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Alina’s expression warms at her son’s reaction. “Of course I don’t mind. I was just explaining to him that you’ll be living here and teaching him. He’s quite excited about the idea.”
“So am I.” I crouch in front of the boy. “We’ll have a great time, won’t we, Slava?”
He clearly doesn’t understand what I’m saying, but he grins regardless and rattles off something in Russian.
“He’s asking if you like castles,” Alina says.
“Yes, I do,” I tell Slava. “Show me what you’ve got there. Is this your fortress?” I gesture at the partially built LEGO project.
The boy giggles and plops down among the LEGO pieces. Picking up two, he attaches them to the walls of the castle, and I help him by attaching two more. Only I apparently did it wrong because he shakes his head and takes off my pieces, then places them right next to where I attached them.
“Oh, I see. You’re leaving room for windows. Windows, right?” I point at the giant window in his room.
He bobs his head. “Da, okna. Bol’shiye okna.” Grabbing my wrist, he places another piece in my palm and guides my hand to the proper place on the wall. “Nado syuda.”
“Got it.” Grinning, I attach the next piece. “Like so, right?”
“Da,” he says excitedly and grabs more pieces. We proceed in that vein, with him guiding me in castle assembly until Alina clears her throat.
“Seems like you two are on the same page, so I’ll leave you to it,” she says when I look up. “You have a half hour before Slava’s snack time. Are you hungry by any chance, Chloe?”
My stomach responds before I can, emitting a loud growl, and Alina laughs, her green eyes lighting with amusement.
“I’m guessing that’s a yes. Any food preferences or allergies?”
“I’m good with anything,” I say, grateful that my darker skin tone conceals my embarrassed flush. I can’t imagine Alina’s elegant, long-limbed body ever emitting such an indiscreet noise—though, if she’s human, it must upon occasion. Of course, jury’s still out on the human part.
In those high heels and that stunning dress, Nikolai’s wife looks too glamorous to be real.
Some of my embarrassment must show because her amusement deepens, her lips curving in a way that again reminds me disconcertingly of her husband. “How very accommodating of you. I’ll let Pavel know.”
Pavel? Is the man-bear their cook or something? Before I can ask, Alina turns to her son and says something in Russian, then strolls out, leaving me alone with my charge.
8
Nikolai
“So, tell me, brother… Did you acquire her for Slava or yourself?”
I pause in the middle of putting on my cufflinks and turn around to meet Alina’s coolly mocking gaze. “Does it matter?” I have no idea how she sniffed out my interest in our new hire, but I’m not surprised.
My sister has always been able to read me better than anyone.
She leans against the doorframe of my walk-in closet, where I’m changing for dinner. “I guess I should’ve expected it. She’s pretty, isn’t she?”
“Very.” I deliberately turn my back to her. Alina lives to get a rise out of me, but she’s not going to succeed tonight. Nor is she going to shame me into staying away from Chloe.
The girl intrigues me too much for that.
“You know she spent the entire afternoon with Slava, right?” Alina strolls deeper into my closet and picks up my skinny black tie, the one I was just about to put on.
Resisting the impulse to reach for a different one just to spite her, I take the tie from her and put it on with practiced motions. “Yes, I do.”
There are cameras in my son’s room, and I spent my afternoon watching him play with his new tutor. They finished building the castle Slava was working on, ate the fruit-and-cheese platter Pavel brought, then played a game of tag, where Chloe chased him around his room and down the hallway, making him laugh so hard he was giggle-snorting. Afterward, Chloe read to him from some of his favorite comic books—the English-language ones, not the Russian translations Alina smuggled in to worm her way into the boy’s good graces. As she spoke, Slava looked fascinated with his beautiful young teacher, something I can’t blame him for.
I’d kill for her to sit next to me and read to me in that soft, slightly husky voice, to feel her hand play with my hair the way it so casually played with my son’s when he snuggled up to her as if he’s known her all his life.
“She’s good with him,” Alina continues as I finish buckling my belt and reach for my suit jacket. “Really good.”
“I noticed.”
“Yet you’re still going to fuck her. Just like he would have.”
I keep my tone level. “I never claimed to be any different.”
“But you can be. Kolya…” She lays her hand on my arm, and when I meet her gaze, she says quietly, “We left. We came here. This is our chance to start over, to make ourselves into whoever we want to be. Forget our father. Forget all of it. You’ve put in your time; now it’s Valery and Konstantin’s turn.”
