The Beauty Who Loved Him by Bethany-Kris

20.

The airport bustledwith activity, but Vera only studied the reflection of Hannah’s frowning face in the glass overlooking a snowy car park. Sitting side by side on bench seats in front of the windows, the two friends were far enough away from the rest of the people milling about that no one even glanced their way.

“You should have gone through security fifteen minutes ago,” Vera pointed out.

Hannah scrunched up her nose at the idea. “I’ve still got time.”

“Right, when you’re supposed to be at your gate an hour before.”

“We both know they call passengers for at least another half hour. I can get to my gate in time from here. Don’t worry.”

“Or are you just not ready to leave?” Vera asked.

Might as well get straight to the point. Hannah never minded her friend’s bluntness before. This time wasn’t the exception.

“I didn’t think I’d miss Moscow this much,” Hannah admitted. “This city was the first place I really ... I don’t know, grew up. I learned how to make it my home, and nobody ever made me think I didn’t belong.”

“I know that feeling.”

All too well.

“But then with Viktor, he made sure nothing about Moscow felt like my home,” Hannah added quieter.

Vera didn’t want Hannah to go back down that painful road. “What’s your mom doing about the extra security she’s had on you?”

“I don’t really need it, so. I’ll be glad to see them go.”

Hannah shrugged under her many thick layers; she refused to wear a parka or another suitable coat for the weather. Instead, she opted for a thick wool shawl covering her equally warm hoodie. She added a matching hat, scarf and mittens to the set, but Vera couldn’t say she’d brave the weather wearing the same. Even if Hannah assured she was more than comfortable under all the layers. Whatever floated her friend’s boat.

“I might move back,” Hannah whispered.

The promise was like a warm hug around Vera’s broken heart. Life had not been the same since Hannah raced out of the country practically overnight. She missed her best friend, and while Vera hadn’t really lost Hannah, so to speak, phone calls were not the same as having her near. Virtual could never replace reality.

“Would you?” Vera pressed.

Hannah nodded. “To be honest, I need time away from my mom, too. It’s not like she’s a whole lot better than my ex-husband, but at least she never beat the shit out of me the way he did. Nothing’s ever good enough for her.”

“Toxicity still kills.”

Just in a different way.

Vera cringed at the sight of a car’s rear end skidding back and forth on an icy patch in the car park. Hannah, on the other hand, laughed when she noticed the driver’s predicament, saying, “He needs chains on those tires.”

Glancing her friend’s way, Vera said, “You know, if you don’t want to worry about having a place to stay, and wouldn’t mind the occasional roommate” —Hannah turned away from the window, then, meeting Vera’s gaze— “then my villa is open. I’m moving to Dubna after Vas and I get married. The villa’s fine to sit for a while, but a home needs a heartbeat to really live.”

Or that’s what her mother always said. Claire even kept the family’s many properties around the world rented throughout the year with cleaning staff that went in regularly between tenants when the homes were empty.

“Dubna isn’t too far,” Hannah muttered. “I suppose.”

“In a way, I feel like I’ve only just met him, but he’s exactly where I want to be. So, I guess now I just want to spend the rest of my time with Vaslav learning all the stuff I skipped over before I fell in love with him.”

“God, I can’t see you moving all those plants, either.”

“You’ve not seen how big the house in Dubna is, but I think I’ve got a few rooms to fill. The ones at the villa can stay. As long as you learn when to water them. I know there’s a lot, but it’s really not that hard.”

Except the lilac shrub. She would bring Irina home for Vas. They could find a new spot for the bench and bush.

Hannah laughed; it was lighter the second time. “You won’t hate me if I kill a few in the process? Because I might, it’s a real possibility.”

“Is that a yes?” Vera returned with a grin.

Her friend’s face, full of freckles while her emerald eyes twinkled, lit up with her laughter all over again. “Yeah, why not? I’ll move in and water your damn plants.”

Then, Hannah’s laughter fell short as she eyed Vera. “But you’re the occasional roommate, right?”

“I’m the roommate.”

She opted not to mention that Kiril might still be up in the air on that side of things. Who knew what the next weeks and months would bring?

“And you will be back for the wedding, right?” Vera asked.

Hannah had the audacity to roll her eyes. “I picked a dress and everything, didn’t I?”

*

“What’s all that about?” Vera asked.

The train of transport vehicles hauling heavy equipment, flagged on both ends by police presence, caught Vera’s attention as it passed their vehicle on the road leading into Dubna going the opposite way.

Kiril didn’t even glance sideways, keeping his eyes firmly on the road ahead of them as he steered the SUV over icy roads. “Who the hell would know? I heard an old bridge got burned down last night, something about a car catching fire, or whatever.”

“What?”

The teen only shrugged.

Vera tried not to think about it despite watching the line of eighteen-wheelers shrink in the passenger mirror. “I hope nobody got hurt.”

“Didn’t hear anything about a body.”

“No?”

Kiril shook his head. “Nope. Just a lot of fucking money.”

Huh.

“How much money?” Vera asked, honestly curious.

“All I know is that when I got a call from a buddy in town warning me about the blockade on the road to Dubna this morning, I was told not to ask questions. Because nobody was offering any answers.”

“Where was the money? In the car?”

Again, the kid shook his head.

“Nah,” he said, lifting one hand from the steering wheel to point his index finger downward. “They found it down in the water.”

Vera didn’t have anything to say to that because nothing Kiril said made a whole lot of sense. Besides, in less than twenty minutes, she’d be exactly where she wanted to be again, with Vas. And what did a burned bridge or car, and mysterious money in the river, have anything to do with that?

Very little, likely.

She hoped.

*

Vera did not expectto find Vaslav waiting on the front steps when Kiril parked the SUV at the bottom. It was the soft smile that tugged at the better side, better meaning it showed more emotion than its scarred counterpart, of Vaslav’s lips that had her heart picking up the pace of its beats at the very sight of him.

She barely had time to admire the way the Pashkov property looked cloaked in a blanket of white snow before Vaslav distracted her.

Kiril, already stepping out of the vehicle to grab the one bag Vera had packed while Hannah was readying her luggage the night before, didn’t seem offended that she left him to do a job she was more than capable of handling herself.

Vaslav met Vera on the middle steps.

One higher than hers.

She had to look up at him even more from where she stood, and Vaslav didn’t appear to mind the extra height it afforded him what with the way he winked down at her.

“Hannah’s flown out, has she?” Vaslav asked, his blue gaze sweeping over her face.

“Oh, she’s not the friend now?”

“Do you want her to be?”

His easy banter, and lack of a scowl, made her believe he wasn’t suffering too much. She could always tell when one of his eyes squinted, but both were wide open. And locked on her.

“I want a kiss,” she replied. “That’s what I’d really like.”

He reached for her at the same time he replied, “Done deal.”

Vaslav caught the underside of Vera’s jaw in his large hands, keeping her head tilted up for him as he bent down to press three kisses, one after another, against her grinning mouth. When he leaned in for the fourth, she parted her lips and teased him with her tongue.

He kissed the tip of that, too.

“Mira’s made a late lunch,” he told her, still not pulling away. Instead, he dotted soft kisses along her forehead, each one melting her into a puddle of sappy happiness, murmuring, “I’ll meet you inside, hmm? Get out of the cold.”

She didn’t even feel it.

Not with him.

A muffled thunk finally yanked Vera away from Vaslav. She turned on the steps to see Kiril had dropped her bag at the bottom.

The teen looked at Vaslav, waiting. “Igor said you had a job or something for me?”

“Right,” her lover muttered.

Vaslav stepped beyond Vera on the stone stairs, pinched her chin on his way by, and dragged her in for another quick kiss. After he let her go, he gestured at the front door. The maroon paint stood out far more in the chill of surrounding snow. “Don’t wait for me to eat, yeah?”

Vera nodded. “Okay.”

She climbed the remaining steps to the top as Vaslav headed down. At the front door, she pushed it open, and glanced back just in time to see Vaslav pick up her bag from the ground. With his other hand, he reached for an inner pocket on his blazer. The wad of cash he handed over, a significantly sized roll of bills, only partially hid the other item he produced. A tri-folded paper.

Neither man at the bottom of the steps noticed that she had yet to enter the house, but Vera knew better than to linger. Just because she was curious didn’t mean she needed all the answers. Sometimes, that did more harm than good.

Vera started to close the door as Kiril flicked the paper open, and Vaslav produced a similarly sized envelope from his inner pocket as well. She didn’t miss the widening of Kiril’s eyes when he scanned whatever he found on the paper, and muttered, “Oh, shit.”

“I’m sure you can get that, and these documents as well, back to the office where they belong, yes?” Vaslav asked. “There’s only one of those in the city, after all. What more do you need me to say?”

“Not a thing, boss.”

“And if you get asked, what the fuck do you know about it, yeah?”

“Not one damn thing,” Kiril replied just as fast.

“Make sure of it.”

She didn’t wait to hear more.

The door clicked shut first.

*

“Should the fact youcan multitask when your ass is stuffed full with my fingers hurt my ego?” Vaslav asked.

Vera muffled her giggle into the side of her hand as she finished scribbling her last thought onto her notebook, a list of tasks for next week that she didn’t want to forget. “You were the one who said you wanted to try something. I was just over here trying to sleep.”

With her chin still resting in her palm, Vera turned to laugh at Vaslav when he tipped his head toward the pillow beside his. “You mean, over there, yeah? And don't lie, there was a reason you brought your notebook and pen with you.”

“Shut up.”

Her playful quip earned her a sudden third finger between the tight ring of muscles he had been working to loosen for nearly ten minutes, and a stinging slap on her right ass cheek that had Vera sucking in a lungful of hissed air.

Vaslav squeezed the still burning cheek until Vera peeked back at him, and only then did he loosen his grip. “Be nice.”

“Well, how long are you going to do that before you just fuck me?”

She was looking forward to it.

He liked her boldness if his husky laugh was any indication. His fingers stopped pumping into her backside, and his thumb and pinky fingers cupped her rear; slick and oily from the new jar of coconut oil that he’d produced from a bedside drawer earlier.

Apparently, Mira had already been informed not to go looking for that one.

With his legs crossed, and hers spread wide around him on the bed sheets, all it took was his hand sliding up her shivering spine for him to lock her in place as he bent down for a kiss. He dropped two. One on each dimple at her lower back.

His words murmured against her skin. “Maybe I was letting you finish your little list, kisska.”

“For the record, this kitten isn’t going anywhere near your dick after you stick it in my ass. Not before you clean it.”

That earned her another swat.

Vera just laughed back.

“Fair enough,” Vaslav still conceded.

His fingers started working into her ass again reminding Vera how sensitive her body became when all he did was touch her. Especially intimately. She pushed the notebook away with the tip of the pen, and tossed it further away on the bed after.

“I have things I can’t forget to do next week,” she breathed, trying to focus more on the words than the way his fingers found something good to hit and tease with every stroke. “Even if I’d like to pretend like I have nothing to do, that’s not how it works.”

“What do you have to do?”

“A doctor appointment I put off, getting rentals set up for my parents, and—”

“I wouldn’t worry about rentals. I think Demyan has it all figured out now.”

Vera stilled on the bed, asking, “You talked to my father?”

With his next question, the pumps, his three fingers stretching her rear full, came harder and deeper. “If I say yes, are you going to tell me to stop?”

In most cases, yes, she absolutely would. Vera didn’t enjoy bringing the topic of any man, let alone her father, into bed with another. Wasn’t that just good practice?

“I really wish you’d just get on with fucking me,” she whined.

“You’re not ready. It’ll hurt.”

“Have you seen the size of you? It will always hurt.”

That had him chuckling.

“The doctor’s appointment, now what’s that for?” he asked, withdrawing his fingers from her ass to resituate his position on the bed. “Here, come up.”

Sitting on his shins, he grabbed her waist and tugged to urge Vera to her knees, shuffling her back until his hair-dusted chest kissed her spine, and she could feel his hand pumping his cock below her.

“A checkup, and my usual injection,” she said. “Unless you’ve changed your mind about babies.”

“Absolutely not.”

Vera cackled out a laugh that died in a moan when he pressed the head of his cock against her ass. That tight ring of muscles had been worked and stretched just enough to let the tip of his shaft slip in an inch or two, but she still felt every one, even if the coconut oil he’d loaded up on had also helped.

Trembling.

And shivering.

Of course, it would hurt.

She still liked it.

“I needed advice,” she heard him say behind her, his words chopping and breathless in her ear. “And that’s why I called your father. It felt like an appropriate source to start with, considering.”

Considering what?

Why would he want to go back to that conversation now? Didn’t she have better things to think about when his hands grabbed fistfuls of her ass, and that was the only thing keeping her steady?

“Easy,” he told her, his voice a soothing balm to the pain that licked up her spine. He wasn’t all that deep inside of her, but it sure felt like it. He pointed to the image of the two reflected back in the decorative wall mirror across from the bed. “Watch me make you take this nice and slow, my love.”

Legs shaking, she worked a little more of his cock inside of her as she seated further down his shaft. It felt the same way it had earlier. Too much. The sharpest, hottest sting. Yet, she wanted it.

“Am I?” Vera’s lips grazed over Vaslav’s scarred cheek when he leaned forward over her shoulder. “Am I your love?”

“Whatever’s left of it, anyway. Every bit of it is yours.”

His arms wrapped tight around her, holding her close and helping take the pressure and weight off her weak legs while he nuzzled his face in her neck. Before long, he had her rocking on him, taking more of him deeper every time she fell back onto his cock.

Despite the licks of pain, and with his hand falling between her thighs so his fingers would work fast circles over her clit, she could already taste the bittersweet bliss.

“W-why would you call my f-father for advice?” Vera asked between hitched breaths and the slap of skin on slick, hot skin. By the time he had seated himself deep enough that her insides ached, he gave her little to no time to adjust. At that point, she really didn’t care if she even needed it. Anything to have him fucking her.

Vaslav laughed darkly, lapping at her neck and gifting her earlobe with the nip of his teeth. “I knew you didn’t forget, smart girl.”

“Vas. Just tell me.”

“From one vor to another, how exactly do men like us retire?”

His fingers worked her faster, the pressure change giving her exactly what she needed to orgasm in the seconds following. Taking with it what breath she had left.

Probably on purpose.

She didn’t think he wanted an answer. Not from her.