Книга - Twin Heirs To His Throne

Twin Heirs To His Throne
Olivia Gates


Is the prince back for his twin babies…but not the love he left behind? Only from USA TODAY bestselling author Olivia Gates!After a passionate affair, Prince Leonid Voronov of Zorya disappears, leaving Kassandra Stavros with beautiful twin girls and a broken heart. Now Leonid is back, determined to be a father…and a king. But is claiming his children only a ploy for the throne? And why is he keeping Kassandra at arm’s length when his smouldering gaze still ignites her unstoppable passion?Kassandra remains Leonid’s only desire…and weakness. But he can’t let her near, or she'd discover his painful secret. He fears the truth would destroy them both…







It was too late.

She’d seen him. For the first time since she’d walked out of his hospital room. Twenty-six months ago. That had been the last time the world had seen Leonid, too. He’d dropped off the radar completely.

But he was back. Everywhere Kassandra turned there’d been news of him. She’d managed not to look. Until now.

Now her retinas burned with the image of him striding out of his Fifth Avenue headquarters. In spite of herself, she’d strained to see how much of the Leonid she’d known had survived.

The man she’d known had crackled with irrepressible vitality, a smile of whimsy and assurance always hovering on his lips and sparking in his eyes.

The man who’d filled the screen had appeared totally detached, as if he didn’t consider himself part of the world anymore. Or as if it was beneath his notice.

And the stalking swagger was gone. In its place was a deliberate, menacing prowl. Whether or not the changes were by-products of the impact of his accident, it had been clear, even in those fleeting moments on-screen:

This wasn’t the man she’d known.

* * *

Twin Heirs to His Throne is part of Mills & Boon Desire’s No. 1 bestselling series, Billionaires and Babies: Powerful men … wrapped around their babies’ little fingers.




Twin Heirs to His Throne

Olivia Gates







www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)


OLIVIA GATES has always pursued creative passions such as singing and handicrafts. She still does, but only one of her passions grew gratifying enough, consuming enough, to become an ongoing career—writing.

She is most fulfilled when she is creating worlds and conflicts for her characters, then exploring and untangling them bit by bit, sharing her protagonists’ every heart-wrenching heartache and hope, their every heart-pounding doubt and trial, until she leads them to an indisputably earned and gloriously satisfying happy ending.

When she’s not writing, she is a doctor, a wife to her own alpha male, and a mother to one brilliant girl and one demanding Angora cat. Visit Olivia at www.oliviagates.com (http://www.oliviagates.com).


Contents

Cover (#ube885728-31af-53b8-9980-36962eed116d)

Introduction (#u6d20ed62-d55a-5513-8111-b09288d0133c)

Title Page (#u87382974-c589-5820-be4d-9eeeb107b0e1)

About the Author (#u34ac534c-5bc5-545f-9c4d-267fb17d9bb8)

Prologue (#ulink_7355a5c3-baf2-51fa-9daf-be067fff3b40)

One (#ulink_dd8ba2d8-4da2-52d0-a286-c9da2057a92e)

Two (#ulink_0c0ecb68-cf25-5ae6-ba11-3a3b6a837bba)

Three (#ulink_38ca7094-f656-5fcd-8772-55350fa8c69b)

Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)


Prologue (#ulink_5ef2fc5b-07e1-588f-b764-5e58d04b43d4)

“Only family is allowed to visit Mr. Voronov, Ms. Stavros.”

“At least...”

The nurse cut Kassandra’s protest off, stonewalling her again. “Only family is allowed to learn information about his condition.”

“But...”

Refusing to give concessions they both knew she wasn’t allowed to grant, the nurse rushed away, dismissing her like everyone else had. For the past damned week. Since his accident.

The dread and desperation she’d been struggling to keep at bay rose until she felt her blood charring.

Leonid. Lying somewhere in this hospital, injured, out of reach, with her deprived of even knowing his condition. She wasn’t family. She was nothing to him, not to the rest of the world. Nobody knew of their yearlong affair.

With no one left to approach for information or reassurance, she staggered to the hectic waiting area of the highest-ranking New York City university hospital. The moment she slumped down on the first vacant seat, the tears she’d been forbidding herself to shed since she’d heard of his accident spilled right out of her soul.

Nothing could happen to him. Her vital, powerful Leonid. She couldn’t live without him, could barely remember her life before she’d first laid eyes on him three years ago.

That night, she’d been the star model and one of the top designers in a charity fashion show. As she’d walked out onto the catwalk, her gaze, which normally never focused on anyone in the audience, had been dragged toward a point at the end of the massive space. Then another unprecedented thing had happened. She’d almost stumbled, had stopped for endless, breathless moments, staring at him across the distance, overwhelmed by his sheer gorgeousness and presence.

Though tycoon gods populated her Greek-American family, and she moved in the circles of the megarich and powerful, Leonid was in a league of one. Not only was he a billionaire with a sports-brand empire, but a decathlon world champion...and royalty to boot. He was a prince of Zorya, a kingdom once part of the former Soviet Union, and annexed to Belarus since its disintegration. Though the kingdom hadn’t existed in over ninety years, he was still considered royalty in Asia and Europe—and sports and financial royalty in the rest of the world.

Not that any of these attributes had contributed to his being the only man to ever get her hot and flustered with a mere look. He’d continued to scorch her with such looks for two endless years as they’d moved in the same circles. But nothing had come of it. He’d never come closer than the minimum it had taken him to keep her inflamed and in suspense, until she’d believed that the lust she’d felt blasting from him had been wishful thinking on her part.

Then had come the wedding of one of her best friends, Caliope Sarantos, to Maksim Volkov in Russia. Leonid had been one of the groom’s guests. After every man but him had asked her to dance, frustrated out of her mind, she’d escaped outside to get some air. She’d found none when he’d followed her, at last, and taken away her breath completely.

She’d since relived those heart-pounding moments endless times, as he’d closed in on her, informing her that she could no longer run from him. Closing her eyes now, she could again feel his arms around her and his lips over hers as he’d dragged her into that kiss that had made her realize why she hadn’t ever let another near. Because she’d been waiting for him her whole life.

But before he’d taken her on what had turned out to be a magical roller-coaster ride, he’d made his intentions clear: nothing but passion and pleasure would be on offer. And Kassandra had been perfectly okay with that. At thirty, she’d never wanted to marry, and she’d long given up on meeting a man she could want, let alone that completely. Finding Leonid had added a totally unexpected and glorious dimension to her life. Having him free from expectations had been a sure path to ecstasy and a surefire guard against disappointment.

Being with him had exhilarated and satisfied her in ways she hadn’t known existed. They’d meshed in every way, met when their hectic schedules allowed, away from the world’s eyes, always starving for one another. Keeping their relationship secret from everyone, above all her conservative Greek family who’d long disapproved of her unconventional lifestyle, had made everything even more incendiary.

Then Leonid’s training for his upcoming championship had intensified, and between that and running his business empire, she’d seen less and less of him. Media scrutiny had made it impossible to even visit him while he’d trained.

That was when she’d realized she was no longer content with their status quo. But before she’d had time to ponder how to demand a change in the terms of their relationship, he’d had his accident.

From the media reports that had hailed him as a hero, she’d learned that a trailer had flown over the center divider of the I-95 heading into NYC, and into the incoming traffic. Before it had managed to pulverize a car carrying a father and his daughter, Leonid had smashed into their car’s side, ramming them out of the path of destruction. But the trailer had slammed into his car full force, catapulting his vehicle into a tumbling crash.

She’d almost fainted with horror at the sight of the crumpled wreck his car had become. It was a miracle he had come out alive.

Desperate to be by his side the moment she’d heard the news, the nightmare had only escalated when she hadn’t been able to determine where he’d been taken. Now that she’d finally found him, she’d again been denied any information. She was being treated like the stranger everyone thought she was. He was her lover. And the father of the baby she’d just yesterday found out she was carrying.

Suddenly, her heart boomed. Was that...?

Yes, yes it was. Ryan McFadden. Her old college friend who’d gone on to become a doctor. She’d seen him a couple of years ago, but he’d been working at another hospital at the time. Finding him here was a lifeline.

Before Ryan could express surprise at seeing her, she flung herself at him, begged him to let her see Leonid, or at least to let her know how he was.

Clearly used to dealing with frantic people, Ryan covered the hands clawing his arm. “I know that apart from his time in surgery, he’s been conscious since they brought him in.”

He was? And he hadn’t called her?

But what if... “C-can he talk?”

“Oh, yes. None of his injuries involved vital organs, thankfully.”

And he hadn’t left instructions to let her in, or to even let her know how he was?

At her deepening dismay, Ryan rushed on. “He was transferred to an exclusive wing with only his medical team allowed in, to guard against media infringement. But I’ll gain access to him. If he grants you permission to visit him...”

“He will.” She hugged him fervently. “Thank you.”

Giving her a bolstering grin, Ryan strode away.

After what felt like forever, he returned, giving her two thumbs up. She found herself flying to him, so he could take her to Leonid.

At the wing’s door, Ryan stopped her. “Listen, Kass, I know it’s hard for you to do in your current condition, but keep it light and short, for his sake.”

Nodding, she wiped away the tears that had gathered in her eyes again. “How...how bad are his injuries?”

“I don’t know details, but when he was brought in I heard he’d suffered compound fractures to both his legs.”

Her heart imploded all over again. His legs.

To anyone else, it would mean months of limited mobility. To Leonid, it meant his plans for a new world record were over, who knew for how long. Maybe he’d never heal enough to compete on that elite level again. When that was a major part of his being...

Stop it. She couldn’t consider worst-case scenarios. Ryan was right. She had to suppress her own anxiety. Leonid needed her support for the first time ever, and she was damned if she would fail him. Putting on a brave face, she opened the door.

He was the first thing she saw as she stepped into the exquisite suite. Only the bed with monitors surrounding it at its far end betrayed its presence in a medical facility.

Leonid, her beloved lion. He lay sprawled on his back, his perfect body swathed in a hospital gown, already diminished, both legs in full casts, arms limp at his sides, eyes closed. His almost shoulder-length hair lay tousled around a face that was unscathed, but his skin was drained of its normal vital bronze color.

Her heart lurched violently, as if to fling her across the room to him, catapulting her feet forward.

As she eagerly bent to kiss his clamped lips, he opened his eyes. Instead of the most vivid blue, they were almost black. And they slammed into her with the force of a shove. But it was what filled them that had her jackknifing up. Her nerves jangled; her balance wavered. She couldn’t be reading the aversion in his expression correctly.

But what gripped his face didn’t look like pain, or the effect of a drug. There was no distress or fogginess in his eyes, just clarity and...emptiness.

Telling herself it was an expected by-product of everything he’d gone through, she reached for his hand, suppressed a shudder at how cold it was. “Leonid, darling...”

He tugged his hand away, harder than necessary, from her trembling hold. “I’m fine.”

Reminding herself that what she felt didn’t matter, that only he did, she forced a smile. “You do look...”

His glacial look stopped her flimsy lie in its tracks. “I know how I look. But I am fine, considering.” A beat. “I hear you kicked up quite a commotion trying to get to me.”

He knew? And he hadn’t told them to let her in earlier?

His expression became even more inanimate as he looked away. “I kept hoping you’d give up and just leave.”

Her throat squeezed, making it nearly impossible to breathe. “I—I realize how you must feel. But there will be other championships...”

He cut her off again. “I’m sick of people placating me.”

Telling herself he needed her nearness even if his current mood made him pretend he didn’t, she sat down and caressed his corded forearm, trying to infuse him with her strength and let their connection bolster him. “I’m not ‘people,’ Leonid. I’m your woman, your lover, and you’re my...”

His gaze swung to hers, this time filled with frost. “You’re free to consider yourself whatever you want, but I’m certainly not your anything.”

The lump in her throat grew spikes. But still convinced it was his ordeal talking, she tried again. “Leonid, darling...”

He shook off her hand, his face twisting in a snarl. “Don’t you dare ‘darling’ me. I made my terms clear from the start. The only reason I was with you was because I thought you agreed to them.”

Shocked out of her wits at his viciousness, she again told herself she must have gravely underestimated the effects of his injuries and near-death experience, that it was better to withdraw now, before he got even more worked up.

She stood up carefully so she wouldn’t sway. “I only wanted to know you’re okay... I shouldn’t have disturbed you...”

“No, you shouldn’t have. But now I’m glad you did.”

“Y-you are?”

“That’s the one good thing that’s come out of this mess. It’s giving me the chance to do what I’ve been trying to do.”

Her heart decelerated, as if afraid to beat and let his meaning sink in. “What have you been trying to do?”

“I’ve been trying to end this.”

Her heart stopped. “This? You mean...us?”

His stone-cold gaze slammed into her, compromising what was left of her balance. “There was never an ‘us.’ I thought we had an arrangement for sexual recreation, to unwind from the stresses of the pursuits that matter in our lives. But you were only pretending to abide by my terms, until I was softened enough, or maybe weakened enough, as you must believe I am now, to change the terms to what you wanted all along, weren’t you? You’re just another status-hunting, biological-clock-ticking woman after all, aren’t you?”

Unable to breathe, she flinched away. “Please...stop...”

He pushed a button that brought him to a seated position, as if to pursue her to drive his point through her heart. “I’m not stopping until this is over, once and for all. I grabbed the opportunity of training to break it off with you naturally, but you only escalated your pursuit. And now that you think me a sitting duck, you’re here to pin me down? To smother me with solicitude at my lowest ebb? You think you’ll make me so grateful I’ll end up offering you a commitment?”

She shook her head, shook all over, the tears she’d suppressed burning from her depths again. “You know it was never like that. Please, just calm down...”

“So now you want to make it look as if I’m raving and ranting? But you’re right. I’m not calm. I’m fed up. What else can I do so you’ll understand I can’t bear your suffocating sweetness anymore?”

Shock seeping deeper into her marrow, she staggered back to escape his mutilating barrage. “Please...enough... I’ll leave...”

“And you won’t return. Ever.”

His icy savagery shredded her insides. It was as if the man she loved had never existed. As if the accident had only revealed the real him, someone who relished employing cruelty to get rid of what he considered a nuisance.

She’d swayed halfway to the door before she stopped.

She couldn’t bear telling him. It would only validate his accusations. But he had to know.

Teetering around, she met the baleful bleakness of his stare, and forced the admission out. “I—I’m pregnant.”

Something spiked in his gaze before his thick lashes lowered, and he seemed to be contemplating something horrific.

At length, demeanor emptied of all expression, he raised his gaze to her. “Are you considering keeping it?”

Her world tilted. The Leonid she’d known would have never asked this. The real Leonid did because it was clear he’d rather she didn’t.

Trying to postpone falling apart until she walked out, she choked, “I only told you because I thought you had a right to know. I guess you would have rather not known.”

“Answer me.”

The remaining notches of her control slipped. “Why are you asking?” she cried. “You made it clear you care nothing about what I do or about me at all.”

He held her gaze, the nothingness in his eyes engulfing her.

Then he just said, “I don’t.”


One (#ulink_37e1b3c0-7ad1-58ab-a557-533ce953c34b)

Two years later...

“After his disappearance from public view over two years ago, Prince Leonid Voronov is back in the spotlight. The former decathlon world champion dropped off the radar after suffering injuries in a car crash that took him off the competitive circuits. Now the billionaire founder and CEO of Sud, named after the Slavic god of destiny and glory, one of the largest multinational corporations of sports apparel, equipment, accessories and services, could be poised to become much more. As one of three contenders for the resurrected throne of Zorya, a nation now in the final stages of seceding from Belarus, he could soon become king. With our field reporter on the scene as the former sports royalty and possible future king exited his New York headquarters...”

Kassandra fumbled for the remote, pushing every button before she managed to turn off the TV just as Leonid appeared on the screen.

But it was too late. She’d seen him. For the first time since she’d walked out of his hospital room twenty-six months ago. That had been the last time the world had seen him, too. He’d dropped off the radar completely ever since.

But he was back. Reentering the world yesterday like a meteor, making everyone gape in wonder as he hurtled out of nothingness, burning brighter than ever.

Everywhere she’d turned in the past twenty-four hours there’d been news of him. She’d avoided getting swept up in the tide of the world’s curiosity about his reappearance, at least outwardly. Until now.

Now her retinas burned with the image of him striding out of his imposing Fifth Avenue headquarters. In spite of herself, she’d strained to see how much of the Leonid she’d known had survived his abrupt retirement from his life’s passion.

The man she’d known had been crackling with vitality, a smile of whimsy and assurance always hovering on his lips and sparkling in the depths of his eyes. He’d perpetually looked aware of everything and everyone surrounding him, always connected and tapping in to the fabric of energy that made the world. She’d always felt as if he was always ready to break out in a run and overtake everyone as easily as he breathed. Which he’d literally done for eight years straight.

The man who’d filled the screen had appeared to be totally detached, as if he no longer was part of the world anymore. Or as if it was beneath his notice.

And there’d been another change. The stalking swagger was gone. In its place was a deliberate, almost menacing prowl. Whether this and the other changes she’d observed were sequels of the physical or psychological impact of his accident, one thing was clear, even in those fleeting moments.

This wasn’t the man she’d known.

Or rather, the man she’d thought she’d known.

She’d long faced the fact that she’d known nothing of him. Not before she’d been with him, or while they’d been together, or after he’d shoved her away and vanished.

For most of that time, Kassandra had withdrawn from the world, too. After the shock of his rejection, she’d drowned in despondence as its implications and those of her pregnancy had sunk in. She’d been pathetic enough to be literally sick with worry about him, to pine for him until she’d wasted away. Until she’d almost miscarried.

That scare had finally jolted her to the one reality she’d been certain of. That she’d wanted that baby with everything in her and would never risk losing it. That day at the doctor’s, she’d found out she wasn’t carrying one baby, but two.

After the scare and the discovery, she’d forced everything into perspective, then had even progressed to consider what had happened a blessing. Before Leonid, she’d never thought she’d get married. She’d never considered marriage an option between them, not even when she’d wanted to demand a change in their arrangement. But she’d always wanted to be a mother. Especially after her best friends, Selene, Caliope and Naomi, had had their children. She’d known she wanted what they had, that she’d be good at it, that it would complete her life.

As he’d said, one good thing had come out of that mess. She would be a mother without the complication of having a man around.

Not that it had been smooth sailing. Being pregnant and alone after the unbearable emotional injury of his rejection had been the hardest thing she’d ever gone through. Her family hadn’t made it any easier. Their first reactions had ranged from mortification to outrage. Her mother had lamented that she’d deprived her of the traditional Greek wedding she’d planned for her from childhood, while her father had swung between wrathfully demanding the name of the bastard who’d impregnated and abandoned her to forbidding her to have a baby out of wedlock. Her siblings and other relatives had had a combination of both reactions to varying degrees, even those who’d tried to be progressive and supportive.

The only ones who’d been fully behind her from day one had been her trio of close friends. Not only had they always been there for her and vice versa, no questions asked, they’d once been in her situation. Even if their stories had progressed toward ecstatic endings.

But when her family realized the price for any negative stance would be never seeing her again, they’d relented. Their disappointment and misgivings had gradually melted, especially her parents’, giving way to full involvement in her pregnancy and the preparation for her delivery. After the twins had arrived, they’d become everyone’s favorites and considered to be the best thing that had ever happened to Kassandra. Everything had worked out for the best.

She’d reclaimed herself and her stability, had become even more successful career-wise, but most important she’d become a mother to two perfect daughters. Eva and Zoya. She’d given them both names meaning life, as they’d given her new life.

Then Zorya had suddenly filled the news with a declaration of its intention to reinstate the monarchy. With every rapid development, foreboding had filled her. Even when she’d had no reason to think it would make Leonid resurface.

It seemed her instincts had been correct, for here he was, back on the scene with a vengeance. In one day, he’d taken the world by storm, a mystic figure rising from the ashes of oblivion like a phoenix.

Leonid’s disappearance had been the one thing left unresolved inside her. Everything she’d ever felt for or because of him had long dissipated. But wondering where he’d gone and what he’d been up to had lingered. Now explanations would be unearthed and any remaining mystique surrounding him would be gone, so she could once again resume her comforting routines, untouched by his disruption.

Leonid was a page that hadn’t only been turned, but burned.

“Mama.”

The tension clamping her every muscle suddenly drained at the chirping call of her eldest-by-minutes daughter, Eva. The girls had started calling her Mama two months ago. She hadn’t thought it would be that big of a deal. But every time they said it, which was often now that they knew it activated her like nothing else, another surge of sheer love and indulgence flooded her. Her lips spread with delight as she strode through her spacious, cheerfully decorated Bel Air house to their room.

It had been like this for months. Eva and Zoya always woke up an hour after she put them to bed. It was as if they loathed wasting precious playtime sleeping, or thought they shouldn’t leave her alone. But since she’d gone back to work after their first birthday almost six months ago, and they spent mornings with Kyria Despina, her late uncle’s wife and now her nanny, she welcomed the extra time with them.

As she approached the nursery, she could hear the girls’ efforts to climb out of their cribs through the ajar door. They were able to do it after a few trials now, but would soon be experts at it. She debated whether to go in or to let them complete their task and toddle their way to her in their playroom, as she’d been doing lately. It was why she’d been leaving the door ajar. She had childproofed every inch of her home six thousand ways from Sunday after all.

Moments passed and neither toddler showed up at the end of the corridor. Heart booming with the always-hovering anxiety she’d learned was a permanent side effect of motherhood, she streaked inside and found both girls standing in their crib, literally asleep on their feet.

The tenacious tots were obeying their regular programming even though their strenuously fun weekend at Disneyland had left them wiped out.

Scooping them up, she held one in each arm in the way she’d perfected, cooing to them, letting them know as they nestled into her and made those sweet sleep sounds that she’d come, as she always would, that they hadn’t missed that extra time with her they’d wanted.

Once she laid them down again, each turned to her favorite position and resumed a deep, contented sleep.

Sighing at that tremor of acute love and gratitude coursing through her, she walked out, closing the door completely now that she knew they were down for the night.

The moment she exited the room, the doorbell rang.

Frowning, she remembered that the girls’ play pals, Judy and Mikey, had again left behind some toys she’d found only after a thorough tidying up. It had become a ritual for Sara, their mother and her neighbor, to come by and collect her children’s articles after she’d put them to bed. They usually ended up having a cup of tea to unwind together after their hectic days.

Rushing to the door, she opened it with a ready smile. “We should establish rules about allowing only in-house toys...”

Air clogged her lungs. All her nerves fired, short-circuiting her every muscle, especially her heart.

Leonid.

Right there. On her doorstep.

She’d visualized this encounter countless times in waking trances and suffocating dreams. The perverse yearning had risen time and again for him to show up, look down at her from his prodigious height with eyes full of all he’d deprived her of, and tell her everything that had happened since his accident had been a terrible dream. She’d hoped for it until hope had turned to ashes.

And now...out of the blue, he was here...

Oh, God! He is really here.

Almost unrecognizable. Yet distressingly the same.

Observations accumulated in the white noise that filled her mind, burying her. The most obvious change was his hair. The silk that had been long enough to wind around her hands in the throes of passion was now severely cropped. It still suited him. It actually suited him better, accentuating the dominance of his bone structure.

The other major difference was his body. It hadn’t been a distortion of the video or his size relative to others. He was bigger. Broader. More heavily muscled. The leanness of the runner had been replaced by the bulk of a supreme fitness athlete.

His every feature and nuance, familiar yet radically different, felt like a knife to the heart.

But on the whole, he looked as if everything human about him had melted away, revealing a creature of polished steel beneath. Even the way he held himself seemed...inhuman. As if he was now a being of pure intellect and purpose, like a cyborg, an animate form of artificial intelligence.

An hour could have passed as she gaped up at him and he stared blankly down at her. He’d always had that power. Time had always distorted when she’d entered his orbit.

“Invite me in, Kassandra.”

His bottomless voice yanked her out of the stupor she’d stumbled in.

“I will do no such thing.”

“Your porch isn’t the place for what I’ve come to say.”

Her mouth dropped open at his audacity. That he could just appear on her doorstep after what he’d done to her, and without even an attempt at apology or even civility, not only demand but expect to be invited in.

“There’s no place where you can say anything to me. We have absolutely nothing to say to each other.”

“After the past two years, we have plenty.”

“The past two years are exactly why there’s nothing to be said. Even if there was, I’m not interested in hearing it.”

His eyes gave her a clinical sweep, as if assessing her response for veracity and judging it to be false. It made her loathe her weakness for him all over again.

“I don’t know what you were thinking coming here like this, what you expected, but if...”

“If you’re still angry, we can discuss that, too.”

If? If?

“Are you sure you broke only your legs in that accident? Sounds as if you’d pulverized way more. Like the components that made you human.”

“I do realize showing up here must have surprised you...”

“Try appalled and outraged.”

He shifted, like the automaton she’d just accused him of becoming, as if moving into a different gear to counter her response. “That’s why I showed up. I gathered if I called ahead, you would have been just as resistant to granting me an audience. So I decided to eliminate unnecessary steps.”

“And this single step turned out to be as pointless. I’m not granting you an audience since we have zero things to discuss, so you might as well save us both the aggravation and go disappear again. Preferably forever this time.”

“If you’re concerned I might be here to exhume the past, rest assured I have no wish to resurrect anything between us. I’m not here for you at all. I’m here for my daughters.”

Every word sank into her mind like a depth mine. Then the last ones exploded.

I’m here for my daughters.

My daughters.

The rage that detonated inside her, that he would dare say this, or even think it, almost rocked her on her feet.

Biting a tongue that had gone numb with fury, she gritted out, “Leave. Right this second.”

Unperturbed, he gave a nonchalant shrug of his daunting shoulder. “I will leave after I’ve said what I came to say and when we’ve come to a preliminary understanding. Whether you approve or not, I am the father of your twin daughters, and I am here to—”

Red smeared her vision. “You won’t be here much longer or I’m calling the police.”

His searing blue gaze remained still, his pupils unmoving, indicating he had no emotional response to her threat and agitation. “I would advise against this. It would disrupt your neighborhood and bring you unneeded speculation and embarrassment. Not to mention you’d have to lie to the police to make them take action against me...”

“I won’t be lying when I say you’re here uninvited, harassing me and making fraudulent claims to my daughters.”

“They’re my daughters, too.”

“Not according to the law, they’re not. Nor to them or to the whole world. Any passing stranger they’ve ever briefly met is more to them than you are.”

His formidable head inclined in agreement. “I know that being their biological father on its own means nothing. That’s why I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere until I say my piece or until you indicate your willingness to negotiate further.”

“What the hell do you mean, negotiate?”

“Over the twins, of course.”

She gaped, unable to voice any of the million violent protests ricocheting in her skull and boiling her blood.

“Before you blast me off the face of the earth, I remind you that as their biological father, I do have a right to—”

“You have absolutely no right to Eva and Zoya. None. You relinquished any right to even think of them as yours way before they were born. You made it clear you didn’t even want them to be born. You may have forgotten this, but I remember all too well.”

“I freely admit I behaved extremely...inappropriately when you came to me after my accident. You can understand I was at my worst at the time.”

“And you remained there for over two years?”

“I’m the first to admit it took me longer than acceptable to deal with everything.”

Rage deepening at his dismissal of his abandonment of her, she seethed, “I care nothing about why you did what you did, and I’ll be damned if I let you pretend it was forgivable and invade my life again. You’re sure as hell never coming near my daughters.”

“I’m not here seeking forgiveness. I don’t waste my time, and I certainly won’t waste yours pursuing the unattainable. But I’m here to acknowledge my responsibilities. Whatever I’ve done, I’m myself again.”

“If you think that makes it any better, let me disabuse you of that notion. Being yourself is proof you know nothing of responsibility or accountability or even common courtesy and basic humanity.”

Instead of stonewalling her again, he just nodded impassively. “You’re right. My old self was nothing to be proud of. But the past couple of years changed me, and the man I am today is capable of at least being fully responsible and accountable, and resolved to take on his duties.”

“Good for ‘him.’ And as long as ‘he’ takes his resolutions away from my family, I wish ‘him’ the best of luck.”

“The thing is, your family is also mine. The twins are the primary duty I’m determined to take on.”

She fought harder against the screams gathering at the back of her throat. “That would have been a commendable sentiment if they needed anything from you. Which they don’t. And they never will. You’ve done your part and can now feel proud of yourself when you leave and never come back.”

His azure gaze remained unwavering. “I do understand your alarm and rejection. But even if the past was rife with pain, I’m certain everything happened for a reason. Why else would I have twin girls, and now be called on to take the mantle of responsibility in the land of the twin goddesses?”

This made zero sense to her, leaving her speechless again.

Realizing she had no ready comeback, he straightened even more, seeming to grow bigger, more rigid and imposing. “I won’t push for this audience tonight. I’ll give you some time. Not long but enough to let it all sink in.”

And a croak finally escaped her. “Let what sink in?”

“The fact that I am back to stay. That nothing will stop me from claiming my throne, and my heirs.”


Two (#ulink_039dfc0f-7382-5594-8283-450bc3695e3f)

Kassandra’s entranced gaze followed Leonid as he descended the stairs of her porch, then crossed her driveway in measured strides to his parked car, a gleaming black Jaguar that looked like an extension of him.

Without looking back, he got in and drove away slowly, almost soundlessly. After the car disappeared, she remained staring at the void it had left, her mind a debris field in the wake of the havoc he’d wreaked.

Had he really been here? Or had she conjured him after seeing him earlier in that news spot? Had it all been a dream, a nightmare?

But if it had been, why couldn’t she wake up, as she always did whenever his phantasm came to suffocate her at night? As much as she would have preferred an actual breakdown to him being here, she knew. He had been here. And he would be back. His last words rang in her ears in an unending loop.

Nothing will stop me from claiming my throne, and my heirs.

Legs trembling with futile rage and incipient dread, she closed the door. But it was no use. She didn’t feel she’d successfully shut him out, or that she was safe anymore inside her home.

As she shakily made her way inside, one thing he’d said buzzed into her brain like an electric drill.

Why else would I have twin girls, and now be called on to take the mantle of responsibility in the land of the twin goddesses?

What had that meant?

She had to find out. Her first priority was to understand the motive behind his sudden interest in Eva and Zoya. Knowledge would be her best weapon against his unexpected incursion.

Still unsteady, she got some water and headed to her home office. She sat down at her desk and opened her laptop. After staring at the search engine numbly for several moments, she typed in Zorya.

For hours, she read all there was to read about the mythology behind that name and the land that wielded it.

It turned out Zorya was a plural name, incorporating the two guardian goddesses, Zarya and Zvezda, who represented the morning and evening stars. According to Slavic mythology, they were charged through eternity with guarding the doomsday hound, Simargi, lest he consumed the constellation Ursa Minor. They were also responsible for opening and closing the gates for the sun. Zorya, the former—and soon to be again—kingdom was said to be the only place where both stars could be perpetually seen on all clear nights. Its coat of arms depicted the blonde and dark-haired goddesses holding up stars. Though the goddesses were twins, they were quite literally night and day.

Just like her girls.

Eva had taken after her, Zoya after Leonid.

So this was what he’d meant. He considered this a sign he was meant to have both the throne and the girls.

And she’d seen it in his eyes.

He would make it all come true.

* * *

After an oppressive night spent pondering every possible distressing outcome of Leonid’s reappearance, Kassandra struggled to perform her morning rituals with the girls before leaving them with Kyria Despina and heading to work. Not that she expected to get any work done, but she needed to be away from them. She’d be damned if she’d let Leonid poison their moods, too.

In half an hour, she was in her personal office on the second floor of her company, looking out the window at downtown LA but only seeing the chaos inside her mind.

What disturbed her most was that she hadn’t come up with a plan of action in case Leonid did pursue his objectives. Which she had no doubt he would.

“I’m sorry, Kass, I tried to...”

Even before her PA’s cut-short exclamation, Kassandra’s senses had gone haywire.

Swinging around, hoping she was wrong but certain she wasn’t, the air was still knocked out of her at the sight of him. Leonid.

He filled her doorway, dwarfing her delicate PA. Mindy was looking up at him with a mixture of mortification and all-out awe.

Kassandra understood. How she did. A god walking the earth wouldn’t have looked as imposing and overpowering.

Their gazes collided, almost making her stumble against the plate glass of her wall-to-wall window. It was him who relinquished their visual lock first to look down at Mindy, who resembled a tiny herbivore that found itself in the crosshairs of a great feline.

“I apologize for overriding you, Ms. Levine. Ms. Stavros will fully understand that there was nothing you could have done to stop me. You can rest assured she’ll chastise me appropriately for such high-handed behavior.”

Gathering what she could of her wits, Kassandra tore her gaze off him and focused on her assistant. “It’s okay, Mindy.” Mindy looked back as if in a trance. Kassandra sighed. “You can go now, thanks. I’ll let you know if I decide to call security.”

With a ghost of a smile, Leonid stepped aside to allow Mindy to stumble out. “She won’t. You can drop the red alert.”

The moment the door closed, Leonid turned his focus to her. It was a good thing she’d moved to her desk so she could mask her own unsteadiness and feign a confrontational pose.

“Don’t be so sure, Leonid. My private security isn’t the police and won’t care if you broke any laws. The one thing that will matter to them is that I don’t want you here.”

“How do you know you don’t want me here before you hear what I have to say?”

“I already heard it, and I not only would rather you spare me an encore, but I also wish there was some cosmic erase button to have it unsaid. If that’s all you’re here to say, I will cut everything short and have you removed.”

“You don’t need to bother. I will remove myself once I’ve done what I’ve come to do. And it’s not to reiterate what I said last night. I’m here to state my terms.”

“This time I will spare myself the aggravation of reacting to your terminal audacity. The answer to anything you have to say is no anyway.”

“If you remember anything about me, you should know I do not take no for an answer. Now, more than ever, I won’t.”

Every nerve jangled as he approached, as if to emphasize that there was no stopping his invasion of her life. With every step, she felt as if he was planting a foothold that she wouldn’t be able to uproot.

“My terms are the following—I want to become Eva and Zoya’s father, in name and in reality. You will give me full access to them, effective immediately. You won’t try to do anything to put them off me, or to put off the procedure of declaring me as their father. I will have them bear my name before the coronation. It is in just over a month’s time.”

Feeling she’d taken a deep breath underwater, her protest came out a gurgle. “Now, look here...”

He continued as if she hadn’t interrupted. “As their mother, you can and will of course dictate your own terms and I will meet every one.”

She shook her head, as if to shake off a punch to the face. “My only term is that you get the hell out of my life. You stayed out of it for two years. And that is where I demand you stay.”

His face remained as hard as stone. “That is not an option. Anything else is negotiable.”

“Nothing else is worth negotiating. I won’t let you walk into my life, making those insane demands and expecting me to fall in with your timetable.”

“I’m not walking into your life, but my daughters’.”

Knowing he was powerful enough to do whatever he wished, her mind burned rubber trying to latch on to an alternative to anger or defiance to hold him at bay. Those had gotten her nowhere. Continuing to challenge him head-on would only make him more intractable. If that was even possible.

Her only way out could be to negotiate a less-damaging deal. Something other than the takeover he was bent on.

“Listen, Leonid, let’s take a time-out and rewind to the beginning. Let’s say, for whatever reasons, you wish to acknowledge the girls as your daughters. I can, if necessary, live with that. We can come to an agreement where you can be...included. That doesn’t mean you have to be in their lives. You haven’t been since before they were born and they are totally fine without a father. I’m not saying this to be vindictive, or because of our personal history. It’s just a fact. Also consider the effort and time commitment that goes into being a parent. You can’t possibly want to be a father, especially now that you’re on the verge of becoming a king. You literally have far better and more important things to do.”

He waited until she finished her speech, then demolished it with that vacant look. “There’s nothing better or more important than becoming the father my daughters deserve. And need. No matter how adequate you are as a single parent.”

Her rage seethed again. “You know nothing of how adequate I am as a single parent, or what my daughters need.”

“Like you take exception to my opinion of your life, I would appreciate you not passing judgment on mine. Being a father is exactly what I now want to be. Becoming a king only makes it more imperative I claim all my responsibilities with the utmost commitment.”

“Fine, I won’t presume to know what you want. I’ll keep to my side of things. I need no commitment from you.”

“Then, I will change your mind about what you need.”

The way he’d said that... The way his gaze dropped to envelop her body before returning stonily to hers...

Did...did he mean something personal? Intimate...?

Before her thoughts caught fire, he disabused her of any ridiculous notion this was in any way about her. “No matter how strong, resourceful and successful you are, and though you’ve been coping exceptionally well being both a mother and a businesswoman, you will experience a huge improvement in the quality of your and the twins’ lives when you have me as a fully committed partner in raising them.”

She shook her head, feeling punch-drunk. “You come here...and just dictate to me...about the quality of my—”

“I came here, your territory still, but a less personal one, after your reaction to my showing up on your doorstep last night, because I thought you might feel less cornered here. It’s also why I didn’t have you brought to me.”

That made her locate her faltering verbal skills with a vengeance. “Oh, how considerate of you. I should be grateful you didn’t have me dragged to your territory, and instead chose to invade my professional space, getting my whole company abuzz with speculation, launching a hundred rumors, undermining me and generally disrupting my life?”

“I figured whatever I did, it wouldn’t meet with your approval, so I did what I thought least threatening to you.”

“Great rationalization, but...”

He continued speaking as if he was playing back a recording. “Starting tomorrow, I expect to be allowed in to see my daughters without resistance or ill will. I would very much prefer, for their sake and yours, if we do this on the most amicable terms possible. I hope you won’t force me to resort to more drastic measures.”

Having finished the speech he’d come to deliver, he turned and walked away. She could only stare after him, feeling as if she were sinking in quicksand.

Before he stepped out the door, he paused, turned. “I’ll come by your house a couple of hours before the twins’ bedtime.”

Kassandra waited until he closed the door after him, then collapsed on her chair like a demolished building.

As everything seeped into her mind and its full impact registered, she reeled harder. Not only with the disaster in progress she could see spiraling out of control, but with how much of a stranger he’d become.

Those first hellish months after he’d kicked her out of his life, she’d been anguished by how his feelings for her had withered, then reversed. But with him so distant and clinical now, she finally believed he’d never felt anything in the first place. She didn’t count at all to him, neither in the past nor in the future he had so carefully planned for them all.

The future she couldn’t let come to pass.

She couldn’t let this automaton near her daughters. His new programming might dictate it, but if there was anyone Eva and Zoya were better off without it was him.

But she couldn’t stop him. He had the legal and personal clout to do what he wanted. She didn’t have a leg to stand on, let alone a weapon to fight him off with.

But...that wasn’t true. She did have weapons.

At least her best friends did. Selene, Caliope and Naomi had access to three of the most lethal weapons in the world. Their husbands. Each man was at least as powerful as Leonid was, if not more. He’d have no chance against their combined might.

Fumbling for her cell phone, she called Selene. As soon as she answered, she told her she was adding another call to Caliope, then repeated the process with her, adding another to Naomi, too, merging the calls.

The three women, once they were part of a four-way conference call with her, chorused anxiously, “What’s wrong?”

“Everything,” she choked. “I need Aristedes. And Maksim. And Andreas.”

* * *

Six hours later, Kassandra looked around her office, her cheeks burning.

Her friends hadn’t even asked her why she’d needed their husbands. After making sure she wasn’t in any immediate danger, they’d all hung up. She’d expected them to get their husbands to call. They’d actually sent them over in person.

And here they all were. Aside from Leonid, the three most imposing and hard-hitting men she’d ever seen.

According to Aristedes’s concise explanation, as soon as their wives had told them to drop everything and fly to her side, they’d each jumped on their jets and crossed the continent from New York to her. And they didn’t seem bothered in the least by being ordered around like that to do her bidding...or rather their wives’. If she didn’t love her friends so completely, she would have envied them having such unique men wrapping themselves so lovingly around their every inch. Their fairy-tale relationships had always emphasized how abysmal her situation with Leonid was.

Loath to impose on them more than absolutely necessary, she rushed to recount her dilemma.

But as she talked, the men looked much like three souls who’d walked into the middle of a foreign movie, clearly lost.

“Hold on a minute.” That was Aristedes, shipping magnate and Selene’s, her oldest friend’s, husband. It had been through Selene’s marriage to him that all of them had become best friends. Caliope being Aristedes’s sister and Maksim’s wife, and Naomi, Selene’s sister-in-law and Andreas’s wife. He sat forward with a spectacular frown marring his impossibly handsome face. “You’re talking about Leonid Voronov?”

She’d confided in her best friends about Leonid when she’d told them of her pregnancy. Since they told their husbands everything, she’d assumed they’d told them. But it was clear, if Aristedes’s reaction was any indication, that her friends considered her secrets sacrosanct.

It meant this meeting just got more agonizingly embarrassing, as she had to explain everything from the start.

After she did, Maksim, the one who used to have a personal relationship with Leonid, stood up, rage distorting his equally impressive face. “You mean you told him you were pregnant, and he didn’t only kick you out of his life, but implied he’d prefer you terminated your pregnancy?” As she nodded warily, he growled, “I’m dealing with that scum of the earth. He’s a fellow Russian and it’s on me you met him at all. I invited the louse to my wedding.”

“Settle down, Maksim.” That was Andreas, Aristedes’s younger brother and the most dangerous of the lot. “If there’s punishment to be doled out, we’re all getting a piece of him.” He swung his icy gaze to Kassandra, making her almost regret recruiting their help. Andreas had once been involved in organized crime, and remained as lethal, if not more so, now that he’d gone legit. “But this guy says he’s back to atone for his mistakes. Any reason to believe he doesn’t mean it?”

“Oh, I believe he means it,” she groaned. “As much as I believe the road to hell for me and the girls is paved with his good intentions.”

Aristedes pursed his lips, propping an elbow on a knee. “But if he’s owning up to his responsibilities, perhaps you should give him some leeway, in a limited wait-and-see fashion, without making any promises or changes in your lives?” Aristedes looked first at Maksim and then Andreas. “I think I speak for all of us when I say we were all once in more or less his same position, and we would have given anything for a second chance with the women we love and the children we fathered, or in Andreas’s case, the child he was named guardian of.”

Maksim’s dark fury ebbed as he considered his brother-in-law’s point of view. “Now that you put it that way, I can’t even think what would have become of me if Caliope hadn’t given me a second chance. One I didn’t think I deserved and she had every right not to give me at the time.”

Heart contracting at the turn in conversation, she choked out, “None of your situations was anything like mine with him.”

Maksim winced. “Now that I think of it, I almost did the same thing to Caliope. I, too, abandoned her when I knew she was pregnant.”

“It’s not the same at all,” she protested. Maksim had had the best of reasons for walking away. His father had been abusive. He’d feared he’d inherited his proclivities and had been terrified of hurting his vulnerable loved ones. “You thought you were protecting her and your baby.”

Maksim sat back down, gaze gentling. “Maybe he has a valid reason, too? At least one he believed to be valid?”

Feeling cornered, she realized she couldn’t get them on board without telling them everything. What he’d said to her in the past, and in the present, that she’d never meant a thing to him, that he was only back now for his “heirs” because he believed it was his duty and destiny, now that he was going to be king of the land of the two goddesses.

By the time she’d finished, all three men’s faces were closed with so much wrath, she felt anxious about the extreme measures they might take in dealing with Leonid. In spite of everything, she found herself worried for him.

As she tried to think of a way to mitigate their outrage and their consequent actions, Maksim heaved up to his feet again, clearly bringing this meeting to an end.

“Don’t worry about Leonid anymore, Kassandra,” Maksim said. “I’ll deal with him.”

Following him up, Andreas corrected, “We’ll deal with him.”

Troubled by the respectively murderous and predatory looks in the two men’s eyes, she turned to Aristedes, her oldest acquaintance among them, and ironically, since he was generally known as the devil, the one who scared her the least.

Sensing her anxiety, Aristedes gave her shoulder a bolstering squeeze. “I’ll keep those two in check, and resolve this situation with the least damage possible.”

As they each gave her pecks on the cheek, she was torn between being alarmed she’d let loose those hounds of hell on Leonid, and being relieved she’d soon have this nightmare over with.

By the time she leaned back on the door, panting as if she’d run a mile, she decided she should be only relieved.

Leonid had only himself to blame for whatever they did to him. If he wanted to escape those men’s punishment, he should have settled for being a king, away from her and the girls.

* * *

“Yes, I understand,” Kassandra said to Maksim.

She’d said almost the same thing to Andreas and Aristedes before him, just to end the calls with them, too.

For she certainly didn’t understand at all. How the three predators, who’d left her office out for blood yesterday, had each come back to her less than a day later, purring a totally different tune. That of urging her to give Leonid a chance.

How had he managed to get to them all? What had he said to have them so wholeheartedly on his side?

But why was she even wondering? Didn’t she already know how irresistible he could be when he put his mind to it? He’d worked the three men over but good. It was clear that their initial thoughts about having once been in Leonid’s shoes and in need of clemency were back in full force. Anything she said now would be her intolerant word against Leonid’s penitent one.

Putting down her cell phone, she pressed her fingers against burning eyelids.

So. She was out of options. There was no way she could stop Leonid herself. All she could do now was make sure he didn’t turn their lives upside down.

Suddenly, another bolt of agitation zapped her.

The bell. Leonid. He was here. Exactly two hours before Eva and Zoya’s bedtime, as promised.

She wouldn’t even wonder how he knew at what time she put them to bed. She had a sick feeling he knew everything about her life with the girls over the past two years. And that there was far more to this whole thing than he was letting on.

Yet she could do nothing but play along, and see what exactly he wanted, and where this would lead.

Crossing from her home office past the living room, she signaled to Kyria Despina that she’d get the door.

She took her time, but Leonid didn’t ring again. Stopping at the door, she could almost feel him on the other side, silently telling her he’d wait out her reluctance and wear down her resistance.

She pressed her forehead against the cool mahogany, gathering her wits and stamina. Then she straightened, filled her lungs with much-needed air and opened the door.

As always, nothing prepared her for laying eyes on him. Every time she ever had, an invisible hand wrapped around her heart and squeezed. Her senses ignited at his nearness, each time more than the time before.

Standing like a monolith on her doorstep, he was swathed in a slate-gray coat, a suit of the same color and a shirt as vivid as his eyes, radiating that inescapable magnetism that had snared her even before she’d laid eyes on him. Blood rushed to her head before flooding her body in scalding torrents.

And she cursed him, and herself, all over again. For him to still have this choke hold over her senses, when he didn’t even try, didn’t even want to, was the epitome of unfairness. But life was exactly that. As was he. Both did what they wanted to her, her approval irrelevant, her will overruled.

So she’d let him take his invasion to the next level. She only hoped after getting a dose of domesticity, he’d retreat to a nominal position in the girls’ lives, which she could deal with without too much damage to herself.

Certain she was opening the door to a new dimension of heartache, she said, “Come in, Leonid.”


Three (#ulink_1d038420-b2d4-555b-9a77-6820292dae77)

Leonid crossed Kassandra’s threshold.

For a second, before she retreated, he almost touched her. It was the last thing he wanted to do. The one thing he couldn’t bear.

If he could have done any of this without seeing her at all, he would have jumped at the chance. But it was out of the question. If he wanted his daughters, she had to be involved. Closely. Suffocatingly.

Mercifully, she’d been averse, keeping him at the distance he needed to remain, in every way. But right now he’d miscalculated his movement, and she hadn’t receded fast enough. A second after he’d advanced, their clothes had whispered off each other. Just being near her caused the slow burn in his every nerve to spark into a scalding sizzle.

Before he could judge if the fleeting contact had disturbed her, too, she turned and strode away, leaving him to follow in her wake, a path filled with her sense-warping warmth and scent.

The glance she threw at him over her shoulder spoke volumes, making it even harder to breathe. The surface layer was annoyance that he’d showed up at all, and at the exact time he’d said he would. Then there was resignation that she couldn’t turn him away. Beneath that lay another sort of anger he couldn’t fathom. And at the core of it all, there was...a threat.

They both knew he wielded power that would give him access to the twins no matter what she did. She’d tried to recruit allies to stop him. She’d picked them well. But after he’d neutralized their threat, she must have realized there was no point in prolonging a losing fight. Being the pragmatic businesswoman that she was, she’d wasted no more time coming to the best course of action. Let him have what he wanted. For now. Until she studied the situation further and decided if she could adjust her trajectory.

But he also knew she wouldn’t use the twins in her struggle against him, not even for a cause as vital as keeping him out of their lives. She’d never do anything to disturb them. So her threat didn’t have any real power behind it.

Still, he couldn’t let her suspect how anxious he was, how uncertain of his ability to conduct himself in any acceptable manner. For what constituted acceptable with eighteen-month-old toddlers? He knew far more about astrophysics and the latest trends in nail polish than about interacting with children. And it was almost beyond him to keep his upheaval in check.

But he had to pretend equanimity as he followed her deeper into her exquisite home, the oasis of color, gaiety and contentment she’d built for her—for their—daughters, taking him to meet them for the first time. After he’d spent every day since they’d been born obsessing over their every detail.

Then she turned a corner into a great room equipped with a short plastic fence, decorative and sturdy, and just enough to keep little feet from wandering without detracting from the wide-open, welcoming feel of what must be every child’s dream wonderland. And it was empty.

“Darling...”

Kassandra’s breathy endearment made him stop. Suspended him in time.

She used to call him darling. Not always, just when she’d been incoherent with pleasure, which had been very frequently. The last time she’d said it to him he’d swiped at her proverbial jugular and severed it.

For heart-thudding moments, he didn’t understand why she’d said it now, once, then again. Then he realized.

From what turned out to be an elaborate playhouse blended into the periphery of the room, a gleaming dark head peeked out of a tiny doorway, followed by an equally shiny golden one. She held out her arms and squeaks of glee issued from both girls as they competed to crawl out first, struggling to their feet as soon as they cleared the entrance. Two young cats, reflecting the girls’ colorings, a black Angora and a golden Abyssinian, slinked out after them.

His heart contracted painfully. They were fast. He knew from his surveillance of them that their toddling had been improving every day. They were now almost running to their mother.

Kassandra went down on her haunches, preparing to receive them in her arms. But her descent only exposed him fully, bringing him into their line of vision. Their eyes rounded and their momentum slowed, both stopping just short of throwing themselves into her arms.

Knowing she was now no longer the focus of her girls’ attention, Kassandra slowly stood up and slid him a sideways glance. Among the messages there was a challenge. He might have gotten what he’d demanded, but now she’d evaluate his performance and decide her consequent actions.

If he’d had any words left in him, he would have asked her to allow him a grace period without passing judgment. He’d fail her every test right now. Being face-to-face with those two tiny entities at last felt like a hurricane was uprooting everything inside him.

Before he could find his next breath, the twins rushed to stand behind Kassandra as she turned to him, each clinging to one endless jeans-clad leg and peeking up at him from the safety of their mother’s barricade.

In contrast to their caution, the cats approached him, sniffing the air. Seeming to decide he didn’t smell of danger, they neared him in degrees until they brushed against legs that felt as if they had grown roots. His throat tightened more as he bent without conscious thought to stroke them and receive head butts and arched backs. Then, seeming to consider this enough welcome for now, they sauntered away and jumped on shelves by the wall to watch the developing scene and groom themselves.

Unfolding with difficulty to his full height again, he found Kassandra with the miniatures of both of them staring at him. Avoiding her eyes, he focused on the girls’. Emerald eyes like Kassandra’s and azure ones like his dominated faces that had occupied his thoughts since they’d been born. Two tiny sets of dewy rose lips rounded in questioning suspense.

“Vy oba...ideal’no.”

It was only when chubby arms wrapped around their mother’s legs tighter and those sparkling eyes widened more that he realized he’d spoken. Saying the one thing that filled his being. They were both perfect.

He waited. For Kassandra to say something. To introduce him. But she was silent, continuing to add the weight of her watchful gaze to theirs.

His mind crowded with everything he’d longed to do since they’d taken their first breaths. To swoop down and scoop them up in his arms was foremost among those urges.

But he knew there was no way this would be welcomed by Eva and Zoya, who were hanging on his every breath, bracing for his every move. They probably hadn’t scurried back into their hiding place only because their mother was showing no signs of alarm, calmly facing him as if he was no threat, or at least one she was capable of protecting them from. It was as if they’d never seen anyone like him. Which was strange. He knew for a fact that their world was filled with big and imposing-looking men. The three men Kassandra had sent after him, and Kassandra’s male relatives.

So why did he feel such total surprise emanating from them? Could it be they instinctively felt the bond between them?

Unable to decide, he emptied his mind, let his instincts take over. He trusted them now far more than he trusted his messed-up emotions and stalled logic.

He moved away from the trio training all their senses on him, circumventing them in a wide circle that took him to the playhouse the girls had exited. His aching gaze took in the evidence of their play session and of Kassandra’s doting care. The strewn toys, coloring books and crayons, the half-built castle, the half-eaten finger foods and half-finished smoothies.

He’d missed all that. Everything, from their first day. He hadn’t held them or comforted them or cleaned or served them or played with them or put them to bed. Kassandra had been alone in doing all that. Would any of them ever accept him into their lives, let him into their routines? Or even let him in any way at all? When he didn’t deserve to be let in?

Feeling all eyes in the room on him, he went down on his knees, one of the hardest moves for him now. As he felt their surprise spike, he started to gather the toys and books.

Without looking back, so he’d give the girls respite from his focus, give them a sense of control and security, he started to order everything they’d knocked off onto the lushly carpeted floor on the low, sturdy plastic table. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Kassandra moving toward the long couch that dominated the opposite side of the space, with both girls still flocking around her legs, their gazes clinging to him.

Sampling one of the thin pineapple spears that were laid out on a cartoon-character tray among other healthy and colorful foods, he said, “That’s very tasty. Can I have some more? I haven’t eaten all day.”

In his peripheral vision he could see the girls exchanging a glance, as if they understood his words and knew they were meant for them. Then they both looked up to their mother, as if seeking her permission to react. He stole a glance at her, found her giving them an exquisite smile. A special one he’d never seen, no doubt reserved only for them. Then she nodded, and they simultaneously let go of her legs and advanced toward him tentatively.

As they approached, he sat down on the ground, another challenging move, putting himself more at their level. This appeared to reassure them even more as their steps picked up speed. He pointed at a blunt skewer of cheese, cucumbers and strawberries, making direct eye contact with one girl, then the other. “Can I have that?”

The girls stopped on the other side of the table, eyes full of questions and curiosity. Then after what seemed to be serious consideration, Eva, the mini-Kassandra, reached out and grabbed the skewer in her dimpled hand...and leaned over to give it to him. Zoya, who’d held back, clearly more reserved like he was, took her cue from her older-by-ten-minutes sister, and repeated her action.

Throat closing, Leonid looked down on those two skewers, offered by the girls he’d fathered and hadn’t been there for, until this moment. They were his life’s biggest reward. And responsibility.

With hands that almost trembled out of control, he reached out and took both offerings at the same time. “That’s very kind of you to share your snacks with me. Spasiba.”

As if both recognized he’d just said a word in a language different from the one they’d been hearing and processing since birth, they looked at him questioningly.

“That is Russian. In English it means ‘thank you.’” Then he repeated it a few times. “Spasiba...thank you.”

Eyes gleaming at recognizing thank-you and clearly making the connection between the two words, looking triumphant, Eva parroted him, “Patheba...thakyoo.”

His heart thundered, its chambers just about melting at Eva’s adorable lisp.

And that was before Zoya delivered the second punch of a one-two combo as she enthused, “Aseba...ankoo.”

Before he could gather his wits, Eva picked up another skewer and proceeded to nibble at it, looking up at him, as if encouraging him to eat. Zoya at once did the same. When he didn’t follow suit immediately, Zoya reached out and pushed his hand up, urging him to partake of their offering.

He raised the food to lips that had gone numb, unable to taste anything as he chewed. Swallowing was an even harder feat, pushing the food past the blockage in his throat. All the time he could feel Kassandra’s gaze on him, scorching layers off his inflamed skin. It took what was left of his control not to turn to her, ask for her intervention.

But she didn’t intervene. She didn’t make a single move, as if she was trying to blend into the background to make them all forget she was there.

While that was what he’d asked her to do, now that he had the girls’ full attention and interest, he would have given anything for her to dilute their focus. Which was pathetic, since this was the opportunity he’d badgered her for, what he’d been dreaming of for so long.

Inching closer now that they literally had him eating out of their hands, the two girls started handing him their favorite toys as more evidence of their acceptance, naming each one to show off their knowledge.

It became clear the second time they waited after naming something that they were waiting for him to provide the Russian equivalent. And so it started, a game of translation.

The Russian word they loved the most was the one for doll. They both kept giggling and reiterating, “Kukla...kukla!”

They then moved on to testing him. One of them presented a coloring book and the other the crayons. When he colored a pony in a color scheme that was different from all the examples in the colored pages, they got more excited, and tried to emulate him in other books. After a while, dissatisfied with their own results compared to his impeccable ones, they reverted to the name-and-translate game.





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