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“Do you need help?”
“Nah, I’m good,” Delaney said before dashing out the door.
I put my hands on my hips and looked at Ivan who was now breaking down boxes. “Okay, what did you really call me?”
Ivan shot me a look of feigned innocence. “What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. You did not call me sweet girl. What did you really call me?”
He smirked, then grabbed the Russian dictionary off my desk and threw it on the bed. “Look it up.”
I gave an exasperated sigh. “I don’t even remember what you said.”
He walked over and picked it up, thumbing to one of the pages. I read where he pointed. “Devochka means girl.”
“See? I said ‘girl.’”
I shot him a look. “That’s not the word I was suspicious of.”
He gave me a full, spellbinding grin that took my breath away, then grabbed the book back from me. I was in such awe of his beauty, I was barely aware of him turning the pages of the dictionary once again and pointing to a word. His playful behavior sent an ache through my chest, intensifying my yearning for him.
I grabbed the dictionary and frowned. “Nep..os..lush..naya…” I said, wincing as I struggled with the pronunciation. I shot him a quick glance and found him nearly laughing at my attempt to read Russian. “Shut up, this is a hard language!”
He threw back his head and gave a shout of laughter. His vocal cords sounded rough and unused, as though laughing were a rare occurrence. Seeing him laugh stirred something inside me—he looked so happy, so young. I wanted to be annoyed with him, but he was simply too charming to stay angry at.
I looked down to read the definition and snorted. “Naughty or disobedient?”
“Correct.”
“I knew it! I knew you didn’t call me sweet,” I said, laughing at this unexpectedly mischievous side of his personality.
Instead of laughing along with me, he stared at me for a moment, his eyes roving my features. He raised a fingertip to my mouth and rubbed my bottom lip. “You are a sweet girl, though. Sweet tasting.”
I inhaled sharply, my body flushed with sudden heat. My heart practically beat out of my chest as I stared at him, stunned at how quickly he switched gears.
Unable to resist, I closed my lips around the tip of his finger, my tongue reaching out to give a shy lick. He sucked in his breath and quickly removed his finger, plucking the dictionary out of my hands and onto the bed. He curled one arm around my waist, wrapped my ponytail in his fist, his face leaning toward mine, his intent clear.
He was going to kiss me. Again.
Thank god!
Before his mouth landed, Delaney burst into the room. Like guilty teenagers, we sprung apart so quickly I toppled onto the bed.
Delaney dumped a bunch of bags on her bed. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry! Should we come up with, like, a signal, or something? Like a sock on the door?”
I raised my hands to cover my flaming cheeks and Ivan swiped an agitated hand through his short, sable hair, quickly returning to the pile of nearly broken down boxes.
I gave her a shaky smile. “Oh, no, that’s okay. I’m sorry, we weren’t really doing anything. Although, you will probably have your boyfriend over here, too, right? Maybe we should come up with something if you want the room to yourself. I can go somewhere else if you two want to hang out alone.”
Ivan scowled. “Where will you go?”
Since I just made the suggestion three seconds ago, I didn’t have a specific destination in mind. “Umm…”
“I’ll pick you up. If you need somewhere to go, you call me. Understand?” Ivan’s intensely worded request and severe expression made it seem less like a question and more like a direct command.
I cringed, thinking of how quickly he would get sick of that, sick of me calling him because my roommate wanted to screw her boyfriend. “But—”
“I’m not fucking around, Emmy. You call me.” He walked over to me and slid his hand around the nape of my neck, pinning me with his intense stare. “Got it?”
