Modern Romance June 2016 Books 1-4. Maisey Yates

you...but at the end of it all I will still love you very, very much. As long as the mess up doesn’t involve another woman,’ she qualified hastily, lest he think he could be forgiven for any sin.

      Nikolai wrapped both arms round her very tightly and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. ‘No other women,’ he said gruffly, because he could hardly get breath into his deflated lungs. ‘I need all my energy for you.’

      Ella gazed up at him with a smile that was like the sun breaking through the clouds. ‘So... I own you?’

      His eyes were melted caramel. ‘That’s what it feels like sometimes.’

      ‘No, that’s being part of a couple,’ she argued, hugging him back with all her strength, tears prickling in her eyes because she was experiencing the most enormous sense of relief. He had given her the fairy tale by falling in love with her and he didn’t understand how it had happened any better than she did, but that didn’t matter, did it?

      ‘Are we hoping for a boy or a girl?’ Nikolai asked, long fingers splaying across her defiantly flat stomach.

      ‘We don’t get to choose. I don’t mind either way,’ she muttered abstractedly as she brushed her lips back and forth very gently across his.

      ‘Neither do I...’ Nikolai growled, rising from the chair with her still gripped in his arms. ‘You can have a dozen kids if I get to keep you.’

      ‘Not thinking in terms of that many,’ Ella declared, succumbing to a passionate kiss that sent tingles all the way to her toes. ‘Are we going to bed?’

      ‘Can’t wait to make you mine again, latria mou,’ Nikolai husked against her reddened lips. ‘You gave me such a scare today. I need to know you’re still my wife. You have to put your rings back on.’

      ‘I’ll think about it,’ she teased, revelling in the sense of power he was giving her because it was wonderful to know and accept that she was so wanted, so loved, so valued.

      ‘When I married you my only wish was to make you happy,’ he admitted. ‘And then today—’

      ‘That’s behind us now,’ Ella interrupted. ‘And you’re about to make me incredibly happy by telling me that you love me again.’

      ‘Do I really have to keep on saying it?’ Nikolai groaned.

      ‘Yes, that’s your penance...’ Ella whispered as he laid her down on their bed and stared down at her with a fierce appreciation she could feel right down to the marrow of her bones. Yes, he loved her. She could see it, she could feel it and it felt amazing...