Her Russian Brute: 50 Loving States, Idaho (33 page)

Alexei stared into his empty gelato bowl. “But now I can see these dreams I spun for us were the fantasies of a boy. My uncle would not have let me live my life as I saw fit, no matter what I saw for us. It is good you left me the way you did, because I would not have worked as hard to make Rustanov a legitimate enterprise if you had not. Because of you, I am the one who holds all the power now, not him.”

“So you’re no longer a criminal organization?” she asked.

“No,” he answered. “We have not been since I officially took over. I used my American business education combined with my Russian criminal one to rebuild the Rustanov organization into a lawful business. I made timely investments. While my classmates ran after the next big thing in America, I looked to my Russia’s untapped potential: metals, natural resources, media, and the like. I did the right things at the right time and it all paid off. Eventually, I was able to move into the American markets as well, which is why I chose to relocate to New York. Even though I had made my first millions in Russia, I was ready to leave it behind.”

He pushed his gelato bowl away. “But you should know,
kotenok
, I have never taken a life lightly. The first time was to avenge my father.” He finally looked up at her, his eyes full of sorrow and regret. “And the second time was to keep you and Aaron safe. My uncle will never come between us again.”

It took a moment for Eva to understand his meaning, but then she got it. “Your uncle is dead?”

He nodded. “I left to send the order and make sure he hadn’t already arranged a hit. It’s lucky you came to Italy and told me about his involvement when you did, because he’d already had a man headed to Texas to…I won’t say it. I do not want to think about what could have happened had you returned to Drummond or stayed on in South Padre as opposed to coming here.”

“So when you left, it wasn’t because you were angry?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Of course not. All these years, I had been telling myself to believe the words you wrote to me in that letter, to believe you had not loved me back then as I so loved you. I think much of my anger came from not just the thought of you leaving, but also not fully believing our relationship had meant nothing to you. After you left, I started having these dreams in which you came to me and told me it had all been a misunderstanding, that somehow you had not meant to leave me and you still loved me as I could not stop myself from loving you. Our two weeks on the island was the first time in the last eight years that I have not had this dream.

Though she’d had good reasons for putting him through that pain, it broke her heart to hear about it. “I’m so sorry, baby.”

He shook his head. “No, you have nothing to apologize for. I only tell you this, so you will understand how it is I believed you immediately. Knowing my uncle as I did, I’m sad to say your story made more sense than the fake one you gave me that night in the hotel or even the new one I had made up for myself on the plane ride over here. I threatened you because I was scared for you and also, because I needed to know where you were. Making the arrangements took a few hours, and I wanted to confirm my uncle was dead before returning here. It was the least I could do.”

She should have been horrified that Alexei could arrange such a thing, have his own flesh and blood killed without a moment of hesitation. However, waves of pure relief flooded through her. She had been so scared for so long because of this man that she couldn’t mourn him.

Still, she said, “But he was your uncle. And because of me you lost him.”

He nodded toward her plate, which still had a few uneaten slices of bread on it. “Are you done eating?”

“Yes, but—“

He came around the table and hauled her into his arms. Then he kissed her hard and long before saying, “He was my uncle, kotenok, but you are my heart. If you will have me back, I will always do everything within my power to protect you and our son. I will love you until the day I die, and I will never let anyone come between us again. I just hope you can love me, too, after everything that has happened, after how I treated you in South Padre, and after exposing you even further to my uncle…”

She covered his lips with her hand before he could go any further. “Baby, I love you, too. And I tell you what, I’ll forgive you everything if you grant me one wish.”

“Anything,
kotenok
.”

“Can I pretty please start calling you Lexie again?”

“Anything but that.”

“Wait a minute, but I said ‘pretty please’ and you said ‘anything’—“

He silenced her protestations with another kiss, and this time he didn’t stop kissing her until they heard Aaron clear his throat.

They looked up to see their son standing in the doorway a smirk on his face. “This means we’re
all
going to Disneyworld, right?”

O
NE hot summer
evening in late August, Alexei shifted the stack of newspapers under his arm to unlock the front door of their home in Drummond. It was the same two-story villa both his son and his wife had spent the majority of their lives in, except for a few notable exceptions. He and Eva had stripped all of her father’s hunting trophies and animal heads off the walls and tossed his heavy leather furniture. In its place, they’d put in bright, colorful retro furniture from the fifties, sixties, and seventies. It wasn’t quite to Alexei’s taste, but it had worked out to an even exchange since Eva hadn’t been too excited about him not only buying the houses on either side of the theirs, but enclosing the newly made compound inside a wrought iron gate with stone pillars stationed every feet. He’d also put in a state-of-the-art alarm system and a security booth, complete with full-time guards.

The life of a billionaire was filled with luxuries, but to be able to live anywhere without round-the-clock security wasn’t one of them.

He was just glad Eva’s parents no longer lived there, but in a sleepy retirement community near Dallas, which meant the house that had once been filled with judgment and recrimination, was now was filled with nothing but love and a considerable amount of brightly-hued furniture.

Technically, the town owned the house, and it was only on loan to the sitting mayor as a job perk. But since Eva had managed to garner an unparalleled job approval rating during her short time as mayor, Alexei doubted they’d be moving anytime soon.

“Hey, Dad,” Aaron said, when he came through the door. He was playing a videogame, something that involved logs, rivers, and a lot of jumping on the player’s part, but he paused it as soon as his father came in.

As usual, pride and love filled his heart when he saw Aaron after a long day, and he once again thanked God for aligning the stars so he could have him in his life. It pained him to think if Eva’s good friend and his business associate hadn’t made their unlikely marriage, he and Eva might never have met again, and who knew if his son would have ever sought him out?

But instead of going down the path of what might have been, he forced himself to go back on dad duty, which he’d discovered he thoroughly enjoyed over the past two years. “Does your mother know you are playing video games on a weeknight?”

“Yeah, it’s a reward for getting an A-plus on my math test today. And I only get to play for half and hour until the laundry’s done, then I have to fold it and go to bed.”

Alexei chuckled. Despite the fact that Eva was close on a deal that would bring a college to Drummond, he had the feeling Aaron would choose an out-of-town school if only to get out of laundry duty.

“Do you want me to help you fold?” Alexei asked. It had been one of the two days a week he drove into Dallas to conduct business there, and he was a little tired from the long commute home, but he was also proud of Aaron for doing so well on his math test.

“Nah, I’ve got it. Is that the newspaper?”

“You have not read it yet?” Alexei handed him the paper, which had a picture of Eva on the front, smiling in her Dad’s old office, which had also received a rather colorful redecoration. The article’s headline read, “MAYOR IN BLUE JEANS.” Alexei had already read the glowing feature about one of the nation’s few, black, female mayors, who had managed to bring a collection of new business to her sleepy Texas town in a relatively short time, and he was surprised Aaron hadn’t.

“Yeah, I read it online but not in the newspaper. You know Mama. She got busy and forgot to tell Berta to pick one up, and by the time I reminded her, it was too late. They were all gone.”

Of course they were. How often would a piece on their small town be featured on the front page of the Dallas Times? He was sure the limited number of copies printed in Drummond were gone before lunch time. Though her father had been taken by surprise when Eva not only ran against him for mayor, but won in a landslide, it was now no secret how beloved the new mayor, who had turned around the town’s future prospects, was. It also helped that nothing ever happened in Drummond, and in less than two years, Eva had revealed the father of her son to be a Russian billionaire, married him, and run against her father for mayor. They probably would have voted for her for the soap opera alone.

“She was kind of bummed,” Aaron said. “You should go give her a copy now.

“I will do this, and I will see you in the morning.” He pulled his son close and planted a kiss on his head. Though Aaron had recently declared himself too old for baths and getting tucked in at night with a bedtime story, he had yet to complain about the many hugs and kisses he still received from both of his parents.

“Night, Dad.”

Alexei wondered if he would ever get used to the heart-stopping joy of having someone call him “dad.”

His extended family back in Russia still would not talk to him or even receive him in their homes, because of what he’d done. But, sacrificing the esteem of his aunts and cousins had been well worth it. And whenever he felt a tug of guilt about what he’d had to do to his uncle in order to protect his family, one look at Aaron alleviated it.

“Goodnight, Son,” he said, climbing up the stairs.

But he did not end up giving Eva the newspaper when he walked through their bedroom door.

Mostly because he found her there naked, except for a mini-skirt, her hair plaited into two long French braids, holding herself braced against their dresser drawer with her back curved so her behind stuck out in the most tantalizing of ways. This particular drawer was much more expensive than the flimsy plywood one they’d had back in grad school, but he recognized the scene immediately. And he knew without asking that she was wearing nothing underneath the denim that encased her still-delectable rear end.

“Hey, Lexie,” she said, grinning at him over her shoulder. “You know what, it was so hot today, and it occurred to me I never kept my end of that laundry bargain we made. Do you remember what you wanted?”

He set the newspapers aside on an armchair, already swelling inside his pants with desire for her. He stripped off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves before coming to stand behind her, close enough that she could feel his presence if not his touch. Yet.

“I believe I said I would touch you here…” He covered her left breast with one of his hands. “And here…” He unbuttoned her mini-skirt, his erection growing even harder, when he parted her pussy lips with his index and ring finger and rubbed her clit with the middle one.

She groaned, her head falling to her chest, just as it had those many years ago. “Lexie,” she moaned.

He rubbed three fingers against her clit just long enough to get her primed, before moving his fingers down to tunnel inside of her.

The position was wicked on his part—it was enough to get her excited, but because he was no longer working her clit, not quite enough to get her off. As a consequence, she worked herself on his fingers, making them slick with her desire, but still unable to get what she wanted from them.

He watched this play out, the sight of his wife squirming making him just as hard as if he’d been stroking his own length, as opposed to simply resting it against her back.

“Is there something you want?” he asked. “Something you’d like me to give you?”

“Lexie please,” she said. “Your fingers, they’re not enough. I need you inside of me.”

The sound of her begging nearly got her exactly what she wanted. He had done a complete one-eighty since South Padre and now hated to deny his Eva anything. But they had a scene to play out, and she wasn’t performing her part correctly.

“I like that you are begging, but you have not said the right name yet.”

“Lexie…” She grabbed his hand, and was now pumping it into her in a frenzy.

“No, that’s not the name I want to hear.”

“Alexei, oh hell, Alexei. Please, I want you. I want you insi—“

She didn’t get any further than that, because he turned her around and lifted her onto the drawer in one swift move, and before she could finish asking for it, he was already inside of her. “Marry me,” he whispered.

“What?” she asked, barely coherent. “We’re already married.”

He stopped moving and looked deep into her dark brown eyes. “Say you will marry me.”

For a moment, he thought she would laugh. Make a joke or not agree just to be ornery. But in the end, she simply smiled at him, the most beautiful smile in the world, and said. “Yes, baby, I’ll marry you.”

And then he was pumping into her again, glorying in her, loving her, until the present blended into past and they were young again, celebrating her saying yes to his marriage proposal by making love on top of their cheap plywood dresser, until her breaths started coming out in short gasps. And they both shattered at the same time, their souls exploding into a thousand pieces and reforming in the present as two people who loved each other openly and honestly.

As they came down, breathing hard, Eva let out a shaky laugh and batted her eyes at him. “I hope that didn’t come too late, Lexie.”

He laughed himself, hardly able to believe his luck, that this woman was now his wife, that she had given him the son he hadn’t even known he needed, that she could still make him instantly hard again with just a bat of her pretty brown eyes.

“
Kotenok
, it is never too late. I think we have proven that.”

Then he started to move inside her again.