Not knowing what to make of his attitude, if he was angry about her siccing them on him, or taunting her about her effort’s failure, she arched an eyebrow. “Should’ve saved my breath. They turned out to be neither savage nor big and bad. You neutralized them as if by magic.”
His lips twitched as he kneeled where the girls indicated at the edge of their sandbox, clearly unconcerned by the damages his handmade suit would certainly suffer.
With a shovel in hand, he slanted her another glance that set her insides quivering. “No spells were involved. But I applaud your effort. It was a very sound strategy. That it didn’t work doesn’t make it any less so.”
Was he...entertained by her struggle against him? Teasing her about its futility? If he was, it was a more understated form of provocation than anything he’d ever exposed her to. And whether she was more susceptible now, or he was more potent, it was far more...unsettling.
“Join me in building a castle for our princesses?”
For several long seconds she could only stare at him. It had just dawned on her.
Eva and Zoya were actual princesses.
When one daunting eyebrow prodded a response from her, she made herself move. She came down on her knees far enough from him to keep her agitation at manageable levels, but close enough to work with him, if need be. The girls flitted between them, handing them tools, then climbing inside to make their own little molds as she and Leonid started collaborating on something intricate.
Trying to focus on what they were doing, she said, “I’ve never attempted anything elaborate, since their appreciation takes the form of destructive admiration. Then they’re crestfallen when my creations crumble.”
He shrugged those endless shoulders. “I’ll try to make them realize how to preserve it, but if they level it or it’s time to replace it, I’ll make them understand I’ll build them another. In time, I’ll teach them how to build their own.”
“You seem certain you can get all this across.”
“I am. They’re extremely intelligent and very receptive.”
She almost blurted out that while they were indeed intelligent, she’d only seen this level of receptiveness directed at him. But she held her tongue. The admission would only complicate matters further.
From then on, there were stretches of silence between them as they worked, with Leonid taking the lead, creating a castle that looked like a miniature of a real one in every detail. Then, true to his conviction, he curbed the girls’ appetite for destruction, encouraging them to expend their excitement in making flower and animal molds to surround it.
Then it was time for the girls’ dinner, and he pounced on the chance to feed them, insisting on handling the soup part. He managed to complete the task with even less mess than she usually did. And he’d turned the whole thing into another game, pointing to kitchen articles with each spoonful, getting names in English, correcting and translating what the girls didn’t know. The girls competed to provide answers, and get Papa’s attention and appreciation.
An hour after dinner, two hours after their bedtime, the girls lost the fight to prolong their wakefulness to remain with Leonid. And they again did something unprecedented. Instead of turning to her, they went to him, arms raised, demanding to be picked up. At once complying, he gathered them in a secure hold, where they both promptly dozed off.
Without a word, she led him to the nursery, where he placed them, one after the other, in their cribs. She stood with bated breath, waiting to see what he’d do next as he remained standing over them, his eyes wells of mystery in the dimness.
At length, he bent and kissed them. Each girl gave a contented gurgle at his tender caress before assuming her favorite sleeping position.
Straightening, he led the way out of the room, then headed straight for the door. He didn’t look her way until he’d opened it and stepped outside.
“Thank you for tonight.”
With that, he turned and slowly walked down the steps. In a minute, he climbed into his car and drove away.
Closing the door, she automatically armed her security system, turned off the lights and headed to her room.
It was only after she’d gone through her nighttime routine and slipped into bed that she let it all crash on her. Everything he’d said and done all through the evening, everything about him.
Nothing made sense anymore.
For two years, the last thing she’d wanted was Leonid near again. Now, she was forced to face the truth.
She’d wanted him to come near tonight. So much that his pointed avoidance of her had felt like a knife in her gut. It still twisted there now.
She might have been able to handle it if she’d had any hope he would stay away from her altogether. But after this incredible first meeting between him and her...his...their daughters, she knew there was no hope for that.
Leonid would be in their lives. If everything she’d felt from him toward the girls tonight was real, and she couldn’t doubt it was, she could no longer deny him, or them, that reality.
Which meant he would be in her life, too, maybe even forever.
The only man she’d ever wanted.
When he’d long stopped wanting her.
Four
A rewind button had yanked Kassandra back into her worst days—only with an even darker twist. For this time, it wasn’t Leonid discarding her, leaving her desolate and then disappearing. He was now planning to stay around forever.
After she’d thought she’d been cured of any emotions she’d felt for him, she’d woken up today with her resolve to stay neutral pulverized. It had taken him exactly four hours last night to show her how self-deluding she’d been, how susceptible to his magic she remained. How pathetic she was.
If only he’d lived up to her expectations, had been the unfeeling entity he’d been with her, with the girls. It would have given her ammunition to stop him coming near them again. It would have saved her from stumbling back into the abyss of longing. But he’d been...perfect.
Worse, they’d all been perfect together. It had been like she’d watched scattered pieces of a vital whole finally clicking together. She of all people recognized and realized the significance of what she’d witnessed. Her very self had been built around a tight relationship with her father as much as her mother. She knew exactly how wonderful such a relationship could be, how essential a loving paternal influence was. And just by being wonderful with the girls, he’d snatched away her last weapon against him, that of his potential disruptiveness to the girls’ psyches and lives. Now she had to let him be the girls’ father, as she could no longer doubt he truly wanted to be. She had to let the girls have him as the other half of their world, while trying to preserve her sanity with him around. But now that she’d discovered her unilateral fixation with him had never weakened, she had no idea how she’d achieve that.
Dwelling on that terrible fate had to be postponed. Now she had work to do, far more than usual since she hadn’t worked a lick since he’d reappeared. The summer line wouldn’t approve itself and put itself into production.
Walking into her design house’s new headquarters, she concentrated on being attentive and friendly with each and every one of her employees. She’d done it wholeheartedly so many times she could do it on autopilot now.
Reaching her office, she thought she’d escaped with her turmoil undetected, anxious to plunge into work, the only thing that would ameliorate it. But the moment she entered, she knew salvaging her schedule would have to wait. Right there in her sitting area were three of the people her staff knew to let into her private space without question.
Her best friends.
It should have been a shock to find them here, as dropping by her office on a whim was no longer something they did with her on the other side of the continent. It should have at least been a surprise. It was neither. Seemed Leonid had depleted her reserves for shock and surprise for the foreseeable future.
Bracing herself for what she knew would come, she plastered a smile back onto her face.
Selene was the first to rise to her feet, despite being the most heavily pregnant of them all. Yes, they were all pregnant. Again. Selene and Caliope were now on their third babies. Naomi, too, even if it was only her second biological one, with her first child being her late sister’s.
After kissing and hugging her, Caliope and Naomi let Selene, as her oldest friend, lead the interrogation.
Selene shot her opening salvo, getting to the point at once. “What exactly is going on with Leonid?”
Kassandra’s lips twisted. “You tell me. Your husbands are the ones who have answers.”
Something that resembled annoyance tinged Selene’s deep blue eyes. “They haven’t been forthcoming, for the first time since the days they were closed-off icebergs. Each aggravating man only said it’s for the best that you and Leonid work this out alone.”
Kassandra flopped down on an armchair across from the couch where they sat facing her like a tribunal. “And you clearly disagree and that’s why you’re here.”
“You scared the hell out of us when you called!” Caliope exclaimed. “We’ve never heard you so distressed. And when it comes to you, even our men’s words aren’t enough.”
Naomi nodded, looking as concerned. “We had to get the final word from the source.”