Page 40 of Ruthless Rustanovs

TWO YEARS LATER

ONE hot summer evening in late August, Alexei shifted the stack of newspapers under his arm to unlock the front door of their home in Drummond.

It was the same two-story villa both his wife and son had spent most of their lives in, except for a few notable exceptions.

He and Eva had stripped all her father’s hunting trophies and animal heads off the walls and tossed his heavy leather furniture.

In its place, they’d put in bright and colorful furniture from the fifties, sixties, and seventies.

It wasn’t exactly to Alexei’s taste, but it had worked out to an even exchange since Eva hadn’t been thrilled when he bought the houses on either side of theirs and enclosed the newly formed compound within a wrought iron gate with stone pillars stationed every few feet.

He’d also put in a state-of-the-art alarm system and a security booth complete with full-time guards.

The life of a billionaire was filled with luxuries, but living without round-the-clock security wasn’t one of them.

He was just glad Eva’s parents now lived in a sleepy retirement community near Dallas which meant the house that had once been filled with judgment and recrimination was now filled with nothing but love and a considerable amount of brightly-hued furniture.

Technically, the town owned the house and it was only on loan to the sitting mayor. But since Eva had managed to garner an unparalleled job approval rating during her short time as mayor, Alexei doubted they’d be moving anytime soon.

“Hey, Dad,” Aaron said, when he came through the door. He was playing a videogame, something involving logs, rivers, and a lot of jumping on the player’s part, but he paused it as soon as his father came in.

As usual, pride and love filled his heart when he saw Aaron after a long day.

He once again thanked God for aligning the stars so he could have him in his life.

It pained Alexei to think that if Eva’s good friend and his business associate hadn’t married, he and Eva might never have met again and who knew if his son would have ever sought him out?

But instead of going down the path of what might have been, Alexei forced himself to return to dad duty which he thoroughly enjoyed. “Does your mother know you are playing video games on a weeknight?”

“Yeah, she let me because I got an A on my math test today. I only get to play for half an hour until the laundry’s done, then I have to fold it and go to bed.”

Alexei chuckled. Despite the fact that Eva was close to making a deal that would bring a college to Drummond, he had the feeling Aaron would choose to attend an out-of-town school if only to get out of laundry duty.

“Do you want me to help you fold?” Alexei asked. Today had been one of the two days a week he drove into Dallas for business, and he was feeling tired from the long commute. But he was also proud of Aaron for doing so well on his math test.

“Nah, I’ve got it. Is that the newspaper?”

“You have not read it yet?” Alexei handed him the paper with a picture of Eva on the front, smiling in her dad’s old office which had received a colorful redecoration.

The article’s headline read, “MAYOR IN BLUE JEANS.” Alexei had already read the glowing feature about one of the nation’s few black female mayors who managed to bring a collection of new businesses to her sleepy Texas town in a relatively short time.

“Yeah, I read it online. You know Mama. She got busy and forgot to tell Berta to pick a newspaper up, and by the time I reminded her about it, it was too late. They were all gone.”

Of course, they were. How often would a piece about their small town be front page news in the Dallas Times?

He imagined the limited number of copies printed in Drummond were long gone by lunch time.

It was no secret how beloved the new mayor was.

It also helped that nothing ever happened in Drummond but in less than two years, Eva revealed the father of her son was a Russian billionaire, got to married him, and then ran against her own father for mayor—and won!

The townspeople would probably have voted for her for the drama factor alone.

“She was kind of bummed,” Aaron said. “You should give her a copy now.

“I will. See you in the morning!” He pulled his son close and planted a kiss on his head. Though Aaron had recently declared himself too old for baths and having someone tuck him in at night with a story, he had yet to complain about the many hugs and kisses he still received from both his parents.

“Night, Dad.”

Alexei wondered if he would ever get used to the heart-stopping joy of someone calling him “dad.”

His extended family in Russia still refused to speak to or receive him in their homes because of what he’d done.

But losing the esteem of his aunts and cousins had been well worth it.

And whenever Alexei felt a tug of guilt about what he’d done to his uncle to protect his family, one look at Aaron completely alleviated it.

“Goodnight, Son,” he said, climbing up the stairs.

In the end, Alexei did not give Eva the newspaper when he walked through their bedroom door.

She was naked except for a denim mini-skirt, with her hair plaited in two long French braids.

She’d braced herself against their dresser with her back curved so her behind stuck out in the most tantalizing way.

This dresser was much more expensive than the flimsy plywood one they had had back in grad school, but he recognized the scene immediately.

And he knew without having to ask that she was wearing nothing beneath the skirt that encased her still-delectable rear end.

“Hey, Lexie,” she said, grinning at him over her shoulder. “You know what? It was so hot today and it occurred to me I never kept my end of that laundry bargain we made. Do you remember what you wanted?”

Alexei set the newspapers aside on an armchair, already swelling with desire for her. He stripped off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves before coming to stand behind her, close enough that she could feel his presence if not his touch. Yet.

“I believe I said I would touch you here…” he covered her left breast with one of his hands, “and here…” He unbuttoned her mini-skirt, his erection growing harder as he parted her pussy lips with his index and ring finger and rubbed her clit with the middle one.

She groaned, her head falling to her chest as it had those many years ago. “Lexie,” she moaned.

He rubbed three fingers against her clit to get her primed before moving his fingers down to tunnel inside her.

The position was wicked on his part—it was enough to get her excited, but because he was no longer working her clit, it was not enough to get her off. As a consequence, she worked herself on his fingers, making them slick with her desire but still unable to get what she wanted from them.

He watched this play out, the sight of his wife squirming making him just as hard as if he’d been stroking his own length, as opposed to simply resting it against her back.

“Is there something you want?” he asked. “Something you’d like me to give you?”

“Lexie, please,” she said. “Your fingers, they’re not enough. I need you inside me.”

Her begging nearly got her exactly what she wanted. He had done a complete one-eighty since South Padre and now hated to deny Eva anything. But they had a scene to play out and she wasn’t performing her part correctly.

“I like that you are begging, but you have not called me by the right name yet.”

“Lexie…” She grabbed his hand and was pumping it into her in a frenzy.

“No, that’s not the name I want to hear.”

“Alexei, oh hell, Alexei. Please, I want you! I want you insi—”

She didn’t get any farther because he turned her around and lifted her onto the dresser in one swift move. Before she could finish asking him for it, he was already inside her. “Marry me,” he whispered.

“What?” she asked, barely coherent. “We’re already married!”

He stopped moving and looked deep into her dark brown eyes. “Say you will marry me.”

For a moment, he thought she would laugh. Make a joke or not agree to play along. But in the end, she simply smiled at him, the most beautiful smile in the world, and said, “Yes, baby, I’ll marry you.”

And then he was pumping into her again, glorying in her, loving her until the present blended into the past and they were young again, celebrating her saying yes to his proposal by making love atop their cheap plywood dresser until her breaths started coming in short gasps.

They both shattered at the same time, their souls exploding into a thousand pieces and reforming in the present as two people who loved each other openly and honestly.

As they came down, breathing hard, Eva let out a shaky laugh and batted her eyes at him. “I hope that didn’t come too late, Lexie.”

He laughed, too, hardly able to believe his luck that this woman was now his wife, that she’d given him the son he hadn’t even known he needed, that she could still make him instantly hard with just a bat of her pretty brown eyes.

“Kotenok, it is never too late. I think we have proven that.”

Then he started to move inside her again.

First of all, thank you so very much for reading the origin story of one of my all time favorite couples.

I can’t tell you how much I’ve grown to love Alexei and Eva since they debuted in this novel.

They not only sparked the Ruthless Rustanovs series, but have also gone on to have many cameos in other stories, including NIKOLAI, which you can check out after the swipe.

So much love,

Theodora Taylor