Page 22 of Ruthless Rustanovs

EVA woke with a startled gasp. She’d had the strangest dream, filled with sexual heat and a weird, dangerous anger. It had turned her on, but when she rolled over on the mattress she shared with her boyfriend, she found his side of the bed empty.

The sound of water running in the bathroom solved the mystery. He was taking a shower, a cold shower if the sweltering hot room was any indication. Throwing off the cheap, white sheet, she sat up in front of the fan, ridiculously grateful for its pitiful breeze.

She closed her eyes. It was hard to resist the urge to lie back down, despite having gotten a full eight hours of sleep.

A deep, achy fatigue tugged at her, insisting she needed even more.

It must be the heat, she thought. In any case, she needed to shake it off.

She was down to her last pair of underwear—really, past her last pair since she was wearing her bikini bottoms at the moment.

But she had no idea where she was going to find the strength to rally and do a couple loads of laundry before school.

That was one of the few things she missed about living at home.

Her efficient mother had done her laundry every week, and even after she went away to college she’d bring big bags home for her bi-weekly Drummond visit rather than do it herself.

Suddenly, she felt the skin on the back of her neck prickle, which was her body’s reaction whenever Alexei was nearby. So even though she hadn’t heard him come out of the bathroom, she opened her eyes, certain he must be close.

Sure enough, her huge Russian boyfriend stood in a towel, watching her in a way that made her feel like a beauty queen despite her that her hair was done up in sloppy braids and she was already covered in a layer of sweat.

“Hey,” she said, making her smile extra bright so he wouldn’t worry. Alexei felt guilty enough about the broken A/C unit, there was no need to let him see the negative effect the heat had on her energy levels. “I didn’t hear you come out of the bathroom. For such a big guy, you move like a cat!”

“I will replace your female-sounding ‘cat’ with ‘panther’ and agree,” he said and moved to stand closer to the edge of the bed.

She grinned up at him. “Are all you Russians trained to move like panthers?”

He looked away, his bemusement replaced by a faraway look. She’d seen it often and knew from experience he wouldn’t share what it was about. This made her wonder, not for the first time, if there was more to him than he’d told her.

When they had first begun dating, he’d provided her with a tragic but simple back-story.

His mother died in car accident when he was a young boy, and his father, a humble businessman, died shortly after Alexei’s eighteenth birthday, leaving him just enough money to pursue a business education in the United States.

“My father always wanted me to study in America, so I thought I should live this dream for him.”

According to Alexei, there hadn’t been enough money to pay for an MBA on top of four years of undergrad school, which was why he’d had to take on a job at the School of Social Work and live in an efficiency apartment.

He’d told her this story early in their relationship and had not elaborated since.

But when he got that faraway look like something she said had triggered a memory he didn’t want to discuss, it made Eva nervous.

She trusted Lexie and didn’t think he would ever lie to her, but she did wonder if maybe he’d left something out.

Something important. However, every time she tried to dig deeper into his past he’d cut her off with short answers, followed by swift subject changes.

Alexei also received a phone call from his uncle every couple of weeks or so during which he’d do a lot of listening before answering in a stream of Russian and then delivering a curt “do svidania” and hanging up.

As he explained, “My uncle want me come back to Russia. He worry about me so far away.”

Being a stubborn Texan, Eva kept trying to get more information about Alexei’s past and his mysterious uncle until finally he said, “Kotenok, you have two living parents, even if you are not speaking to them right now. I do not have this. It is…too hard to talk about my childhood times. Please stop asking.”

After his gentle request, Eva felt like such an ass for not considering his feelings that she didn’t dare broach the topic again.

“Lexie,” she said now.

He blinked and came back to her.

“What were you thinking about just now?” she asked him.

“I am thinking you deserve more than this shit apartment,” he said.

That was definitely not what he was thinking but she played along. “Stop it,” she said with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. “Some of my clients would consider this place a palace. At least you have heat in the winter.”

Alexei threatened to talk to the landlord who was already scared enough of him, poor thing. A new plan formed in Eva’s head, one that would keep Lexie from terrorizing the landlord and solve her laundry problem…

Less than two hours later, she was alone in the apartment with two piles of freshly-washed laundry, courtesy of Alexei.

And despite the fact that she was living in an un-air-conditioned apartment in the middle of a heat wave, she felt like the luckiest girl in the world.

Alexei wasn’t her first boyfriend, and she was acquainted with enough older women to know young love rarely lasted.

But she was optimistic that the love she shared with Alexei would go the distance.

Eva had never dated someone who understood her so well, someone who noted all her quirks and was amused, as opposed to irritated, by them.

Someone who found her sexy, even when she was sweating like a pig with her hair in two messy braids.

Someone who made her feel beautiful even when she was on her period, or having a bad hair day, or wearing something that didn’t match because she was down to her last outfit.

Unlike the other men she’d dated, Alexei was honest to a fault which made it easy to put all her trust in him.

She knew he would never lie to her, never do anything to hurt her, and that he loved her as much as she loved him, if not more so.

And Eva did love him, his largeness, his directness, even his seriousness—sometimes it felt like she had been put on this earth to make him smile, which he did all the time now but only with her.

The only thing she could see disrupting their love was his lack of desire for children.

To be fair, he had told her this toward the beginning of their relationship one night when they met outside the School of Management where he took classes.

As they walked back to the parking lot, she’d made a glum joke about her ovaries shutting down because she and the social worker in charge of guiding her fieldwork had just removed a twelve-year-old boy from his home for beating his six-year-old sister to the point of unconsciousness with a baseball bat.

The reason? The little girl had accidentally scratched up one of her brother’s Xbox games a few hours earlier.

After forcing her to explain and re-explain the ovaries joke due to his difficulties with English, he said, “I must tell you, I do not wish for children.”

“Really?” she said. “But you’d make a great daddy. Why not?”

“I have reasons. “

“You want to share any of them with me?” she asked, taking his large hand in both of her smaller ones as they walked.

“My parents are dead. Their dying was very hard for me. When my mother die, I am only child but I miss her very much. I do not want my child to suffer. Also, I do not like the children. They are loud and maybe they are not thanking the parents for anything. I do not think I can be good father to somebody who is like this.”

She stroked his face and said, “A lot of women who get out of an abusive relationship have trouble dating again. They’re all like, ‘What if the same thing happens and he turns out to be an abusive asshole?’ Or they think maybe they don’t like men anymore.

Or they’re afraid they won’t be a good girlfriend after what they went through.

And we tell them you can’t live your life according to what might happen.

You gotta get back out there. Otherwise, your ex wins. ”

He gave her a sad smile and squeezed one of her hands. “This is very good advice, Eva, but maybe not for me.”

Then before she could put forward another argument for children, he kissed her and changed the subject to the elective courses he was considering taking the next fall.

After that conversation, Eva hadn’t brought up the subject of kids again.

She wasn’t particularly pro-having children herself, especially after a year in the social work program.

She’d only been half-joking about that monstrous boy making her not want to have kids.

Besides, she and Alexei were in their twenties and hadn’t even started their respective careers yet.

She figured there would be plenty of time to try and change his mind.

Just then the landline rang, interrupting her thoughts about the future of their relationship.

“Eva, it’s Mr. Sanders,” Alexei’s landlord said when she picked up the phone. His voice sounded nervous and shaky. “Alexei stopped by this morning and I’m calling back to let him know I found another repair man and he’ll be stopping by today.”

So even two loads of laundry and unexpected morning sex hadn’t stopped Alexei from harassing the landlord. Poor guy.

“Thanks, Mr. Sanders. We really appreciate it,” she said trying to make up for her boyfriend. “Do I need to be here?”

“No, he’ll come up with me and we’ll knock on the door. So, if you’re not home I can let him in.”