Alek laughed and swept into a low bow, offering the bouquet to her before slipping an arm around her waist and gently guiding her back down the foyer as if he’d done so a thousand times before. I remembered how he’d said his mother had died, and I suddenly wondered how long she’d been sick. Forgetting about making a quick escape, as had originally been my plan, I draped my sweater over the small foyer table and followed them down the hall.
I smiled as I watched Alek settle my grandmother into her chair, not giving a single gesture to indicate he was either put out or in a hurry.
“Let me put these into water for you,” I offered, moving to take the flowers from my grandmother.
“Thank you,” Olga said, allowing me to take them from her even as she lifted a finger to tap against the bottle I’d tucked beneath my arm. “You are planning on sharing that, aren’t you?”
I hadn’t been, but God forbid I didn’t display impeccable manners when we had a guest.
“If you’ll allow me?” Alek offered, relieving me of the wine.
“The kitchen is through here,” I said, leading the way. Once we were alone, I turned and nearly bumped into him. “Oh, sorry.” The small space seemed a bit too cozy with the huge man occupying it with me.
“Don’t be.” Alek grinned. “Where are your glasses?”
Turning again, I pointed to the cabinet, and, when he pressed in behind me to open it, shuffling forward until my body bumped into the countertop, I giggled. “I could have gotten them—”
“But then I wouldn’t have an excuse to do this,” he said, setting the wine down and slipping his arms around my waist to cage me in before dropping his head to whisper against my ear. “You look beautiful tonight, Clara.”
He reached up to pull my hair aside in order to nuzzle my neck. I shuddered at the sensation, my nipples instantly peaking beneath my dress, and, when he lifted his head, I turned to face him.
“And you clean up exceptionally well,” I said.
His head lowered again, and both wine and flowers were forgotten as his lips met mine. Instant heat ran through me, every nerve popping as if electricity had been set free to zing about my body. It was a damn good thing his arms were around me because the moment he thrust his tongue into my mouth at the same time he pushed his body against mine letting me feel exactly how he felt, every bone in my body liquified.
“Clara, what’s taking so long?”
Nothing quite had a grown woman feeling like a teenage girl on her first date than a grandmother’s voice. Pushing against his chest, I broke away from the kiss.
“We’re coming, Baba,” I called before looking up at Alek. “We need… um…”
“Wine,” he offered when I couldn’t seem to think of what it was we needed.
Reaching above me again, this time to open the cabinet, he pulled down three glasses. Realizing I’d never even let go of the flowers he’d brought. I took the opportunity to duck beneath his lifted arm and moved across the room to grab a vase off the top of the refrigerator. I set it into the sink and turned on the faucet, allowing it to fill as I unwrapped the green floral paper from around the blossoms. Alek had given me beautiful roses after the performance the other night, but I found this bouquet of wildflowers just as beautiful. I snipped a bit off each stem to improve their ability to take a drink of water as he opened the wine and poured it into the glasses.
I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d felt so comfortable with a man… maybe because I never really had. I’d not dated much as a teenager, too busy trying to make it into the best dance schools. I’d been escorted to premieres and after parties by various men but none had truly meant anything to me. And, of course, there had been Nikolai, but I now understood every moment I’d allowed that man to be in my life had been a mistake.
“Where’d you go?”
“What?”
“You cut any more off that flower, and it won’t be worth a damn,” Alek said, “and I think the vase has been filled a few times over,” he added, reaching over to shut off the tap.
“Oh,” I said, feeling my face heat as I set down the scissors and looked at the poor daisy in my hand. “I was just thinking about how nice it is to see my babushka smile. You did that.”
“I’m pretty sure you make her smile quite often,” he said, taking the vase out of the sink, and, after dumping out half the water, set it on the counter before me so I could start arranging the flowers I hadn’t massacred. “And your babushka reminds me of my mother. It’s nice to hear the mother tongue again.”