Katya wanted to get a rise out of me, but I was already walking away, moving from the wooden dock to the beach. I kicked off my shoes and socks, picking them up as my toes sunk into warm sand, and I headed towards my normal rooms.
*
“What do you mean we’re not bunking together?” I groaned at Alexander, who was standing in the doorway to our usual vacation home away from home, which was basically a condo connected to a few other condos. A row of luxury suites, side by side instead of built upwards, so as not to block the view of the ocean from the observation lighthouse nearby. It had its own stretch of beach, an infinity pool, and serene cabanas that I’d slept in more times than I could count, wanting to sleep to the sounds and smells of the endless ocean.
Alexander and I had housed together since we were young teens. It hadn’t dawned on me that this too would change.
“Marisha and I are staying together, Nik. You should have realized that.” Alexander shrugged, as if breaking with tradition meant absolutely nothing to him.
“There’s room for me too, Alex. Come on.” I tried to push past him. “And I was here first.”
“You sound like a child.” Alexander laughed, forcing me back outside.
“Where the hell am I staying then? And don’t you dare say with the protection detail. They don’t get personalized room service.” I crossed my arms.
“You’ll stay in Katya’s condo,” he said casually, as if he weren’t telling me to stay with his frustrating, piece-of-work sister. “It’s huge and there’s more than enough room for you both to still be able to keep clear of one-another.”
“You’re fucking joking, right?” I scowled at him, my eyebrows pulling into a deep V. “You want me to bunk with your sister? There are loads of empty condos, I’ll just take one of those and fucking be alone. You’re a traitor, Alex, a complete—,”
Alexander held up a hand, cutting me off mid-rant. “Katya has an extra room, just like this. And she doesn’t need the whole place to herself,” he said seriously, but his expression was filled with amusement. “But more than that, I need someone to keep an eye on her. She’s getting wilder, Nik, she needs someone to watch over her. Besides, the resort does enough for us without opening up and prepping a whole extra condo just for your sorry ass.”
“So, I’m her personal bodyguard now?” I ignored Alexander basically saying I wasn’t worth my own set of rooms, because the biggest issue right now was that he was expecting me to babysit his damn sister. “Is that what I’ve been demoted to now that you’ve found true love.” I said the last two words sarcastically; I couldn’t help myself.
He laughed heartily, apparently not even caring that I was salty over his newfound relationship. “Of course not, we have paid staff for that, but another set of eyes on her would be helpful. She’s lashing out,” he sighed, “I know me choosing Marisha has fucked things up for all three of us and pushed you both towards things you don’t want yet. I’m truly sorry about that, but I love her, and I’d be lying if I said that I’d have it any other way.”
I shook my head. “The entire vacation will be a goddamn fight if I bunk with her, Alex.”
“It’s either her, or the security detail. Take your pick. You’re not getting your own rooms.” He winked at me and began to close the door.
I shoved a foot forward. “You’re ditching me for a woman. There’s no coming back from that, Brother.”
Alexander placed a hand over his heart. “I think I can take the consequences.”
In the background, I saw Marisha prancing around the kitchen. Her hair was pulled high in a messy bun and she wore a lace see-through dress atop a pale blue bikini. Shewasbeautiful, butdamnshe wasn’t worth changing everything for.
No woman was.
I knew there was no changing Alexander’s mind though.
“Enjoy your vacation,” I grumbled, pulling my foot back and glaring at my best friend as he closed the door to ‘our’ home away from home with a hearty laugh.
I gripped the handle to my rolling bags and pulled them further along the wide path to the next condo over. Thank god there was some space between each one and they were heavily insulated, or I’d be listening to Alex and Marisha fuck all night long. That would be salt in the damn wound. Steeling myself, I knocked sharply.
Katya appeared moments later, the tiny dress gone and in its place a bright green thong bikini.
“What the hell do you want?” she asked, gaze narrowing.
“Guess what,” I pushed into the suite, pulling my bags awkwardly over the doorway and nearly tipping them over onto Katya. She hopped back, tits bouncing and barely contained by the tiny squares of fabric. “We’re roomies.”
“Like hell we are,” she gasped out, stamping out into the sunlight to make her way to Alexander’s rooms and give him a piece of her mind.
Good. He deserved it. A laugh rumbled in my chest as I heard Katya banging on the door over and over again until Alexander’s deep voice finally answered. She shouted, top of her lungs. And I envisioned the scene with a seed of twisted satisfaction in my chest. Katya would be leaning forward, with what she thought was a fierce expression across her face, screaming until she was red in the face.
And Alexander, for his part, would casually lean against the doorframe watching her until she ran out of steam.
And then Katya would stamp back to her rooms, defeated.
I closed the door, dragging my things into the best bedroom, though it was obvious Katya had already staked a claim, her rolling luggage open on the bed and the tiny dress discarded on the floor.
