AllFreeNovel
Share Us
While Kira knows all the gritty details of our tumultuous past, Georgia assumes it was a hookup that didn’t pan out—a narrative I’m happy to maintain.
I clear my throat. “Not as weird as you’d think.” I’m not ready to share everything that’s happened between Leo and I when I can barely figure it out myself. “Anyways, what happened between Leo and I was so long ago. I barely think about him,” I lie.
“If you say so,” Georgia mumbles at the same time as Kira says, “Uh-huh,” in a way that suggests neither is buying what I’m selling.
“Fine,” I concede, sitting back in a huff. “I do think about him sometimes, but only because the sex was so good.” I take a moment to brush an imaginary piece of lint off my workout pants while my friends stare back at me. When the silence gets to be too much, I add, “And maybe… he’s the only guy to ever deliver the big O.”
Georgia’s eyes nearly bug out of her head. “As in— Oh god, oh shit… I’m going to—”
“Yeah, that O,” I interrupt.
Both women are quiet for a moment. Stunned maybe. Georgia looks slack-jawed when she says, “Okay, this is news I was not prepared for. Aly, what the fuck? You’ve been with a bunch of guys after Leo, right? Is it a French-guy problem, or a Leo-has-mad-skills situation?”
Leo does have mad skills, but it’s also his dominance. His dirty talk. The way he knows exactly what I need. How he gets off on my pleasure. And maybe, just maybe, it’s tied to the fact that he’s the first and only man to capture my heart. Try as I might to ignore it, the connection is still there.
“It’s not a French-guy issue,” I mumble, my cheeks reddening. I hate having to admit this. I’ve been with enough guys that someone else should have blown my mind. Or at least made me come. But nope. “I’ve dated every nationality under the sun, it’s just a me-and-him thing, I guess.”
Part of me hoped when I mounted Leo’s face that he wouldn’t be able to get me there… but oh shit, he got me there and more. Pretty sure I skyrocketed to the moon.
“I’m not surprised,” Georgia adds, raising her eyebrows. “Every time you two are in the same room, it feels like explosives are about to go off. Listen, I know you two have history, which you’re both super weird about.” She adds a playful eye roll for effect. “But that aside, maybe this is an opportunity to break your orgasm dry spell. I mean, you’re stuck on a yacht off the coast of Italy. Enjoy yourself.”
I twist his ring on my finger, hating how much I like its weight and everything that it represents. Even though I’m still annoyed at how he dealt with Jack, a small part of me found his possessiveness hot—although I’ll never admit that to another person.
“You are a bad influence,” I mutter, even though I’ve been spinning the same idea since I came on his face. Maybe hooking-up is what I need to do to get on with my life. Revive my sexy time mojo. Cause god knows it’s been bleak for way too long. I’m in my twenties, I should be in my sexual prime, not feeling empty after every sexual encounter.
“Oh, there’s my baby!” When I glance back at the phone, Georgia’s nanny is placing her baby daughter in her lap. Anya’s cherub cheeks and gummy grin immediately lighten my mood as Georgia drops a kiss on her baby’s head.
“Hello, beautiful girl,” I coo into the phone. “She’s gotten so big. I’ve missed so much of her babyhood already.”
“And that’s why you need to move back to New York.” Kira grins hopefully. “You can still have your fabulous careerandbe close to your family.”
And Leo. Which I’m not sure is a good or bad thing.“I can’t think of what’s next,” I say sadly. “I need to get through this current threat. Whatever it is. I just want this all to be over.”
“We all do,” Georgia agrees. “I’m sure they’ll have answers soon, especially with Andrei joining Daniil in Moscow.”
“He is? Leo never mentioned it.”
“He only just left. Hang in there, Aly. It was so good seeing you, but I need to put this little one down for her nap.”
Georgia waves before slipping off-screen, leaving Kira to stare at me. She narrows her eyes and tilts her head. “You’re not just glowing from the sun, are you?”
“Seriously!?” How does she know?
“I can tell,” she says, nodding sagely. “Was it good?”
“Just to be clear, we didn’t have sex.” I consider my words carefully because this is her brother after all. “I sat on his face.” Okay. Not that carefully. My skin flushes from head to toe. “And yeah, it was really, really good.” I leave the chair I’m in and flop back onto the bed, holding the phone above me. “But I’m worried about it getting complicated.” More than that, I’m terrified of being hurt again, even after seven years. “And Leo pulled a total jerk-off move today, freaking out on one of the crew members who was… er, helping me apply sunscreen.”
“Oh.” Kira raises an eyebrow. “I take it this crew member was male.”
“And hot,” I confirm. “He was also being a total creep, but I was going to handle it before Leo got involved.” I nibble on my bottom lip. “Maybe his freak out was part of our cover, but it didn’t feel that way.”
“He’s still protective of you, Aly. And it’s not about Yulian, no matter how much you tell yourself that.”
I sigh loudly and stare up at the ceiling, debating if I should reveal what I heard. But I want Kira to know the truth. “You know, I overheard your conversation with Leo on the phone the other day.”
Her eyes go wide. “Oh, you sneaky bitch!”
“Yeah, well, maybe he shouldn’t take personal calls on speaker phone.” I flash her a mock-glare. “And perhaps in the future you can avoid spilling my deepest, darkest secrets that I shared with you while under the influence of some very fine French rosé.”
