Page 169 of Ruthless Rustanovs
“Do it, Sola…” Ivan said, his voice low and threatening.
“No, I can’t,” she answered, shaking her head. Seated as she was—completely naked in his big bed—it was hard, vulnerable work to stand up to him. But Sola couldn’t do what he was telling her to do. She just couldn’t!
“Sola, this is not a request,” the huge, naked Russian sitting across from her said.
“But—” she started.
“No, buts,” he all but growled at her. “Now stop making me wait and open your present!”
Sola fingered the box in her hands. It was neatly wrapped with shiny green paper. And she wanted to open it, she did. But she felt too guilty.
“I didn’t know we were going to exchange Christmas presents,” she told him. “At least not real ones. I was just planning on giving you, like, a really nice blowjob or something.”
He grinned at her. “You have already given me a really nice blowjob.”
“What? When?!” Sola demanded.
He waggled his eyebrows.
And she let out an embarrassed groan. “Oh, my gosh…” she said with an embarrassed groan. “Did I seriously blow you while I was sleep walking?”
“Da,” he answered with a lazy smirk. “You also cursed like sailor and complimented me many times on how well I fucked. Would you like me to tell you what else you did while I wait for you to open my present?”
“No…” Sola mumbled, and she began ripping open the gift, if only to distract Ivan from the current topic.
As many things as they’d done together during the days leading up to Christmas, as many stories as they’d shared, she still couldn’t get over the fact that they’d had a longer—and apparently more varied—sexual relationship while she’d been asleep.
But all her embarrassment was replaced with sheer glee when she opened the box to find…
“Wool socks! Oh my gosh, Ivan!”
She threw herself across the bed and hugged him before settling back to pull on the thick socks.
“How did you know I needed these?”
She got her answer in another smug smile. “I swear I’m never going to go to sleep without at least one drink again.”
Ivan just chuckled, low and deep. “Sola, it does not matter if you are awake or asleep. However you want me, you can have me.”
She looked up at him, unable to imagine not wanting him, even against her better instincts. But then her smile faded when she remembered their uneven gift exchange. “I only wish I’d gotten you something. This was so thoughtful.”
The mirth in his eyes faded as well, and his voice took on a more serious tone as he said, “If you’re serious about giving me a gift, there is one thing I would very much like from you.”
“Sure,” she said, shifting to her hands and knees, mouth already watering in anticipation of his request. “Anything you want…”
But then he said, “I would like the name of the man who hurt you. The not nice guy who bruised your face before you came here to me. This is the only gift I want from you.”
Sola sighed, sitting back on her knees. “Anything but that.”
“Why not?” Ivan asked. “Are you still in love with him?”
“No!” she quickly assured him with a sad sigh.
“I’m not sure I ever was in love with him.
He sort of swooped in, and I went along for the ride because he was the kind of guy a girl like me is supposed to like.
Nice. All-American boy from Nebraska. But then he started becoming more and more controlling, and I knew we had to break-up.
That’s what I was trying to do when he—when he hit me. ”
The last four words drew an animalistic sound out of Ivan, and his fists bunched at his sides.
“See, that’s why I can’t tell you his name. I know what you’ll do to him.” Not just beat him, she suspected in her heart of hearts. Far worse.
“What I don’t understand is why you wouldn’t want me to punish this boy for what he did to you. And I know he is boy because a man would never do this to someone he loves.”
“You’re right, he is a boy,” Sola admitted. “That’s why I’m with you right now and not him. That thing with him is over.”
“It’s not over,” he insisted, covering her hand with his. “Not until—”
“What do you want to do, Ivan? Hurt him? Beat him? Worse?”
Something ticked in Ivan’s jaw, and Sola knew, even before he could answer, that “worse” was at the top of his list.
“And then what?” she asked. “Then you come back here and wait for another sad story girl to come along so you can avenge everyone who’s wronged her, too?”
He shook his head. “You are more than a sad story girl to me. You know this.”
But she shook her head at him. “I didn’t tell you that story the other night so you’d feel sorry for me. I don’t want your pity, Ivan.” She didn’t realize how true those words were until she said them out loud.
“I don’t pity you, Sola,” he said after a long, tense moment.
“Good, then prove it. Leave that other guy out of this. He’s something I left behind, and I don’t want him here with us. Do you understand?”
She watched his mouth work as he contemplated her request. And she realized in that moment, how different he was from Scott. How unfair it had been of her to dismiss him as nothing more than a spoiled brat that day in the solarium.
Scott had continuously whined throughout their relationship. About his team. About L.A. About all the things that were wrong with the world, as if he was owed everything in this life just because he could run fast and a catch a ball.
But Ivan’s sense of right and wrong seemed to go deeper than that, and she could see in the way he struggled with her request that unlike Scott, he truly did care about someone other than himself.
“C’mon…” she wheedled, “My original Christmas gift idea will be so much more fun.”
He regarded her for a long, scowling second before leaning back against the bed’s headboard and spreading his legs to give her a front row view of the erection nestled between them.
He was hard again, she realized with an inner smile. For her. Not because he pitied her, but because he wanted her, even when she talked back to him. He had no idea how unlike Scott he was in every way.
Or maybe he did. The smile on his face was 110% smug as he gave in with a, “Fine, Sola. I will take this other gift. I admit I am curious about who has more brains: Sola when she is sleeping, or Sola when she is awake.”
“Brains…?” Sola’s nose crinkled. “Do you mean who’s better at giving head?”
He frowned. “Yes, more brains. This is not a slang word you use?”
“Not unless you’re a rapper.”
“Ah, that would explain it. In my old life, I listened to much rap. I like it much, much better than opera—”
“Ivan?” she interrupted, crouching over his heavily veined erection.
“Yes, Sola?”
“I’m about to get very smart on your dick. Why don’t you stop talking while you’re ahead?”
Da, his Sola was smart, so very smart, Ivan thought to himself as he stroked her hair. He watched the curly-haired angel between his legs go up and down on his dick with hooded eyes.
It was funny, because before his accident, he’d had more models and actresses go down on him than he could count.
But they all paled in comparison to Sola.
He’d never met anyone like her before. So innocent and sweet, yet willing to stand up for the people she loved.
Full of surprises. And the way she looked at him.
He’d lost track of how many times their eyes had locked while they were making love.
Even when it came time for her to leave him in the spring, he knew he’d never forget the way she held his gaze unflinchingly as he moved inside her. She didn’t just make him feel like his old self again, she made him feel even better.
She’s making me a better man, he thought to himself with another tender caress of her soft curls. His dick pulsed harder inside her sweet mouth. And da, she gave even better head when she was awake.
Her coming to his room that night of the full moon had been a very erotic surprise. A life-changing one. But this was even better. He liked being able to watch her in the daylight. Treasured every sound as she wetly sucked his dick, slurping up the pre-cum as soon as it pearled at the head.
Such a pretty picture, but unlike the other girls he’d been with, he didn’t feel like he was watching a show. She was sucking his dick because she liked it and because she wanted to make him happy, not because she wanted him to look at her or give her things.
And ironically, that made him want to give her even more. Not only her education—which he owed her anyway. But things like jewelry, clothes…his heart.
Except she already had that, he realized, as a rising sensation started up his spine.
He was crazy about her. Literally and figuratively. He more than liked her already, and it made him feel slightly unhinged. Like no matter how much he did for her, it would never be enough.
For the first time in his entire life, a certain notion occurred to him. He wasn’t good enough. He’d been good at fighting. He’d been more than adept at killing. But he was nowhere near good enough for this woman.
A pleasant piercing sensation interrupted his thoughts, and soon after, his dick swelled even larger and a deep growl tore from him as he began to spill into her warm mouth. He came, and came, and came some more, emptying rope after rope of his seed into her throat.
“Good?” she asked, when she was finally done swallowing.
He watched her tongue snake out to catch a drop of his semen, glistening at the corner of her full mouth, and instantly hardened again.
Seeing his new erection, Sola’s eyes widened. “Oh, no, I can’t. You’ve got to give me at least a minute to recover,” she groaned with a laugh. Then she rushed to snuggle up against his side as if she were running away from the jutting erection between his legs.
“Take your time,” he answered. “It will still be here when you are ready, Sola.”
She responded with more sweet laughter, and he relished the sound. Had he ever had a better Christmas? A better moment? Being with Sola like this was better than all his fight wins put together.
“I want to do something more for you,” he said, kissing the top of her curly head.
She just laughed and wiggled her be-socked feet against his legs.
“I mean these socks are everything. Totally worth the blowjob. Maybe even four more.” She kissed his ruined cheek, as always not seeming to distinguish it from the better half of his face.
“Seriously, babe, what could be better than this?”
She got the answer to that question about two hours later. After she’d had enough time to recover from Ivan’s thank you for his Christmas blowjob, then recover yet again when she’d made the mistake of accidentally pushing her butt into his crotch as they settled in for a nap.
He hadn’t been able to leave her alone long enough to sleep much over the past few days. Consequently, Sola was still yawning and a little bleary eyed as he led her through the door of the first room they’d made love in—at least while she’d been awake.
He escorted her to one of the guest chairs, all but setting her down into it, before he went around to the other side of the desk.
“What’s this all about?” she asked as she watched him drop into his desk chair with a sleepy smile.
She looked so well-fucked right now, it made him want to carry her back up the stairs and make sure that look never left her face.
But first the gift, then he’d spend the rest of Christmas fucking her, with nothing weighing on his conscience.
“There is no cell phone reception in this town, but the landlines work just fine.” He pushed the old-fashioned rotary phone on his desk toward her, and answered her question with a, “Call your professor. Wish him a Merry Christmas.”
“Okay, Brian’s Jewish, and doesn’t really celebrate Christmas now that Eddie’s sick, but who cares? Thank you! Thank you!” she cried.
The look on her face was “thank you” enough. And he knew how important this man must be to her when instead of running upstairs to get her phone, she began the long process of dialing the professor’s number on the rotary phone, because she knew it by heart.
“This is amazing,” she said when she finished dialing. “He’ll be so relieved when he finds out I’m okay.” She threw him a saucy smile. “Actually, better than okay.”
But then she broke off with a frown. “That’s weird. It went straight to voicemail…”
She hesitated, then peeped up at him, biting her lip. “Do you mind if I make another call? Brian might be indisposed, but if I could talk with Eddie’s home aide…”
Ivan thought darkly of the man he’d found stumbling around his property and could only bet what Sola meant by “indisposed.” He had a bad feeling about this.
But she was looking at him across his desk now, with so much hope and very little guile. He gave in with a, “Yes, of course. One more call. Go get your phone.”
She shot out of the room so fast, you would think he would have felt better about the decision he’d just reluctantly made.
But instead, he felt worse. Even though he was being the better man for Sola, he had a gnawing worry in his gut. And it only became stronger when Sola returned to the room with her phone and dialed a second number with shaky hands.
She gave Ivan a small smile when she was done. “It’s ringing…” she let him know, before breaking off to say, “Hey Vanessa, it’s Sola! I tried to call Brian, but his phone went straight to voicemail—”
She broke off, sitting up in her chair with a truly alarmed look on her face. “What do you mean he’s in jail? But how…?” Then her face crumpled and she said, “No, Vanessa, I can’t. I’m-I’m stuck up here in Idaho. I won’t be able to come back until the snow melts. Possibly not until spring…”
The rest of their conversation was drowned out by the ringing in his ears.
The same as when that car bomb detonated with his sister and parents inside.
Because Ivan knew then…knew, like only a man who’d lost his entire family in one second could know, he’d unwittingly destroyed what he and Sola had between them.
The dream was over. And real life had just reared its ugly head.