by S. C. Daiko
“Now that I’m definitely not having your baby,” she said, her voice quivering, “I feel kind of bereft…”
I lifted her wrist and kissed it. “I would have loved you to have been pregnant.”
She shook her head. “It’s not the right time, honey.” She paused for a heartbeat. “I wanna find a job, a roommate, and an apartment. Live a normal life. Further my photography career. It’s too soon for me…”
“I can be your roommate.” I squeezed her fingers. “You can live here.”
Her eyes widened. “No, Ben. Don’t think I’m not grateful for your offer. But it would be like swapping one gilded cage for another.”
Heat rose behind my eyelids and I shot her an incredulous look. “There’s no way I’d treat you like your father has done.”
She looked down at our entwined hands. “I love you. But what I really want is for us to date, take things slowly, get to know each other properly. If we’re gonna commit, it has to be for life.”
I let go of her fingers and placed my hands on the sides of her face, gazed into her turquoise eyes. “I want that too, babe.” I kissed her nose. “Remind me who is the older one out of the two of us.”
My little girl has grown up and she’s grounding me, just like Becca did when we were kids.
Aly laughed, a delightful sound.
How I’d missed it.
“Are you hungry?” My stomach rumbled. “I’m hungry all the time. Can’t stop eating. Shall I order some food in for us? I don’t have a cook… not worth employing anyone as I’m always traveling.”
“I’m the opposite. Can’t stomach meat and dairy anymore…” She didn’t manage to finish what she’d been about to say. Her cellphone chimed in her purse and she answered it.
I could hear Semion’s angry voice from where I was sitting. “Where the hell are you, daughter?”
“I’m with a friend,” she said firmly.
“If you don’t come home right away,” he barked, “I’ll scour the city until I find you.”
Jesus, the man’s a Neanderthal.
“Yes, Papa,” she said with false meekness, rolling her eyes.
She disconnected, “I’m so mad at him,” she spat. “Don’t wanna go home. If I do, I’m scared he’ll try and force me to marry Pasha.”
I almost fell off my seat. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? And who the fuck is Pasha?”
“I was leading up to it, honey,” she stroked my hand. “Pasha was at the wedding, remember? Sitting next to me? He wouldn’t stop talking about his yacht.”
“That douche? A complete lightweight,” I grimaced. “I know of his family. Part of the Bratva...”
“Yeah. His dad and mine arrived from Russia at the same time. They were in business together in Brighton Beach. Shady mafia dealings before going legit.”
“My Uncle Gleb was in that circle.” An idea occurred to me. “He left all that behind when the woman he fell in love with more or less issued him with an ultimatum. Uncle was telling me yesterday how short-staffed he is at his Arts and Entertainment Centre in Denver. Would you consider relocating?”
“Only if I got offered work on my own merits. Not because I’m your girlfriend,” she said.
“How long before your father sends out a search party?”
She glanced at her watch. “He’ll have called Emma and Valentin already and found out I’m not there.”
“He’ll work out you are here before we know it.”
Aly’s face had turned pale. “I’ll go. I don’t wanna compromise you, honey.”
I smirked. “A little late for that, babe. You’re not going anywhere without me. I’m in it for the duration.”
“I’m sorry…” She pulled at a strand of her hair.
“For what?” I put my arm around her. “I love you.”
“I don’t want you to get hurt, Ben.” She shuddered. “Papa has been known to hurt people.”
Fucking bully.
“It’s either fight or flight, then,” I snickered. “Your choice.”
She leaned back and made strong eye contact with me. “Definitely flight. But where?”
I pulled my cellphone from my pocket and put through a call to my pilot. “Can you meet me at the airport and file a flight plan for Boulder? I know we only just got back from there. Something’s come up and I need to return. I’ll have one passenger with me.”
After getting his affirmation, I reached for my crutch and said to Aly, “Let’s go. I’m taking you to meet my family. I’ll call them on our way to Colorado.”
She smiled and the relief on her face went straight to my heart. “I don’t even have a toothbrush,” she laughed.
I laughed with her. “Who needs a toothbrush? We’re experts at cleaning our teeth with the chewed end of a stick…”
Chapter Eighty-Three
Alyona
We stopped at a Walgreens on our way to the airport. I handed over my prescription for the pill, picked up some tampons, toiletries and underwear. I’d shop for clothes when we got to Colorado.
Ben was waiting for me at the checkout; he smirked and threw a toothbrush into my shopping basket.
I bumped shoulders with him, giggling, “I was looking forward to using the chewed end of a stick again.”
Resting on his crutch, he snorted out a laugh and handed over his credit card.
I opened my purse. “I can pay.”
“Let me get this, Aly.” His voice was stern. “Credit card transactions can be traced...”
God, I’m really doing it.
Escaping from my father.
Go me!
My cellphone rang as we exited the store. Papa. With trembling hands, I turned it off.
For a split second I’d wanted to answer him, wanted to explain my actions. But I knew he wouldn’t listen. He treated me like a commodity, something to pass on to the highest bidder. I wondered what Pasha’s father had offered for me and my mouth drooped.
“You okay, babe?” Ben took my hand.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “How about you, honey?” I glanced down at his left leg.
Fucking me against the wall at his apartment so brashly earlier might have put a strain on it.
“I’m good,” he gave me his lop-sided smile. “Just called my dad to tell him we’re on our way. He’ll pick us up in Boulder. I keep an SUV at the house and I’ll drive you to Denver and introduce you to my uncle tomorrow.”
“Was your father surprised you’re back so soon and bringing me with you?”
“Nothing I say or do ever fazes him,” he chuckled.
“I can’t wait to meet him,” I said, and I couldn’t. Ben had told me so much about Daniel and Catrin. And yet… and yet, butterflies fluttered in my belly.
Would they like me or would they think I’m an airhead because I don’t have a job?
Ben had parked his Porsche in the adjacent lot and, with his right foot on the accelerator, we were soon heading across the George Washington Bridge toward the airport. I breathed in his sandalwood cologne, so different than his salty scent in the Maldives, and my chest panged.
Have I done the right thing declining his offer to move in with him?
I’d been freaking tempted. On the island I’d been his helpmate. We’d been equals in a primitive world. That was no longer the case now we were back to reality. I needed to prove myself as a woman who had her shit together not only to my father, but also to Ben.
We left the car at a garage in Teterboro, where Ben had a reserved spot. A valet drove us to the terminal and a short time later, we boarded Ben’s Gulfstream G650.
Helena, his flight attendant, greeted us with a smile. “Todd and I were eating my homemade shepherd’s pie when you called,” she said. “There’s plenty left, so I’ll heat it up and serve it to you both once we’ve taken off.”
After thanking her, we sat next to each other in the cabin. I sank into the soft leather seat, tipped my head back and closed my eyes.
A feeling of calmness settled
over me. I was with Ben. Nothing else mattered.
At least for now.
Daniel Collins met us as arranged. Tall, dark and handsome didn’t even begin to describe him. No wonder Ben was such a hunk.
Daniel shook hands with me and asked in his British accent if I had any luggage.
I blushed and reached for my Walgreens bag, telling him it had been a spur of the moment decision.
“Not a problem,” he said kindly. “We’re used to Brash’s ways, although this is the first time that he’s brought a girl home.”
Heat spread through me at Daniel’s words, and I pressed my lips together to keep from smiling.
Ben was my first, and I never imagined I’d be HIS first in anything at all.
I lowered my gaze. Maybe Ben should have told Daniel I was running away from my father? He said he’d fess up tomorrow morning, after we’d had a good night’s sleep. Papa would still be searching for me in New York; he wouldn’t think of looking for me here just yet. And, when he eventually did that, we’ll have gone to Denver.
Ben rode shotgun in the Range Rover and I sat in the back seat. Night had fallen already and I was tired. My eyelids drooped, and before I knew it, I’d fallen asleep.
“Hey, babe, we’re here,” Ben roused me later by gently shaking my shoulder.
I blinked my eyes open and gazed out the window at a log-cabin house lit by moonlight. The sky above swelled with stars, just like the sky above the island, and I immediately felt at ease.
Ben reached for my shopping bag with the hand that wasn’t holding his crutch. “Welcome to my family home,” he said proudly.
A woman exited the front door. Petite, much smaller than me. “Hiya.” A smile shaped her mouth. “I’m Catrin. Pleased to meet you.”
She pulled me into a warm hug. “Come inside. I’ve made you some supper.”
“Thanks,” Ben pecked his stepmom on the cheek. “We ate on the plane, but that was hours ago.” He rubbed his belly as we stepped into the open-plan living room.
Cozy, with a stone-surround fireplace. I love it.
Ben hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he was always hungry. We went through to the kitchen and sat at a farm-style table. He wolfed down a plate of Catrin’s famous Welsh stew while I merely played with it.
“So, Aly,” she said, reaching across and patting my hand. “It’s lovely to meet you. Poor lamb, what you must have suffered on that island…”
“It wasn’t so bad,” I reassured her. “But we wouldn’t have survived if we’d needed medical care.”
“At least we got to know each other,” Ben winked, “and we fell in love.”
“Aw,” Catrin beamed. “I’m so happy for you both.”
Ben scooped up the last of his stew with a piece of bread and chewed on it. “We’ll talk more in the morning, if you don’t mind,” he said after swallowing. “We’re both exhausted. Think I’ll take Aly straight up to bed.”
Catrin gave me a knowing look, and a flush crept across my cheeks. “See you at breakfast,” she smiled.
Ben led me up the open-riser staircase to his room. He kissed me as soon as we were inside, dropping my bag and his crutch at the same time. He held my face firmly in his hands and pressed his lips possessively against mine before deepening the kiss and claiming me. “Been wanting to do that ever since we arrived,” he groaned into my mouth.
In a beat, he’d pulled my dress over my head and had unclipped my bra. He laid me down on the bed and sucked on my breasts, swirling his tongue around, biting my nipples and making me writhe beneath him. “Ben, we can’t… my period,” I tried to interject.
“Fuck your period,” he growled, swinging his legs off the bed.
He stripped naked in front of me, his beautiful cock at full mast and swaying.
I licked my lips.
He made a beckoning motion with his hands.
Another first for me, but won’t it be messy?
“Take out your tampon and get into the shower,” he said, leading me into the bathroom.
We’d shared so much intimacy on the island, I wasn’t embarrassed. I did as he asked, wrapping it in toilet paper and tossing it into the wastebasket while he turned on the faucet.
“Get in,” he repeated.
Once more, I obeyed.
The warm water rained down on me, and he kissed me again. Billowing steam misted around us as his tongue pushed between my lips. I bit down on it, and he laughed into my mouth.
“My little vixen.”
I wrapped my hands around his neck and he maneuvered me against the tiled wall, balling my hair tight in his fist as he carried on kissing me. I released a moan, and he strengthened his grip, pulling back my head to suck and bite his way down my jaw.
“God, you’re beautiful, Aly,” his voice was deep, rough and filled with lust.
He latched onto my pebbled nipple and sucked hard, biting, sucking, then biting and sucking again, going from one nipple to the other.
“Please,” I begged.
“Please, what?” the words vibrated against my heated skin.
“Please, fuck me…”
“With fucking pleasure,” he said, turning me around so that my palms slapped against the tiles.
He grabbed my hips and tilted them upwards, then spread my legs apart.
“Bend forward and push your ass toward me, babe.”
I gasped, and my toes curled as he started to fuck me from behind. The head of his cock slid into me, and I mewled.
He held me in place. “Good girl.”
My eyes fluttered and I rocked myself up and down on his shaft.
He pounded into me so freaking hard and deep my feet came off the floor.
I’m impaled on him, suspended.
Holding my hips, he carried on fucking me until I exploded in a shuddering, pulsating climax, my entire body spinning and clenching.
“I love you, baby.” His breath rasped in my ear. I felt him spasm as he emptied himself inside me.
We uncoupled and he turned me around, kissed my forehead, my nose and then my mouth.
“Can I wash you, honey?” I asked, eyeing him. “Remember when I used to scrub you with sand? Awesome to have soap again, isn’t it?”
Without waiting for an answer, I squirted body wash into my hand and smoothed it along his rock-hard pecs, his flat stomach and his firm abs. God, he was gorgeous.
Gorgeous and mine.
“Now you,” he grunted. He soaped me, running his hands over my back, my shoulders, along my arms, and between my legs. Then he flicked a switch so the spray came through a hand-held nozzle while he rinsed me off.
He opened the door to the shower and picked up a fluffy white towel, wrapping it around me before retrieving a second one for himself. He disappeared momentarily into the bedroom and returned with my Walgreens bag.
We both cleaned our teeth, our gazes locking in the mirror while we shared the unspoken memory of how we’d done so on the island.
“I’ll wait for you in bed,” he said, kissing me with minty breath.
He left the bathroom and I inserted a tampon, put on a clean pair of panties, and took my first pill.
“I’ve been sleeping on the floor at my parents’,” I whispered as I joined him in the bed. “The mattresses were too soft both at the Hamptons and in Brooklyn.”
He spooned himself around my back and nuzzled my nape. “Do you want to sleep on the floor here?”
“No, it’s okay. Now that I’m with you I don’t feel the need.” I heaved a soulful sigh.
He turned me around and fixed me with a penetrating look. “How can you even think of us being separated again?”
I caught the pain in his indigo irises, but I lifted my chin. “I have to do this, honey. Find out who I really am, so I can give myself to you heart, body and soul.”
His kiss was filled with sadness, but he didn’t contradict me and I loved him all the more for it.
Chapter Eighty-Four
Brash
&
nbsp; I woke to the sound of a woodpecker, going hell-bent for leather in the back yard. Wiping the crud from my eyes, I eased myself out of bed. Didn’t want to disturb Aly. I raked my gaze over her, my heart hammering with love. Her chest rose and fell as she slept peacefully. She’d been through a lot in the past couple of days; I’d leave her to rest.
Quietly, I used the bathroom then made my way to the closet where I kept my Colorado wardrobe. I pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, found a comfortable old pair of sneakers, grabbed my crutch and went downstairs.
I hobbled into the kitchen, and the aroma of butter melting in a pan, mingling with the smells of cooked batter and hot maple syrup, assailed my nostrils. Catrin turned around from where she was standing by the stove, a spatula in her hand. “I’m making pancakes,” she said.
“Wow, awesome,” I literally drooled.
Dad was already stuffing his face. “Take a seat,” he grunted. “Where’s Aly?”
“Still sleeping,” I explained, taking a swig of orange juice. Silently, I started shoveling food into my mouth.
Catrin placed a cup of black coffee in front of me. I knocked it back with a groan of pleasure. “So good. All we had to drink on the island was rainwater.”
Dad finished his pancakes and took his plate to the sink. He sat with Catrin on the opposite side of the table and sipped his morning cup of tea.
When I’d finished eating, he cleared his throat. “Something tells me you weren’t being totally upfront with us last night, son. We didn’t want to say anything in front of Aly so as not to appear discourteous, but a girl from her background doesn’t travel without any luggage.”
“Yes,” Catrin nodded. “We found it extremely odd.”
So, I told them. Told them about the argument she’d had with Semion. Told them about his threat to break her trust fund if she didn’t marry the man whom he’d chosen for her. I spread my hands wide. “Aly wants more out of life than being a cosseted wife. She’s a talented photographer and highly resourceful.” I bounced my gaze from Dad to Catrin and back to Dad again. “I remembered Uncle Gleb saying he was short-staffed. I’ll call him in a minute and ask if I can take Aly to see him…”
