His laughter followed me, and I slammed the door shut before flipping the lock just in case he actually followed. It wouldn’t surprise me if he did. For a man who claimed to have the patience of a saint, he’d proven repeatedly how untrue that was. And while I normally liked it, this was not one of those times when I wanted him to get all possessive and impatient.

  Sitting on the toilet, I quickly took the test and then recapped the end of the stick. On shaky legs, I washed my hands and left the test on the countertop before returning to the bedroom to wait. The moment the door opened, Zak pulled me into his arms.

  Tears immediately started spilling down my face. “I’m scared,” I whispered.

  He tightened his arms around me and kissed my brow. “Of what, dorogaya?”

  “I-I never thought about being a mom before. I won’t be very good at it. And…” I swallowed a sob and cleared my throat. “And we’ve only been dating for a few weeks. You’re going to think I trapped you. I swear I didn’t, Zak. Please believe me.”

  “I would never think you wanted to trap me,” he murmured, his tone tender as he kissed me softly. When he lifted his head, his golden eyes were serious as they locked with mine. “I love you, Sofia. If you’re pregnant, nothing would make me happier. If you’re not, then we can take our time. Because I am never letting you go.”

  “Zak,” I choked out. “I love you too.”

  His nostrils flared on his sharp inhale. “Then marry me, lyubimaya. Say yes now, before we know the results, so you will know that it’s you I want for now and always, and not just because you might be carrying my child.”

  I couldn’t see through my tears as I looked up at him, already nodding. “Yes,” I sobbed. “Yes, Zak. I love you so much. I’ll marry you.”

  “Today?” he asked hopefully, making me laugh through my tears.

  “Do you want my mother to murder you? She’s going to want a huge wedding, just like my brother had.”

  “I forbid it,” he groused. “Something small and quick. I want—no, I fucking need you as my wife. Now.”

  I pouted out my bottom lip, more for the sake of my mom than any real desire for a huge wedding. I loved my mother too much to disappoint her. She deserved to get the chance to throw me the beautiful wedding she’d been planning from the moment I became her daughter. “It would make me really happy if we had a nice wedding,” I told him. “With a wedding dress and our families to celebrate with us. I promise it won’t take long to plan.”

  His eyes narrowed, but I quivered my chin just enough to win him over. “Fine,” he huffed in exasperation. “You get a month, but no longer.”

  “Deal!” I threw my arms around his neck. “Thank you, babe. This will mean so much to my mom.”

  The timer I’d set went off before he could growl a reply. Fear and a little excitement fluttered in my stomach as he took my hand, and we walked into the bathroom together to see if we were going to be parents.

  Seeing the “Pregnant” on the screen made the air whoosh out of my lungs, but when Zak saw it, he released a laugh that warmed me from the inside out. All my nervousness at the thought of being a mother disappeared in the face of his happiness.

  Maybe starting a family so early in our relationship was a good thing.

  Zak

  Four weeks should only have been long enough to put together a small, intimate wedding. Instead, Victoria Volkov wasted no time and had planned one of New York’s weddings of the century. It definitely would have impressed me if it weren’t for the fact that now the press was covering my marriage.

  Security had to be tightened, not only for my bride-to-be and me, but also for our families. As the small list of people I’d invited began to arrive, the number of men I had surrounding Sofia any time she was outside the walls of our brownstone or not at her parents’ compound were doubled.

  Oleksandr and Olena, along with Yulia and Volodymyr, checked in to their hotel just a few days before the wedding, but both Olena and Yulia were invited to participate in last-minute wedding preparations. Before they left to meet up with Sofia and her family for the final dress fitting, I reminded them both to keep their mouths shut about who they were to Sofia.

  Olena pressed her lips into a hard line but gave me an affirming nod as she grabbed her silent daughter, and the two left with their own security detail, leaving me alone with my bride-to-be’s biological father and maternal grandfather.

  “Well,” Oleksandr said with a huge grin as he rubbed his hands together from the chair in the penthouse suite I’d reserved for both couples. “I knew you wouldn’t let me down, Zakhar, but I didn’t imagine you could pull this off so quickly. This is perfect. Christmas with my entire family under one roof for the first time will be magical. Maybe by then, you will also be announcing the girl’s pregnancy.”

  I gritted my teeth but gave him a hard smile. “Perhaps we will.”

  The fact that Sofia was already pregnant was something we’d decided to keep to ourselves for the moment. She wanted everyone to focus on the wedding preparations and not coddle her because of her condition. I didn’t want Oleksandr to know I’d had sex with his granddaughter before marriage. It would piss him off, and a pissed-off Oleks was unpredictable.

  The old bastard wouldn’t take his anger out on me, though. I was too important to him and his future goals. Plus, he’d taught me well, and he knew that I would give as good as he gave. No, I was more worried that he would run his damn mouth and Sofia would learn things I wasn’t yet ready to tell her. If I ever would be. She didn’t need to know that the reason I’d come in search of her, that I’d pursued her and made her fall for me, had more to do with her grandfather’s scheming than any real desire for her myself.

  At least, that was how it had started.

  Now, I couldn’t imagine my life without her. She was a part of me. The reason my heart beat in my chest.

  Losing her because someone couldn’t keep their mouth shut about what was really going on behind closed doors wasn’t an option. If Oleksandr—or anyone else, for that matter—caused me to lose Sofia, no one would be able to save them from my wrath. A wrath that was not only nurtured into me by Oleks himself, but a part of my nature as a Morozov.

  It didn’t matter that the Davydov family had been the ones to raise me. I might have respect and love for them, but what I felt for Sofia was incomparable. She was more important. Not just because she was the mother of my child, but because she was my goddamn soul.

  Oleksandr wouldn’t fully comprehend that kind of love, however, and I wasn’t about to school him on my emotions for his granddaughter yet. There wasn’t enough time before the wedding to make him understand.

  Across from his new father-in-law, Volodymyr gave him a disgusted glance before turning his focus back to me. His eyes softened when they locked with mine, but not by much. He knew about Oleksandr’s plans and didn’t approve. That didn’t mean he’d tried to intervene and stop any of it, though. I didn’t know if it was because he was scared of either the older man or me, or if perhaps Yulia had asked him to stay out of it. Maybe it was even that his own arranged marriage hadn’t been all that horrible—at least, not in comparison to how Yulia’s to my brother had been.

  Before he could speak his mind, I turned our conversation away from whatever he was about to say, not in the mood to deal with him any more than I was Oleksandr. “Are Nikolai and Nikita not coming?”

  “They are spending a few weeks with their maternal grandparents. Since their mother’s death, I share custody with them so my children will know her side of the family.”

  “Good thinking, considering that Nikita looks so much like the girl,” Oleksandr muttered into his glass of vodka. “There is no denying you are the girl’s father, Yanukovych.”

  “Her name is Sofia,” I snapped at the man who had raised me. “I suggest you get used to saying it. If you insult her in any way, you can kiss goodbye all thoughts of us living under the same roof with you and Olena.”

  The way the old man rolled his eyes reminded me so much of the woman I loved that it distracted me for a few moments. Then Oleks set his glass down hard. “Fine. Sofia.” He practically spat her name. “That’s not the name her mother gave her, though.”

  “It’s the name the orphanage gave her to make it harder for anyone to find her once she turned eighteen,” Volodymyr reminded him. “Something Yulia made sure they would do when she gave our baby up for adoption. To keep her safe. From you.”

  “I prefer the original name Yulia gave her,” Oleksandr continued, ignoring his son-in-law completely. “Draya has a better ring to it.”

  “The fact that, in Greek, it is derived from the name Alexander has nothing to do with it,” Volodymyr muttered, more to himself than anyone else, since the older man typically pretended he wasn’t even in the room.

  “Yulia named her child after her father, like the good daughter that she is.”

  “Her name is Sofia now, and that is the one you will use,” I barked.

  My cell rang as the old man opened his mouth to argue with me. Taking it from my pocket, I saw who it was and lifted my hand to cut off Oleksandr’s bitching before lifting it to my ear. “Hello, dragotsennyy,” I greeted, my voice quieter, softer than it had been only moments before.

  “I’ve changed my mind. Let’s elope.”

  The exasperation in her voice made me narrow my eyes even as a grin lifted my lips. All week, she’d been saying something similar. The last of the wedding preparations were exhausting for her, but I knew this was what she wanted, so it was what she was going to get. “What can I do to make this easier for you?”

  It was what I asked every time she came to me with such frustration in her tone.

  I heard her sniffle, and I clenched my fingers around the phone. “The dress has to be taken in another inch because I’ve lost more weight—stupid morning sickness,” she whispered so only I could hear her. “My mother and aunts all think I’m starving myself and have been giving me the third degree about eating properly, especially Mom. My veil has a tear in it, and no one is admitting to causing it, but it’s going to take even more time for them to fix it than it will to alter my dress. Stupid family heirlooms.”

  “Lyubimaya—”

  “On top of all of that, I’m nervous to meet your surrogate mother and sister,” she interrupted, sniffling once again. “But most of all, I haven’t seen you since before dawn this morning because you had that early meeting. And I really just want a kiss. But everyone is saying you can’t come here because I’m still in this damned dress and it’s bad luck for you to see me in it.”

  My chest tightened almost painfully. “Olena and Yulia are going to adore you,” I promised her. “How could they not? It only took a matter of hours before I fell in love with you, dragotsennyy.” More sniffling filled my ear, and I could picture her chin trembling, making my body begin to quake at the thought of her tears. “I want you to stand still for the seamstress, my love. Just a little longer and then you will be out of that dress. I promise you, the moment you are back in the clothes you arrived in, I will be there to wrap my arms around you.”

  Behind me, I heard Oleksandr chortle, as if he were eating up the entertainment of the supposed lie I was feeding his granddaughter. But the old fucker had no idea that not a single word was fake.

  “Swear?” she whispered, but it didn’t hide how vulnerable she sounded.

  “I swear.” I started for the door, not sparing either man another glance or word. “See you soon.”

  “I love you,” she murmured, the sniffle not as noticeable this time.

  “I love you more.”

  A soft laugh escaped her, easing some of the tightness around my heart. “Not possible. Be safe getting to me. I really need that kiss.”

  Half an hour later, I walked into the dress shop. Victoria and her twin, Scarlett, along with Anya Vitucci and Allegra De Stefano, rushed out of their seats the moment I stepped inside, surrounding me so I couldn’t make it past the door.

  “Did she call you?” Victoria demanded with an amused huff.

  “Of course she did,” Anya answered before I could open my mouth. “She’s been all over the place from the moment we picked her up this morning. Then his family showed up, and she turned green from the nerves.”

  “I missed her,” I told my future mother-in-law, refusing to tell her that Sofia had, indeed, called me. “I haven’t seen her all day.”

  “Leave him alone, Victoria. The poor man needs his fix,” Allegra said with a girlish giggle. “We are all well aware of how that is. Dante stopped by only an hour ago to do nothing more than kiss me. And Adrian was here most of the afternoon. He said it was because he wanted to see Sofia in her dress, but his gaze barely left you.”

  “She should be out soon,” Scarlett assured me, her amusement just as obvious as the other women’s. “Tavia and my daughters are helping her change out of the dress.”

  Anticipation at seeing Sofia spiked up my heart rate, but I glanced around, expecting to see Olena and Yulia. Not spotting either, I stiffened.

  “They were tired from the long flight,” Anya informed me when she noticed my gaze traveling around the sitting area. “Seeing Sofia in her dress appeared to take a lot out of both women. They couldn’t stop crying. Victoria encouraged them to return to their hotel and rest until the rehearsal dinner tomorrow night.”

  “It was incredibly sweet to see them so emotional over your bride,” Allegra said with a happy sigh. “I think their happiness for you just sent them into a tailspin, and they couldn’t contain themselves.”

  I wasn’t sure if it was as she said or because it was Yulia’s first time seeing her daughter in the flesh since giving birth to her. For Olena, she adored her step-grandchildren, but she’d given up hope of having a biological grandchild years ago. Coming face-to-face with the granddaughter she’d always hoped for must have made it difficult to contain her feelings. The emotional overload for both women must have been too much for either to contain.

  Giggles caught my attention, and I looked over my soon-to-be in-laws’ heads to see Tavia Volkov exit a dressing room with Zariah and Ciana Donati. Right behind the youngest redhead, Sofia appeared. Dressed in a knee-length black dress, with her hair flowing over her shoulders, she was so damn beautiful that I couldn’t stop my reaction to her. Thankfully, all eyes were on the girls walking our way, and my suit jacket covered the evidence of how hard my body got at just the sight of my love.

  Seeing me standing there with her family, Sofia gave a happy cry and practically bulldozed her way through her cousins and aunts before throwing herself against me. The moment her arms wrapped around my neck and she pressed her forehead to my chest, inhaling deeply, my world seemed to shift. Everything aligned perfectly. Nothing else mattered except holding her, protecting her and our unborn child, and ensuring she was happy every minute of the day.

  Fuck Oleksandr and his goals.

  I had goals of my own now, and they all revolved around making sure Sofia never stopped loving me.

  Sofia

  Anxiety and morning sickness did not go hand in hand. If anything, it only spiked my urge to vomit higher. As we sat in the back of the town car in front of the restaurant where the rehearsal dinner was going to take place, sweat broke out across my upper lip and brow. Nausea roiled in my stomach and tried to climb into the back of my throat.

  With fingers that shook, I popped another antacid and slowly chewed as I leaned my head back against the seat and closed my eyes, praying I wouldn’t puke during this dinner with both our families. I couldn’t embarrass myself in front of the few people Zak trusted enough to invite to our wedding. The people he loved and called family.

  He’d told me all about how Yulia had fought for him and gotten custody of him following her divorce from his brother. How her own parents had become the only true parents he’d ever had. Until then, he’d never known what a real family was. They didn’t have to love me, at least not right away, but I wanted them to like me, if only just a little.

  If they didn’t, things were going to be really strained because Zak had talked me into going to stay with Olena and Oleksandr until the holidays, following our short honeymoon. It was mostly so Zak could take care of business back in his home country before we returned to New York to spend Christmas and New Year’s with my family. But it meant a lot of time under the same roof as the older couple. The people who were essentially about to become my in-laws.

  Meeting Olena and Yulia the day before had been nice. Yulia had burst into tears the moment she’d seen me standing there in my wedding dress. Her mother hadn’t been far behind in the waterworks, nearly sobbing as they both hugged me and told me how happy they were that I was going to be joining their family.

  It had been sweet, and I appreciated their being so welcoming. But I had yet to meet either of their husbands. Oleksandr had called Zak earlier that morning, while we were still in bed, and I’d heard the old man’s voice. He’d been speaking Russian, but I’d understood him perfectly. I might not have a hint of an accent, but I’d grown up in a multilingual home. Italian and Russian were equally my first languages just as much as English was.

  I’d only caught every other word of what he’d said and figured it was to do with work. Oleksandr wanted Zak to work the day before our wedding, just as he expected my husband to work as soon as we got back from our honeymoon. Well, I had news for my soon-to-be father-in-law. Zak could work, but he wasn’t going to do it day and night. He was mine now, and there was a limit to how many hours of the day I would willingly share his attention.

  Zak was aware that I wanted him home more often than not, especially once the baby was born. We were going to be a family, damn it. I had no plans of basically being a single mother, raising a child while my husband worked eighteen-hour days. My parents had shown me what marriage and parenthood were supposed to be like. A partnership.

  He’d promised me that would be what we would have. Love and respect, fifty-fifty in doing the work when it came to raising our children, and no one—absolutely no one—came before the two of us and our babies.