Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
Alexei
Ten minutes later, we were outside her house. It still looked like it needed a ton of work, starting with the heap of trash sitting on her stoop.
“Shit,” Lauren murmured at the sight of her ex.
“I can tell him to leave.”
“No, I’ll take care of it.” Seeing him here had sobered her up, for sure.
She opened the door, but I was already on the other side. I extended my hand to help her down. She ignored it.
Thad had stood and was puffing up his chest. I had a feeling I would enjoy this.
“That didn’t take long,” he said.
As a strategy to get back into Lauren’s good graces, I would give it one out of ten. And the one point was because he had shown up in person to attempt a reunion.
Yes, I would enjoy this very much.
Lauren stood with her hand fisting her hip. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to see if you’ve come to your senses. But from what I can see, you’ve figured out that the multi-millionaire is the better bet.”
“He gave me a ride home. Not that I need to explain this to you.”
“I guess not,” he said, uncertainty in his voice. “But this is kind of sudden, Lauren. I don’t just mean him, but what happened back at the restaurant. We need to talk about it.”
“Okay. What do you want to say?”
He looked at me. “Can we speak alone?”
“No, Thad. I’m tired and if you really want to talk, we can meet for coffee tomorrow, assuming you can get over the fact I might have some lingering effects of illness.”
“Is he staying over?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but no. Could you please leave? I’ll text you tomorrow.”
I couldn’t believe she was giving him another chance. She had rid herself of him and yet here he was, clinging to her skirts like a mewling child.
“Okay. Until tomorrow.” He walked by and placed a hand on her arm. “I’ll—”
“Do not touch her.”
The streetlight illuminated the shock in his expression.
“Nazarov, cool it,” Lauren said.
“You need to respect Lauren’s wishes and leave.” Acutely aware that I was not a good practitioner of this philosophy, I took a step forward all the same. It was enough to spook him. With a sad-eyed look at Lauren, he got in his car and drove off.
Sighing, Lauren took a seat on the stoop. I sat beside her.
“He’s right, I should talk to him. I rushed out of the restaurant, not my most reasonable self.”
“This is the man you were considering sharing your life with.” The thought of it infuriated me. “If you know it’s wrong, then what good will talking do?”
“So we should just make rash decisions and to hell with the consequences?”
I nudged her shoulder. “Yes.”
“Been there, done that, got the—actually, I didn’t. No sign of a ring, Nazarov.”
“It wasn’t that kind of ceremony.” There was a ring, but if I told her that, she would have questions I was not yet ready to answer.
“I need to apply logic to this. Reason. Common sense.” She eyed me. “I don’t enjoy feeling utterly out of control, coloring outside the lines. It’s not me.”
I opened my mouth. She held up a hand.
“Alexei, I’ve spent most of my life trying to follow the rules and not go against the grain.
My father’s criminality made me ashamed.
It made me feel like I shouldn’t stand out, at least in my personal life.
I poured it all into my career, first as a hockey player, now as an agent.
I want to be a good person, an upright person, and I want to help my clients.
And yes, I want a little happiness for myself. ”
“Nothing wrong with that.”
“But whenever I try to reach for that in my personal life, it doesn’t click. I should have spotted Thad’s faults sooner, but I was willing to ignore those red flags because I … I’m lonely, I suppose. And then there’s you.”
I held my breath.
She met my gaze head-on. “I know it’s stupid to hold a grudge about something that happened when we were barely legal drinking age. But your appearance in my life—and in this OTT way—is not good for me, Alexei.” She added in the most soul-crushing whisper, “You broke my heart.”
I had, and the pain in her voice broke mine. Her distrust of me had erected this unscalable barrier between us.
I rushed to defend myself. “Are you blaming my twenty-one-year-old idiot self because your boyfriend is a jerk?”
“No. But I clearly attract men who are all wrong for me. Maybe the fact you’re here has made me think harder about what I want. Thad’s not it. And you? Definitely not it.”
My heart sank, but I couldn’t let her see the effect of her words. “Yes, I am very bad for you.”
“You are!” She punched my arm, not so lightly. When I winced, she grasped it and apologized. “I don’t know my own strength, sometimes.”
“This is true. You don’t.”
“I see what you did there. Some sort of compliment about my mental endurance and general kick-assery.”
“And smart as well.”
She started laughing. “God, we so need to divorce.”
“Yes, marriage ruins relationships.”
“We barely had a relationship, Nazarov.” She sighed. “But I did get the card and flowers you sent after my father died. That was kind.”
“I would have come, but I didn’t want to make it all about me.”
I could have told her now. How the day after graduation, the day after I broke her heart, I was in Russia, dealing with my father’s arrest. Desperately trying to figure out where they had taken him and what they were doing to him. But unloading all that now would only appear self-serving.
“Perhaps after all this, we can be friends,” she said. “If you’re going to be hanging around Chicago.”
“I am here for the long haul. You will be seeing me all the time and soon, you will realize that there is no escaping me.”
“As a friend.”
“Sure. A friend.”
She looked unimpressed. I used to be a much better liar around her.
“Only friends don’t …” she murmured, her gaze dipping between my eyes and mouth.
“Friends don’t what?”
“If only I were drunk enough to kiss you.”
My pulse picked up. “That common sense streak of yours holding you back again.”
“It’s the worst.”
I leaned in, so my forehead touched hers. “Tell it to shut up for a minute.”
She weighed the words, but before she could hear that voice growing louder, I brushed my lips over hers.
And groaned.
The taste of her, just from that warm, fleeting press, was heaven and hell rolled into one. Sheer bliss, exquisite torture, and I needed more.
For once, I didn’t have to push the issue.
She parted her lips and licked into my mouth and that snapped the last threads of my restraint.
I scooped her into my lap, enjoying the bonus oof she expelled which gave me additional access to her sweet mouth.
Grasping my shoulders, she dug her claws in as if worried I might let her go.
Never again.
Not when I could have this feeling, this rush, this perfect state of being.
My cock turned as hard as granite, harder, and I pulled her into my body, desperate to be as close as possible. One hand cupped her perfect tit and gave a gentle squeeze, which elicited a lusty moan—and seemed to jerk her out of the sex fog into which I’d dropped her.
She drew back, her hands still on my shoulders, her expression a mix of shock and lust. “What am I doing?”
“Well …”
“Don’t answer. I won’t like it.” She clambered off me. “I will not be having sex with my husband.”
“Who said anything about sex? It was just a kiss, Silver Eyes.” What a kiss, though.
“It’s never ‘just’ anything with you.” She stepped over me and my raging erection on her way up the steps to her front door. “Goodnight, Ass-arov!”