45. Astor
FORTY-FIVE
ASTOR
“Are you getting up?” I push Rurik’s shoulder.
He sticks his tongue out like roadkill.
“I know you’re not dead.” I lean over and skim my nose down the line of his hip towards his dick.
He immediately gets hard, and before I can pull back and say ‘I told you so’, he fists a hand in my hair and rubs his cock against me. “I’m alive for blow jobs, not for rowing.”
“Rowing and then a shower blowjob.”
Rurik groans, grabbing his thickness with his free hand to rub his tip over my lips. “I can’t believe you’re going to make me row like this. What happened to taking holidays off?”
I lick his tip, unable to stop myself from teasing. “A day, not the whole trip. Come on, I want to show you the sunrise over the river.”
We only got to my uncle’s palace late yesterday, and I’m dying to show him around the property.
I thought I’d feel something more coming back because of the death of my father here, but I don’t.
I feel lighter and more at ease than I’ve felt for a long time.
The stress evaporated. I still worry about Rainier’s safety, but less. I trust my uncle.
“Come on, Ru. Please.” I know he can’t resist when I ask this way.
“Mean!” He grumbles but releases me and rolls out of bed. Once standing, he stretches jutting his hips forward putting his beautiful cock on display. I’m sure just to entice me back to bed, but I ignore him. He groans. “You should be more into me.”
“I spend every minute of every day with you. I think I like you plenty.” I sneak another look at his dick, fully hard now, and my mouth waters, but if I tell him, we’ll never get out of the room, and I can’t start our first day here wrong and curse the entire trip.
“I’m handcuffing you to the bed at least one day we’re here.” He reluctantly pulls on a pair of sweats off the floor, then digs through his suitcase messing the whole thing up, like a savage, until he finds his trainers.
“I’m making you put all that in the wardrobe later.” I avert my eyes so the mess doesn’t make me lose it. With some pretty intense exposure therapy, things are less bad. Not easier, but I manage them better. At least so far. It’s only been a little over a month.
It’s all a work in progress, but for the first time. I’m doing more than barely surviving my mental illness, and I’ll take it.
“I’m waiting for you!” Rurik runs his fingers through his hair while grabbing a pair of sunglasses.
I roll my eyes and lead him out of the room. Uncle beefed up security on the property, but we aren’t really concerned about anything else happening since both people interested in hurting me are in the ground.
We take the four-wheeler to the river as light is just cresting over the edge of the horizon, spilling liquid gold across the open fields. I open the boathouse and don’t say a word as I lift the brand new two-person scull off the rack.
“Where’s mine?” Rurik holds out his hands as if this is a scam.
“You didn’t bring yours?” I fight a smile.
He stalks forward, narrowing his eyes. “This is how you break up with me?! You could have just used your words.”
I scoff. “Would you take no for an answer if I broke up with you?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Then why would I use my words?” I carry the scull out to the water.
He follows, still not processing the two seats. “Because I could still be in bed! And go back to stalking you at a decent hour.”
“Like you’d let me row by myself.” I give him a pointed look.
“Is this forced exposure therapy? Against my will?” His eye twitches. “You’re just going to go off and leave me to think you’ve drowned on the river for the next hour?!”
Rurik won’t admit it, but his trauma and anxiety are manifesting in overprotectiveness.
He still hasn’t let me out of his sight or had a single drink since that night.
At least he’s pro therapy. Lord knows we both need it.
Although I’m not sure he’s totally honest with his therapist, but that’s a battle for another day.
I put a hand on his chest, feeling his racing heart. “I wouldn’t do that to you. I’m not a trained professional. But maybe this proves you need it.”
He crosses his arms. “Did you really drag me out of bed at four thirty in the damn morning to prove I need exposure therapy too? Fine, you win. Now where is my scull?”
I laugh. “I didn’t do anything. You exposed yourself. I was trying to do something nice.”
He glares. “What do you mean?”
“Look at the scull again.” I wait.
It finally clicks. “Baby!” He wraps his arms around me and picks me up, spinning me in a circle. “We’re finally rowing together! I knew I’d get you.”
“Only so I can help you fix your god-awful stroke!” I say, but it’s not the truth.
He’s pretty good.
“I love you.” He brushes our lips together before setting me down.
“Maybe this will motivate you to get up all the mornings we’re here.”
Rurik is still beaming when we finish. “Are you fencing today?”
“I asked Rainier if he wanted to go a few rounds. No lessons. I’m taking the summer off.”
Rurik looks positively shocked. “You mean we can actually have breakfast some days?! Thank fuck. I’ve been so hungry all the time. Those tomatoes were not cutting it.”
“I was not stopping you from eating. I will not allow that slander.”
“I cannot sustain myself on tomatoes!”
“Who was making you eat tomatoes?” Some days I feel like I’m losing my mind speaking to him.
“What else would you let me eat in your bed?”
“Cake.” I smile while he works through the joke.
“You’d never let me eat anything with crumbs in—” He gasps and then narrows his eyes. “I see what you did there.”
We go to the practice room, and Rurik watches while Rainier and I go a few rounds.
“Do you fence?” Rainier asks Rurik when we take a water break.
“No, I just mess around with a rapier or a hand-and-a-half sword.” He smiles, and I know what he’s doing. Rurik is baiting Rainier.
“Don’t believe him. He bested me the first time we fought.”
Rainier stares at me in shock. “You’re kidding?”
“I’m not.” I stick my tongue out at Rurik.
“I have a couple of practice blades. If you want to have a go.” Rain takes the bait anyway and all I can do is roll my eyes.
Rurik shrugs but gets to his feet. “Why not?”
Rain switches his gear, and Rurik peels off his shirt. My brother offers him padded armor, but he declines. Rain lifts his brows but doesn’t challenge it. They set themselves and circle each other for a few minutes before Rurik attacks.
I have to admit, watching Rurik fight is as hot as fighting him myself.
They break apart, both breathing hard and already sweating.
“I’m impressed,” Rainier says, and it’s a hard thing to do.
“Me too.” Rurik winks at me, and I’m not sure what he’s playing at.
This time Rainier leads the attack, and they trade blows, both getting close to gaining the upper hand before the other miraculously fends them off. They go at it for a while before calling it a draw.
Rainier holds out his hand. “My brother is right. You’re quite the impressive swordsman. I hope we can play again while you’re here.”
“Of course we can. I enjoy a challenging opponent. You’re quite good yourself.”
Rainier blushes. “Thank you.”
We return to my room to shower, but to my shock, Rurik won’t fuck me.
“We don’t have time. We are late.” He’s already dressed and impatient.
“Late for what?” I ask as I get dressed.
“An appointment.” He already has the keys to my uncle’s Rolls-Royce, which either means he’s dead or trusts Rurik, and I’m afraid to ask which. He makes my new bodyguard get in the back, which is pretty comical. “I want to drive the Rolls.”
We head towards the nearest village, which is about forty-five minutes from the estate. I can’t imagine what business Rurik would have there.
We park outside a little bookshop and get out.
“Can you read?” I ask playfully.
“No, we aren’t here for books, silly.” He grins, holding open the door.
“Are we joining a book club? Or looking for our summer beach reads?” I’m dying to know.
He doesn’t even grace me with a reply, walking right up to the desk. “I’m here to see Maddie.”
“Oh yes. She’s expecting you,” the guy behind the desk says and leads us to the back room. “Mads, they’re here for you.”
“Great!” An adorable young woman who can’t be more than eighteen comes around the corner carrying a box. “We can take them to the little sitting area.”
What the fuck?
We return to the area by the hearth, and she sets the box down in the middle of the rug. Rurik sits right in front of it and gestures for me to join him.
Maddie lifts the lid off, revealing four kittens. “It’s impossible to contain them without a lid now. They just jump out until I have them back in with mom.”
I sit next to Rurik, and he hands me a kitten. “What is this?”
“We’re getting a kitten. What do you think we are doing?” He looks at Maddie. “Sorry. He’s daft sometimes.”
She laughs and sits with us.
“Why are we getting a cat?” I ask, but I’m already sold on the idea. I’ve never considered a pet, but now the idea is appealing. And it doesn’t hurt they are far too cute not to take one home.
“Because of their adorable faces.” He gives me a flat look.
“We’ll give you some time with them to decide,” Maddie says and goes with the guy to the front of the store.
“Really, Ru, what made you want to get a cat?”
“You can’t call me that in public! Now I’m hard.”
I grin. “Answer the question, boyfriend.”
He groans, eyes widening. “Do that again.”
“You like it?”
He nods empathically.
“Now answer the question, boyfriend.”
“You need to call me that with my cock inside you later.” He hands me another kitten then says, “I read cats can sense sleep paralysis and they learn to get you out of it.”
I can’t help but smile. “It’s been much better not being drugged.”
“But not gone. I told you, I’m killing that asshole and Killer Whale here is going to help me.”
“Killer whale?” I just laugh.
“Look at her!” She is a black cat with large white spots. Not like a normal tuxedo. I’ve never seen a coat like it before. Kind of like a calico without the brown.
“You’re cute.”
“I know.” He gets up, handing me Killer Whale. “But you have to tell your uncle.”
“You didn’t even ask him?”
“I like to ask for forgiveness instead of permission.”
“You can’t do that with a king.”
“I did it with the Rolls.”
“You’re going to get us banished.”