50. Lev
Chapter fifty
Lev
Ifucking hate this.
I hate everything about it.
Tatiana’s free. I can touch her, taste her, hold her, love her, and I’m in this stupid apartment packing suitcases.
Logically, I know it’s necessary. We have to leave the country. Clothes can be replaced; we really just need enough clothes, toiletries, and Sparkle’s equipment to last us a week or so.
So I go into my and Ro’s apartment and pack a bag for each of us. We never really had any meaningful belongings, so it’s quick work.
Up in Tati’s apartment, I pack a bag for her and one for Mik, before packing away feed, toys, and Sparkle into her carrying case.
Anxiety makes my skin prickle.
Finally, I’m standing on the curb with all of our bags, the damn bird, and growing irritation. Ro’s SUV appears around the corner and stops in front of me. I say fuck the bags, rip the back door open ,and launch myself at Tatiana.
Mik, thankfully, lets her go, knowing I need my time with her. I’ll tell him he’s a good man later. As he and Ro load everything in the back of the SUV, I hold on to her tighter.
“I almost lost you,” I whisper into her hair. My hands can’t seem to figure out where they want to touch her first, so they roam over every inch of her body.
I drop needy kisses on her cheeks, her chin, her neck, her shoulders. She moans and wiggles in my hold, and I’m instantly hard for her. This wasn’t even about anything sexual; I just needed to hold her close, but the way she feels and the sounds she’s making drive me crazy.
Ro climbs back into the driver’s seat, and Mik takes the passenger seat, giving me a semblance of privacy with her.
I appreciate it more than they know.
I pull her onto my lap, spreading her legs so her pussy rests on top of my cock.
But I make no move to take it further. Roman drives for what feels like hours as I kiss Tatiana like my life depends on it.
I’m not good at expressing my emotions verbally, so I pour out my heart and soul with my tongue.
I try to show her how much I missed her; how much I needed her.
I make love to her mouth and tell her silently everything I want to promise her.
Finally, when she rocks her pelvis, grinding her pussy against me and I almost come in my pants, I pull back. Her eyes are glassy, far away; a furrow between her brows.
“How do you feel about kids?” I ask, eager to throw her off the same way she’s thrown me.
“Kids?”
I nod, biting my lip to hide my smile. I run my hands up and down her thighs.
“I want kids.”
“How many?”
She gives me a confused look that makes me want to kiss it off her face. So I do. But just for a moment.
The sun has set, and I have no idea where Roman’s going, but I find I don’t really care at all.
I have my Tati back. My knyazhna. I’ve been calling her a princess this entire time as a way to tease her, but in this moment she is my princess, and there’s nowhere she could go that I wouldn’t follow.
I’ll happily be her jester or her knight for the rest of my goddamn life. Long or short. I don’t care.
But when I think of little kids running around, sporting her blonde hair and my eyes, Christ, it melts my insides.
“Five?”
My smile widens. “Good answer.”
Finally, she simply rests her head on my shoulder and dozes while I hold her as tightly as I can without hurting her.
Roman flips on the blinker and turns into an industrial-looking area, with a tall chain-link fence and spotlights everywhere.
It’s not until he drives towards a hangar that I finally question where we are.
“Tatiana has an uncle. He’s waiting for us,” Ro says as an explanation. I want to ask more questions, but he’s out of the driver’s seat and opening the back doors before I can.
He pulls Tatiana from my arms, and I’m instantly colder and lonelier than when I held her. I don’t like it. I’m going to be needy as hell for the next few weeks when it comes to her touch.
He whispers something to her, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. She blinks up at him before rubbing at her eyes.
They turn then, as an older man in a black tux approaches. He’s tall. Six-two or more, with broad shoulders and salt-and-pepper hair. Crow’s feet frame two blue eyes - the same blue as Tatiana’s. A five o’clock shadow makes him look dangerous.
“Tatiana,” the man says with a smile. When he stops in front of her, he bends slightly and drops a kiss on each of her cheeks.
“Dyadya?” Uncle?
His smile widens with pride.
“Tanechka,” he replies. She sucks in a breath. No one has called her that in a long time, maybe ever. The fondness this man has for his niece is clear as day in his face. “I’m so proud of you.”
Tears spring to her eyes instantly as her face screws up into a pout. She’s been through so much these last twenty-four hours.
He wraps her in his arms and is content to simply hold her.
And I realize why this feels different. This is how her father should have treated her.
He should have called her a cute nickname, told her he was proud of her, and held her when she needed it.
And in fifteen seconds of meeting this man, he’s already acting more like a father than her own blood had.
It makes my chest ache.
He holds her while he talks. “I have a jet waiting to take you wherever you want to go. Roman told me Paris. It’s beautiful this time of year. You’ll love it. And once you’re all settled in, you let me know, and I’ll come down for a visit.”
“Where do you live?”
“Kolomna. Just outside of Moscow. It’s beautiful there, too. And you have cousins who are dying to meet you.”
“I do? Cousins?”
He takes her shoulders in his hands and smiles down at his niece.
“You have more cousins than you probably want. But it is what it is.” His accent is thick, and his voice chokes up as he talks about his family, and in an instant, I decide that I approve of this man. Anyone who looks at Tatiana as someone worth knowing is good in my book.
A small jet taxis up to us, and a pilot descends the stairs, letting us know we’re scheduled for takeoff in half an hour.
I leave Tati and Ilya to catch up as I help Ro and Mik and as a steward loads our things. Ilya’s man hands Ro a stack of papers, with a handful of deep red passports on top.
Tatiana and Ilya hug again, reiterating their promises to see each other more, now that he’s the only family she has left.
We board the plane, buckle in, listen to the safety brief, and as the engines roar and shoot our tiny jet into the night sky, I watch the lights below us get smaller and smaller, until the plane turns and we’re over the vast blackness of the Atlantic ocean.
But then a giggle comes to me over the roaring of the engine, and I turn to see Tati, in all her beautiful glory, her ass in Mik’s lap, and her feet on Ro’s, and I know we’re all going to be okay.
For the first time in any of our lives, we’re going to be more than okay.
Tatiana will be free to live and love exactly how she has always wanted.
Mikhail will continue to love his best friend, but from now on he gets to love her out loud. And let himself feel her love, too.
And me? For the first time in my life, I know I don’t have a looming life sentence. That the curse ends with me. Because I have too much I need to do and for the woman in front of me.
And when her tired, smiling eyes find mine, and she reaches out to me, I know I’m exactly where I belong.
The End