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“Nadia, go,”I snapped and pointed toward the bathroom at the end of the hall. “Go get him!”
She took off like a bullet. A moment later, she reappeared, pushing Ezra down the hallway with her nose while he laughed hysterically.
“Good girl.” I patted her head on the way by and scooped Ezra up from behind, Superman-ing him into bed. “Pretty soon I’m not going to be able to do that.”
Wriggling under the covers, he smiled up at me. “Do you think I’ll be tall like Misha?”
“Maybe. You’ll have to eat lots of vegetables though.”
He made a face. “Never mind.”
I chuckled and ruffled his hair. “Goodnight.”
“Can I keep Nadia with me?”
“Sure.” Since the decision to stay in the penthouse had been made over dinner, Bri decided to sleep in the other guest room—herroom. That left Ezra alone for the first time in his life. I wouldn’t begrudge him having Nadia. Turning to the dog, I patted the bed. “Come on.”
She looked at me and looked at the bed, her eyebrows quirking with an expression that pretty much said, “Is this a trick?”
“Come on,” I reiterated, patting the bed again. “You can sleep up here tonight.” And probably every night that came after if Ezra had his way.
She jumped onto the bed, turned three times in a circle, and flopped down beside Ezra’s legs.
I scratched her behind the ears and stood, turning off the light on my way out.
On my way by, I peeked in Bri’s room, not surprised to see she had a book in her hands. It was the biography on Yuri Gagarin Misha had given me. When he stopped to pick up the presents, he’d grabbed my books too, along with a couple of the more important photographs—mainly the ones of his family and the stunning sunset of a canal in St. Petersburg.
“I thoughtwewere the first in space? Like, Americans?” she asked, lowering the book when she spied me in the doorway.
“Nope. The Soviets were. They even beat us to the moon. But America was the first to putpeopleon the moon, not just equipment.”
“I wonder if we’ll learn more about it in my new school.”
“I wouldn’t count on it. There’s a lot of history they don’t teach because it’s on the other side of the Iron Curtain.”
“The what?”
I chuckled, leaning against the doorway. “It’s a geopolitical thing. You’ll learn all about it if you read the other Russian books around here. And I’m sure Misha can answer any questions you have. He seems to know everything.”
Her brow furrowed before she hit me with her next inquiry. “What are you two? Like, what are we supposed to call him?”
“Good question, kid. I don’t know. Just call him Misha, unless he tells you differently.” There had been that one slip when I called him my “boyfriend” after Sasha brought him home with a bullet hole but we never officially talked about it. If we were going to be living together on a permanent basis, that was something we should probably establish at some point. But even if we did settle on some sort of relationship term, it didn’t make much of a difference as far as the kids were concerned.
“Do you want to get married? Crystal was always talking about getting married but the guys never stuck around very long.”
Pushing off the doorframe, I shook my head. “Thatis something you and I are not discussing. Don’t stay up too late.” The fact I was not marriage material was completely irrelevant to the conversation and something else I wouldn’t discuss with my little sister.
I closed the door and carried on down the hallway, still shaking my head. It’s not like I could blame her for asking questions. Everything was new and confusing and she was trying to make sense of it. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that we were all in uncharted territory.
By the time I made it into the master bathroom, steam had filled the entire space, fogging the mirrors. A cooling herbal smell permeated the air, reminding me of the banya.
“Is it hot enough in here?” I asked, stripping out of my clothing and joining Misha in the scalding shower. “Jesus! How do you have skin left?”
He turned the water temperature down,slightly, and moved forward, taking my face between his incredibly hot hands, kissing me gently. I practically melted against him, twining my arms around his neck to keep myself upright. His hands dropped, sliding around my waist and running over the planes of my body.
“I love when you kiss me like that,” I murmured against his lips.
