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I kiss her deep and slow as I rock into her body, and this doesn’t feel like fucking. It feels passionate. It feels so different than what I’m used to doing with women. Ruslan asked me if I felt a certain way toward her, insinuating I did, but I didn’t think I accepted it until now.
Mona is different. She’s… a pure woman who’s endured all of life’s cruelties. It makes me want to hold her close and protect her, and I think I might just have to do that.
***
After our first time together, I realized that I only want to keep Mona safe. She is slowly and surely becoming precious to me. We eat breakfast and dinner together every day, and today is the first family dinner I’m taking her to. It might seem like a bit much, though I think she’s going to do just fine. If anything, I think she’s going to have a good time. It might even surprise her how good of a time she’s going to have. She’s already met Emily, and Amelia is just as nice. It’s going to be great. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.
Over the last week, things have been so shocking to me. I’ve seen more and more of what Mona couldn’t do when she was with Duarte versus the freedoms I’ve made available to her. She offered to go grocery shopping for the house the other day, and I found out she couldn’t even leave the property. Sometimes she wasn’t even able to leave her bedroom, which was locked from the outside and had bars across the windows. She was a prisoner, but her prison was a castle.
I’m currently in the kitchen, drinking water, when a set of footsteps causes me to glance over. Mona comes into the kitchen and offers me a soft smile, then does a twirl. She looks absolutely stunning in this gold gown. Eset complained that we hadn’t been dressing up, and she really wanted us to at least try and dress up, so I told Mona the attire was going to be black tie. She really pulled it off.
Fuck, I can’t tear my eyes off her right now. “You look amazing,” I say, and Mona smiles.
“Thank you. I thought this dress would look good, but I wasn’t sure. It was one of the ones your sister left in the closet.” I don’t ever remember seeing Eset in this gown, and I’m glad. It looks like it was made for Mona. It’s a suede velvet sort of material with a deep V cutout in the front. The sleeves go down all the way to the wrist, and the stomach area cinches, showing off her hourglass body. The dress stops just above her ankles, and she has on a pair of black heels.
“I’m glad you can get some use out of them. Oh, I got you something,” I state, then open the drawer to the right of me. I pull out the phone and hand it over to Mona.
“Is this what I think it is?”
“Yeah. It’s probably good you have one, so I added you to my plan.”
Mona’s staring at the phone in her hand like it’s the world’s largest diamond. “T-thank you so m-much. I… wow.” Her reaction just shows me that Duarte didn’t give her any common decency. He raped and abused her for years, refraining from even giving her a small semblance of normalcy. He probably got his rocks off controlling her the way he did, and it pisses me off to no end.
“No thanks are necessary. I’m just glad you like it. I hate to cut this short, but we need to get going, or we’re going to be late,” I state, and we both head for the front door.
Paulo opens it for us, and he gets behind the wheel of the car parked right in front of my door. Within fifteen minutes, we’re pulling up at Ruslan’s condominium complex and heading up the elevator. Once we get to his floor, we walk straight into his home, and from the looks of it, everyone else is already there.
Ruslan spots Mona first and smirks at me, happy that she’s come with me. Emily is the second to see her. After a few more minutes, Eset walks up to Mona and me, and she has Santos’ hand in her own. “I feel like my brother’s been keeping a secret from me,” Eset states, and Mona looks right at me, unsure if she should speak at all.
“Not a secret. I’ve just kept quiet while Mona adjusted to life here in Grozny. I didn’t need everyone coming over and harassing her, now did I?” I question my sister, and she snickers lightly.
“I don’t harass anyone. I do quite the opposite.” Eset will say whatever she damn well wants, and I know it, so I roll my eyes at my baby sister’s words.
“Dinner’s ready!” Amelia hollers from the dining room area, and we all file in there, taking seats.
Dinner goes very well. Amelia and Emily made some southern food, and I have to say it never disappoints. I’m pretty sure it’s because there’s a lot of butter involved, or maybe it’s because there’s a lot of fried food. Who cares? The only thing that really matters is that it’s fucking delicious.
Within the hour, dinner is over, and the children have gone off to the living area to play. Amelia finishes taking a sip of water and clears her throat, and her eyes fall right on Mona. “So, are you two an item, or what?”
Ruslan practically chokes on his drink, and I look over at Mona, who is staring at me, obviously not knowing what the hell to say. The longer the silence continues, the quicker assumptions are being made by my family members. “To be determined,” I say with a smile and take a sip of the drink in front of me.
Sure, we’ve had sex, but we’re not putting a label on anything. We haven’t even had a conversation about what we are to one another. Maybe we will eventually, but I’m not forcing anything.
“Brother, I need to speak to you for a moment,” Eset states and rises from her seat, motioning for me to follow her. I pat Mona on the leg, knowing she’ll be perfectly fine, and walk into Ruslan’s kitchen, where we’re out of earshot. As soon as I round the corner, Eset’s eyes are practically bugging out of her head.
“What in the actual hell? Why didn’t you tell me about her? What’s going on with you?” There’s a sense of hurt in my sister’s voice, and I can tell. I can see it in her eyes, too, and through that, I know she’s really hurting. “I feel like you’ve changed since we figured out who our father is. It’s almost like you’re a different person.”
“It’s complicated, Eset. I’m just trying to figure out who I am. Anzor not being our father changed a lot—”
“No, it didn’t. It made sense why we never really connected with him in the first place. It didn’t change anything about us, Nazyr. Not a damn thing. You should be talking to me. For fuck’s sake, I’m your sister, and we’re barely talking. We used to speak every single day… and now we don’t.”
“I’m sorry. I’m just trying to figure my life out right now.” I know it’s not what she wants to hear, but I’m doing my best to be honest with her.
“Your excuse is bullshit. You should be talking to me about things, not ignoring my texts and calls, which you’ve been doing over the past couple of weeks. I spoke to Ruslan and told him how frustrated I was, and he told me a bit about Mona and the children.” Eset’s gaze isn’t as angered as it was a few moments ago.
I swallow hard, not knowing where I should take the conversation. It’s not like I’ve been in the doghouse with my sister before.
“I have an idea on how to distract Duarte, given I know about his love for artwork.”
