“You could crawl into your bed here and sleep for days.”
Her eyes twinkled with mischief. “Are you going to crawl into the same bed with me?”
“Damn straight. You sleep with me.”
“Then I’m not sure how much sleep we’ll be getting,” she chuckled softly.
I saw her point. “How about we just sleep until we are rested and then we fuck?”
Her cheeks turned bright red, playfully hitting my arm. “You say such sweet, romantic things.”
I laughed, feeling relaxed for the first time in a very long time. Considering the circumstances, it wasn’t normal that I felt relaxed. I had a suspicion it was the result of being around this woman. I loved her playfulness. She brought light into my world. From the moment I was born, I had to fight to survive, I had to fight to get food, shelter, and my millions. But Anastasia, she gave herself to me. That alone was worth, in my book, more than all my businesses and all the diamonds in the world.
“I think you love it,” I joked back.
She shook her head, a playful smile around her lips. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
“How many boyfriends have you had?” What possessed me to ask that question, I had no idea. I wanted to dig into her past and know every little detail about her. What she loved; what type of men she dated; what her dreams were… I wanted to know it all.
She tilted her head, and then surprisingly answered. “Five… six if you count my high school boyfriend but he never even kissed me. So I’d say he doesn’t count.”
“He never kissed you?”
Her green eyes sparkled. “Right? I mean who in their right mind doesn’t want to kiss?”
I nodded my head, playing along. “How could he resist kissing you?” I asked in wonder, and her laugh that followed was the best music I had ever heard.
“He could,” she commented through her laughter. “I was dying for him to just do it… but he didn’t seem interested. At all. I was obsessing over it, eager to have that damned first kiss. At the end of the school year it almost happened.”
“Almost?”
“Yes, I think so. We were at the end of the year lacrosse games. We literally had one more week of school left.” She stretched her back and changed her seating position. I had a feeling she didn’t like to sit still. “He went for it, and he was so close but then I kept thinking, what’s the point now? I was getting ready to go to college; he was moving to the West Coast. So I stopped him. I figured, I waited this long. I could wait a bit longer.”
“You didn’t want to visit him on the West Coast?” I recalled her dad saying she moved to the East Coast and made me wonder if she had been back.
“No, not really. I like it better on the East Coast.”
“Are you going to visit me on the West Coast?” Why did I ask her that?
She tilted her head. “Dimitry Alexeyev,” Fuck, I loved my name on her lips. “Are you asking me on a date?”
“Yes.” I was going to be her only date going forward. “I am asking you for all your dates.”
She laughed, throwing her head back and it reminded me of the tape I watched from the club when she seemed carefree and happy. It took a strong woman to survive everything she had been through and still be able to laugh like that. The warm feeling inside my chest expanded.
“That is,” her voice vibrated with laughter, “quite demanding.”
“I am nothing but demanding,” I grinned at her. She made me feel younger and lighter than I had ever felt. All the hustle, cruelty, and sins of my past seemed meaningless with her next to me. I couldn’t remember ever grinning.
With her, everything came naturally. The endearments, laughter, fierce protectiveness… I have never called a womanmilayabefore either. It meant my beloved, my darling. That word was reserved only for her.
“Okay, my turn.” She swiftly changed subjects. “How many women have you had?’
Too many and none that mattered, until you.The thought came out of nowhere but it couldn’t be truer. No woman had ever mattered to me as much as Anastasia. I had known her for less than a week but her soul resonated with me. I wanted every inch of her body and soul.
“Too many to count.” I didn’t want to lie to her.
A frown edged on her face and my hand reached to it. She pressed her cheek into my palm but frown remained. “Um, should I be concerned we didn’t use a condom?”