by Megan Hart
And then she was crying, burying her face in her hands, shoulders shaking in silent, racking sobs. Disturbed, Niko went to her. The way she clung to him, clutching at the front of his shirt, made him uncomfortable, but there was nothing to do but let her. She shook. Not for the first time since he’d been back, he noticed that Galina seemed thinner. Brittle. She’d never been a woman who held on to weight, but her shoulder blades were very prominent even beneath the thickness of her sweater.
“Mom . . . is there something going on with you? Are you all right?”
“I’m grieving.” She pushed away from him to go to the sink to splash water on her face. She kept herself turned away from him, her fingers gripping the sink’s edges as her shoulders hunched. “More than you will, I’m sure, when it’s my turn to die.”
“Stop that,” he said sharply. “That bullshit worked when I was a kid, but it doesn’t anymore.”
She twisted to look at him with a grim smile. “Eat a cookie. You’re too thin.”
His mother chucked him under the chin and pushed past him to go out the back door onto the porch. She reached behind her to close the door with a firm click. The flare of her lighter flashed a moment later.
Hefting the toolbox, he headed out through the front. It still jarred him, a little, to see the new houses lined up along the street. Dina Guttridge was pulling her van into her driveway as he crossed. He made sure to wave, letting her know he saw the way she was straining to catch a glimpse of him going into Alicia’s house.
“Ilya?”
“No, it’s me, Niko. Ilya is . . .” He paused, not sure why it was Dina’s business where Ilya was. “How are you tonight?”
“Cold. But at least they plowed the roads, am I right? Thank God. I was going to go crazy, stuck in the house for another day with this crew.” She opened the van’s sliding door to reveal the bags of groceries and car seats inside.
He couldn’t let her handle all that by herself. The kids, the bags, the slippery driveway. He set the toolbox on Alicia’s stoop and slogged through the snow over to the Guttridges’.
“Let me give you a hand.”
“Well, aren’t you nice?” Dina dimpled. “Thanks.”
“You get the kids. I’ll take care of this stuff.” He hefted two double handfuls of plastic grocery bags and set them inside the front door while Dina dealt with the kids.
“You want to come in for a minute?” She held the door open for the last load.
Niko shook his head. “Ah . . . thanks, but no. I have to get next door. I’m fixing Alicia’s faucet for her.”
It wasn’t any of Dina’s business, of course, but with Alicia’s fair warning about Dina’s interest in her neighbor’s business ringing in his ears, he wanted to make it clear what the purpose of his visit was. He could tell by the look on Dina’s face that she didn’t believe him, but he figured that would be the case even if it was the truth. He hopped down the couple of front porch steps and crossed the yards. She was still looking when he picked up the toolbox and gave her another wave.
“That woman has no shame,” Alicia said when he came inside.
Niko laughed. “No. Not too much. Thanks for the heads-up, or I’d probably be drinking a mug of hot cocoa right now and fending off her lustful advances.”
“You still have time. I’m sure she’ll still be up once she puts all those kids to bed.” Alicia gave him an arch look and crooked her finger over her shoulder as she led the way to the kitchen. “Just do me a favor and fix this leak first. It’s making me nuts.”
He settled the toolbox on the table and put his hands on his hips. “That’s it, huh? This is what it’s come down to?”
She’d been pulling a pair of mugs out of the cabinet but stopped to give him a look over her shoulder. “Hmm?”
“I’m only useful for fixing things?” He eased closer to her, moving up behind to nuzzle the back of her neck. She smelled so good it was all he could do not to get on his knees right there in front of her.
She didn’t turn, though her sigh told him she liked what he was doing. “I can think of a few things you’re good for. Anyway, you haven’t fixed the faucet yet . . .”
“Later.” Niko moved his hands over her belly and lower to find the heat between her legs. Brushing his lips down over her shoulder, he pressed his fingers against the denim.
Her response was to press her ass back against him, grinding. He was already hard. All it took around her was the simplest thing to get him that way.
“Promises, promises.” Her voice hitched as she put her hands flat on the countertop and leaned forward.
He unbuttoned and unzipped her, pushing her jeans over her hips. Down her thighs. She wore a pair of gigantic cotton panties beneath, and the sight stumped him for a moment.
Alicia laughed as he paused. “I thought you were coming over later. I didn’t shave my legs yet, either.”
“Oh, how fast the magic fades.” He cupped the perfect globes of her ass through the cotton, then ran his fingers down the backs of her thighs. “Prickly.”
“I’ll prickly you.” She started to turn, but he put a hand on her shoulder to keep her facing front.
His other hand slipped between her legs from behind, urging her to widen her stance. “I like it.”
“Mmm.” She bent forward again, pushing her ass into his touch. “You have a granny-panties fetish?”
“And a thing for Sasquatch, remember?” He laughed and ducked as she turned to swat him again. He grabbed her hands, holding her still even as she struggled. She quieted when he kissed the side of her mouth.
“You’re mean,” Alicia said, her voice breathy. “So mean to me . . .”
“Aww, baby, I don’t want to be mean. I wanna be nice to you.” He stroked over the white cotton, circling against her. He reveled in the sound of her moan. “Are you gonna let me?”
Her only answer was another moan as he tweaked the tight knot of sensitive flesh with his thumb and forefinger. When he eased her panties to the side, he found her already slick for him. He kissed her, letting his tongue slide in at the same slow, steady pace as his fingers. Then out. One, then another, until the heel of his hand could rub her at the same time.
“I love getting you off,” Niko said as he kissed her. “I love it when you make those sounds.”
Her fingers dug into his shoulder as her head fell back. He got his mouth on her neck, nibbling, finding all the places he knew would make her squirm against him. Her hips moved. He slid deeper inside, aching to replace his fingers with his cock but wanting to draw this out until Alicia was shaking and crying out his name.
“We should go upstairs.” She made no move to leave.
Niko withdrew to move his slippery fingers up and over her sweet spot. “In a minute.”
“It’s only going to take me a minute . . .”
He couldn’t stand it any longer. He had to taste her. Swiftly, he pulled her panties down and got on his knees to spread her open for him. Feasting on her, teasing with the flat of his tongue, until he felt her body swell and tremble under his lips. He kept his mouth held to her while she shook and grabbed at his head, holding him close to her. He wanted to draw it out, make it go on forever, even as he finished her.
She looked down at him, her eyes glazed over and her lips plump and swollen from where she’d bitten them. Her tight grip loosened, though she kept her hand on his head. She shook her head the tiniest bit, drawing in and letting out a breath, but no words.
Niko gave her another slow, long lick, all the while keeping his gaze locked on hers. He could make her come again, just like this, with him on his knees on the hard kitchen floor and her sweetness coating his tongue. He wanted to.
Alicia groaned, her fingers twisting again in his hair. “Wait, wait . . .”
“Mmm, no. Let me.”
“I want you inside me.” She didn’t push him away, though. Her thighs widened. She cried out when he licked her again.
“First, this.” His cock was so
hard it ached, pressing against the front of his jeans, so he undid his button and zipper, freeing himself into his fist. Just a few strokes, Niko thought. He wouldn’t go over, not until he could be inside her, the way she wanted. But for now, licking her, bringing himself to the edge . . .
They were moving. Turning. He was behind her, then inside her. Pumping gently, then harder until she cried out and her hands skidded against the countertop. He followed her half a minute later, losing himself in ecstasy.
Panting, he pressed himself to her back, holding her for as long as he could before it got weird, which was about thirty seconds before the tensing of her muscles alerted him to move. They disengaged, cleaned up, buttoned up, and zipped up.
“Hey.” She snagged his arm as he went to the sink to wash his hands. “Kiss me.”
He did, gladly. When she tucked herself against him, Niko closed his eyes and lost himself in the scent of her hair. The rise and fall of her shoulders told him she sighed, but when she pulled away to look at him, her smile gave away nothing of what she might’ve been thinking.
He could just ask her, he thought as he watched Alicia rearrange her clothes to erase all signs of what had just happened. But if he did, then she’d want to know what he was thinking, and it would become complicated. Messy. It would upset the balance. So he kept his mouth shut and took up his tools so he could fix her faucet.
It didn’t take long. He held up the broken part to show her. “All it needed was a washer.”
Alicia glanced at him from the table she’d been setting with two of everything. She’d pulled her hair up on top of her head in a messy bun, tendrils hanging down all over the place. She wore no makeup. He thought about the giant cotton underpants and her prickly shins, about beauty, about comfort and safety and expectations. He thought about love.
“I made meatloaf,” she told him. “If you want to stay. And we could watch a movie—I mean, unless you have other plans or something.”
He did not, of course. Not unless you counted working on more home-repair projects for his mother. “Scalloped potatoes?”
“Ummm, duh.” She grinned over her shoulder as she bent to look inside the oven; she opened it and let out a waft of something delicious. Her grin faltered for a second as she straightened. “What?”
“What, what?” He tested the faucet, running the water and then turning it off to make sure the dripping had stopped.
“You looked weird.” She reached for a hot pad hanging from the drawer next to the oven.
He’d been admiring her ass; that’s what he told himself. Nothing else. “No idea what you’re talking about.”
“It was a really weird look,” she said.
“French toast. Meatloaf. You’re so domestic. That’s all. I remember when you could barely make microwave nachos.” He hefted the spanner and shrugged.
Alicia made a face. “Wow, thanks. You don’t need to sound so surprised. I’m all grown up now.”
“And a woman of many talents,” he said.
She studied him again, more thoughtfully this time. “And you’re a handy handyman.”
“Seems like we make a good team,” Niko said.
Alicia’s grin had always been sunshine burning away the clouds to him, probably because for most of their lives, he’d spent as much time earning frowns from her as smiles. He said her name, thinking he would tell her that. How beautiful she looked to him just then.
But when she tilted her head to give him another assessing, curious look, all Niko managed to say was, “I’m starving. Dinner sounds great.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
He’d left sunshine, warm waters, and the pervasive scent of coconut tanning lotion for this bullshit? Ilya watched the bus pull out of the Go Deep lot. At least Alicia had managed to cajole someone into coming to plow out the lane and the parking lot before the bus arrived, and even then, there’d been a few minutes when he was sure they were going to get stuck. When everyone had gone, he let himself into the office.
It was cold.
It was dark.
It was nothing like Jamaica, and Ilya muttered a few choice words as he let himself into Allie’s office to grab the phone, since his cell had gone dead on the ride home from the airport. When she didn’t answer, he tried the landline. At least he thought he did.
“Niko?” he asked at the sound of his brother’s voice. “Sorry, bro, I was trying to call Allie. I must’ve dialed home by accident. She’s not answering her cell, and I’m at the shop. I need a ride.”
“I can come and get you. Be there in about half an hour.”
Thirty minutes was going to feel like thirty hours, at this point. Ilya tried not to party too hard when on a trip, because hangovers and deep dives definitely do not mix. But on that last night in the hotel, with a late-afternoon flight home? He might’ve indulged a little heavily in island rum and a couple of bachelorettes. He’d managed to sleep a little on the plane and then on the bus back from the airport, but that was why his phone was now dead, since he hadn’t thought to plug it in.
He grabbed a bottle of water from the mini fridge and settled into Allie’s desk chair. The motion of him nudging the desk shook the computer enough to wake it from sleep, and he took the mouse to see if he could pass the time watching funny fail videos, or something. The screen lit—her e-mail program prominent—and a new message caught his eye.
From Theresa.
He read the message, of course, not caring at all that it wasn’t addressed to him. Go Deep was 40 percent his business, and this was the business computer. He sat back, reading the points Theresa had outlined trying to convince Allie that this offer from Diamond Development was going to change their lives.
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered.
Ilya drained the bottle of water and tossed the empty into the trash. It didn’t do anything to fend off the headache, or his anger. He got up to pace the tiny office. By the time he heard the faint jingle of the bell on the front door alerting him to Niko’s arrival, he hadn’t managed to calm down.
“Hey,” Niko said and stopped at the sight of him. “You okay?”
Ilya gestured at the computer screen—not that Niko could see what he meant. “Allie is totally going behind my back.”
“About . . . ?” Niko’s voice went cool and steady, and so did his gaze.
Oh, yeah, he knew exactly what Ilya meant. Not only had Theresa talked with Allie about it, but it looked to Ilya like Niko had also been let in on the deal.
“This offer. From Theresa.”
Niko’s eyes narrowed, and his mouth pursed for a second before he said, “What are you talking about?”
“This offer. To buy the shop and the quarry. Some hotel wants to make it into a water park.” Ilya gestured again, confused now by his brother’s sudden look of ignorance. “You looked like you knew what I was talking about.”
“I have no idea.” Niko shook his head.
Some of his ire eased. Ilya stood, moving from behind the desk. “Shit. Are you sure she didn’t say anything to you about it?”
“She definitely did not say anything to me about any offer to buy the business,” Niko said with a bite in his voice. “But it sounds like something you need to discuss with her, not me. Are you ready to go? It’s cold in here, and I have stuff to do at home.”
Niko turned without waiting for an answer. Ilya followed him out of the office and into the shop. “They want to come in and build condos or some shit. Do you even have any idea what that means? How about everything I’ve done over the years? You want to know how hard it is to even find a helicopter, much less get it here and sink it so we have something different and unique to bring people in? They think they can just come on in here and tear down some walls and make it pretty, and that’s going to make it better?”
His brother turned at the grasp of Ilya’s hand on his coat sleeve. “Back off, man.”
“You don’t give a damn at all. Why am I even talking to you about it?” Ilya shook his head.
/> Niko frowned. “Okay, Galina.”
Those were fighting words, but all at once Ilya didn’t want to fight. “That’s low.”
“You’re coming at me the way she does. It’s not that I don’t care, Ilya. Okay? It’s just that it’s not anything to do with me. I can’t fix this.”
Ilya took a breath and unclenched his fists. “I’m not asking you to fix it.”
“I know,” his brother said.
“Anyway, you’ll be out of here soon, and you won’t have to deal with it.”
Niko looked guilty.
Ilya paused. “Right?”
“I haven’t told anyone else this, yet. But I’m cashing in my contract.”
Ilya had only the vaguest idea of how the kibbutz had worked. He knew his brother was part of a collective, that he worked in exchange for food, board, a stipend. Beyond that, he had no clue.
“It means,” Nikolai added, “that they’ll give me a payout based on my years there, and I’m no longer obligated to work there. It also means I’ve terminated the rights of living there. So in other words—”
“You’re home? For good?” Ilya clapped his brother on the shoulder, happier than he had expected to be at this surprising news. “Welcome home, brother. Welcome home.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Then
Alicia’s jaw cracked from the effort of holding back a yawn. She was cold, too, although sitting shoulder to shoulder with Nikolai on the Sterns’ battered picnic table, she felt a warmth that had nothing to do with the weather or the layers she wore. She tipped her head back to look up at the sky. Waiting for the clouds to clear.
“How long do we have to wait? It’s freaking cold out here.” Ilya shrugged deeper into his heavy winter coat and acted like he wasn’t watching Jennilynn from the corner of his eye.
He should’ve just sat next to her. He wanted to. Jennilynn wanted him to. But, instead, the two of them sat on opposite ends of the picnic table, as far apart from each other as they could possibly get.
