Page 11 of Mafia Christmas Vows

Trembling, I turn.

My eyes widen.

Standing in the doorway of the room is the most handsome man I’ve ever seen.

And he’s staring at me with eyes that burn with pure, unfettered rage.

ALEXEI

Who the fuck let her into my mother’s rooms?

It’s the only thing that I can think. I arrived from Novgorod not half an hour ago. No one was at the front door to greet me, which I found more than a little annoying. I stomped through the house, determined to figure out where everyone was, and that’s when I saw my mother’s door open.

A door that I personally ordered to be shut, and never opened, nearly a decade ago.

When I sawheragainst the window, her silhouette dark against the brightness of the snow outside, it took me a minute to register that I wasn’t looking at a ghost.

It didn’t take too long.

My mother was tall, willowy. The person standing in the window isn’t. She’s short, with a riot of dark hair that curls around her face and picks up light, forming kind of a halo that I’m stuck on. Her curvy figure makes my fingers itch, and I want nothing more than to reach out and wrap my hands around the lush landscapeof her hips, not to mention the dip between her ribs and her ass…

What the hell? Who is she? What is she doing here?

“Who the fuck let you in here?” I snarl at her.

It’s obvious that this is her. The American girl. I know every member of my household, so there’s no one else who could be here.

In my mother’s room.

Looking out the windows that she loved.

The memories of her are so crisp for me here, it’s almost painful to look around the room.

And she just… walked in.

Like she fucking owns the place.

“I… sorry… I didn’t know…” the girl says.

Her voice is nice. Her English is coated in that atrocious American twang that I can’t seem to escape these days, but the softness of her words and the richness of her tone makes something in my chest tighten.

“You didn’t know,” I deadpan.

“No. I mean. How could I possibly have known? I just came in here because I got lost.”

“You got lost,” I repeat.

She huffs. “Well yeah of course I got lost! This house is freaking huge. Elena was showing me the portraits and all of that shit andthen I wanted to go back to my room to call my mom and then…” her voice trails off.

I arch an eyebrow. “Do go on.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

She gulps.

“You’re him, aren’t you?

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