“You care for him?” she asked softly.
“Yes.” The word escaped Lucas before he could even think. Andrei had become so damn important to him in so short a time. He didn’t want to think about the man not being in his life, not being there when they needed each other.
She placed her hand on his cheek, tilting his head so that she could look deep into his eyes. She stared for several seconds and it felt as if she were trying to peer straight into his soul. Something inside of Lucas flinched, but he didn’t look away.
At last she smiled. “You’re a good man.”
“For him, I want to be.”
To his surprise, Sonja released his cheek and hugged him as tightly as she’d hugged her own son. Lucas hesitated for only a moment before hugging her back, marveling at the old ache in his chest seeming to ease just a little bit.
When Sonja released him, she wagged a finger in his face. “You can have Andrei for Thanksgiving with your family, but you both must come down to see us for Christmas.”
“We’ll have to negotiate that,” Lucas said with a smirk. He was really starting to like Andrei’s parents. They were fun and feisty, reminding him so much of the man he’d pulled into his life.
“Bah!”
“You could join us for Thanksgiving,” he suggested.
“Not the best idea,” Andrei said, sliding between them to snag two of the mugs of coffee.
“I think your parents would get along great with Snow.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said flatly, glaring at Lucas as he walked away to hand his father one of the mugs. “That’s when you can pry my mother away from Ian. She carries the history of Romanian cooking in her head.”
“I was thinking of making Brânzoaice or Cozonac this year,” Sonja said in a soft lilting voice that smacked heavily of temptation.
Andrei shook his head before taking a sip of coffee. “Oh, you’re fighting evil. I haven’t had Brânzoaice in years.”
“What is it?” Lucas inquired, handing Sonja a mug of coffee.
“It’s a chocolate sponge cake with almonds and chocolate filling, with a glaze of chocolate.”
Lucas placed his arm around Sonja’s shoulders and smiled at Andrei. “Your parents are definitely coming to Thanksgiving.”Lucas strolled back into his bedroom, a tumbler of bourbon in each hand, to find Andrei stretched out on his side on the floor in front of the large windows looking out on downtown Cincinnati. He was still naked, but he’d pulled the deep burgundy duvet from the bed and wrapped it around his long, lean body. It was nearly midnight and the lights of the city glowed before them, the night seeming a little brighter in the growing cold that was descending on the river valley.
“I’ve noticed that you spend a disturbing amount of time naked in front of my window, staring down at the city.” Lucas stood over Andrei, a smirk lifting one corner of his mouth. “Is this a power trip for you?”
Andrei lifted one hand to reach for a glass, letting the cover fall away from his muscular bronze shoulders. “I had a rough day. Let me have my moment of lording over the city.”
Shortly after coffee, Sonja and Milos had left to run some errands around the city, giving Lucas and Andrei some time together before meeting up again for a leisurely and enjoyable dinner at Rialto. After Andrei’s parents had left to return home, Lucas dragged Andrei back to the penthouse for some celebratory sex in hopes of helping Andrei to relax. It had helped…for a time.
“Your family is amazing,” Lucas gently chided as he handed over a glass. Andrei’s fingertips grazed against his and it still managed to send an enticing shiver through him. He had a feeling that Andrei would always have the power to make him tremble.
“Yeah.” The word escaped him as a sigh and Lucas watched as he downed the drink in a single swallow.
Lucas sipped his own before setting it aside and settling down on the floor beside Andrei, his arm thrown over Andrei’s waist.
“I could have done without the details of my parents’ interesting sex life,” Andrei grumbled.
“It does make you wonder—”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“If they’ve always been like that,” Lucas continued as if Andrei hadn’t sharply cut him off, “or if it was something that developed after you moved out of the house. You know, to spice up the marriage.”
Putting his empty glass on the floor, Andrei rolled over with the blanket onto Lucas, pinning him to the floor. “You’ve got to stop. I’m begging you. And you can’t bring it up to your friends. You can’t ever speak of it.”
“If that is what you wish, Vladislava,” Lucas said with a smile that drew a groan out of Andrei.
“Is that the trade off?”
Lucas chuckled, spreading his legs so Andrei could more comfortably settle between his thighs. “Think of it as a choice. You can’t steal everything from me.”