The Tycoon's Toddler Surprise (12 page)

He moved closer, pressing her back against the wall.  “You’re doubting me?”

“Doubting is a strong word.  I don’t doubt your commitment to Victoria any longer.  But I think you’re trying to do something that your innate personality might not let you do.”

“
You
don’t
know how strong willed I can be,” he said as his hands moved up her hips to her waist, sliding
inside
her
robe
and making her wiggle and gasp. 

“I do!  I know exactly how determined and strong willed you can be!  That’s not the issue.”

“The issue is that you want to know me.  And I’m here to let you know me.  We’ll take it at your pace.  For a while.”

“And if my pace isn’t fast enough for you?”

He smiled as his hand reached up and cupped her breast, ignoring her hand that gripped his wrist.  “Then I’ll just have to figure out a way to speed up your pace.”

With that, he stepped back and picked up his
shirt, buttoning it quickly
.  He didn’t glace back as he walked out the front door, disappearing into the darkness of the
early morning
winter
cold
. 

Kristen took a deep breath and locked the door, pressing her forehead against the wood as she tried to get her body back under control.  It was going to be a long
day
, she thought as she turned
up the heat
and headed into her bedroom
for a long overdue shower
. 

Chapter
7

The knock on the door made Kristen roll over in bed and sigh.  “Not again,” she said to the cold air surrounding the warm cocoon of blankets her body was encased in.  There was no other word to describe Minnesota winter mornings but ‘painful’.  The air was so cold at times that it didn’t just condense one’s breath, it froze it as it came out of one’s mouth or nose. 

And now her winter loving neighbor was standing outside her door.  He hadn’t done this in a couple of weeks because he’d been up at his
homemade
shack ice fishing, a sport she couldn’t understand as enjoyable in any way but he seemed to love it.  Drilling a hole in two feet of ice to catch a starving fish and yank them up on a painful hook sounded horrid just at the beginning.  But apparently the enjoyment was the anticipation of the catch, Bob had explained
repeatedly in his attempt to
entice
her into joining him
. 

Like she needed that kind of torture
, she grumbled
, irritated t
hat he was now disturbing her anticipation of sleeping in on a Saturday morning after a painfully stressful week.  Didn’t he know what was going on over here?  She knew he watched her house, which would be creepy except that Bob watched
everyone’s
house.  The man was lonely and didn’t have a family. 

Probably because he spent too much time ice fishing she thought as she swung her legs over the side of her bed and searched for her slippers.  Cold feet did not touch cold floors, she knew.  Especially on a freezing morning and at…she glanced over at the clock and sighed…six o’clock in the morning. 

This was too early, she grumbled as she went down the hallway, tying her robe around her waist and pushing her hair out of her face as i
t
flopped back down over her forehead.  “That man better have a really good reason for getting me up so early on a Saturday when
there are
sub zero temperatures out there.”

Mikhail had been here every night for dinner, spending time with Victoria and driving her nuts with his constant presence.   After she’d been tucked into bed, he never failed to try and entice her into her own bed, with him as her interactive heater. 

She’d done that once, she reminded herself.  And no progress had been made.  She wouldn’t be a fool twice!  She had to stand her ground, to get him to trust her.   To help him realize that she wasn’t some bimbo who was out for his money but that she was a genuine partner he could rely on in a crunch. 

She peeked through the peep hole just to make sure and there stood
B
ob, the only thing showing
besides a mass of winter clothing
was his face which was grinning stupidly. 

“How does he know I’m standing here?” she thought
irritably
as she unbolted the door and released the chain. 

As the door swung open, the scent of cinnamon wafted to her, further waking her up.  “Okay, that’s a good enough reason,” she said out loud as she realized that Bob was holding not just
hot, freshly brewed
coffee, but also an apparently warm container with what she suspected
were
cinnamon rolls. 

“Kristen!  I’m so glad you’re up!” he said and pushed his way into the house.  “Feels great in here!” he said as he set the container onto the counter with his oven
mitts
, then proceeded to untangle himself from all the winter clothes he’d donned prior to
walking across the street to her
house.  “I hope you’re hungry.  I woke up this morning and just felt like baking.”

“Far be it for me to stop you from baking,” she said as she peered under the aluminum foil to peek at whatever he’d made.

“Stop that,” he said and smacked her hand away.   “I have to put the icing on before you can see,” and sure enough, out of one of his gigantic pockets came a huge container of something white that sloshed slowly against the side as he moved it. 

Kristen moved away quickly when he stepped in front of her so she resigned herself to being “surprised” and moved over to the thermostat.  It was programmed to a lower temperature overnight to save energy and money, but since she was up earlier than normal, it hadn’t reached ‘habitable’ yet.  She cranked the temperature up to a cozy sixty-six degrees then put the coffee on to percolate. 

She watched in fascination as Bob poured a thick layer of white icing all over the top of the warm cinnamon rolls, the
heat
of the rolls melting the icing and turning it clear as it drizzled down into all the little crevices, enhancing the scent even further.

By the time he was finished, Kristen’s mouth was already watering.  When a tiny little head peeked around the corner, Kristen laughed and shook her head.  “Not until you have some fruit, sweetie,” she said to Victoria, whose
mischievous
smile immediately disappeared.  “
And
you need your slippers.”

Victoria disappeared and
Kristen
heard her feet running down the hallway in search of her slippers.  How that child could walk around on hard wood floors in this kind of cold was beyond Kristen, but she knew it was a rule that she must have something on her feet at all times during the winter, even if she tried to sneak around without them.  Kids just loved having their toes free, she supposed.

A moment later, Victoria reappeared and climbed into her chair, waiting patiently as Kristen cut up an apple into bit
e
sized pieces.  Victoria ate the pieces as fast as her mother put them on her plate, knowing she’d get a treat for breakfast after the pain of having some nutrition was overcome. 

“Where were you Bob?  I haven’t seen you around lately,” Kristen said as she ate her own apple, smiling after Bob refused one himself. 

“Fishing, of course,” he said as he reached up into a cabinet for three plates.  He then proceeded to regale Victoria and Kristen with tales of his fishing expeditions and all the fish he’d caught.  Thankfully he saved the gory details until they were finished with their amazingly
delici
ous
and perfectly sweet cinnamon rolls. 

When the doorbell rang at seven o’clock, she just a
ssumed it was one of her siblings
and went to answer it.  The sun was fully up by now and the house was much warmer than it had been the last time she opened the door.  Unfortunately, the air outside her home wasn’t so warm so when she opened it to see Mikhail on her doorstep, she simply reached out, grabbed him by the middle of his jacket and pulled him inside before slamming the door behind him.

The stunned look on his face was almost comical but she simply shrugged.  “Too cold for niceties,” she explained as she gripped the folds of her flannel robe more tightly around herself. 

Mikhail couldn’t believe he was literally being dragged into the house.  It was brutally cold outside and, as he looked down at her, he liked the way she looked all warm and cozy, as if she’d just gotten out of bed.  He wanted to pull her into his body, to find her warmth a
nd heat himself up with her
. 

Then he took another look at her.

“What the hell are you wearing?” he demanded, taking in her plaid, flannel robe that covered her from her neck all the way down to her toes.  Toes which he couldn’t see because she had some sort of hideous looking slippers on.  Also plaid.  A plaid that didn’t match her robe. 

As she walked into the kitchen, he caught sight of what was underneath the robe and was astonished to see some sort of flannel pants.  Which also didn’t match the robe. 

Kristen turned back to face him, suddenly self conscious of her pajamas and tattered robe.  She refused to let him see that though and pulled her shoulders back as if she were wearing silk like she used to wear with him.  Although, now that she thought about it, the silk she’d put on for bed had rarely stayed on.  He’d torn several of her
negligees
off.  Not that she’d minded at the time.

Looking up into his eyes, she could tell that he was remembering the same thing.

“Don’t do it,”
she said, and put a hand out to ward him off in case her warning didn’t sink in fast enough.

“Don’t do what?” he asked, taking a step forward, pressing her back up against the wall of her tiny foyer. 

“Don’t do what I know you’re thinking about doing?”

“What might I be thinking, Kristen?” he asked softly, his voice now husky with the desire that was also lighting his eyes. 

“It doesn’t matter what you’re thinking.  Because Victoria is in the kitchen.”

“Victoria can wait a moment,” he said as his head slowly started to descend, his intention obvious. 

“So is Bob!” she gasped as his hands started to circle her waist.

That stopped him cold and his head came up a fraction of an inch.  “I hope Bob is some sort of dog or pet,” he replied ominously. 

Kristen couldn’t help the giggle that escaped at the idea of describing Bob as a pet.  “In a way,” she said, relieved that the sexual tension had now been broken.  His hands were still burning holes through her embarrassing robe, but at least he wasn’t about to kiss her.  Which she knew wouldn’t stop at a kiss. 

“Bob is my neighbor.”

He hesitated for a moment as he absorbed that information.  “And he
’s in your house at seven o’clock
in the morning?”

“Of course.”

Mikhail could feel the jealousy burning in his gut but then stopped himself.  Remembering this feeling from when she’d first left, the nights when he pictured Kristen in some other man’s arms, doing to her what he’d always done to her, what he wanted to do to her and images that had torn him up, driven him insane.  And all that time, she’d actually been struggling to keep their unborn child alive, or to shuttle her to school or to ballet classes or some other event.  Tamping down the jealousy, he took a deep breath, his hands unconsciously clenching her waist as he tried to remain calm. 

“I fail to understand why it should be so obvious that a man should be in my wife’s house so early on a Saturday morning.”

Kristen
watched with amazement as he looked down at her.  For the first time in their relationship, she could see the emotions crossing his face.  She was stunned to realize that Mikhail, the man she’d always thought was emotionless, who only showed mild amusement at times or passion when during sex, was actually jealous.  Her heart sung with hope as she watched him fight the feelings, and actually struggle to remain in control. 

“Bob’s just a friend and he brought over delicious cinnamon rolls that are still warm.  Would you like one?” she asked, stepping away and moving into the kitchen.

Mikhail watched as his wife walked into her cozy kitchen filled with early morning sunshine that was intensified by reflecting off of the newly fallen snow.  Her cheeks were rosy and her hair still tumbled around her shoulders while his daughter was laughing happily at whatever some giant of a man was telling her. 

The man in question was probably six feet tall and built like a line backer.  Mikhail was still taller and broader, but the man obviously was making a play for his family.  The look in Bob’s eyes as he watched Kristen walk into the room showed that he was just as hungry for her body as Mikhail was. 

A new feeling, something that felt slightly different than jealousy roared to life inside his chest.  It wasn’t exactly jealousy and as he watched the man jump up and make room for Kristen, Mikhail realized that this was outright
possessiveness
.  Another new feeling and this one wasn’t so uncomfortable.  He leaned against the entryway, waiting until the man realized he was here.  It took several moments because he really onl
y had eyes for Kristen, his gaze
following her as she moved to the kitchen cabinets and took down another plate before putting a cinnamon roll on
it
.