11. Maggie

MAGGIE

T he cookie making was my idea.

Sledding, apparently, is Alexei’s.

I spent a restless night in my room, remembering all of the kisses. And, of course, the feeling of his cock in my mouth. And the fact that Alexei, in general, seems kind of…

Okay well, not “kind of’.

A lot nicer than I thought he was.

Plus, I love that he’s kind of agreed to do the whole ‘date’ thing. I mean clearly, right? Otherwise he wouldn’t have participated in the cookies yesterday, or set up the sledding today. He’s wrapped me in about a hundred layers of wool and down. I can barely move, and I’m pretty sure it’s overkill.

That is, until we’re actually outdoors.

“Holy crap,” I whisper, my breath fogging as soon as it leaves my body. “It’s cold out here.”

Alexei laughs. “Why do you think winter is Russia’s greatest war tactic?”

“I have no idea what that means. And my brain is frozen, so I can’t even start,” I say through clenched teeth.

Alexei turns around. “We can go back. As soon as you’re ready, we can…”

“No,” I interrupt him. “You want to sled? We sled. Let’s do this.”

I refuse to back down, even if I’m pretty sure I’ve never been closer to reenacting a Jack London novel.

Alexei chuckles and tugs the long wooden platform along. “Come. We will do a couple of runs and then go warm up.”

“Warm up sounds nice,” I mutter.

“You will be very pleased with the sauna then.”

That does, in fact, sound pretty darn incredible.

Alexei marches us up to the top of a medium-sized hill. He settles himself on the sled, his long legs planting on either side of it as he anchors it into the snow.

He pats the space in front of him. “Come.”

“I’m not sure I can fit there normally. Let alone as the Stay-Puft Marshmallow woman.”

Alexei’s eyebrow quirks. In the cold, his cheeks are rosy and his eyes shine.

He looks younger. Much less reserved.

A thought crosses my mind. “How old are you?”

“Thirty-five.”

I whistle. “Dang. You’re old.”

Alexei laughs, and the sound is oddly muted in the cold. “That was abrupt.”

“I’m only twenty-three,” I smirk at him.

Alexei’s eyes go hard. “Then I will look forward to showing you the ways of the world, milaya.”

I roll my eyes, but the insinuation sends a chill down my spine. “Whatever, old man.”

“Let’s hear you say that after we go down this hill,” Alexei laughs.

I do my best to settle myself onto the sled, and Alexei’s body traps me in. He leans forward and presses a kiss on my cheek.

Through the burning cold, I feel it, and it makes my chest feel a little warmer.

“Are you ready?”

“I guess,” I lean back into him.

I haven’t been sledding since I was little. So little, in fact, that I don’t remember going sledding at all, really.

I have no way to judge what’s going to come next.

Alexei’s strong legs push, and before I know it…

We’re flying.

“Okay. I have to admit. That was fun, but this is better,” I sigh as I lean into the warmth of the sauna.

Alexei chuckles, the sound very, very close in the dark sauna.

After the sledding, which was admittedly pretty fun, Alexei brought me to one of the lower floors of the manor house. He instructed me to strip, handed me a towel, and then disappeared.

I did all of those things, and when I entered the large space, Alexei had already heated it up for us.

I lean back, inhaling the salt and moisture and the slightly herbal scent of the eucalyptus leaves. Alexei is next to me, and his big body stretches over multiple benches as he reclines.

He has a towel around his waist, but I still have a pretty stellar view, and I don’t even hold back as I eye the sculpted lines of his abs.

“You’re staring, milaya.”

“What does that mean?” I ask, trying to deflect. I’m not going to admit that I am, in fact, staring at his amazing torso, but he doesn’t need to know that.

Alexei cracks an eye, catching me.

I still don’t look away.

“It is an endearment. Sweetheart. Dear. Darling,” he purrs.

My skin prickles with awareness. “You moved to that pretty quickly.”

“Did I?”

“Less than a week ago, you wouldn’t even call me Maggie.”

“Less than a week ago, I did not mean it,” he murmurs.

That catches my attention.

Alexei shifts forward, all of those beautiful muscles flexing at once as he does. He puts his hands on his knees, and I’m mesmerized by the flex of his biceps as he runs his hands through his hair.

He’s so beautiful.

I bet he makes beautiful babies.

The thought hits me like a ton of bricks… and is a great reminder that since I haven’t been sexually active before, I’m not on any form of birth control.

The thought, however, fills me with a kind of bubbly interest that doesn’t feel as terrifying as it has in the past.

I don’t know that babies have ever crossed my mind. I don’t know that I’ve ever really seen it as an option. Now that it is, though….

I’m kind of interested.

“I will always tell you the truth, milaya,” he murmurs.

“So will I,” I promise.

Alexei nods. “Good.”

The silence in the sauna isn’t scary. It actually feels… comforting.

I’m halfway asleep when Alexei sighs.

“I have enjoyed this day.”

“Me too,” I murmur.

He shifts. We’re both sweaty, but I don’t mind when he moves closer. I want to lick the moisture from his firm pecs, but I’m also kind of… too relaxed.

It’s nice.

His lips graze the top of my head.

“I have one more surprise for you.”

I straighten. Given the fact that we’re still pretty naked, I was kind of thinking that we could pick up from where we left off the day before, in terms of exploring our… physical connection.

I tilt my head.

Alexi’s grin is infectious.

“I will come collect you from your room.”

When Alexei grabs me from my room, he also does so with another surprise.

A silk scarf that he quickly wraps around my face as a blindfold.

I giggle, mostly to hide the way my skin shivers and my breath catches at his touch.

“Are you ready for your surprise?”

“Sure. I mean. It’s a little unfair because … this is your house. You can surprise me with anything.”

“And yet, somehow you still continue to surprise me, milaya,” he whispers.

I shiver again.

Alexei gently tugs on my hand, and I follow him.

“I swear, Alexei, this house is just not that big from the outside,” I murmur as he guides me down yet another hallway. “There’s simply no way that all of these halls exist.”

“Maybe Orlov House is magical. Maybe it exists in multiple places at once,” he whispers.

I laugh. “You’re trying to pitch me on your magical house now too?”

“If it convinces you to love the house, yes.”

My heart skips a little, because I don’t think he meant only the house.

“I like Orlov House,” I whisper.

I like you.

It’s a surprising thought. I didn’t think that I would be here so soon but…

I think I’m falling for Alexei.

Rationally, I know it’s not possible. I haven’t known Alexei long enough to fall for him. Things like love, actual, meaningful love, take time. Anything prior to really knowing him is just a chemical reaction. Just attraction.

But living it is an entirely different thing than recognizing it in a textbook.

I feel the same way around him as I feel around my mom. I mean… different, of course. I’m not sexually attracted to my mom.

But my heart is easy. I feel relaxed, and welcomed.

Seen.

All of these are things that I experience with love.

But you can’t love him yet.

I keep that in my mind, because it’s true. Attraction is instant.

Love takes time.

“Okay. We’re here,” he murmurs behind me.

My breath catches again as he tugs at the silk, and the feeling of it sliding off my face seems borderline indecent.

For a second, I blink. The light is still muted due to the continued storm, but it’s bright enough that it takes me a minute to focus on the world around me.

And when I figure out what I’m looking at, I can’t help it.

I gasp.

I’m in an enormous room. There are huge windows, floor-to-ceiling just like in Alexei’s mom’s room, but the furniture in this room isn’t covered. Big, lush couches, huge long tables, and a fireplace that I could easily walk into dominate my view.

But beyond that?

Books.

Shelves and shelves of them, bordering the windows and lining the walls, stretching as far as I can see.

“Alexei…”

“Come in,” he says, tugging my hand.

I can’t do anything but follow.

He brings me over to an elegant desk carved out of blonde wood. My mouth drops as I see the shiny laptop, leather-bound notebook, and expensive pen set sitting there.

“What’s this?”

“You were going to school. To be the… head doctor,” he stumbles.

I smile. “Psychologist.”

“Yes. Well. I do not know exactly, but I think you can finish your courses… here. Or you can find a new study. Russia has many fine learning institutions,” he says.

I turn.

Alexei’s eyes search mine.

My lips curl. “Alexei. Are you… rambling?”

He shakes his head like a dog shaking off water. “No. I do not ramble.”

Huh. He’s totally rambling.

Alexei Orlov is… nervous.

And I think I’m the only one who can make him feel better.

I walk forward. Leaning up on my tiptoes, I wrap my hands behind his neck.

He goes very, very still.

So still that, unless he leans down, I can’t actually kiss him.

“Alexei,” I murmur, tugging on his neck. “Let me kiss you.”

He hesitates for just a second.

Just a tiny, tiny second.

Then, he leans down, and our lips meet.

Everything changes.

He kisses me like I’m the only fucking woman on earth, and I moan as I kiss him back.

My hands don’t know what to grab. They roam over Alexei’s neck and shoulders. I caress his broad back; I tug at his hair. He groans and cups my face with one hand, the other one fisting in the base of my hair as he tips my head back to deepen our kiss. My clothes are too tight on me, and I wriggle as my sensitive skin demands to be exposed to his hands.

He pulls back and paints kisses down my neck. My eyes roll back in my head at the sensation. “Alexei,” I pant, arching into his touch, “more.”

“Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you,” he purrs.

I have a feeling that he doesn’t just mean right now.

His hands find the edges of the comfortable shirt and pants that I’ve been wearing. We both struggle to get the last remnants of the sleeves off of my arms, as neither one of us is willing to break the heated kiss that we’re sharing, but eventually I feel the cool air on the top of my breasts.

Alexei pulls back and rubs his hand over his mouth, staring at where I’m exposed to him. He swears in Russian.

“Maggie,” he breathes. “When did you find such… alluring things to wear?”

I glance down at the expensive bra, then back up at him. “Well, I did some shopping. As it turns out, you get really good delivery service in Russia,” I answer honestly. I bought this set, along with all the others, when I was mad at him and using his credit card like it was going out of style.

Little did I know that it would be him who seduced me, and how powerless I’d be to stop it.

“You will buy more,” he growls as he looks at me.

I lean back onto the desk. Alexei carefully takes the computer and the writing items, tucking them out of the way.

Powerless.

That’s how I feel. But not in a bad way.

In the best possible way.

However, I can still take back a little power. I lean back on my elbows, my skin meeting the hard surface of the deck. The motion presses my breasts up against the very expensive fabric. “If you like these, then I can definitely buy more,” I purr.

“Maggie,” his voice is hoarse. “Buy it. Buy more. Buy the whole damn company, because I will require them to dress you at all times,” he mutters as he moves forward.

He has to be joking. “Alexei, I…” I gasp, cut off as he deftly plucks one of the cups of the bra down and his lips latch onto my nipple.

My eyes roll back into my head. I never really saw myself as someone who liked this, but I think maybe I was wrong. This is incredible, I think as I arch into his mouth. His other hand is on my thigh, moving up toward where I’m drenched for him as he uses his tongue and teeth to pull on my nipples. I’m writhing against him at this point, desperate for pressure on my clit.

Desperate for something that feels like it’s just around the corner.

“Alexei,” I whimper.

“I know, milaya. I know,” he whispers.

Then his finger is tracing the edge of my panties.

I shiver with anticipation.

Slowly, so slowly it almost hurts, he pushes inside the lace thong that I’m wearing.

I want to scream as his thick finger presses inside me.

This is so much better than before. I bite my tongue, trying my hardest to keep myself from shouting his name as loud as I can.

“Yes,” I whisper instead.

“That’s so good, Maggie,” he sounds reverent as he continues to move. The way he grunts, I can tell that he’s having a hard time restraining himself as well. “Are you this wet for me already?”

“Yes,” I repeat. I moan as he slides out, the noise obscene in the quiet library.

“You’re such a good girl, being ready for me whenever I want you,” he whispers into my ear. He licks my neck and I moan.

Alexei groans as well. “Do you like this, milaya? When I tell you how good you are?”

Absolutely, yes, I do . However, I don’t trust myself to respond. Alexei is going to know everything about me anyway. He can read me like a book. I just moan and press against him, hoping he will bring me closer to the orgasm that has been haunting me since he first showed me what I’m missing the other day.

I want this.

I know that if we do this, I won’t be able to go back. We’ll be husband and wife for real, in a way that we haven’t been before.

But I’m ready for it.

Suddenly he pulls back, and I cry out. “What are you doing?”

His eyes are dark and hooded with lust. He looks at me, a smirk curling on his lips. “I’m so glad you like your present.”

I prop myself up on my elbows, and the movement makes my breasts jiggle. “Of course I do. But I feel like I haven’t gotten you anything.”

“You are enough,” he says softly.

I huff. “But every time I come in here, I’m going to think about you. About this,” I gesture to the room. “This is the best gift that anyone has ever given me. How can I repay you?”

“You never have to,” he growls.

I shake my head. “But what can I do that would be the same? How will I make sure that I’m always on your mind, too?”

“Because, Maggie,” he says softly. “All I think about is you.”

For a moment I pause, taken aback by his words.

Then, I smile.

“I want you, Alexei. I want all of you.”

He freezes. “Maggie. Are you sure?”

“Yes,” I say. I’ll beg if I have to. “I need you.”

He pauses. If I’ve learned anything about Alexei in our time together, it’s that he doesn’t make decisions without thinking about them first.

So I know that right now, all I have to do is wait.

I don’t have to wait long, however, because he moves forward.

His hands are everywhere, and I totally forget that I’m just in expensive underwear and a bra. Alexei makes me feel… powerful. Worshiped. Normally, I’d be pretty self-conscious to be spread out on a desk like this.

However, Alexei’s eyes immediately bolster my confidence. “Look at you, Maggie,” his voice is so low I have to lean forward to make out his words. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”

I smile and the doubt disappears. In its place, I’m feeling bold and sexy, and I channel that for a moment. Alexei growls when I lay back on his desk and spread my legs open for him. “Please,” I whisper to him.

I want him. I want everything. I want this, and I can’t wait to possibly have it forever.

Alexei’s there in a heartbeat. He still has his pants and shirt on, and he pulls them off slowly. He’s standing naked before me, one hand on each of my knees, spreading me wider.

“These are pretty,” he says as he traces the center of my soaking panties upwards.

I shiver. “I like that they match.”

“I see that. Do you always match?”

“Only when I dress with an audience in mind,” I breathe. Only for you .

His eyes glimmer with satisfaction, and I think that he understands what I haven’t said. He presses my legs closed and hooks a finger in each side of the lacy underwear. I lift my hips up and he slides them down my hips, then drops them on the floor.

“Show me where you want me, Maggie,” he whispers.

Slowly, I part my legs again.

Alexei’s eyes focus sharply on my center. I know I’m wet. I also know that he likes what he sees, because his eyes go unfocused and slack.

And his already impressive cock jerks, like it’s excited to get inside me.

Alexei steps forward, and he pauses.

“Maggie, I don’t…”

“It’s okay,” I pant. “I want… you. Even if there’s… well. I mean. We’re married and all, right?”

“What does that mean?”

I huff. He’s literally pressed right at the edge of where I want him, and I’m getting impatient.

“I don’t care if I get pregnant, Alexei. I’d be happy to have a baby with you,” I snap.

The words feel loud. But I don’t have time to consider his reaction.

Because in the next moment, he pushes inside me, and I’m lost.

We both pant as he fully seats himself. He’s big. Not outrageously so, but big enough that I squirm a little at the intrusion. I’m certainly not expecting it to feel quite like…. This.

“Shit. Maggie. I forgot you…”

“I’m fine,” I whisper. “I’m actually really good.”

“Good?”

I nod.

He makes a movement and I hiss, the full impact of his thick cock a little clearer now than it was before.

He freezes. “Are you okay,” I hear him whisper in my ear.

I nod. “Give me a second.”

I can count each heartbeat as Alexei waits.

Finally, I’m ready. “Move, please,” I say.

His tongue licks the spot behind my ear again, and I tremble. “Anything you want, it’s yours,” he rumbles.

Then he moves.

Alexei pushes into me and slides out like it’s his only purpose in life. It’s focused and intense. I’m the center of Alexei’s world, and he’s the center of mine. I moan as I press upwards, searching for pressure on my clit that will bring the orgasm I’m sitting right against.

“Turn around,” he whispers. He pulls out and I obey. I fold over his desk, my hands stretched out in front of me. He steps behind me and kicks my legs apart, his hands gripping my hips in an iron grasp that makes me think I’ll probably have bruises in the shape of his fingers tomorrow.

Strangely, the idea doesn’t repulse me.

I don’t have too much time to think about it though, because once Alexei slides back into me, he steals my breath as he pounds against me. The sound of skin slapping against skin dominates the room, and I renew my grip on the desk, hoping like hell that I can just hold on while Alexei drives us both toward the climax on the horizon.

I’m almost there.

I’m so close. His dick is rubbing against something inside me that feels so incredibly amazing, I close my eyes and wait for bliss.

Alexei roughly grabs my hair and tugs. I get the hint and pull myself up. His arm goes around my torso right under my breasts, and his hand roughly palms one of them as he slams into me. We’re close; I can feel him against my back, the relentless pressure of him as he thrusts us both into a climax.

His hand disappears from my hair, and I feel it at my clit. “Come with me, Maggie,” he whispers in my ear.

Then he bites my neck. His fingers press on my clit, rubbing in a circle.

And I do as he says.

A wave of orgasm crashes over me. Every nerve in my body lights up, an electric network of nerves and neurons and who knows what else, that ripple through every one of my muscles. I can’t help myself; I scream his name.

“Maggie,” he snarls against my neck. He repeats my name like a prayer as he shakes behind me.

I smile.

We both pant, the moment changing as we come down.

“Alexei?”

He murmurs. “Hmm?”

“I think this is already the best Christmas I’ve ever had.”