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I kiss him. Not a claim. Not a taste after blood on a cuff. This is sensual, filled with joy. Elias’s mouth is cold but sweet all the same. He makes a small sound into me and my hand finds his waist under the coat.

For a second the Lucci do not exist.

But two children end it with well aimed shots to our coats. One in my back. One in Elias’s side. I break the kiss and put my hands up.

“Surrender!” I bellow. “You have beaten me!”

Elias does the same, laughing, snow in his lashes. The children cheer like they have taken a fortress.

We leave to that sound. Fun. Ordinary. Dangerous in a different way.

I look at Elias as we walk. There is no doubt in my mind he is ambitious, perhaps even manipulative. A boy with a mind full of his own needs and even other men’s demands perhaps.

But he is fun.

I take his hand, gloves and all.

“I have a perfect little spot for us to warm up,” I say. “Near here.”

He glances at me, still flushed from the kiss. Still sparkling from the fight.

“Lead the way,” he says.

I do. The park noise fades behind us. Snow keeps falling. His fingers stay in mine.

Winter can come. And for this one stretch of path, I let it come with laughter still in my ears and a boy beside me who can plant a device in a rival’s hotel and also start a war with children with a perfectly aimed snowball.

Elias is many things.

And I want them all…

The private spa sits off the park like a secret the snow is trying to keep.

The reception area is warm wood and low light. The boy behind the desk knows my face and does not use my name. That’s not how they operate here. Not with me. My presence is enough.

“Sir, your suite is ready.”

I nod. Elias walks beside me with snow still melting in his hair. The suite is larger than many people’s apartments in this city. It’ is at once calming and a heightened kind of sensual too. Stone. Glass. A deep ice plunge already cut and waiting. A wood-burning sauna breathing heat behind slatted cedar.

Elias eyes the ice. “I think we skip the dip today,” he says. “Given the weather.”

“Mylashka, behave,” I tell the boy. “Or I will dunk you in it naked.”

I smile as Elias’s mouth parts. He is not sure if I am joking. Good.

“No towels,” I say. “We will not be interrupted.”

We strip: coats, clothes, the last of the park.

My own body answers the heat before the sauna door even opens. We step in to perfectly scented hot air. I still throw a dipper of water on the stones. Steam blooms and increases the notes of cedar and iron.

The heat works into my shoulders. Everything loosens a notch. Then I look at the boy....

Elias sits across from me and lets his knees fall open.

Not shy, not now. A choice. He massages the inside of his thighs, slow, watching me while he does it. His gaze doesn’t break as he bites his lower lip in pleasure as his hands move onto his balls.

Elias pulls gently, then works his way up to his rapidly stiffening manhood. All I can do is watch as Elias pumps slowly but surely, his cock now fully grown and looking an absolute masterpiece.