Her Russian Brute: 50 Loving States, Idaho (30 page)

“Eva,” he said. “Eva, please. Please.”

And she smiled, widening her eyes with mock surprise. “How did you guess I wanted you to say my name and beg?”

She then leaned forward and stroked him with her pussy lips again, but this time when she got to the top of his dick, she worked its head inside her. She didn’t even have to guide him in, he was so hard and she was so ready for him. Soon enough, he was embedded all the way to the hilt, but at an angle that wouldn’t give her clit the attention it needed for her to come in this position.

As if picking up on his analysis, she began to ride him, then said. “Touch me.”

He didn’t have to ask what she meant. At least in bed, he knew her better than she knew herself. He rubbed the side of his thumb against her clit and enjoyed the show of her breasts bouncing as she moved on top of him.

She moaned and said, “Just like that, and speak Russian to me, baby. Like you used to.”

It was a relief to be able to tell her all the things in his heart in his native language. “I want to be with you” and “You are mine” and “I will never not want you” and “You make me happy” and last but not least, “I love you, Eva, I love you.”

Maybe she remembered the Russian words for love, because she flew apart soon after he said it. She then fell onto Alexei’s chest as he unloaded inside her, her pussy still milking his dick as she rubbed her face against his shoulder while he said, “
Kotenok… kotenok… kotenok
…” over and over.

Afterwards, they didn’t talk. He switched off the lights from the control panel near his side of the bed and settled in behind Eva, spooning her as had become his habit over the course of their vacation, with one arm around her waist and the other providing her with a pillow for her head.

He luxuriated in being able to hold her close like this after having loved her physically. And he refused to think there was a scenario in which this affair would end with her going back to Aaron. They were too perfect together, and they were meant for each other. He’d figure out a way to keep her by his side.

Still, he couldn’t help but note as he drifted off to sleep that she had yet to say she loved him back.

E
VA woke
up and disentangled herself from Alexei around three in the morning. Really, saying she woke up was stretching it, since she hadn’t been able to do much more than lightly doze after the bomb Alexei dropped on her.

“I love you,
kotenok
.”

Her traitorous heart all but sang the memory back to her as she climbed out of bed, even as yet another wave of dread flooded her stomach. She loved him, too, would like more than anything to tell him how she felt. But there were two things holding her back now.

One, his criminal past. His business seemed on the up and up now, but almost every article she’d ever read about him after his quick rise to business fame, mentioned his crime family roots, strongly implying if not outright stating they had much to do with his current level of success. She didn’t want Aaron being raised by a crime family or being taught how to kill in the “Rustanov style,” which, according to the internet, was a slit throat, two bullets to the chest, and one in each knee cap. Her stomach turned just thinking of Aaron doing anything like that. But so far, she’d seen nothing to indicate Alexeis was still involved in any of the unsavory things the Rustanovs used to be known for.

She’d just have to ask him about it the next morning, she decided, and hope to the heavens he had fully left that life behind.

She wanted to believe in Alexei again, to no longer live in fear of him but to love him as fully as he claimed to love her. No, he obviously never intended to be a father, but she hoped he would become a good one with her guidance.

It helped that he had kept all of his promises to her so far, even the one about not seeking out Aaron. Maybe they really could make a go of it this time, she thought, as she dropped into a seat at in the conference room, which Alexei had mentioned was completely soundproof earlier in the trip. Ever since then, she’d been getting up in the middle of the night and calling their son from its insulated confines.

It was three a.m. in Texas but ten a.m. in Milan.

“Hi, Mama!” he said. “Guess what?”

“Chicken butt?”

“Mama, you’re silly,” he informed her, before saying, “No, Uncle Steve said we could do whatever I want since it’s my last weekend in Rome.”

“Wow. What are you going do first?”

“Eat gelato!”

“It’s ten in the morning.”

“It’s my weekend, Mama,” he said with the grave censure of a righteous seven-year-old.

“Okay, okay, who am I to argue? Go on, have your gelato—you know you’re back to old-fashioned American ice cream when you get back to Texas.”

“That’s okay. I kind of miss regular ice cream. Can we order a pizza when I get back, too? It’s not the same over here. ”

“Sounds good. I’ll have some Ben & Jerry’s waiting for you in the freezer and we’ll order a pizza for everybody when you get back. We’ll show Maria and the girls how Texas does pizza.”

When Aaron came back, he’d be traveling with Steve and his entire family who would be staying with them in Texas for two weeks.

“Can my dad come, too?” he asked.

“Um… “ She was so taken aback by the question that she didn’t exactly know how to answer it. “What…?”

“I heard Uncle Steve talking to Grandpa. He said you weren’t with Auntie Layla, but with my dad. Is that true?”

“Why are you just now discussing this with me?” she asked. She had never lied to Aaron about Alexei. When he’d asked about his father, she’d said it was a long story and she’d tell him it in full when he was older.

“Uncle Steve told me not to tell you what I heard, because you’d be mad. But you told me not to keep secrets from you ever.”

He sounded as confused as any kid would be after receiving conflicting instructions from two of the adults he loved most.

“Honey,” she said. “You were right to bring it up. I don’t ever want you to keep secrets from me. Uncle Steve was wrong to say that to you. Never let anyone tell you that you can’t tell me something. We’ve talked about this.”

Like many social workers who had seen child abuse up close, Eva had a deep fear of her son not feeling safe enough to tell her anything.

“I know. But Uncle Steve is family.”

“Even if it’s family. Don’t ever let someone tell you to keep a secret from me. In fact, if they say that to you, come straight to me with it.”

“Okay, Mama.” Then after an appropriate few seconds: “Is my dad big like me?”

“You mean tall?” she asked.

“Yeah?”

“Yes, he is. And he’s also Russian.”

“What?” he said. “No way!”

“Trust me, I would’ve chosen another country if I was making it up.”

“But I don’t know any Russian.” Aaron sounded despondent. “What if he hates me?”

“He won’t. No one could hate you. And I can teach you hi and bye, but you won’t need them because he speaks perfect English.”

“So he’s smart?”

“Yeah, really smart.”

“Is he coming with you to pick us up?”

She thought about that and dismissed it. “No, I think it’s better if I pick you all up. I’ll answer any questions you still have and then we’ll see about you maybe meeting him later on. Okay?”

“Okay, I can’t wait.” He sounded even more excited than he had for gelato, and she was happy she’d soon be able to give him the gift of knowing his father. And she just hoped Alexei would come through after she talked to him, because Aaron really was a kind and amazing little boy. He’d obviously been yearning for a father for quite some time now, but he’d never made her feel she wasn’t enough for him.

“Have a good last weekend, sweetness. I love you so much.”

“Love you, too, Mama.”

She hung up, her decision pretty much made for her. Aaron already knew about Alexei, now it was time for her to bring Alexei up to speed. She’d do it first thing in the morning, she decided. And then hopefully they could figure out how to handle his uncle, before he found out they were back together.

The sound of the fax machine suddenly springing to life made her jump in her seat. And curiosity led her over to it as it started spitting out pages, not to snoop, she told herself, just to see. It was probably something boring and business-related that she wouldn’t understand anyway.

But as she got closer, she could see it wasn’t a business contract, but a copy of a story that had apparently been printed off the Dallas Times internet site. That gave her pause because what would Alexei want with a Dallas Times story?

The top page of the story printed, revealing the headline, “RUSSIAN BILLIONAIRE, ALEXEI RUSTANOV, WELCOMES YOU TO SOUTH PADRE ISLAND.”

Then she saw the picture that accompanied the story. She snatched up the pages. No, make that a whole gallery of pictures featuring her and Alexei, enjoying romantic times all over the island. There was even one picture of him kissing her shoulder on the beach. Her eyes landed on the words, “the normally media-shy billionaire” and “in a relationship with Eva St. James, a small-town Texas social worker.”

And that’s when the document’s cover page came through.

I
t only took
her a few confused moments to put it all together. The man who had just promised to always be honest with her had purposefully broadcasted their time together on the island, so everyone in Drummond, including the man he thought she was in love with, would know they were together.

He had lied to her. He hadn’t changed. He was just as ruthless as she thought he was two weeks ago. And now it was just a matter of time before his psychopath uncle found out about the current incarnation of their relationship.

A
LEXEI knew
something was wrong almost as soon as he woke up. It wasn’t just that Eva wasn’t there in bed with him, it was also that the suite felt different. Like something was missing. Or someone.

He recognized the feeling immediately. It was the same one he’d had when he came home to an empty apartment eight years ago.

“Tell me you did not run again,” he said, getting out of bed and heading straight for Eva’s bedroom.

All the clothes he’d had bought for her were still hanging in the open closet. And in typical Eva fashion, the clothes she had worn last night before getting dressed for dinner were lying in a discarded pile on the floor. From what he’d seen, she’d only become slightly neater since the last time they’d lived together.

But the clothes that mattered, the ones she’d traveled in to get here, the ones that had still been sitting in a laundry bag on her dresser just a few days ago, were missing. The torn-into laundry bag the only evidence they’d ever been there.

Why had she run yet again?. Desperate anger and frustration gathered inside him like a storm cloud as he threw on a robe and headed out to the hallway. Was it because he had pressured her? Because he’d told her he loved her? Another more terrible thought occurred to him. Maybe this was her way of informing him she’d picked Aaron.

But then he saw the door to the conference room was open. He always met with Emilio in the younger man’s suite, and Emilio only came up to the penthouse to drop off a few things he requested and even then, he’d only gone into the conference room to use the fax machine, so why was the door opened?

He saw the scattered papers from the doorway, and his heart fell into his stomach when he spotted the Dallas Times article. He’d been planning to tell Gina to kill the article this morning, but now it was too late. The damage had already been done, and who knew what Eva was thinking. Probably that everything he’d told her last night had been a lie and that he was exactly what she’d accused him of being—a man who would do anything to win.

Anguish at the thought of losing Eva over this tore through him. No, he had to fix this. She’d most likely gone back to Drummond. He’d follow her there and he’d do whatever he’d have to do to make her see he really did love her, and that he was ready to start over fresh with her. No more lies, no more manipulation, just the two of them again like the last eight years had never happened.

His smart phone, which he’d stuffed in the pocket of his robe, started vibrating. It was Emillo. “I was just about to call you,” he said, after he pushed the Accept button. “I need for you to arrange for the plane to take me to Drummond. I want to be in the air within the hour.”

“Um, I think you’ll want to hear what I have to say first. The guy I hired to look into this Aaron fellow couldn’t find any Aarons over the age of twenty-one in Drummond, so he looked for documents linking Eva to an Aaron, and he found quite a few, including a birth certificate and school records.”

Alexei shook his head, his minding reeling under the onslaught of this new information. “So you are saying she and this Aaron have a school-aged child together?”

“No, I’m saying Aaron is her child. He was born about seven and a half years after Eva broke up with you, and my guy emailed me a picture of him, which I’m looking at right now. Of course, we’d have to get a DNA test, but if the eyes are any indication, this is your kid.”

“
M
AMA
, mama!” Aaron came running out of Steve’s five-story, yellow apartment building to meet her, with his Uncle Steve close behind. It seemed to Eva he must have grown at least a couple inches since the beginning of the summer, when she’d seen him last. If he kept going at this rate, he’d be up to her shoulder by his next birthday. That is, if he made it to his next birthday. She only hoped she could get them out of Italy before Alexei or his uncle managed to hunt them down.

She fell to her knees on the sidewalk to meet her son’s hug and he wrapped his long gangly arms around his neck. “Oh, sweetness, sweetness,” she said. “I missed you so much.”

“What are you doing here? I thought we were supposed to be flying back to Texas next weekend.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too,” her brother said, appearing behind Aaron.

She threw her brother an apologetic look over Aaron’s shoulder. “Sorry, it was a last-minute decision to come to Italy. I would have called, but I only had time to look up your address in the airport before flying out here.”

Steve looked more than a little suspicious. “Well, you got here at the right time. We were just about to eat lunch. Aaron, please go inside and tell your aunt to put another plate on the table for your mother.”

“Okay, Uncle Steve.” Aaron quickly pulled out of the hug and ran back inside the apartment building to do Steven’s bidding, punching a code in at the door to gain entrance. Good, she thought, at least Steve’s building had some measure of security.

“Where’s your suitcase?” he asked when Aaron was out of earshot. “You didn’t leave it in the cab that dropped you off, did you?”

“No, I didn’t bring anything. Just myself. I was hoping Maria might loan me a few things to wear.”

Steven frowned. “You came all the way to Italy with nothing but the clothes on your back and a passport?”

“Yes,” Eva said. “Like I said. It was a last-minute decision.”

“Mmm-hmm, does Dad know about this last-minute trip?”

She gave him a tight smile. “Not yet.”

He shook his head. “Little sister, you seem to keep on finding new ways to keep him mad at you.”

“Yes, “ she snapped. “Because everything I do is designed to upset Daddy. Thank you for reminding me of that, once again, my perfect big brother.”

“I’m not trying to remind you of anything,” he snapped right back. “And don’t pull that routine with me. You’re the one who showed up here out of the blue, unannounced.”

She laid a placating hand on his arm before he could go any further. “You’re right. I was out of line. It was a long flight, and I’m just really tired and turned around and freaked out.”

“What’s going on, Eva? First Dad tells me something about how Aaron’s dad is back in the picture and apparently threatening to ruin the town. And now suddenly you’re in Italy, talking about you how ‘just decided’ to take a trip.”

“I’ll explain everything later. Right now, I need to help Aaron get his bags packed and then we need you to get us some fake IDs.”

“Fake IDs? What?” Steve grasped her arm, serious alarm etched across his face. “Eva, you need to tell me what’s going on right now.”

“That is just what I was about to say,” came a voice from behind them.

Eva turned and clapped a hand over her mouth. Standing on her brother’s front lawn in a black business suit, over five thousand miles from South Padre Island, was her ex-boyfriend, and the father of her child.

“Where is my son, Eva?” he said, his body positively vibrating with barely contained rage. “Take me to him. Now.”