“I think that’s why I’ve pushed back against calling him Mikhail. Every time I say Mickey, it’s like I’m saying I love him.”
“He may not realize that in his head, but his little-boy heart hears the words, solnyshko.”
Emma walked into Kon’s bedroom and then turned to face him. “Am I still your sunshine?”
“Can you doubt it?” Kon asked, his dark gaze serious and intense. “You have brought the light back into my life.”
“Mickey shines pretty brightly too.”
Kon pulled Emma to him, their bodies touching, and kissed her gently before smiling. “I adore our son, krasavitsa, but it is you who brings light into all the dark places in my soul.”
For once, Emma did no mental gymnastics to dismiss how loving his words sounded. She simply soaked them in and accepted them as they were.
“You sound so Russian right now,” she told him with a small smile.
“Mirrussian.”
“Mirrussian,” she corrected herself and reached up to kiss him. “My Mirussian prince.”
“Solnyshko moi.”
No more words followed. Only kissing and touching. Emma felt cherished as Kon divested her of her clothing. She returned the favor, caressing his gorgeous body with a sense of possessiveness she’d not allowed herself before now.
He was hers. And she was his. And that truth had not changed in their five years apart.
“I forgive you,” she said against his skin as she mapped his sculpted torso with her lips.
Konstantin stilled, instant comprehension thrumming through his body. She forgave him.
Suddenly their slow loving was not enough. He needed all of Emma. Now.
He flipped them and leaned down to kiss her passionately. “Thank you.” He kissed her all over her beautiful face, thanking her over and over again between each press of his lips against her silky skin.
Emma grabbed his cheeks and held his head so their eyes met. “I mean it, Kon. I forgive you for breaking up with me. I forgive you for the other women. You’re right that we belonged to each other, but I was right too. We weren’t together and you did not owe me fidelity. You do now though,” she said with a look that would have intimidated better men than him.
“You are it for me. For the rest of our lives.”
Her smile was blinding. “For the rest of our lives.” She rubbed her thumbs over his face and he moaned. She was still naked under him, after all. “Breaking up with me is what hurt me. Not letting me contact you afterward. That cost all of us, but believe me when I say that I forgive you for all of it. No more crushing guilt. No more letting the past get in the way of our future.”
Was she saying what it sounded like? “You’re going to marry me?”
“Is that a proposal?”
“You know it is.” Konstantin felt like kicking himself. “I know it’s not a romantic moment in Central Park, damn it.” Konstantin was not his damn brother. His patience had a hell of a lot more limits. “I should do better. But I need to know now.”
Another blinding and beautiful smile sent his already stiff erection to rock-hard status. “Yes, Kon, I will marry you. You and Mickey aren’t the only ones who want to give him a younger sibling.”
What happened after that would not live in his moments of pride for his vaunted control, because Konstantin had none. No control left, he made love to his sunshine like a starving man feasting on her every gasp and moan of pleasure.
He drove them both to the height of pleasure and then over, only to do it all again.
His hunger refused to be sated with a single bout of lovemaking. Or even two. He and Emma finally fell into an exhausted sleep after their third time joining their bodies and their souls in a union he had never known with another woman.
Mickey’s squeal brought Emma out of sleep better than any alarm clock.
She sat straight up and realized with instant relief that someone had put a nightgown on her. It wasn’t her usual boring T-shirt-style garment, but it covered the important bits and made this morning greeting with her son relaxed rather than awkward.
Gratitude for Kon’s thoughtfulness filled her even as she grinned at her son. “Got something to say, Mickey?”