Sacha loved it. “It is nice here. I don’t know why your parents would ever come to the city.”
“Work, mainly,” Jonah said. “But they’re doing less of that these days. It won’t be long before they only drive in for parties.”
“I do not understand that either.”
“Maybe they like canapés too.”
“Maybe.” Sacha kicked a pine cone. “I’ve never had a bad one from your mother.”
Jonah laughed, like he had so many times since they’d woken up that morning, wrapped up in each other in a four-poster bed overlooking the mystical land they were walking now. “Tell her that and she’ll start planning our wedding.”
“There are worse things mothers can do,luchik.”
“Okay, it’s time.” Jonah stopped walking, his hand in Sacha’s forcing him to do the same. “You need to tell me what that means before I google it and misinterpret whatever it tells me.”
“Google what?”
“Luchik. For all I know, you’re calling me an idiot twelve times a day.”
“I am not.”
“So what are you calling me?”
Sacha found Jonah’s hands and clasped them tight in his own. Despite the brisk chill in the frosty air, Jonah was warm, heating Sacha from the inside out. “It is not a direct translation, but to me it means sun ray, as in you are mine.”
“Your sun ray?”
“Yes, or ray of sunshine, whichever, it does not matter. It is what you are to me, and you have always been, despite that we met under the moonlight, yes?”
“If you can call a broken-down lift moonlight, then yes.” Jonah’s grin was broad, and his eyes shone. “But whatever. I love it. And I’m glad I didn’t know until now. You know you said it to me the night we met?”
“Did I?”
“Yes. When you rescued me from William Ratner.”
Sacha bristled. That name would never cease to make him murderous. “Yes, well I meant it then, and I mean it now. I know I am not easy sometimes, but I will try to be better, I promise.”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“Oh, I do, because I cannot promise that I will always succeed.”
“No one’s perfect, Ivanov.”
“Is that what you would call me if you married me?”
“Maybe. It’s not as kinky to call you by my own name.”
“I would take your name. I have no attachment to my own.”
“That’s sweet.” Jonah wound his arms tight around Sacha in a hug that pressed them together in all the right ways. Around them, it began to snow, light, English snowflakes that would not settle and yet still brought life to a standstill. They were fairy dust settling in Jonah’s hair, and Sacha watched them pile on top of one another, spellbound, until Jonah nuzzled his neck. “What are you thinking so hard about?”
“I am not.”
“Sure about that? You disappeared for a moment.”
“I did not mean to. I am right here.” Sacha found Jonah’s lips and kissed him deeply. “You know you have been an angel for me, don’t you?”
Jonah cupped Sacha’s face, his thumb stroking Sacha’s cheekbone. “You have for me too. I don’t think I have ever felt more myself than I do with you.”
“I do love you, Jonah Gray. I don’t know what that means, or where it will take us, but I feel it here.” Sacha brought Jonah’s other hand to his chest, pressing it tight so he could feel Sacha’s stampeding heart.
Jonah’s answering smile matched the sunshine he’d always been for Sacha. “It means everything, Sacha, because I love you too.”
* * *
