I leave my phone in the house. I don’t want to hear from my brothers or the office, or anyone else for that matter.
I just want a quiet moment with Darius and Honeyeh. We stacked a lot of good into this day and I’m going to relax and enjoy it for once in my life.
Honeyeh explains the surgery and recovery for Darius if he does have a donor. It means a lot of work in our near future, which makes me even more determined to enjoy this day.
We relax. Eat. Swim. I can’t remember the last time I experienced this kind of simple joy. My insides are uncoiling, relaxing for the first time in years, I feel at peace.
As the sun sets, we go inside, have dinner and then we all start upstairs. I pick my phone up from the counter, noting that I have seventeen missed calls and a dozen voicemails.
Tomorrow is soon enough. I pocket the phone and follow Honeyeh and Darius up the stairs.
I’m a half flight behind them when Darius turns back to Honeyeh. “Want to see the game I’m learning,Need for Speed?”
“What’s that about?”
“It’s a racecar simulator. I’m learning to drive.”
Honeyeh snorts. “You can’t learn to drive with a video game.”
I laugh. “Did you know that a man became a racecar driver after mastering driving with a video game?”
“Do not encourage him,” Honeyeh fires back.
“Fine,” Darius scoffs. “But when I’m better, can I learn to drive for real?”
Honeyeh looks back at me, her eyes wide. My brows go up. “Honeyeh, do you drive?”
She shakes her head. “We’ve never had a car…”
“I guess I’ll be teaching you both.”
Darius gives a whoop, but Honeyeh’s back down the stairs, her arms threading around my neck, her mouth pressing to mine.
I already know she’s going to worry that it’s another thing I’m giving her, but I don’t see it like that. It’s my job to provide. It’s a role I’ve embraced my whole life. Only this time what I get in return is comfort, warmth, love, and Honeyeh in my bed.
She’s still in a bikini, a little pair of shorts hanging onto her hips and I run my hands over her back even as Darius snorts and then disappears into his room.
I chuckle against Honeyeh’s lips even as I hook her leg around my waist. She’s on the step above me which gives me even better access, my cock pressing to the softness between her legs.
“Shower or fuck first?” I rumble. “Or both at the same time.”
“How about a little business before that,” a voice says from the bottom of the stairs. I freeze, my hands going rigid on Honeyeh’s body, because I recognize that deep Russian voice anywhere. Dimitri Ivanov.
Slowly, I let Honeyeh go, turning on the step to find Dimitri at the bottom of the stairs, pistol pointed at my chest.
Inside the pocket of my shorts, my phone buzzes.
Fuck. “Business? Now?” I take a step toward him, down one step and he cocks back the hammer of his gun so that I freeze again. “Sure. In my office?”
But his eyes are sliding back over my shoulder. “Printsessa, you’re even more beautiful than I remember from our first meeting.”
My lip curls. “Honeyeh is not part of this conversation.”
“Wrong,” he snarls back. “Consider this my thank you for sending your brother to threaten my family.”
“No one held a gun on your family. They didn’t even know Killian was there.”
“I knew.”