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I nudged Naomi to move forward into the house.
“What are you doing?” she asked in a low voice.
“We will talk about it later,” I told her, leaning forward to press a kiss to her forehead. “Go on upstairs. I will be up in a minute.”
Naomi looked at me with some surprise, but she gave me a nod and walked up the stairs, her ass swaying with each step.
I watched her all the way up before turning to the waiting Vera.
“I want food delivered to Sveta’s suite,” I told her. “And we are not to be bothered for the rest of the day.”
Vera smoothed her hair with her hand. “I will see to it at once, master.”
She didn’t ask any questions, and I didn’t expect her to. Not that I would tell her the reasoning for my actions. I didn’t want to let the good feelings disappear just yet.
I needed this time with Naomi for my own fucking sanity if nothing else.
After grabbing a few things from my suite, I walked up the stairs to hers. The shower was running as I stepped inside. Need flashed through my veins, but I didn’t act on it. Instead, I dumped my stuff in the chair and pulled off my jacket. It was already lunchtime, and even though I hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep on the plane, I didn’t feel like crashing just yet.
What the hell was I doing?
I walked over to the balcony doors and threw them open, stepping out onto the sun-drenched balcony. There was a shitload of things I needed to attend to now that I was back in LA. But a part of me, the below the belt part, wanted to hold off just a little longer. Maybe I was being selfish, ignoring the very things my mother had warned me about, but I didn’t give a shit.
It could wait.
***
“Oh my God, are you serious? Like you’ve never seen this movie before?”
I stole a fistful of popcorn from the bowl in Naomi’s lap. “Nope.”
She stared at me like I had grown two heads. “I mean, it’s a classic, Gavril! Everyone has seen Vacation.”
“Everyone but me,” I added, throwing a few pieces of the salty snack in my mouth.
Naomi rolled her eyes and I grinned, unable to help it. Outside it was a monsoon, the rain lashing against the balcony doors and effectively ruining our afternoon.
Maybe not ruining it. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the afternoon than lying in bed, the room darkened and this stupid-ass movie on the big TV. For two days we had been holed up together, getting the meals delivered and doing things like normal couples did. We had watched a lot of TV, and little by little Naomi had given me insight into her life. She had told me about the acting jobs that I had effectively screwed up for her by kidnapping her, how she had gotten started, and how she made herself influential.
I hadn’t returned the favor. I still hadn’t told her anything about me, but what I couldn’t say with words, I had tried to tell her with my touch, with moments like this one where I tried to let down my guard and just be Gavril to her.
It was difficult for me to do that. All my life I’d had to be ruthless, powerful, and strong.
With Naomi, I didn’t have to be, but I didn’t know how else to be anything else.
She had taken it in stride, keeping our conversations light and not asking questions when I could clearly see them in her eyes.
“We are going to have to expand your movie selection,” she finally said, putting the bowl aside. “I mean, I feel like you are missing out on so much culture, Gavril.”
I reached for her, pulling her on top of me and grinning as she squeaked. “Why should I?” I murmured as she pushed at my chest. “When I have you to tell me all about it?”
She laughed, swatting at my chest. “Gavril Kirilenko, did you just make a joke?”
“Perhaps.” Again, something I wasn’t used to doing. I let her straddle my body, placing my hands behind my head in a relaxed pose. “What do I get?”
Naomi’s hands rubbed down my chest, tracing a familiar path to my abdomen. My cock strained against my joggers as she did so, even though we had just fucked a few hours before. I couldn’t get enough of her, and Naomi’s sexual appetite had kicked up a notch as well during our time together.
It was everything I could have asked for in a wife. She was everything that I could have asked for.
Her fingers drifted to my sides. “What do you want, my Pakhan?”
My grin faded. “Don’t ever call me that.”
Some of the laughter died in her eyes, and I slid my hands up her bare thighs.
“Because I don’t want to be that to you,” I added, hoping that I would say the right shit to explain myself. “I’m not your Pakhan. I’m your husband.”
“It is just a word to me,” she whispered. “It’s not who you are.”
When she said shit like that, it made me never want to go back to any of it. In her eyes, I felt like, well, I felt normal.
Just a regular fucking guy who was in love with his wife.
Who the fuck would have thought I would be in love with anyone again?
“I know,” I finally said, realizing she was waiting for me to answer her.
Naomi leaned down and silenced me with a kiss, her hands coming up to cup my face. I lost myself in her touch, her lips roaming over mine with the familiarity that I had come to know. Even with all my faults, she still wanted to be with me.
I had to make this work, because I didn’t want to think about the alternative without her.
***
The next afternoon, Naomi watched as I strapped on my watch, tightening the strap before sliding a hand through my hair.
“Do you really have to go?” she asked softly, the sheet sliding off to reveal a creamy, inviting shoulder.
My hands ached to touch her, but I knew that if I did, I wouldn’t leave the bedroom for a long time. “I’ve got business that needs my attention,” I told her, grabbing my cell phone from the bedside table. “It can’t be put off any longer.” My cell phone had been blowing up with texts, one in particular letting me know that my shipment had arrived, and it was time to unload it.
I had to be there for that, so I had asked Anatoly to call the Krasnaya brigadiers and have them meet me at the docks so that they could bear witness to what lengths I was willing to go to have them securely on my side.
Naomi pouted. “You spoiled me too much then.”
Chuckling, I bent down and kissed her hard. “You’re right. You are spoiled.”
