Chapter 40 Aleksandr
ALEKSANDR
My phone buzzed as Dmitri and I watched one of his men beat the shit out of someone who’d tried to encroach on the Pakhan’s territory.
I ignored it.
It buzzed again, and then a third time.
Dmitri raised a blond eyebrow. “Expecting a call?”
“No.” I checked the phone, and fuck, it was Eva.
My heart stopped. She’d never be calling this late unless—
“Take it,” Dmitri said quietly, nudging me with his shoulder and a sly smile. “I like seeing that expression on your face when you think about her.”
“Fuck you,” I said without heat as I stepped away. “Baby girl?”
“Alek?” Her voice was breathless and scared. “We were at a party, and Cole came late and he got in a fight, and the cops came and he and Tristan got arrested.”
I could barely follow her, she was speaking so fast. “Eva, where are you? Are you safe?”
“I’m—I’m—I’m—”
“Where are you? I’m coming to get you.”
“I’m safe,” she finally said. “In Rami’s car, parked down the block. Once the cops came, the team hustled me out.”
As they should have. Pride expanded in my chest. These young men were good men, the kind of men I wanted to be.
“Sorry,” she muttered, sounding sheepish. “I shouldn’t have called you. Rami’s bringing me to the station. We’re going to try and get them out. I just panicked.”
“Stop,” I said firmly. “Take a deep breath.”
She inhaled.
“Now let it out.”
She exhaled.
“Again.”
She inhaled.
“Now let it out.”
She exhaled.
“I’m not alone in the car,” she murmured, and I felt the blush on her cheeks through the phone line.
I laughed quietly. “Sweet girl, you did exactly the right thing by calling me.” I was fucking honored that the first person she thought to call was me. “Get Rami to take you to my apartment. I’ll pick up Cole and Tristan from the station.”
When Eva didn’t answer, worry threaded through me. “Eva?”
“No, yeah. It’s fine, okay.” She laughed—not a real laugh, a small, embarrassed one.
“Malyshka,” I rumbled.
“It’s fine,” she said firmly. “Rami? Can you take me to—” She paused, and, suddenly, I understood. She wasn’t ready to announce our relationship yet. “Can you take me to Coach Novikov’s place?”
The chatter in the car fell silent.
“Sure thing,” Rami said finally. I reminded myself I wasn’t his coach anymore, but still, his hesitation sliced through my chest.
“Okay,” Eva said, her voice more relaxed. “Let me know they’re okay as soon as you know?”
“I promise.”
By the time Cole and Tristan stumbled out of the station, it was past midnight. And tomorrow was not only game day, but the day they’d meet their new coach, who hadn’t even been named publicly yet.
Fuck.
I called Eva. “They’re fine, in my car, a little bit worse for wear.”
“Can I talk to her?” Cole asked, extending his hand for my phone from the backseat.
I handed it to him.
“Hey,” he said softly. “Sorry I fucked this up. I know you were looking forward to tonight.”
I couldn’t hear her answer.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Another pause. He handed the phone to Tristan, in the front passenger seat.
“Hey, kitten.” Tristan’s smile was tired as he leaned back in the seat.
“Hockey house?” I mouthed.
He held up a finger as he listened to the phone then looked at me again. “Eva wants us to come to your apartment. Is that okay?”
It shouldn’t have warmed my chest for her to be treating my apartment like her own, gathering our odd little family there instead of dashing to the hockey house to meet Cole and Tristan. “Of course.”
I put the car in gear and tried not to listen to Tristan’s teasing conversation with Eva, clearly trying to lighten her mood.
Eventually, he hung up and slumped back in the seat, scrubbing his face with his hands.
“What the fuck, Cole?”
Cole didn’t respond. “They were being shits about Eva,” he said finally.
Tristan whipped around in his seat. “Say what?”
“They were being dicks about Eva and her sleeping with you and me, and I—” He cut himself off. “It was a dick move. I should have let it go.” He met my eyes in the rearview mirror. “Don’t tell her. This isn’t how I— This isn’t how I want to earn her forgiveness.”
His phone was blowing up, but he slid it into his pocket.
“My father,” he muttered darkly.
“You did the right thing,” I said quietly, “defending her.”
Cole’s eyes shot to mine in the rearview mirror.
“She needs more of that in her life,” I continued and was gratified to see his shoulders slump, as if I’d yanked the tension out of him, allowing him to relax into the leather of the back seat.
Silence weighed on all three of us as we took the elevator up to my apartment. I breathed deeply before swiping in and made a mental note to give Cole and Tristan a key too, and to introduce them all to the reception on the ground floor.
The moment the door opened, Eva flew into my arms—into our arms. She fluttered between the three of us, kissing my jaw, stroking Tristan’s face, then stopping when she saw the cut on Cole’s cheek.
“I’m fine,” he said, capturing her hands in his. “I promise.”
“Are you sure? What happened?”
“I’m sure,” he said, and kissed her forehead.
“I ordered pizza,” she said, “using your card.”
Cole’s eyes lit up in a tentative smile, and he tugged her in for a brief hug before letting her go. “Good.”
Ten minutes later, all three of them were in my clothes, and I could not stop the satisfaction that swelled in my chest.
Mine.
Fucking hell.
Eva curled up to me on the couch, her legs underneath her as her fingers skimmed up and down my chest.
I caught her hand and held it still over my heart. “Hey. They’re home, and it’s fine.”
By the time the pizza arrived and we’d finished eating, Cole and Tristan were falling asleep on the couch.
Eva still seemed full of nervous energy, flitting to and fro, stroking her fingers over our faces, our arms, our hands, as if we might disappear into thin air if she didn’t ground us through touch.
Even Cole, who looked at her with wonder every time she checked him over, like a new injury might have appeared when she looked away.
Finally, the pizza was cleaned up, and conversation sputtered to an uncomfortable halt.
Eva dropped to her knees in front of me.
“Sir,” she breathed. Tristan looked up sleepily then bolted upright when he saw her.
Eva’s hands stroked up my thighs.
“Malyshka,” I rasped. “What are you doing?”
“Thanking you,” she murmured, reaching for my belt. Tristan’s eyes widened, and he nudged Cole, who sat up, blinking then stiffening.
“Eva.”
Her fingers deftly unbuckled my pants, and then I grabbed her wrists.
“Eva, stop.”
Her eyes shot to mine, vulnerable, and I watched her face crumble, her eyes filling with tears she refused to let fall. Embarrassment stained her cheeks red.
“But you— Oh my god. You don’t. I’m so sorry. I misread—” If my heart weren’t aching so badly for her, I might be amused by her incoherence. “Fuck, I’m sorry.” She crumbled to her feet and backed away.
“Eva, stop,” I said, firmly.
She froze.
“I don’t want this.”
Her eyes widened, and a tear streaked down her cheek.
“No, fuck— I want you,” I said, desperate to reassure her. “Desperately. So fucking badly, I spend half my waking hours dreaming of touching you, tasting you, fucking you.”
Her chest shook as if she were holding in sobs.
“But not like this.”
She swallowed hard. “I’m sor—”
“Eva, stop apologizing.”
“I’m sorry.”
I raised an eyebrow, and she scrubbed her face.
“Right.”
“Eva, I want you,” I repeated. Cole and Tristan watched us in silence, their own expressions miserable, as if they were aching for Eva as much as I was.
“But—”
“Can I show you what I want?” I asked her.
She licked her lips, a nervous gesture, then took a shuddering breath. “I’m so embarrassed.”
“Baby girl,” I murmured. “Don’t be, please.”
She looked over her shoulder at the men sitting on the couch behind her then straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin, that quintessentially Eva movement that told me she was about to be so fucking brave.
“Yes,” she said, exhaling sharply. “Show me what you want. Please.”
I slipped off the couch and dropped to my knees before her.
“I don’t want you to be with me because you’re grateful,” I said, hoping my face communicated just how fucking serious I was. “I’ve fucked up so many times,” I rasped. “And I don’t deserve you. No, don’t interrupt me.”
I couldn’t read her expression as she waited for me to finish.
“We’ve talked about rules for this apartment, but we haven’t talked about rules for sex or what our relationship looks like going forward.”
Cole dropped to his knees beside me. “Whatever we decide, Eva, I want you to know I’m sorry. So fucking sorry I ever made you feel like anything less than the goddess you are.”
A moment later, Tristan knelt on my other side. He smiled. “You know how I feel about you, kitten.”
Eva pressed her lips together, her eyes roving over the three of us. “I wanted sex, not a relationship talk.”
Cole flinched.
“When you were blackmailing me,” she said, “all three of you, I didn’t have to make decisions. You took away my options, and that was horrible, but when we were having fantastic sex, I could just let go and enjoy it because I didn’t have a choice. And that was freeing. Is that fucked up?”
“Never,” I growled at my sweet girl.
“That’s what I want,” she said softly. “What I need tonight. To forget.”
I took a deep breath, but her lips tilted up into a tentative smile. “I feel silly with the three of you kneeling in front of me.”
I bent forward to press my cheek against her stomach and closed my eyes for a long moment.
“Maybe I want to be on my knees for you, malyshka.”
Eva’s lips twisted into amusement. “It always comes down to that, doesn’t it? It’s not what I want, but that doesn’t matter, does it?”
“What do you want, kitten?” Tristan asked, and she looked down at him like she was lost.
“I don’t—I—” I hated the uncertainty, that she didn’t trust us enough to be vulnerable, that she didn’t know she was safe with us.
Eva closed her eyes and stroked her fingers through my hair again.