Only sometimes and in small doses.
Nothing you do comes in small doses.
Guilty as charged. And I’m glad you noticed I’m packing, baby. So are you, by the way. Speaking of packing, when will you finally let me fuck you?
Like hell you will. It’ll be the other way around.
I’m not a natural bottom, so this will be a tough competition.
How do you know?
How do I know what?
Whether or not you like to fuck or to be fucked. Have you tried both?
Nah. Told you, I’ve only ever been the one who fucks, not really into the concept of letting someone else take charge, but I might allow it with you if you talk REAL dirty to me and call me baby or, better yet, give me a Russian nickname. Actually, you have to do both. You also need to win against me in a fight—if I pin you beneath me, I’m fucking you, don’t care. Also, no running away after sex, or I’ll hunt you the fuck down.
Too many rules.
I’m not done.
No?
No. I’ll prepare a list.
A whole list?
Uh-huh. And even that’s not enough. You should be honored I even offered you my ass, Mishka. I only reserve the special treatment for you.
My lips twitch, but then I narrow my eyes at the phone.
What if he told others the exact same words?
Yulian is a flirt, an incorrigible one, but I’ll eradicate that bad habit of his.
I’m about to type a threat when Mom walks out on the balcony, carrying a tray with two coffees.
“I made these myself.” She smiles, placing the tray on the table and sitting across from me.
Her blond hair that brushes her shoulders shifts with the wind. She looks striking in black pants and a blue shirt, though the lines etched into her face since a couple of days ago haven’t faded.
Mom has always been my biggest cheerleader—the one who urged me to chase my dreams, even hinted that I didn’thave to stay tied to this world if I didn’t want to. She once told me I could go live with my uncles in Russia, inherit her half of the empire, and carve out a life shielded from constant scrutiny and needless violence.
And while I love her care, there’s no other option for me. I’d never leave her and Dad to fend for themselves like an ungrateful bastard.
I slide the phone into my pocket. “You didn’t have to go to the trouble.”
“It was no trouble at all. Also, you don’t have to hide your conversation from me.”
“It’s not important.”
“I haven’t seen you smile like that while texting in…well, forever, so I think it might be a tiny bit important.”
I was…smiling? Fuck, I didn’t even notice it myself.
Clearing my throat, I take a sip of the coffee and stare out from the balcony. “It’s really nothing, Mom.”
“Well, if it turns intosomething, I’d like to meet the girl who’s making my son smile like that.”
