And then I detonate, coming apart in the most glorious of ways. Aleksander wrenches every last shudder from me until Icollapse onto his chest. Blissfully spent, a little dazed, and a lot happy.
Getting the energy to prop my chin on his chest, a goofy grin spreads across my face. “Your mouth should be designated one of the wonders of the world.”
One sexy eyebrow arches behind his reading glasses. “Just my mouth?”
Reaching up, I slip the frames off and use his shirt to clean the smears from the lenses.
“Every part of you,” I amend, sliding his glasses back up the bridge of his nose.
With some effort, he’s able to wiggle my leggings back up. I don’t make it easy for him.
Climbing into his lap, I splay my hands over his wide, muscular shoulders and take in every gorgeous inch of his handsome face. Every time I look at him, I’m still amazed that he’s mine. That we’reus.
“That’s it?” I pout with disappointment.
“You want something,pevchaya ptitsa?”
“Your dick.”
He laughs. “After you eat.”
“I can do that,” I reply, going for his zipper.
“Food, woman.”
I glance down at the remainder of my half-eaten sandwich on the ground. “I’m not eating that.”
“Eat mine.”
“That’s what I was trying to do.” I go for his zipper again and dissolve into giggles when he tickles me.
“You are so beautiful.”
His fingers tease over the curve of my hip, then lightly skim along the outside of my clothes over the area where the burns cover my side from thigh to shoulder. His gaze follows the path his fingers take, the tenderness of his touch making me ache forhim. Sucking the tip of his thumb into his mouth, he brushes it over my nipple and watches as it puckers underneath my T-shirt as the warm evening air quickly wicks the wetness from the cotton.
“So are you,” I reply.
Bracing my back with his palm, he sits up and nuzzles my neck with silken brushstrokes of his nose, then jolts me into euphoria when he tugs down my collar and lightly bites the upper swell of my breast, marking my flesh in the way I crave. I wear their marks like they wear their tattoos, except mine fade with time and are replaced with new ones. My body is an evolving canvas, a visible story written by our passion where each new chapter is even better than the one before it.
Seventeen
Journal Entry
Twenty-two years old
“Aleksei!”I call out when I get to his floor. I know he’s here from the moans coming out of his bedroom.
There’s a loud thud, followed by an angry mumble, so I know he heard me. Going into his kitchen, I grab a bottle of water from his fridge and make a mental note to do an online grocery order when I see how bare his shelves are. He never goes to the store because he knows I’ll do it. Same for his laundry. I hire a service that comes once a week to take care of that and clean his apartment. I also handle his finances and pay his bills. Somewhere along the way, I slid into the role of parent—a role I don’t want, but one he needs me to perform. I miss just being his brother.
Aleksei stumbles into the kitchen, looking worse for wear. “What?” he snaps, pulling up his jeans. The bottom ankle hem catches on his right foot, and he keels over sideways into the door jamb. “Fuck.”
“Why in the hell did you buy a Porsche without telling me?”
Not bothering to pull up his zipper, he grabs the half-empty bottle of vodka left out next to the sink. “I didn’t tell you because I don’t need your permission to buy whatever the fuck I want to buy.”
“You just bought the Ferrari a month ago,” I remind him.
“Which I wrecked two days ago. I needed a new car.” He has the nerve to grin at me.
