The Tycoon's Toddler Surprise (13 page)

“Daddy!” Victoria’s voice cried out and she immediately wiggled off her chair and raced the two feet separating them, throwing herself against his legs and hugging them since that was all she could reach at the moment. 

Mikhail reached down and lifted her into his arms, hugging her and kissing her gently on her cheek.  “Good morning, sunshine.”

She kissed him right back, her little peck making his heart swell with pride and something else that was painful in how it overwhelmed him for a moment. 

“Who’s this?” the large,
gruff
man with out of control facial hair said as he stood up and moved closer to Kristen. 

Mikhail understood the silent message.  The crazy man actually thought he was protecting Kristen from him.  For a moment, he’d considered being kind.  But since this man was trying to lay claim to something Mikhail would never allow him to own, he had to step in and assert himself. 

Kristen
interrupted before he could reply.  “Bob, this is Mikhail.  He’s from
St.
Petersburg
originally. I don’t really know where I could say you live.  I guess New York most of the time?  Are you still there?”

“I still have a
penthouse
although not the one
we lived in, if that’s what you mean.”

Bob glanced between Kristen and himself, trying to figure out what was going on.  “
St.
Petersburg
, huh?  So you’re a native of our fair state?  I wouldn’t have thought so from the look about you
and that accent
.”

Mikhail’s cold, stony look moved from Kristen to Bob before he lifted an eyebrow slightly.  “St.
Petersburg
is currently in Russia, so no, I’m not a native of your area.”

Bob’s chest puffed up from the subtle
insult
.  “Sorry for the mistake.  Personally, I haven’t seen any reason to leave here.  Too much to do all year long.  Been ice fishing lately?” he said, his enthusiasm replacing the
possessiveness
.

“I
haven’t
had the honor of trying that…sport,” Mikhail replied, implying in a not
so subtle way that ice fishing sh
ouldn’t be considered a sport.

Bob immediately took the hint.  “
It’s
great, but I wouldn’t expect a
foreigner
to understand the
challenge
.  It takes a great deal of patience and understanding of the winter fish that might be out there.  Anglers really need to know how to go about
it
to be successful.”

Mikhail shrugged slightly before saying, “I guess I’ll just have to live with the regret of never knowing the satisfaction of ripping a starving animal out of
its
winter habitat so that I can spill it’s guts onto a well used wooden table and fry up the remains for dinner.”

Bob took up the gauntlet, actually taking a step forward.  Kristen stepped in front of him, stopping his forward momentum and placed a calming hand in the middle of his chest. 

“Bob, don’t let him get to you,”
she said in a soft voice.  “He’s just trying to be annoying,” she replied, glaring at Mikhail over her shoulder. 

Victoria put her pudgy hands on Mikhail’s cheeks, turning his attention to her.  “Daddy, if you want a cinnamon roll, you have to have fruit first.  That’s momma’s rule.”

Mikhail smothered a chuckle and glanced at Kristen, but unable to turn his face since his daughter wouldn’t allow it.  “Do you have any fruit I could eat?”

Bob was still trying to make sense of the situation.  “Kristen, who is this guy?  And why is he over here so early in the morning?”

She sighed as she considered different ways to explain Mikhail’s
presence
without
hurting
Bob’s
feelings.  “Mikhail is..” she started to say but Mikhail interrupted.

“I’m her husband.  So I think it’s more appropriate that I ask what you’re doing in my wife’s kitchen so early in the morning.”

Bob wasn’t about to back down, having staked his claim a long time ago and not willing to relinquish it to a man who just happened to show up in “his” woman’s kitchen 
“I come here a lot.  Early in the morning
or in the
evenings
,” he emphasized.  “I make them breakfast sometimes, or dinners when they’re around.  I fix anything in the house that might be broken and I watch out for the two little ladies.  Seems to me, I’ve got more cause to question a guy who hasn’t been around for so many years.”

“My daddy is very busy,” Victoria explained.  “
But
he’s here now and he’s going to be here all the time, just like all the other
daddies
.  He’s going to be here for dinner and breakfast and he’s going to watch my ballet and teach me to play baseball,” she smiled up at him, “
A
ren’t you?”

“That’s right,
sladkaya
,” he said, feeling excited at all the possibilities. 

Bob chewed on his mustache for a long moment, considering how to handle this news.  In the end, he decided a
tactical
retreat was best, for the moment.  “I can see that you have company,” he said to
Kri
st
e
n
.  “I’ll get out of your way but call me if you need anything.”  He picked up his coat, hat and gloves.  “
Anything at all and I’ll be here for you
.”

A moment later, he was gone, leaving behind the scent of cinnamon and pipe smoke.  A comforting scent, but not what really drove Kristen to distraction.  She wasn’t sure what it was about Mikhail that smelled so alluring, but whatever it was, it completely topped the smells of Bob. 

The door slamming brought her back to the present and she blinked, looking down at her hands.  One was clenched into a fist while the other was still holding the rapidly cooling cinnamon roll.  Looking up at Mikhail, she placed the plate carefully onto the table.  “That was completely unnecessary.  Bob is  a very nice gentleman.”

“I don’t care if he’s sainted by the Pope, I don’t like another man being in my wife’s house.”

“Bob is harmless.”

“No he’s not.”

“He’s just a good friend,” she said and pulled Victoria out of his arms, placing her on the floor.  “Run and get dressed, honey.  You have ballet class in an hour and we still need to do your hair.  Maybe your daddy would like to try that out, huh?” she said, in retribution for the jealousy.

Victoria grinned happily up at her father, completely oblivious to the adult undercurrents.  “Would you really daddy?”   She didn’t wait for a response but instead raced out of the room and into her bedroom to quickly change into her stockings and leotard. 

When she was gone, Mikhail turned back to face Kristen, leaning down towards her.  “Bob,” he said with disgust, “wants you almost as much as I do.  So don’t even try to convince me he’s harmless.”

“That’s ridiculous.  Bob has been coming over for breakfast or dinner ever since we moved in here after
Victoria’s
birth.  He’s never made any moves on me, nor indicated any intentions in that direction.”

“Then he’s a bigger idiot than I’d thought.”

She spun around and glared at him.  “He’s a very nice man who has been extremely helpful.  Unlike you, he’s been here when I needed him.”

“How could a man like that be helpful?”

“When I had a bad night with Victoria, Bob was here in the afternoons to give me a little extra sleeping time.  He fed her and played with her.  And he really does fix just about anything in the house that’s broken.  Can you do all that?”

“I’m here now.  Let’s not rehash the past with issues that I can’t change.  As for fixing things, I can damn well hire someone to fix anything you need, except for having sex with you, which is what Bob was really trying to get.  If you think otherwise, then you’re fooling yourself and are oblivious to that man’s looks.”

“He doesn’t look at me any differently than you do.”

“Exactly,
”
he said with emphasis.  “And I don’t want the man’s damn cinnamon roll,” he said, taking the plate and the rest that
were in
the pan and dumping them into the trash can.

“Why did you throw
them
out?  That’s good food!”

He sighed and put the pan and plate onto the counter.  “Kristen, you’ve got to stop thinking about money.  I’ve already transferred five hundred thousand dollars into your checking account and set up a trust fund for Victoria.  Neither one of you will ever need for money again.  You can quit your job
if you’d
like and I’ll set you up with a monthly allowance so you can do whatever the hell it is one does in this frigid state besides freeze one’s ass off.”

By the time he was finished she was shaking with anger at his assumption that he could simply dump money onto them. 
“
Take
your money back!  And I’m not quitting my job. 
It’s a ridiculous thing to even suggest since
I’m the boss.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean,
” she emphasized by poking him in the middle of his chest with each word, “
I was a good lawyer before we met and I’m a very good lawyer now.  I have my own law practice, set my own hours and make sure that I take only the clients that I can respect.”

“How did you set all that up while still raising our daughter?”

“I’m a very good lawyer and my boss from New York apparently was trying to buy favor with you by giving me a recommendation.  That allowed me to get some high profile clients initially.  I’m not swamped and working twenty hour days like I was in New York, but I do well enough.  We
don’t have a lot to throw away,”
she said, glancing down at
the wasted rolls in the trash, “
but we do well enough on our own.”

“Not anymore.  You’ll take my money because you can’t give it back,” he said softly, moving in closer.  “And I’m not asking permission to set up a fund for my daughter, which is
my right as her father to do
.  So is this,” he said, not giving her a chance to stop him before he swooped down,
capturing
her lips in a kiss that instantly curled her toes. 

Without knowing that she was doing it, her hands were around his neck, her fingers initially tangling in his hair before clenching fists o
f the short strands in her hands
in an effort to bring him closer, or not to let him move away, she wasn’t really sure and didn’t care.  All she cared about was gaining more.  More of his heat, more of his kiss, more of his taste. 

Mikhail drank of her kiss like a man in a desert.  He couldn’t get enough of her and it was just as good as it had been before.  Better, actually although he wasn’t sure how
that could be possible
.  All he knew was that the moment their lips touched, he was out of control with his need to have this woman.  He wanted her underneath him, writhing as his body covered hers, filled her and heard her cry out as he gave her release. 

When she shivered against him, his hands found the ties to the robe and undid the loose knot.  It took him several moments, but eventually his hands were able to work their way through multiple layers of clothing until he finally found bare skin.  When he finally did, he groaned into her mouth and deepened the kiss, demanding more, demanding she give in to him and give him everything she had. 

Kristen didn’t hesitate.  The demand was received and accepted.  She arched into him, needing to feel him against her just as much.  When she felt his hands on her stomach, she gasped and pressed her hips against his own, unknowing that she was now sitting on the counter with her thighs clenching his waist. 

She pressed harder, feeling her need deepen, her desire sky rocket as his erection pressed precisely where she needed it.  Kristen shifted slightly and moved her hand down to his waist, wanting him to move differently…

“Momma!  I can’t make it work,” Victoria said from the hallway.

Her daughter’s voice was like a bucket of cold water on both of them.  Kristen jumped off the counter, pushing Mikhail away while she scrambled to tie her robe back around her, ignoring the unbuttoned pajama top that had shifted with Mikhail’s hands.  She couldn’t immediately find her slippers, she bent down, hoping her search would hide her red cheeks.

“Momma, I need help,” Victoria said, stepping into the kitchen.

The site that Kristen beheld made her completely forget Mikhail in the background and she had to smother a chuckle as she waved her daughter closer.  “Come here, darling.  Let’s get you straightened out.”

Straightening out meant not laughing as she untangled her daughter from her leotard.  She’d gotten her stockings on.  Sort of.  They were on her legs at least.  But she’d tried putting her leotard on by starting upside down.  How Victoria had gotten her legs into the arm holes and both arms into one leg hole and still
be able to walk
was beyond Kristen’s ability to unpuzzle.