“No.” Compassion darkened his gaze. “You never mentioned that your sister was also your twin.”

  She frowned in concentration as she sat up enough in his arms to watch as Janina moved to sit beside their father in the back of one of the other SUVs. “It didn’t seem important when I thought Janina had died with my mother. I never saw her again after the shooting, in any case. Why?” she demanded emotionally. “Why did Boris separate us after my mother died?” She had no doubt that was what happened.

  “I think you’ll need to ask him that yourself once we’re back in the US and he’s been attended by a doctor.” Jericho continued to hold her in his arms as he climbed into the back of another of the SUVs. “But I’m guessing it might have had something to do with him needing to protect you both after your mother was shot and killed.”

  Marisha relaxed back against him, her head resting on his shoulder. “I can’t believe my sister survived the shooting after all.” Tears glistened in her eyes.

  “Janina seemed just as shocked to see you.”

  Her jaw tightened. “Boris has a lot of explaining to do once he’s feeling well enough.”

  Jericho looked down at her. “So I’m off the hook?”

  “You were never on it,” she assured ruefully. “None of this mess is your fault, Jericho.” She moved to kiss him lightly on the lips.

  “And us?” Jericho prompted huskily. “When will you be ready to talk about us?”

  She returned his gaze shyly. “Immediately after I’ve told my father I won’t be returning to Russia with him and Janina because I’m going to stay in the US with the man I love.”

  Jericho’s throat moved as he swallowed. “You love me?”

  “I do. Very much.”

  His lips claimed hers in a long and possessive kiss. “I love you too,” he murmured before glancing at his brother in the driver’s seat. “Let’s go home, Liam.”

  It was several days before Marisha was able to talk to her father again. Before his health was strong enough for him to have the conversation she and Janina needed to have with him.

  While they waited, she spent time with her twin, getting to know Janina again.

  From those conversations, she learned that Janina had been placed with a different foster couple within Moscow, and that she had also believed her twin to be dead.

  Instead, by Boris’s design, the two of them had grown up in the same city without ever knowing the other still lived. And, again organized by Boris, the two of them had never accidentally met at his home either.

  Things were awkward between the two sisters at first. They were strangers to each other, after all. But over the course of those two days, they reached a tentative friendship as they talked of the years lost to them. They had attended different schools, of course, and then, where Marisha had chosen to go to university in England, Janina had stayed in Moscow and trained to be a nurse.

  Ironically, she now worked at the European Medical Center, which meant she could easily access one of the entrances to the labyrinth of tunnels beneath Moscow to where Boris was hiding.

  The doctor attending him in the US had praised Janina’s level of care. He had also told them their father wouldn’t have survived without it.

  Marisha was grateful to her sister for that, and she didn’t doubt that, with time, the two of them would become the firm friends they had been as children.

  Gregori Markovic and his men had also returned from Russia with the news that Toly had indeed been shot and killed, but that the rest of the Federovs’ men were no longer a problem. They had promised to ensure that Boris returned to Moscow as head of the bratva once he was well enough to travel, returning stability to the city. With Leon’s agreement, Markovic and Volkov had taken over dealing with the Federov brothers here in the US, and what remained of their men.

  Marisha didn’t want or ask to know any of the details of how the Federovs’ had been “dealt with.” But a part of her couldn’t help but wish that Artur and Timur especially were dealt with harshly after their deliberate cruelty to her.

  Leon Brunelli had also learned that it had, unfortunately, been Pavel and Galina Agapov who had betrayed Boris by revealing Marisha’s existence to the Federovs. And for the reason Marisha had suspected: they missed the money that Boris had paid them for so many years to care and look after her.

  Again, Marisha hadn’t asked their fate. The couple must have known when they agreed to help the Federovs by betraying Marisha and Boris the consequences they might face if it went wrong.

  She hadn’t been able to be alone with Jericho since they boarded the jet to fly back to New York.

  There certainly hadn’t been any spanking in the privacy of the bedroom at the back of the jet that day!

  Instead, that room had been occupied by her injured father on the return flight. Jericho had been busy with his duties as head of Leon Brunelli’s security since they arrived back at the estate. The peace talks between the Italians, the Russians, and the Irish had continued, despite the toing and froing of members of the Russian bratva.

  Marisha couldn’t wait for them all to leave so that she and Jericho would be free to continue the conversation they’d started in Moscow.

  But finally their father was well enough that she and Janina were able to talk to him together.

  He still looked frail as he lay back against the pillows in the hospital wing on the Brunelli estate, but there was no longer that deathly cast to his face, and the doctor had assured them he was well on the way to making a full recovery.

  “My darling daughters.” He reached out to take each of their hands as they moved to stand either side of his bed. “I know it must be difficult for you to understand why I acted as I did for all those years, but please believe I wanted only to protect you both in the way I was unable to do with your mother.” A sheen of tears glistened in his eyes. “I didn’t keep my distance because I didn’t love you. The opposite. I loved your mother, and I loved both of you so much, I was willing to sacrifice those years of being with you so that you would never be harmed or taken from me too.”

  Marisha believed him. She knew that Janina did too. But they had both needed to hear those words from his own lips.

  “I won’t be returning to Moscow with you,” she told him now.

  “Nor I,” Janina put in softly.

  She looked curiously at her sister. “You’re going to stay in the States?”

  Janina’s gaze didn’t quite meet hers. “I thought I might. It will give the two of us the chance to spend time with each other, and I… I… Yes, I’m going to stay here and hopefully find a job in one of the hospitals in New York. At least for a while.”

  Marisha couldn’t help wondering if her twin’s decision didn’t have something to do with Jericho’s brother, Kieran. She had noticed a certain tension whenever the two of them were in the same room together.

  Whatever the reason, Marisha welcomed the decision as it would give the two sisters more time to become comfortable with each other again.

  “Does your own decision to stay here have something to do with Jericho Price?” her father prompted dryly.

  Her cheeks warmed. “I hope it does, yes.”

  Boris nodded. “He’s a good man.”

  “Yes, he is,” she confirmed.

  She still couldn’t bring herself to call him Papa, as she had when she was a child, but maybe that would happen with time. Maybe they would all be a family again, with that same time.

  His smile was rueful. “So my daughters have been reunited, and now I am to lose them both.”

  Marisha chuckled. “You’ll only be a plane journey away, and I’m sure Leon will be more than happy to have you stay here, where security is so strong, at any time you choose to visit.”

  Boris squeezed both their hands. “I’m just happy that you are both alive and well. But yes, I will be visiting often.”

  As far as Marisha was concerned, she now had the best of both worlds, her father and her sister in her life, and, she hoped, Jericho too.

  Jericho breathed a sigh of relief once the last of Leon’s guests from the Italian Mafia had boarded their plane and left New York.

  It meant he could at last go in search of Marisha.

  Knowing Marisha loved him had been the only thing that had kept him stoic-faced and professional as he went about the business of ensuring the protection of Leon’s visitors these past two days and then coordinated their departures.

  But he now broke all the speed limits driving back to the estate, anxious to get to Marisha and their unfinished conversation.

  He had checked on her over the past couple of days, ensuring she wasn’t overwhelmed by being with her twin again or when she visited her father in the medical wing of the Brunelli house. Like many of the heads of organized crime, Leon preferred to keep private any injuries sustained by him or his men, and he kept a full medical team on call for just that reason.

  As far as Jericho was aware, Boris was making a slow and steady recovery, thanks to the nursing attention of his daughter, Janina.

  Jericho still remembered the shock of walking into that room beneath the tunnels and seeing the woman who looked so much like Marisha. He had been rendered speechless for several seconds.

  Once he knew the truth, he knew that if Borzikov had been well enough, he would have told the older man exactly what he thought of him for having separated his twin daughters when they were only five. He didn’t care that Boris had believed he was acting in their best interests. It was fucking cruel to separate twins in that way.

  But none of that mattered right now because Jericho was only interested in holding Marisha again. In telling her how much he loved her. In having her tell him—again—how much she loved him.

  “Did the last of my guests—”

  “Yes, and I can’t stop right now,” Jericho cut Leon off abruptly as he continued to stride through the main house toward the sitting room, where Kieran had reported Marisha was having afternoon tea with Carla and Janina after the two sisters returned from spending time with a rapidly improving Boris.

  “Is there a fire somewhere that needs putting out?” Leon fell into step beside him, his expression one of innocent enquiry.

  Too innocent, the bastard!

  “Oh yes, there’s a fire,” Jericho confirmed intensely. “But I’m going to need Marisha to help me put it out.”

  Leon chuckled. “I’ve admired your forbearance in so competently carrying out your work duties these past couple of days when what you really wanted to do was throw Marisha over your shoulder and run off with her.”

  Jericho came to an abrupt halt. “Have you been talking to Killian?” His cousin had called him from Milan several times, as he had said he would.

  Leon grinned. “I have, yes. But I didn’t need him to tell me that you’re in love with the lovely Marisha.”

  “In that case, maybe you could distract your wife and Janina while I take Marisha away somewhere where we can talk privately.”

  “Talk, hmm?” Leon teased.

  Some of Jericho’s tension eased. “Eventually, yes.”

  “You have a few days to yourself now to spend time alone with her.” The older man gave him an affectionate slap on the shoulder. “Go and steal away yer bonnie lassie, and Kieran and I will do our verra best to entertain the other two leddies.”

  Jericho winced. “That sounded more Scottish than Irish.”

  “I tried. Now fuck off,” Leon came back good-naturedly as he strode ahead of him toward the conservatory and his wife and baby son.

  Marisha glanced toward the doorway, immediately sensing Jericho’s presence. As if there was an invisible string between the two of them that alerted her whenever he was near.

  He looked tired from how busy he had been the past few days, but no less determined as he strode forcefully across the room toward her. “If you will excuse me, ladies.” He barely glanced at Carla and Janina as he took hold of Marisha’s hand and pulled her to her feet. “Marisha and I need to go somewhere and finish a previous conversation.”

  Carla, beautiful and dark-haired, chuckled knowingly at him as she handed their baby son into her husband’s waiting arms. “I believe the conservatory is warm, and, more important to the two of you, I’m sure, it’s also empty.”

  Jericho tersely nodded his thanks, his intense gaze fixed on Marisha. “Shall we?” he prompted gruffly.

  “Yes,” she accepted shyly.

  She almost had to run to keep up with Jericho’s much longer strides as he walked down the hallways, but she made no complaint. She was just as anxious to be alone with him again.

  Despite what she had told her father earlier, a part of her had started to wonder if she hadn’t imagined Jericho telling her he loved her when they were in Russia.

  Jericho left her in no doubt as to the sincerity of his feelings for her as, the moment they were alone amongst the heavy foliage in the conservatory, he swept her up into his arms and claimed her lips fiercely with his own.

  Being in Jericho’s arms again, being kissed by him and returning the heat of those kisses, with her arms about his neck and her legs wrapped about his waist, was every bit as breathtaking as Marisha remembered it being.

  Jericho devoured.

  Possessed.

  Claimed.

  Marisha devoured, possessed, and claimed him in return.

  Jericho was the one who ended the kiss to rest his forehead against hers. “God, I’ve missed you.”

  “Me too.” She tasted Jericho as she moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. “I’ve told my father I intend to stay in America.”

  “With me?” he prompted hopefully.

  She nodded. “If you want me to.”

  His arms tightened about her. “I’m never not going to want you with me.” He made those words a vow. “I love you, Marisha. I honestly never thought it would happen to me, but I love you so damned much. I’ve hated these past couple of days of having to concentrate on work instead of you.”

  She shrugged. “I know that an agreed peace between those organizations was very important for their future existence.”

  “Nothing is more important to me than you,” he assured her fiercely. “I just wanted to get all that out of the way, at the same time as giving you the time to spend with your father and sister, so that the two of us could go away somewhere and be alone together for a few days.”

  Her expression brightened. “Back to the cabin?”

  “You liked it there?”

  “I like what we did there,” she admitted huskily.

  Jericho chuckled before sobering. “I liked it too. I more than liked it.” He kept his arms possessively about her waist as he leaned back to look at her. “Marisha, will you marry me?”

  Her eyes widened. “Marry you…?” she repeated breathlessly.

  He nodded. “Before your father goes back to Russia, and with Janina and all our friends in attendance.” He settled her feet back on the ground before dropping down on one knee in front of her. “Will you marry me, Marisha? I don’t have a ring yet but—”

  Marisha’s fingers against his lips silenced him. “Yes, I will marry you, and we can buy identical wedding rings instead of an engagement ring.”

  Jericho’s heart seemed to expand until it occupied the whole of his chest cavity.

  He really hadn’t ever thought he would find a woman he would love with every part of him the way he knew he now loved Marisha.

  What he felt for her was everything.

  She was everything.

  He had no doubt she always would be.

  But she would be getting an engagement ring. An eternity ring too.

  Because nothing less than forever with Marisha would satisfy him.

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  About the Author

  Carole Mortimer is a USA Today Bestselling Author and recipient of the RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award 2015, RT Career Achievement Award 2017, RT Pioneer for Romance Award 2014. She was also recognized by Queen Elizabeth II in 2012 for her ‘outstanding service to literature’. Carole has written over 265 contemporary, Regency and paranormal romance novels.

  She is happily married to Peter. They have 6 sons, and live on the beautiful Isle of Man. She also loves to hear from Readers!

  Other books by Carole Mortimer

  Regency Scandal:

  WANTON (Regency Scandal 1)

  WILD (Regency Scandal 2)

  WAYWARD (Regency Scandal 3)

  More books to come in this series

  Russian Dragon Heat:

  VLADIMIR (Russian Dragon Heat 1)

  VAUGHN (Russian Dragon Heat 2)

  VIKTOR (Russian Dragon Heat 3)

  More books to come in this series.

  Regency Club Venus:

  Bastian’s Surrender (Regency Club Venus 1)

  Gabriel’s Torment (Regency Club Venus 2)

  Benedict’s Challenge (Regency Club Venus 3)

  Julius’s Passion (Regency Club Venus 4)

  James’s Lady (Regency Club Venus 5)

  Series now complete.

  Dance with the Devil Series: