KALINA
Sleeping in a bed was a luxury that I doubted I’d ever get used to again.
Years of lying on filthy floors and using my arm for a cushion set me up to never take it for granted that I could be on a soft mattress with sheets and blankets, comfortable with a real pillow under my head.
It was the small things that impressed me as I settled into this life after my brother’s training, simple things that gave me such wonder.
However, the bliss of falling asleep in Alexsei’s arms and dozing off to the heat of his hard body flush against mine were things I would always crave.
We never discussed what we were doing. It just felt natural to fall into this intimacy. It feltrightto trust him.
After the first couple of times we had sex over the last week, I worried that my naïve assumption that I couldn’t get pregnant was foolhardy. Opposed to being bred and used like that, I hadprotection in mind. When I gave him my virginity, though, I was certain that the timing of my cycle meant I’d be safe from having a baby. Erik had drilled it into my head, using textbooks for references, to train me to know when I was fertile. All for my husband to exploit. With that knowledge, I doubted I’d get knocked up when I surrendered to this need to feel Alexsei so deep inside me.
But that wouldn’t last. When I told him that I didn’t want to be bred, he had given me something like a sad frown. Not disappointment in me, but almost like sympathy. Nevertheless, without my saying another word, he started using condoms. To cater to my wishes. If that wasn’t proof that he truly cared about me and what I wanted, I wasn’t sure what else was.
Other than my concern about becoming pregnant, we didn’t talk about how we were together. Neither of us told Misha anything. It seemed like common sense to keep it a secret from him. I didn’t want to interfere with the situation of the boy not having a mother. I was too fond of him, and the last thing I wanted to do was hurt him or confuse him by having a relationship with his father. Sometimes, it almost felt like I was trespassing in the father-and-son family unit they already had, and I was the stranger butting in.
Alexsei didn’t say anything to Misha, and as such, we were both careful to always end up back in our own beds before morning came.
As I started to wake up now, it wasn’t unusual for me to discover that I was alone.
He must have already gone back to his bed.
Still, I reached out toward his side and wished that I could feel the warmth of his arms circling me.
He wasn’t there.
Cool sheets greeted my hand. Rolling over to get comfortable and fall back asleep, I sighed.
Huh?
Then I sniffed.
What…
I sniffed again.
Something isn’t right.
My drowsiness faded and I snapped to attention immediately.
Something is wrong.
Smoke.
Jerking upright, I sniffed again, trying to identify if that odor reaching me that pulled me from sleep really was smoke.
It is!
Smoke!
Panic kicked in. Danger pushed me to get to my feet.
It had been a long time since I was forced into an adrenaline rush like this, but I was a survivor. I wouldn’t delay at the threat of harm. Something like this never shut off.
“Alexsei!” Crouching low, almost crawling to avoid the thickest spread of the curling smoke that came in through my open bedroom door, I called out for him.
“Alexsei!”
