I slick my hair back. I need to get a trim. Salty sweat was dripping into my eyes the entire time I was in sweltering Chicago. “Come here.”
She’s wearing a blue dress. Under it, a matching set of black lace. As she steps into the shower, I wonder what she was planning to wear tomorrow, when I was supposed to return. I’ve never come back early from a trip to Chicago before. I was always leaving her behind, never returning to her.
My eyes explore her body eagerly, trying to see everything at once. Acting like this is the first time I’ve seen her naked. BeforeI left, we were having sex multiple times a day. It feels like it’s been forever since I was inside of her.
Rather than kiss me, like I’m expecting, Carina hugs me. It’s more erotic, the glide of her skin impossibly smooth as the water continues to beat down over us like rain. Her breasts press against my chest, and her stomach is slick against my dick.
And then, while I’m fully focused on sex, she whispers, “I missed you.”
Carina could try to kill me.
Yet I know, with absolute certainty, I’ll never be able to do the same.
I OF THE STORM
Iwake up later than usual. Shafts of soft light are already shining through the slim openings between window and curtain. Another unwelcome realization—I’m alone in bed.
I sit up immediately. “Carina?”
No answer.
Worry and confusion war within me as I scan the empty room. She left, apparently, without waking me.
I reach for my phone to check the time, my fingers brushing stiff paper instead. There are no words. Just a drawing of me sleeping on the left side. On the right, she sketched herself, scowling and sweating. A reluctant smile crosses my face before I roll out of bed and get dressed.
All the staff I pass heading downstairs seem surprised to see me. It doesn’t occur to me why until I’m outside.
I never leave my rooms right after returning from a trip. Doing so is nearly as telling as rushing back was.
I pass the kennel—empty—and start jogging along the path that circles through the woods. I’ve run for less than a minute when Ural or maybe Burya—they have similar coloring, so the only hound I can definitively identify is Polkan—suddenlyappears, racing toward me. A few seconds later, two more dogs and two people materialize.
I recognize Carina immediately, ponytail swinging as she keeps pace. And the figure running beside her is … my younger brother.
I blink twice, but Maksim is still there. He hardly spends any time at Serebryanovo, and the only times I’ve seen him awake at this hour, he’d never been to bed. But he appears well rested, chipper even, and I know he’d never wear the sweatpants he has on to a club.
I halt abruptly, watching them cover the remaining distance toward me in tandem. A flicker of pride appears when I notice Carina seems barely winded, but it’s quickly snuffed out by annoyance. She snuck out early to run with my brother. What was she thinking? What was he thinking?
They stop a few feet away.
Carina reaches up to retie her ponytail. “Morning!”
“Why didn’t you wake me up?” I demand. I’m unreasonably annoyed, last night’s storm cloud still hovering overhead despite today’s clear skies.
I didn’t like waking up without her. I’d hurried home so I could wake up with her. And I don’t trust that Elena and Maksim aren’t using Carina as part of their own agendas to manipulate me or to outrage Igor. I’m not the only Sokolov who’s changed behavior recently, and it’s disconcerting.
She blinks, surprised by my brisk tone. “You never sleep in. You obviously needed it.”
She glances at Maksim, who does not look surprised. More like he expected me to be annoyed about this, which only irritates me further.
“Don’t take it personally,” he says, nudging Carina’s arm like they’re coconspirators. “Lev is always grumpy after a trip. He and jet lag don’t get along.”
I scowl.
Maksim grins.
Carina glances between us uncertainly before addressing me again. “Did you want to finish your run? Or want to come see me spar? I landed a hit on Maksim yesterday.”
“You grazed my arm,” my brother drawls. “And I was hungover.”
