Page 14 of Finding Alexei
Still fuming mad about my life’s turn of events, and horribly embarrassed, I climb inside his car. There’s not one inch of my clothing that’s dry, and I’m shivering but trying desperately to hide it, because I refuse to give in to it. I’m stronger than that . . . at least, I used to be.
Giving me a sense of déjà vu from the first night we met, Alexei cranks up the heat and directs all the vents toward me. Tears gather in my eyes at his ability to make me feel like I’m the most important thing in the world. I know I’m just something for him to fix, but it doesn’t matter in that moment. Unable to say a word without tearing up, I stare blankly out the window and wonder if I’ll ever get out of the messes I keep creating.
We arrive back at his place and get settled inside. I don’t have anything to wear, and the only supplies I have for Ella are what were in her diaper bag. Alexei immediately leaves again, heading out into the rain to go get us what we need, putting me even further in his debt.
While he’s gone, I strip out of my wet clothes and run a bath. Ella coos and flails her arms and legs while staring up at me, lying on a towel in the center of the bathroom while the tub fills. I realize that in four days of caring for her, I haven’t given her a bath yet, and I suddenly feel like shit. I seriously have no idea what I’m doing. I strip her naked, throw her diaper in the trash, and cradle her carefully to my chest as I step into the warm water and ease us down.
Being skin to skin like this with her, hearing her happy little baby coos, is the first time I’ve really felt close to her.
“I won’t let anything bad happen to you, sweet baby girl,” I whisper, cupping warm water in handfuls to pour over her back.
I turn Ella and bend my knees so she can sit up against them while I lie back in the water. She enjoys her bath, kicking her little feet as I lather my hands with soap and wash her from head to toe.
“Hello? Ryleigh?” Alexei’s voice calls from the hallway.
I didn’t hear him come home.
“In the bathroom. We’re taking a bath,” I call back.
A moment of silence.
“Both of you?”
I chuckle. “Yeah.”
“Okay. Let me know if you need a hand.”
I roll my eyes, still smiling. “Thank you, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got this.” I look at Ella and whisper in a silly voice, “We’ll have to teach him that girls rule and boys drool, won’t we, Ella?”
And with that, she laughs at the perfect moment, causing all the bad shit that’s happened over the past four days to magically disappear from my mind as I laugh right along with her.
I finish bathing Ella and blow a few raspberries on her cute little tummy, and decide she looks even cuter with her skin pink from the warm water and with her fine blond hair wet and curly.
As I stare down it her, it suddenly hits me. Damn. With her in here with me, there’s no way to wash myself, and no good way to get her out and dry her off without a second set of hands.
“Um, Alexei?” I call out.
“Yeah?” His voice is much closer than I expected, like he was waiting outside the bathroom door to come to our rescue if needed.
“Any chance you could come in here and help me get her out without looking?”
He lets out a deep chuckle. “Sure, but I wouldn’t want to drool over anyone while I’m in there, being a boy and all.”
Okay, I totally deserved that, but he had to know I was just joking with him. But was he trying to flirt with me with that comment? Nah . . . he was just mocking my comeback to him. That has to be it, right?
“Oh, so you heard the little heart-to-heart that I was having with Ella, huh?”
As I’m talking to him through the door, I frown down at myself. The bubbles have evaporated from our bathwater, and it’s just miles of bare skin as far as the eye can see. More my skin than Ella’s, of course. I sink my shoulders deeper in the water, like that will somehow magically cover my breasts from his view. I remind myself that he’s seen these same breasts only hours earlier today.
“Come on in,” I say in a resigned voice.
The door opens, and Alexei steps inside.
As he navigates around the pile of clothing I stripped out of, including a lacy black G-string, I swear I see a faint blush to his cheeks. Though it’s dangerous even to fantasize about, I can’t help but wonder if he likes what he sees.
