Alexandr's Reluctant Submissive (14 page)

Maks’ voice came from the doorway leading to the library off the foyer. “They are exiting the elevator now.”

He gripped Jessica’s hand, needing her support as he focused his considerable willpower on remaining calm. If he didn’t keep an iron grip on his control, he was bound to grab the little girl up the moment she walked through the door. Memories of placing his hand on Jessica’s rounded belly, on learning about her pregnancy, of planning their future together, rushed over him as he stared at the door, which had begun to open.

All he had was a glimpse of Krom’s large body before a streak with deep-red hair barreled past the man and shrieked, “Mommy!”

Jessica released his hand and crouched down to catch their daughter, who threw herself at her mother with a happy squeal. Tatiana’s face was hidden by her long, ember-dark hair as she hugged Jessica, and Alex’s heart thundered. A moment later she pulled back and Alex’s heart threatened to burst with love as he took in the features of his little girl. From her rosebud lips to her big gray Novikov eyes, she was the most beautiful child he’d ever seen. Chills raced down his spine and he had to swallow back the tears that wanted to escape as he looked at a miracle. While she didn’t share her mother’s freckles, Jessica’s ancestry was all over their daughter’s face, but he could see himself in her as well. She had his dimples and when she frowned, he recognized the stubborn jut of her little chin.

“Mommy, what happened to your hair?”

Looking self-conscious, Jessica laughed. “You don’t like it? I went to a beauty salon and had the color changed.”

The little girl frowned deeper. “Why?”

“Well, this is my real hair color. I used to make it brown because I thought it was pretty, but I thought it might be a nice change.”

Tatiana picked up a strand of Jessica’s hair then let it drop and smiled. “I like it. You look like Ariel.” Her eyes went wide and she bounced in place. “I flew on a plane with a bed for a long time and Krom sang me songs! He watched
Beauty and the Beast
with me four times, and by the end he could sing along with the
whole
movie.”

Jealousy spiked him at the openly admiring tone in his daughter’s voice for his friend, but he quickly squashed that feeling. Tatiana would need all of the protection she could get and if Krom loved her, nothing in the world would harm her. He looked over at his friend, biting back a surprised laugh at the sight of the big, menacing man clearly flushing.

Next to him stood a short, very curvy woman with deeply tanned skin like Gia’s and long black hair she had secured back in a French braid. She was pressing her lips together while looking at the floor, clearly holding back a laugh as she cupped her hands over her mouth in a fake cough.

Krom stiffened, then looked down at the woman with a glare that would have made some men piss themselves.

Alex was about to intervene when the busty woman looked up at Krom from beneath her lashes, then poked him in the ribs and whispered, “Oh, pull your panties out of your rear end and stop glaring at me. I promised I wouldn’t say a word, and I didn’t. You forgot that Tatiana was thrilled beyond belief when you sang to her, so of course she’d mention it to her mother. Despite the fact that you’re a D-I-C-K, she adores you, so stop pouting.”

“Gwen,” Jessica snapped. “That’s enough.”

Before Alex could get in a word, Gwen snapped back, “No, he
is
a—a you know what. And you would not believe the bull-puckey I’ve had to put up with while this Neanderthal ordered me around like he’s a sultan and I’m some seventh-century concubine who’ll bow and scrape to him like all of his peons.”

“Concubine? Peons?” Jessica asked in a faint voice, her expression wavering between amusement and exasperation.

Gwen seemed to ignore her question and looked up at Krom with narrowed eyes. “And I won’t even go into how damn bossy he is. I mean really, would it kill you to say please?”

An odd look came over Krom’s face when she put her hands on her hips and glared at him.

It took Alex a moment to realize one of the coldest bastards in the world was smiling.

He hadn’t seen his friend smile since Jessica’s death.

Maks stared as if he were seeing a ghost while Zoya blinked rapidly then rubbed her eyes. It only took a moment for Krom to realize they were all staring at him before the smile vanished like smoke and his normal blank face returned.

A soft little voice said, “Excuse me?”

He looked down and found his daughter peering curiously up at him and his heart skipped a beat. “Hello, Tatiana.”

Her little nose scrunched up and she gave him an expression he’d seen on her mother’s face hundreds of times. “You say my name funny, like Krom.”

Vaguely aware of his wife still arguing with the nanny while hugging Krom, he knelt before his daughter, his body aching to hold her. Even on one knee he was still taller than she was and he marveled at how someone so tiny could have such a big presence. He had no idea how big an almost-five-year-old girl would be, but to him she appeared petite and unbearably delicate. Her fingers were so little, and he marveled at her reddish-brown lashes.

Realizing that she was waiting for him to respond, he cleared his throat. “It is how you say your name in Russian.”

She tilted her head. “What’s your name?”

“Alexandr Novikov.”

He waited for some sign of recognition even when he knew there would be none. “Do you like movies?”

Jessica picked that moment to intervene, placing her hand gently on Tatiana’s shoulder. “Don’t answer that, it’s a trick question. If you say yes, she’ll guilt you into watching cartoons with her. If you say no, she’ll also guilt you into watching cartoons with her. Either way you’re doomed.”

Nothing in the world sounded better than sitting down with his family, watching a child’s show with them. “I would be honored to watch a movie with you, Tatiana.”

His daughter turned the full force of her big gray eyes on him and he knew in that instant that she did indeed have him wrapped securely around her tiny finger, just like Jessica had predicted. “Really? You’ll watch a movie with me?”

“Of course.”

The way Tatiana smiled at him filled him with a kind of love he’d never experienced, just as deep as his love for Jessica, but different. Hell, he’d give her the world if she kept looking at him like that. His own lips curved into a wide smile and he swore he could feel one of the bleeding wounds on his soul finally healing, leaving him almost whole.

“Later,” Jessica said in a firm voice. “Right now it’s late and I need to show you to your new room.”

Tatiana spun to face her mother. “I have a new room? But what about my old room?”

“You will have that as well,” Alex said in a soothing tone. Hell, he’d buy her whole neighborhood in Miami if it made her happy. “You will have both homes. Here, in Russia, and in America.”

He could see that some of what he said went over her head and Jessica clarified. “We’re going to be living with Alex, here in Russia.”

Tatiana’s brows drew down. “But I don’t want to live in Russia.”

His heart broke, but right away he began to plan how they could live in the United States at their old home in Miami. Jessica must have seen something on his face that tipped her off to his musing, because she rolled her eyes at him before looking back to their little girl. “We’ll worry about that later. Right now, I want you to see the room that your aunt Rya and Ms. Gia decorated for you.”

Tatiana followed her mother, her expression rapt. “I have an aunt? Like Gwen’s aunt Marisol?”

“Yes, but a little different. Your aunt Rya is much younger, but she’s just as nice.”

By this point they’d reached the top of the stairs where Zoya waited. She kept her gaze professionally distant, but the moment Tatiana passed her, a small smile curved the normally dour woman’s lips. Jessica chatted with their daughter about Rya, and also mentioned her uncle Dimitri. As soon as they opened the door to the little girl’s room, that conversation stopped as Tatiana let out a shriek. “Oh my goodness!”

Afraid that something was amiss, he rushed into the room, only to find Tatiana spinning around with her arms wide out in the center of the room, a huge smile lighting her face. Abruptly she stopped and ran to where a massive dollhouse sat in the corner, half-opened. The little girl let out a soft, almost cooing sound as she opened the dollhouse the rest of the way, revealing an interior decorated with tiny replica furniture of the highest quality. Dimitri had it specially made in record time, and had no doubt spent a fortune, but the end result of his daughter’s joy was worth any amount of money.

“Mommy, look! Everything is so pretty!”

“It is, isn’t it?” Jessica slipped her arm through Alex’s, then leaned up and gave him a gentle but lingering kiss on his lips.

A shocked gasp came from across the room and they both gave each other a guilty look before turning to face Tatiana, who was now staring at them. “Why did you kiss my mommy?”

All of the advice to take things slowly with Tatiana flew out the window when he replied, “Because I love her very much. We are married now, Tatiana. Do you know what that means?”

Jessica gave him a pissed look before her expression smoothed over and she went to the small green sofa beneath an oil painting of fairies cavorting in a summer field. “Sweetheart, come here.”

Giving Alex a suddenly shy glance, the little girl crawled onto her mother’s lap. Once there, her gaze darted to Alex, then back to Jessica. “You’re married? Like Gwen’s mama and papa?”

“Yes, honey,” Jessica said in a low voice, her free hand smoothing back their daughter’s hair from her little face. “Do you remember how I showed you pictures from Mommy’s wedding before you were born? The handsome man that Mommy was kissing while we danced was Alex.”

The little girl abruptly stilled and her eyes grew even wider. “Is he my papa?”

Jessica visibly trembled and tears filled her eyes, but she managed to blink them away. “Yes, he is.”

The little girl’s lower lip quivered and she hid her face against her mother’s chest. Right away, Jessica held their daughter close as Alex longed to do. It felt like the world was drowning in darkness as Tatiana began to cry. Fuck, he had totally screwed this up with his eagerness.

When Jessica shot him a hard look, he flinched and took a step back, intending to remove himself from the situation before he could do any further damage. Maybe it was best if he watched his daughter from afar until she was more comfortable in her new home. With his chest hurting like he’d been kicked in it, he took another step back, unable to tear his gaze away from the sight of his tiny little girl crying because of his selfish need to be her father in truth.

“Stop,” Jessica said in a firm voice, her watery gaze on him. Both he and Tatiana followed her order and stared at her. At that moment, she radiated the quite inner strength that all women had and he marveled at the way his daughter instantly calmed. “Tatiana, why are you crying? I can’t help you if I don’t understand what’s wrong.”

Reaching up, his daughter pulled Jessica down so she could whisper in her ear. His wife blinked in surprise, then placed a dozen kisses on the little girl’s head. “Of course he wants you, very much.”

“Where was he?” Tatiana rubbed her cheeks against her mother’s shirt, wetting it with her tears.

Alex desperately tried to remember what Jessica used as a cover story for his absence but before he could form some type of response, she answered for him. “Your father was doing some work that helped to save a lot of people’s lives. He couldn’t come home until it was done.”

“Like Batman?”

“Yes, kind of.”

“He’s a superhero?”

“He’s my superhero.”

Their whispered conversation lanced the festering wound of doubt trying to form and his tense muscles relaxed, sending both a physical and emotional relief through him.

Giving him another shy look, his daughter turned back to Jessica. “Does he have a cape? He shouldn’t, capes are dangerous.”

That odd comment startled a laugh out of him and he wondered if he translated her words correctly.

“No, honey, no capes.” Jessica gave him a small, mischievous smile and his relief deepened that she was no longer angry with him. “But he does have race cars, motorcycles, and even a jet.”

“Wow,” Tatiana breathed and turned all the way on Jessica’s lap to face him, her lips pursed while she carefully examined him. “Is he in disguise?”

“What?”

Tatiana flapped her hand in his direction, a perfect mimic of her mother’s gesture. “He isn’t wearing his superhero costume. He must be in disguise.”

Alex took a couple steps closer, then knelt at the other end of the couch, not wanting to crowd Tatiana’s personal space. An unexpected lightness filled him as he studied up close the beautiful results of his and Jessica’s love. He was wrong, Tatiana had a light smattering of freckles on her nose, but they were much paler than Jessica’s. It was like God took all the best parts of them both to create this perfect little girl, and his chest swelled with pride as he took in the beauty of his wife and daughter.

Leaning close, he lowered his voice, “You are right, Tatiana. I am in disguise. No one but you and your mother know who I am. Will you keep my secret?”

In many ways that was true, they got to see a side of him no one else did, a tender and caring side that most people who knew him would swear did not exist in his cold, dead heart.

But he wasn’t dead inside anymore and the strength of the emotions coursing through him were hard to process.

Looking around as if someone might be lurking in the corners of her bright and happy room, Tatiana whispered back, “Yes, I’ll keep your secret.”

A knock came from the door, interrupting their conversation.

Instantly the need to protect his family hardened his muscles in a rush of adrenaline. He stood and crossed the room, his mind already descending into the space where only actions mattered. There was a brief moment after he answered the door where he almost didn’t recognize Krom, but soon his thoughts cleared enough for him to really see the other man, and the silver tray he held.