5. Oleg
Oleg
I let her slip out.
It went against the grain to pretend I was still asleep and was one of the hardest things I’d managed to date, but something was telling me she needed to escape. Not that my little butterfly could get too far from me. There was no way I would let her. Not after she had given herself to me.
No. My sweet Coral was all mine. Only mine.
I rolled over and sniffed the pillow she had slept on and groaned. Her scent filled my lungs and made me hard. Or harder. But I was going to ignore it. Usually, I would take care of myself in the mornings to videos of her working or pictures of her smiling, completely unaware of the eyes on her.
But not today.
No. I would save every damn drop of my seed to release inside her body.
She was mine.
She might have thought she could slip out of my bed, but she wouldn’t be getting rid of me that easily. I rolled out and got dressed in a pair of gym shorts and headed downstairs to my home office. But as I stood at the top of the staircase and looked down at the steps, I grinned. An overwhelming need to pound on my chest washed through me. There was something so damn sexy about knowing my little babochka had given herself to me right on those steps. My hand dropped so I could palm my hard cock. Taking two stairs at a time, I bent and picked up her dress, bringing it up against my nose, breathing her in, wishing she were back in my bed.
Soon , the voice of the beast that had been awakened whispered in the recesses of my mind. Soon, she would be back and tied to my bed while I filled her time and time again. Licking my lips, I stepped into my office and picked up the already ringing phone.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Oleg?” Merri’s deep surly voice curtly cut through my good mood, and I bit the inside of my lip.
“Good morning, Merri. How are you?” I rolled my neck, trying to keep my shit together. “That’s how you usually talk to––“
“Cut the bullshit, man. Are you really going to act stupid and pretend you weren’t with her?” he hissed. “I saw you two.” I sat back licking my lips. If I tried hard enough, I could still taste her. Taste us on my lips. It was faint but there. I wasn’t going to act clueless.
“She’s a grown-up. We’re two consenting adults. Not to mention she’s older than the beautiful woman warming your own bed.”
“I’m serious, Oleg.”
“I am, too,” I answered sternly, hoping he could read just how serious I was.
“She’s been through a lot.” Merri’s voice softened, and my lips pursed. I didn’t like the affection in his tone. It was ridiculous, and I knew it. Merri was head over heels in love with one of Coral’s younger sisters. He didn’t see Coral like I did, but I didn’t like the idea of any other man having any kind of feelings towards her. Jesus, I felt unrecognizable. Before Coral, I wouldn’t have thought twice about a man looking at the woman I was seeing. Hell, I’d even shared women with friends before. Now, the thought of Coral in anyone’s arms but mine left me burning with rage. “If Scar finds out—“ he started to say, and I rolled my eyes.
“What? That you’ve been stalking her?” I cut in like a jerk. “I’m pretty sure she already knows.” I shrugged, trying to calm myself down. His silence was answer enough for me. “Is this how you felt?” I clipped, breaking through the tension.
“What?” he asked after a quiet moment.
“When you saw Scarlett,” I clarified. “Is this how you felt?”
“Are you serious right now? Are you saying…” He let the words hang between us.
“I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up,” I joked dryly.
“With Coral?” The moment I grunted with confirmation, he started to chuckle. “Holy shit, I can’t wait to see this play out.”
“Why?”
“Do you know what she does for a living?”
“Of course, I do. She’s a lawyer.”
“Exactly. And what you do usually makes you have to hire a lawyer, not date them.”
“My business is on the up and up.”
“Most of the time,” he quietly reminded me, and I exhaled slowly. “I’m just saying?—“
“I know what you’re saying,” I cut him off. My jaw clenched and hands fisted at my sides. “You don’t think it was something I thought about before I approached her?”
“You hadn’t, until her dick of an ex pushed your buttons by talking to her for more than two point five seconds.”
“You really watched everything, huh?” I shook my head, wondering what the hell was wrong with me that I somehow hadn’t clocked Merri at the bar. Because you were busy watching Coral, a voice in my head reminded me.
All I could see think, feel, hear, smell was Coral.
Coral and those damn dark eyes of hers that haunted my every thought. And now I knew what she felt like when I held her in my arms and sunk deep inside her body. How she tasted and sounded when she whimpered out for more. Her sweet scent wrapped around me in an elusive bubble.
“I’m guessing you didn’t hear a word I just said,” Merritt muttered. “Look, man, I’m not anyone to tell you who you and cannot see…”
“But?” I asked, because I knew he was going to say something to piss me off.
“But unless you’re serious about Coral, don’t go there. Or I should probably say don’t go there again.” I’d been right. I wasn’t going to like what he had to say. Out of respect for our friendship, I took a moment and shut my eyes while I breathed in deeply, exhaling slowly.
“Oleg—“
“I get what you’re saying, and I understand your concern,” I said as calmly as I could. “But I love her, Merritt. She’s mine. I didn’t question you when you came to me?—“
“Bullshit.” he called me out, and I frowned.
“Okay, maybe I questioned the lengths you went to, but I didn’t second-guess your feelings. I love her, Mer. I’d rather cut my arm off than hurt her. Now, I get the connection and why you’re worried. But trust me when I tell you, you have nothing to worry about. I mean it.”
“You sayin’ you’re going to continue to stay away? Let her go?”
“No,” I answered without hesitation. And I wasn’t. I might have contemplated it for about half a second, but there was no way I could keep going through life pretending she didn’t exist or watching from the shadows. Coral was mine.
“No, I won’t give her up, and you might as well get used to the idea of us being related, because if I have things my way, and you know I usually do, we’ll be brothers-in-law.”
“Jesus,” he groaned. “If you hurt her like that jackass?—“
“I’m nothing like that moron.”
“At least we can agree on something there,” he muttered. “You know this isn’t personal.”
“You’re worried about your girl getting upset over the possibility of her sister getting her heart broken again. I get it. You think it was easy to sit on the sidelines, looking at her, hearing the shit that was going on, and not making a move?” But my hands had been tied. I couldn’t make a move. I hadn’t been sure if I could ever be good enough for someone like her, and I sure as fuck didn’t want her to think I was some kind of rebound.
“Honestly, Oleg, I don’t think I would have been able to do what you did,” he complimented, or I was going to decide it was a compliment. I grunted because there wasn’t much to say.
“We done here?”
“You going to call her?”
“My butterfly flew off without leaving her number,” I shared for some godforsaken reason. There was a beat of silence before he started to chuckle.
“She skipped out on you,” he guessed, and I rolled my eyes.
“Like a thief in the early light.” One I had let escape, but he didn’t need to know that.
“Fuck.” He cleared his throat, but I could tell he wanted to laugh. “Like I said, this is going to be interesting to watch.”
“Goodbye, Merri,” I muttered, ending the call.
I started my computer and pulled up all the cameras I could possibly have. I needed eyes on her, and fast. I didn’t like that we shared an incredible night, and she snuck out. Why did I let her? I wondered. The moment my eyes caught sight of her in her living room as she sat on her couch, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I zoomed in, focusing on her face, stroking the edges. Knowing how that smooth warm skin felt, my fingertips ached to feel her again.
And right then and there, I knew exactly why I’d let her go. My girl deserved to be chased.
The dumbass who had let her go had done the bare minimum, if that. He’d been manipulative and an asshole. Stringing her along in case he found someone better. I scoffed. Someone better? The thought made me laugh. There was no one better. He was truly an idiot. But his loss was my gain.
I was more than ready to chase after my girl. She was more than a woman I wanted to enjoy in all sorts of ways. She was already my entire world.