for Maxim would be all kinds of bad. Nic dealt with them out of necessity, and I had no desire to fuck up the delicate balance between the two organizations. But in my defense, I’d been trying to find my equilibrium now that I had Christian in my life. He was a distraction I hadn’t planned on, and I’d found it beyond difficult to pull myself away from him for even just a few hours each day in order to work.

This morning, I’d resorted to waking up at the ass crack of dawn to slip out of the bed we’d been sharing at the hotel all week long. I would have much preferred cuddling against Christian’s chest and letting the sound of his heart lull me back to sleep, but desperate times called for desperate measures. If I hadn’t left while he was still sleeping, I never would have been able to drag myself away from him—a lesson I’d learned the three mornings prior and how I’d found myself falling so far behind in the first place. With the passports finally done, I just needed to hand them off to Nic and then I could shift my focus back to where I wanted it to be...on the relationship I was building with Christian.

With that goal in mind, I grabbed my phone and called Nic. “It’s done,” I said before he had the chance to say hello.

“Thank fuck,” he sighed.

I cringed at the relief in his tone because it was kind of warranted, but a quick glance at the time helped me feel less guilty since it reminded me that I could have cut it closer. “Have a little faith, why don’t you? We still have three hours before the deadline.”

“True,” he conceded. “But Maxim is antsy as fuck about this deal. He’s already checked in with me three times in the last twenty-four hours to confirm that we’d be ready.”

“If he wanted the damn passports so badly, he shouldn’t have given us until today to get them done,” I grumbled.

“A fact I made explicitly clear to him the last time he called.”

Oh, I bet he had. Nic didn’t take shit from anyone; not even the local head of the Bratva. “Feel free to put him out of his misery and let him know they’re ready for pick-up,” I huffed.

“Already done, even though I should have let the bastard suffer a little longer. It’s the least he deserves for doubting our ability to follow-through.”

“Alrighty then.” No matter that I was just as irritated, I refused to get into the middle of a pissing match between Nic and Maxim. Nothing good could come of it. “I guess I’d better hand the package off to you ASAP. Then I can hunt down some food before I wither away to nothing since I haven’t eaten a thing yet today.”

“I’m surprised your sister hasn’t forced anything down your throat yet,” he chuckled.

“If I’m not out the door to meet up with you soon, she will.”

“Meet me at Romano’s in an hour, and you can kill two birds with one stone. I’ll make sure you get lunch, and you can hand over what I need to get Maxim off my back.”

My stomach growled at the mention of one of my favorite restaurants. “I’ll be there,” I agreed.

It wasn’t like I would have said no even if Nic’s plan didn’t work for me. Nic was the head of the DeLuca family. He didn’t suggest. He ordered, and the rest of us followed. It had never bothered me before since he’d always been kind to me and hadn’t asked for anything I wasn’t willing to do. But as I hurried through my shower and got ready to meet him at Romano’s, I couldn’t help but wonder how much that might change with Christian in my life. I had someone else to answer to now—a man who’d made the choice to pursue a life outside the family while I’d done the exact opposite.

As I walked into Romano’s I forced those thoughts out of my head and offered the hostess a smile before I made my way to the corner booth where Nic was seated. I slid a large, manila envelope his way as I dropped onto the seat across from him. Taking notice of the wine chiller on the table, I raised my brow and jerked my chin towards it as I asked, “Did you order a bottle of bubbly to toast the mail order brides that are going to be the recipients of my artistic genius?”

“Of course not,” he scoffed, lifting his beer to take a swig. “Champagne lunches are only my style when my bellissima wife is with me.”

“Then who—” My words stuck in my throat when I spotted the six-foot-four tower of muscles headed our way. “Oh shit.”

“Although I expected to see a bottle of vodka instead,” he continued as though I hadn’t started to flip the fuck out.

I scooted around the booth while I hissed, “Nic, you didn’t mention that we were meeting with Maxim to do the exchange.”

“It hadn’t been decided while I was on the phone with you. Once he got my text, the Russian bastard called to let me know that he didn’t want to wait a minute longer than necessary.”

I banged my head against the table. “I’m so dead. He’s going to kill me.”

“You have trouble, little artist?” Maxim rumbled out. I lifted my head to find him standing next to the table glaring at Nic. “If he won’t take care of this for you, I would be happy to step in and offer my assistance.”

Nic’s beer bottle slammed down on the table, and I hurried to defuse the situation before it got out of hand. “Thank you for your offer, Maxim. It’s very kind of you, but I don’t have that kind of trouble. And if I did, Nic would absolutely make sure it was handled.”

“Of course I would,” Nic growled. “Mia is family and has my full support in anything she needs.”

“Just remember that for later,” I muttered, thinking about the difficult conversation I needed to have with him about the compromise I’d made with Christian—the one I’d already managed to inadvertently break with this lunch meeting.

“Then why does she bang her head and talk about being killed?” Maxim asked.

“Good question,” Nic replied as his attention shifted to me.

I circled my hand around to encompass the envelope and Maxim. “Christian isn’t going to be happy about this.”

“Ah.” The big Russian nodded as though that explained everything, reaching over to snag the passports. “Your man has no need to be jealous. One of these is for my bride.”

One of the forged passports I’d created was going to be used by a mail order bride for the local head of the Bratva. I bit my lip to stop nervous laughter from bubbling up. At least I could find humor in the fact that the odds were good that Maxim’s relationship was bound to be more interesting than mine. “Of course it is.”

“Speaking of my bride”—he stretched a muscular arm out to grab the bottle of champagne—“they shouldn’t have put this on ice since I planned to save it for her arrival.”

With a nod at both of us, he turned and walked away. As Nic and I watched Maxim walk out of the restaurant, a waiter stopped at our table and dropped off a basket of freshly baked bread. Since I was starving, I ordered an appetizer, salad, and entrée.

“You weren’t joking about being hungry,” Nic chuckled when the waiter hurried away.

I swallowed the piece of bread I’d shoved in my mouth before answering. “Nope. My stomach was just about ready to try to eat itself.”

Nic smirked at me with a knowing look in his eyes. “I’ll have to remind my cousin to let you out of bed long enough to eat.”

The silkily murmured words were a reminder of the news I needed to share with him. “About that,” I sighed. “I wasn’t kidding when I said Christian was going to kill me.”

“A week ago, I would have laughed at the idea of my staid cousin being angry enough to do bodily harm. But now that I’ve seen him cart you off over his shoulder, I guess I can believe it.”

“It’s not because he’d be jealous.” I thought about it a moment and corrected myself. “Although I guess that’s possible, too. But the reason he’s going to be pissed is because he was very specific about wanting me to never be a part of an exchange now that we’re involved.”

“I see,” Nic said, leaning forward and steepling his fingers together as he looked at me.

“He also wants me to back off on the projects I do for the family, limiting them to emergencies where you really need my skills,” I hurried to add, figuring it was better to get all of it out right away.

“And what about you, Mia? What do you want?”

“Excellent question, darling.” I almost yelped in surprise when Christian slid into the booth next to me and threw his arm over my shoulders. “One I’d like to hear the answer to as well since you snuck out of my bed this morning and disappeared all day.”

Well, shit. He already sounded irritated, and he didn’t even know about the exchange with Maxim.