Rose's POV

When I woke up the next morning, I wasn't sure if it was because of the heavenly smell that wafted through the air, or the sound of little giggles coming from somewhere nearby.

"Shhh!" I heard a small voice whisper. You're gonna wake her up!"

I smiled to myself when I realized it was Paul and the girls.

"Wake who up?" I asked loudly startling the 3 miniature humans who were peeking through the crack in the door. They quickly slammed it shut and ran down the stairs laughing, so I shuffled out of the bed to follow.

"I'm so sorry Roza; I hope they didn't wake you." Dimitri's sister Sonya apologized when I entered the kitchen.

Dimitri talked nonstop about his mother's exceptional cooking skills and judging by the amazing smells I couldn't wait to find out first hand.

"Don't worry about it." I assured her, taking an empty seat at the kitchen table. "I think it was more of the delicious smells that did it." I told her, earning an award winning smile from Olena.

"Bilini." She told me placing a huge stack of thin looking pancakes in front of me.

"Eat up sweetheart. And don't worry I made plenty. Dimka told me you have a very healthy appetite."

Damn that sexy Russian.

Blushing I started in on the pancakes.

Hey I might be embarrassed but I was still hungry, and in all fairness they had been warned.

"Speaking of Dimitri, where is he?" I asked after devouring an un-lady like amount of food.

"With the She-Devil" Yeva muttered from her spot at the end of the table. She'd been so quiet I'd forgotten she was there.

"Mama!" Olena chastised before turning back to me. "He and Tasha went out for an early run."

Ugh. Tasha.

I knew she was his friend and partner at work, but the woman could be a real bitch. Not to mention I'm pretty sure she hates my guts.

After breakfast I decided a shower was in order and when I came back down stairs Paul was nearly bouncing off the walls waiting for me to play with him.

"Roza are you ready!" he asked excitedly after I strapped my leg brace into place. I still couldn't walk for long periods of time without it.

"I'm ready Buddy, now what did you have in mind.?"

He wanted to watch the rest of the Christmas movies, but after thinking about my mother last night I had a better idea.

"How would you feel about making some cookies while we watched them? We could put them on in the back living room that way you can see them from the kitchen." I suggested.

When I was a little girl it was a tradition on Christmas Eve that my mother and I would get up early and make sugar cookies from scratch. We'd make the dough and use cookie cutters and once they cooled we'd do the silliest decorations on them.

"Now that sounds like a wonderful idea! Olena clapped rushing back into the kitchen to set up the supplies.

An hour later the dough was hard enough to roll out and we were giggling away in the kitchen. Olena had just about every Christmas cookie cutter known to mankind. There were teddy bears, bells, stars, trees, angels, gingerbread men and houses, and even a sleigh among a million others. Picking one up curiously off the counter Paul held it up to me.

"What's this?" he asked holding it up for my inspection.

"That's mistletoe" I told him while trying to help Yulia get a good grip on the teddy bear cutter in her hands.

"Like the kind Babushka has on the tree?"

I glanced over at the tree to double check.

"Yep"

"What's it for?" He asked, still not satisfied with the explanation.

"Well, you hold it over someone's head when you want to kiss them."

"Gross!" He shouted horrified. "Why would I want to do that?"

Shaking my head with laughter I was about to answer when a familiar husky voice chuckled from behind me.

"Trust me Paul, one day you'll meet someone and kissing won't seem like such a bad thing." Dimitri told his nephew as he moved to pull a glass from the cabinet.

He had just gotten back from his run and I could see the sweat glistening on his forehead and neck, and damn did he look sexy. When he turned back around our eyes locked into an intense staring contest and I mentally slapped myself when appraising his physique caused me to lick my lips. The only thing that made the humiliation bearable was that Dimitri mimicked the gesture in return.

"Have you ever kissed Roza?"

Both of our gazes snapped back to the curious little boy in the room and Dimitri turned the color of Santa's red sleigh.

"I'm sorry what?" Dimitri asked, probably in effort to buy himself some time.

"I asked if you've ever kissed Roza." Paul repeated with nothing but curiosity on his face.

"Um, No." he finally answered looking down at his feet.

"Huh." Paul said with a thoughtful expression. "Well you should."

And just like that he dropped the subject completely returning to the cookies, and completely oblivious to the sexual tension in the room.