Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Leon
Waking up with my wife’s ass firmly pressed against my groin was not something I could have prepared myself for.
Katya is warm when she sleeps, her temperature bordering on worrisomely hot.
She feels like a soft dream, though. Her warmth perfectly compliments my own, and it’s undeniably arousing to be lulled awake by her delicious scent.
I’ve never wanted to devour cinnamon desserts more in my life than I have since meeting her.
I don’t know whether she showers with some sort of cinnamon sugar scented soap, if it’s her perfume, a lotion, or her natural scent but I can’t get enough of it.
The temptation to bury my nose into her hair and inhale deep and long is strong, but the idea of creeping her out after the night we had is too much of a deterrent.
We want each other, that much we’ve admitted.
But will her feelings be the same when she wakes up well rested and the day is new? For all I know, her confession was a result of over-tired emotions bundling up and confusing her.
Like she knows I’m thinking about her, Katya makes a little noise in her sleep.
It’s somewhere between a whimper and a sigh coming out of her as she wiggles backwards to seek out my presence.
I know she isn’t alert or aware that she’s moving, the telltale sign of sleep evident in the way she breathes, but it still feels nice to have her closer.
Too nice, given the bulge in my boxers.
I should have gone to my room to get proper pajamas, or even sweatpants. If she wakes up now, there will be no easy way to conceal my hard-on. She might find it flattering, but it also might freak her the fuck out.
Mentally groaning, I slowly begin to detangle myself from her, keeping my movements slow and gentle so that I don’t rouse her.
The task alone starts to deflate my erection, my body well trained enough to know that I’m fleeing this scene rather than trying to capitalize on it.
We need time to talk before I can even think about flipping her around and kissing her silly to bring her into the new day.
Leaving the bed without waking my wife up is quickly made impossible by the bang of her bedroom door crashing against the wall. Thankfully, the sound of my kids rushing into the room quickly kills any of my remaining arousal.
“Daddy?” Leo gasps, rushing into the room as his bare feet slap against the floor. “What doing in here?”
Katya inhales sharply, and I know she’s awake now.
I have little doubt that the door slamming open brought her into consciousness, but the sound of Leo’s question probably brought reality crashing down.
She’s not just being woken up by the kids whom she’s given permission to do exactly that if she’s ever accidentally overslept.
She’s being woken up by them while I’m in her bed.
“Did you have nightmare, Kat?” he asks, not waiting for an answer from me as he climbs up the end of her bed and crawls further in without needing an invitation. “Daddy so good at nightmares, right Daddy?”
“Right, buddy,” I reply, going along with his prediction. “Katya needed me here to scare away her scary dreams just like you need sometimes. Were you looking for me this morning or did you come right here first?”
“We come here first,” Leo cheers, grinning. “Come on Bastian.” Looking over his shoulder, he waves a hand to gesture for his brother to join us.
Rubbing his eyes, my older son slowly pads into the room, climbing up on Katya’s side of the bed and putting his head on her pillow. He went to her like she was a beacon, knowing he could be silent and still find comfort in her.
My throat bobs as I watch my wife reach out and tuck some of his hair behind his ears, caressing his sleepy face as she does. She hasn’t said a word since being so shockingly brought out of her sleep, but she hasn’t freaked out about being caught with me either.
“Bastian sleepy,” Leo says with a giggle. “But I hungry, Daddy.”
“Is that right?” I ask, smiling as he decides to lay between Katya and I. He kicks his little legs up and giggles as he snuggles into the space that seems to be the perfect fit for him. “What are you hungry for this morning?”
“Orange juice,” he answers immediately.
“That’s thirsty,” Bastian corrects, yawning. “Not hungry.”
“And waffles,” Leo adds sweetly. “Hungry for waffles.”
“I can make—” Katya starts, but I don’t let her finish the offer.
“Leo and I will go make waffles.”
Leo cheers at the information and stands up over Katya’s hip to look at her directly. “Daddy and I make!”
Leaning over the side of the bed, I put my pants on quickly enough that Leo and Bastian don’t notice or take note of it. “You and Bastian can stay here and take your time waking up. We’ll have everything ready in thirty.”
“Yes, Bastian need rest,” Leo agrees without hesitation. “I waked him ups.”
Katya giggles lightly at his information and nods. “I’m sure you and Daddy will make us an amazing breakfast.”
Daddy.
Why does her calling me that make my heart fucking race?
“Come on, buddy.” I hold a hand out and Leo takes it, practically leaping across the bed to jump into my arms. “Let’s give these two a little bit longer in the quiet, hmm?”
“Okay, Daddy,” Leo whispers, putting a finger to his lips. “We quiet.”
On the way out of her room, I can’t help but look back at my wife. Bastian already has his eyes closed, snuggled into her pillow and facing her as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. Katya covers him gently with her blanket and sighs, allowing her lids to flutter shut.
She’s perfect.
“Asleep?” Katya asks, looking up from cleaning the kitchen counter as I walk into the space again.
“Asleep,” I confirm, closing the space between us with every step I take.
Breakfast with the kids went well, and so did lunch hours later.
Most of our morning and afternoon has been spent hearing stories from yesterday, and playing in the fort that the kids couldn’t wait for me to explore with them.
As expected, it took a bit longer to get them down for a nap today since they went to bed early last night and woke up a bit later than normal this morning.
Something I didn’t expect given that I woke up around the same time as them.
Waking up late is not something I do often, nor do I do easily.
My mind is always buzzing with things to do, and getting out of bed to do them is typically the only thing that makes it stop.
I can’t sleep easily knowing I could be doing something to get it out of the way and therefore have more free time to spend while my kids are actually awake.
But sleeping with Katya meant my alarms weren’t set, and clearly my brain was too consumed with thoughts of her to make me feel called toward anything else.
“How long do you think they’ll stay that way?” She chuckles as she asks, moving to the sink to wash off her hands now that she’s finished cleaning up.
“We may have an hour,” I reply, coming up behind her and testing the waters by putting my hands around her waist.
Katya doesn’t stiffen at my touch, but embraces it, tipping her head back to rest on my chest as she exhales.
“I didn’t get a chance to tell you how well I slept with you by my side.” Her voice is soft, bordering on sultry. “You’re so warm and unexpectedly cozy for someone with so much muscle.”
My hands tighten without meaning to, pulling her back an inch to make her back mold to my front. Chills visibly break out on her arms, her pale skin pebbling as my nose inches down closer to her ear. “I slept well too, baby.”
A small noise catches in her throat. “You know what that word does to me.”
“I know,” I agree huskily, slowly dragging my hands down from her waist to her hips. “Saying it does things to me too.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I echo, trying not to groan. “Being near you is making it more and more difficult to keep my hands off you now that I know how soft you are, tesoro.”
“You said that last night, didn’t you?” she rasps, spinning around to face me without pushing any space between us. My thumbs dip under the hem of her shirt, slowly caressing her bare stomach while my hands tighten around her hips.
“I said I would repeat myself if you still wanted to hear it.” Her lips part as she breathes and my wife nods as if answering a question I haven’t truly asked.
“I know you understand what it means, and you speaking Italian is one of the many reasons you’re a treasure, Katya.
Tesoro is entirely fitting for you since you’re the best thing I’ve ever found.
You’re a gem, and I can’t believe I was lucky enough to stumble upon you. ”
“You’re romantic, do you know that?” Her tongue pokes out, wetting her bottom lip.
“You say the sweetest things, you make me breakfast and tell me to lie in bed longer. You carry me to my bedroom after finding me asleep on the couch, and you always make sure to let me know I can ask for help if I need it even when I’ve told you that I won’t.
We’ve never even been on a date and I feel like you’d sweep me off my feet before one could even start. ”
Swallowing at her assessment, I slowly shake my head in denial.
“My brothers have called me a romantic since I was six, but I don’t know if it’s true.
If I am one, I’ve done a poor job of showing it.
I’m groping you in our kitchen, thinking of very ungentlemanly things I want to do to you, and you’ve just reminded me that I’ve never even taken you out on a proper date. ”
I wouldn’t even know where to begin with taking my wife out.
I know things about her, that much is true.
I know what food she tends to favor, and that she prefers privacy over popularity.
She wouldn’t enjoy a fancy crowded restaurant as much as she would like a quiet place with good food.
But feeding her and talking with a table between us doesn’t even begin to cover the things I would want to do for her.
A proper date for my wife would take planning, and plenty of it.
“I’d like to hear about these ungentlemanly things you want to do to me,” Katya tells me, her lips spreading into a smirk I’d like to kiss off her mouth. “And we’ve been a little busy to consider going on a date, don’t you think? You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself, bohatstvo.“
My eyebrows arch up at the unfamiliar word and she grins wider.
“Riches,” she defines, reaching up to place a hand on the side of my face.
“If I’m your treasure then you’re certainly mine as well, Leon.
You don’t seem to understand how happy you’ve made me by giving me this life.
I adore everything about living here and being a part of our little family.
I know it hasn’t been long, and things are moving quicker than you probably imagined, but I can’t feel sorry for it. ”
“I don’t want you to be sorry,” I reply, leaning into her touch.
“You’ve been a light in the darkness that has surrounded us, Katya.
You’re making our lives better every single day, and I don’t think my sons could fault me for seeing you the way I’ve begun to.
They love you so much already, and I find it hard to believe that they might look back on me someday and begrudge me for falling for their new mother. ”
“I can’t wait until they see me that way,” she confesses, eyes growing misty.
“I can wait as long as they need, but I already consider them my own. I’d kill for them, Leon.
Die for them, commit war crimes and all kinds of atrocities for them.
I know it sounds crazy from the outside looking in, but I feel like I was meant to be their mother after Cleo’s passing.
I know I couldn’t have them without her, but I think our paths were always meant to meet as one. ”
I know the feeling.
Fate seemed like a fickle fantasy before I met my wife, and now it feels like nothing else could explain how right she is for us.
“And,” Katya continues, inhaling deeply. “As much as I love how open to communication you are, maybe we should just let things progress naturally from here? Neither of us wants to slow down or push away what’s growing between us, and I think that’s all we really need to know.”
The apples of her cheeks go from pink to red, and I resist the urge to kiss them and feel the warm rush of blood rushing under her skin.
“You don’t think we need to talk about where things are going…physically?”
“I think we need to do less talking about where things are going physically and more doing those things.” Katya practically purrs the declaration.
“I’m not overly experienced when it comes to intimacy, and I wouldn’t want to hide that from you.
So I’ll admit that I may technically be a virgin, but I refuse to be treated like one.
I’m a grown woman who has been picky about sharing herself with other people, but I know my body and I know what I want. ”
The word virgin should worry me, but given how she was raised, it’s not that much of a surprise.
Not all mafia daughters are brought up to be untouched until marriage these days, but it’s still quite common.
Katya is twenty-three, not eighteen, though.
She’s an adult and if she says that she’s ready to take the next step with me, I’d be a bastard to misbelieve her.
“I’ve always needed to feel trust and a strong emotional connection—or potential for one—to even kiss someone before you, Leon.
And last night, I would have let you do whatever you wanted to me.
” She shivers as she says the words, licking her lips.
“That’s never happened to me before, and I’m not going to shy away from the way you make me feel.
Not when we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together. ”
The urge to take her right here against the countertop is quickly smothered by the sound of little feet.
“Daddy, my tummy hurts.”
Katya untangles herself from me faster than I can even comprehend.
“Oh, my,” she coos, switching into a concerned mother in a flash. “Come here, little love. Let me see if we can get your tummy ache to go away, hmm? Do you feel warm?”
Leo curls himself into Katya’s side as she crouches down to check on him. Concern for my son replaces my disappointment in our moment being ruined in an instant. My attraction to my wife still flares hot, though, watching her take care of my boy like she was born to do it.
I’ll have to show her how thankful I am later.