Chapter 8 - Jaroslav
Closing my eyes, I rest my face against the pillow and pretend to fall asleep.
Valery sighs, annoyed with me, or annoyed with herself. She shifts, rolling, then rolls back again. The bed hardly moves as her petite form moves back and forth while she searches for the right position.
She must be dying in those clothes, and the extra blankets and the cocoon of pillows she’s nested herself in.
Tonight, especially, is too hot for that kind of get-up.
I kick one leg out from beneath the light blanket I have over me and let the cool air brush against my skin.
I’m comfortable. And happy with her lying this close to me, even if it is behind a few layers.
She rolls over, sighing again. Then rolls a little while later, struggling but in her usual stubborn manner, refusing to give in and strip out of some of the clothes.
Remaining still with my breathing kept even, I listen to her, hyperaware of each breath she takes. She chose this, and as promised, I won’t interfere with her.
I felt her eyes all over me when I got out of the shower, and I’m confident that it won’t be long before she’s reaching for me beneath the blankets.
A smile almost creeps onto my lips, but I don’t want her to know I’m struggling to sleep as well.
She put a lot of effort into her carefully constructed defenses.
I’ll let her have this. I will let her believe they are working in her favor.
Besides, it’s amusing for me. Entertaining in a lot of ways.
And I want to see where this leads. Valery hates the summer heat, so I can’t imagine this will last past the end of the week. She’ll give in eventually.
She’s practically fighting the blanket next to me. Her movements aggravate my desire. Her scent creeps over me, causing my muscles to tense.
It takes me over an hour to finally drift into sleep. When I do, I dream of her, tangled up with me, her naked body against mine, and her breathing hot and heavy as she arches against me and erotic sounds escape her in the pleasure I give her.
***
It’s still dark when my eyes flicker open. I’m tired, with too little sleep, but it quickly becomes inconsequential when I realize what’s happened.
In her sleep, she was fighting against the blankets and her clothes.
And somehow she’s stripped most of it off, and she’s now lying in her lace panties and a slightly transparent white crop top.
I can see the dark outline of her nipples pressing against the fabric.
The blankets have been kicked aside, and the pillow fort is lying on the floor next to the bed in a messy pile.
Her legs are wrapped between mine, and her arm is draped over my chest. Her lips are parted, and she’s breathing softly, sleeping peacefully without the suffocating heat of her defenses smothering her.
My cock stirs as my eyes trace over her smooth ivory skin, quickly throbbing into an erection, my breathing catches, and my heart begins to hammer wildly. She made the first move. She came to me, and what I do now is well within my rights. I won’t be breaking any promises because she started this.
No. It doesn’t count. She was asleep.
Dammit. I can’t respond to this if it wasn’t done consciously.
And I can’t let her wake up and find herself like this.
She would be embarrassed and annoyed. She might even find a way to blame me.
It would also be better if I slipped away before she saw the effect she has on me, just by being half-naked next to me.
My cock is pushing up against the sheet, half draped over my torso.
My eyes continue to take in her perfect form in the darkness.
She mumbles something in her sleep that I can’t make out, and a delicate smile touches her lips.
Ok, if I don’t get away from her right now, I’m going to break the promise I made.
Carefully, I slip my hand around her leg and lift it so that I can pull mine out from beneath it.
It goes smoothly. She’s still asleep. I slide my hand down her arm, carefully trying to untangle it from around my torso, but when my fingers brush over her bare waist, she moans so sweetly my cock aches, throbbing harder.
I stop instantly, ready to roll onto her and push her legs apart with my hips as I press my mouth over hers and kiss her awake.
Fuck .
That sound.
That beautiful, sweet, delicious sound of her pleasure.
I’ve heard it before, and it makes me want to devour her.
In the past, it was so easy for me to cause her unrTimofeying.
She was clay in my hands, and she let me sculpt her in beautiful ways.
She responded so eagerly to my touch, to every flick of my wrist, to every slip of my tongue…
she was born for me. She is a book I want to read over and over again for all of eternity.
Each time I turn a page, I find a new, perfect piece of her, waiting to be discovered.
Stop this right now, Jaroslav. You are not going to be the one to break the boundaries she’s set. This is a test, and you cannot fail it.
Preparing to try and slip away again, I move too quickly and to my horror, Valery stirs awake.
Her bright, grey eyes are staring directly at me.
I don’t say a word. Technically, I’m not touching her; she’s the one with her body draped over mine, her arm around my waist. She takes in a sharp, soft breath.
A gasp that lets me know she’s surprised to find herself so close to me.
But she doesn’t move away. Instead, her fingers move against my chest, a slight of hand, a brush of her fingertips that sends heat glazing through me.
I clench my jaw, my eyes still locked with hers.
“I’m…” she whispers, not finishing her thought.
I turn my face closer to hers, and I can feel the heat of her breath against my lips.
“You dismantled your wall,” I smile.
“It seems that I did.” She’s still whispering. She still hasn’t moved.
I wish she wouldn’t.
In the quiet darkness of the bedroom, the rest of the world ceases to exist. What we do in here will remain our secret, our choice. My heart is beating so heavily, I swear she can feel it beneath her arm.
Boldly, I trace my fingers over her shoulder, down her back, and along the dip of her hip. Each inch my touch over her skin, I expect her to argue, to scold me, to push me away. But still she lies there, staring into my soul.
Valery bites at her lower lip, a gentle graze of her teeth over her soft skin.
I lean my face even closer to hers, waiting for her to kiss me, refusing to be the first to break the rules. She tilts her chin, parts her lips, and her eyes slowly close.
Just as her lips are about to press into mine, my phone rings, a jarring sound from the bedside table that makes both of us jump.
She mutters, angry at herself, snapping out of the moment, and rolls away from me.
A growl escapes my lips, falling in frustration as she scampers to her side of the bed and pulls the blankets tightly around herself.
Reaching over, I grab my phone and slide my finger across the green button to answer the intrusive call.
“What?” I snap in annoyance. I was so close to getting what I wanted. So close.
“Sir, we have a problem,” the warehouse manager answers me calmly.
“Well, I suggest you sort it out,” I growl.
“You need to come in, Sir. This isn’t the type of problem I can handle on my own.”
“Another operation messed with?” I sigh.
“Yes, Sir. The delivery of our new product arrived an hour ago, but during the stock take, we now realize that almost twenty percent of it is missing.”
“For fuck sake,” I grumble as I throw my legs off the side of the bed.
“I’ll be there in thirty minutes.” I have to deal with this.
I’ve already fallen behind on work, and I can’t ignore my duties as often as I have been lately.
I didn’t even remember that the delivery was taking place tonight.
I thought it was tomorrow night. I must have mixed up the schedule.
Ending the call, I drop the phone back onto the nightstand and turn to look at Valery. She’s rolled over onto her side with her back facing me.
“I have to go to the warehouse. There’s been some issues I need to sort out.”
“Ok,” she replies politely, not turning to look at me.
“Ok,” I sigh miserably as my eyes trace over the shape of her body beneath the sheet she’s wrapped in. “I’ll see you later this afternoon.”
***
Throwing a pair of jeans on and a black t-shirt, along with my leather army-style boots, I leave the house and drive the short distance to my warehouse.
All the while, I’m thinking about how she was looking at me, when I should be thinking about which annoying rival is messing with my operations.
Petty interference like this isn’t important, though.
It’s common enough in my line of work. People will always be trying their luck.
It won’t take us long to find some video footage or a clue to help us track down who is responsible.
For now, it’s just an annoyance. Something that interrupted whatever was about to happen between Valery and me.
And for that, I am angry.
For the missing products? I couldn’t care less. It’s hard to care about anything other than my mission to win her back.
Forcing her to move into my bedroom has worked so much better than I expected it to—and quicker. Realizing the fact that I should be celebrating a triumph, a smile curves the corners of my lips upward. Yes, this is a triumph.
When I pull into the parking area outside the warehouse, my brother’s car is already there. I hurry inside and find Bardil talking to Zakhar.
“Hi,” I call out as I walk toward them.
“Hey, man. Sorry for dragging you out of bed. I think only one of us actually needed to be here,” Bardil says. “It’s not as serious as we first thought.”
“Well, I’m here now, so what can I do?” I ask.
“Mostly, we’ve already sorted out the main issue—the product we needed to deliver tomorrow would have been twenty percent short.
But we had some stored in another warehouse, so we’re bringing that in.
The client won’t even know we’ve experienced trouble with the order.
The other side of it involves tracking down the idiots who thought they could take us on. ”
“And we already have guys working on that.” Zakhar pulls his phone from his pocket and unlocks the screen.
He flicks through some messages until he finds the one he’s looking for.
“Yes, good news. They’ve located three cameras along the route and are already getting the footage.
Apart from that, the tracker registered an unauthorized stop just five minutes from the warehouse, right in range of one of those cameras. ”
“Excellent. And the dash cam inside the truck?” I ask.
“They’re looking at it now. So, like I said, sorry for getting you out of bed.” Bardil shrugs.
“I’ve got some things to do in the office here anyway.” I cock my head toward the upper level and shove my hands into my pockets. “How are things with you guys lately? It feels like I haven’t seen you in forever.”
“Yeah, you’ve been MIA since the wedding,” Zakhar chuckles. “Things are good. Are you coming to the dinner tonight?” he asks.
“It’s not tonight, it’s on Friday,” I correct him.
He laughs louder. “It is Friday. What’s gotten into you? Are you hungover or something?”
Not believing him, I glance at my watch and realize he’s right. “Shit, how the fuck did I lose a day?” I growl. “I guess I have more work to do than I thought. I’d better get to it. I’ll see you guys tonight.”
My family is hosting a dinner to welcome Valery into the inner circle.
I’m grateful that they’re doing this. She hasn’t officially met any of them because our past relationship was secret.
She said hello to them at the wedding, but that night was a crazy blur of hundreds of introductions, so it hardly counts.
It will be good for her to meet my sisters and my brothers and start viewing this marriage as more than a show for the public.
Slow, steady steps, Jaroslav.
I grin, thinking about how I woke up this morning and how I want to wake up with her tangled over me every morning. I wonder if she will make the same mistake tonight or if she’ll have some other plan to build walls between us.
Time will tell.
In the meantime, I should message her about the dinner. She might want to get a new dress or something, although it is a casual event.
I want her to feel confident and relaxed going into it.
Upstairs in the privacy of my office, I pull my phone from my pocket and open her chat window. For a while, I stare at it. How should I word this? Should I ride the wave of our shared intimate moment? Should I be flirty and playful? Should I tease her a little?
Or will the dinner invite be daunting for her, in which case I should be nice and polite and not overstep boundaries?
My fingers hover above the screen of my phone.
Me: Good morning, little raven. I just wanted to let you know that tonight we will be attending a dinner at my brother’s home so that you can meet my family. It is a casual dinner, no outsiders. They are all looking forward to meeting you.
I type an x. Then I delete it. I’d rather play it safe and not push any of her buttons. Hitting send, I shove my phone back into my pocket and turn my attention to my work. I can’t believe it’s Friday and I skipped an entire day. I’m so consumed with her that the rest of my life hardly exists.