Page 145 of Koroleva

"Come." I swallowed the saliva that had built up inside my cheeks without realizing.

I placed the cup on the table and stood up. I linked the tips of my fingers with his.

My body was covered by a skimpy white lace nightgown. His still held onto a few small pearls of water and a mini pond in his navel.

My husband positioned me sideways on his lap, so my head rested against his shoulder, and he could stroke me with his free hand.

"I like you," he asserted firmly.

I blinked in disbelief because it wasn’t a "I like you and I’m going to fuck you senseless," as many of my lovers had said. His words carried a depth that alarmed me, and I immediately went on the defensive.

"Is that your way of asking for a blowjob?" R burst out laughing.

"If I wanted a blowjob, I'd just ask. No, Nikita, this is my way of telling you that what I thought impossible is happening."

"What do you mean?" I furrowed my brow.

"That, in the last week, the one we've spent with Adriano, I've discovered the partner I want to have. One who can handle the antics of a kid who didn’t want her in his life, who has played a thousand tricks on her and whom she hasn’t tattled on but gradually brought over to her side, even though she claims kids give her allergies." I looked at him perplexed. His reflection could only mean one thing.

"Did he confess to you?"

"Well, let’s just say I had an inkling when I saw you come in without a life preserver and a hungry eagle trying to eat your brain," I stared at him wide-eyed. "Then, I pulled it out of Adri the next day, before going to the shooting range, and he confessed. I was afraid he’d aim for your forehead and you wouldn’t survive."

"And why didn’t you tell me?!" My index finger traced a perfect arc along my jaw.

"Because I didn't want to influence anything, because I needed to make sure my instinct wasn't fooling me, making me see an oasis where all that shone was the aridity of the desert."

"And what did you see, palm trees?" I asked, my tone tinged with sarcasm.

"What I've seen is that your damn brother was a bastard. He did me a huge favor when he made me promise to marry you. Because every day that passes, I'm more convinced that I want you by my side." His words sent my pulse racing, and I found myself disoriented in a present that understood neither past nor future. "You might not feel the same," he murmured softly. The finger that had been on my face now slid down my neck to my chest, starting to draw concentric circles—"but it doesn't matter."

"It doesn't matter to you that I might not feel the same?" I asked, hypnotized.

My lips parted, and a sweet tremor ran through me.

"No, we have time. I told you I liked challenges, and you are the biggest one in my life."

"And what if I never feel it?" I suggested. His touch trailed down my ribs to my thigh.

"You will."

The tingling spread everywhere he touched, R was like a damn bacterium capable of colonizing me completely.

"But what if I don't?" I persisted, more to myself than to him.

"Then you'll become the way life tells me that you can't have everything you want, even if you desire it deeply and are sure you've moved your piece to the right place."

He reached the apex of my legs, and they parted, like the doors of a shopping mall welcoming you to come in and enjoy.

I sighed, letting him explore the moisture that had formed from his words. Romeo turned me liquid, making me experience the properties of matter on my own flesh.

With my gaze locked on his, he entered me. Gas. The kind emitted by my breath. The kind that made me think his thrusts could evaporate me.

Thoughts floated, with emotions as unexpected as they were honest. Solid. Blunt, like daggers delving into open flesh.

I sighed and let him caress me, feeling like never before, open, exposed. Solid, liquid, gaseous. As if in that sway of soaked flesh, he could recognize a certainty that pushed me into his arms, one that made me look at him with new eyes capable of piercing skin, bones, and vengeance.

Romeo was able to verbalize what I denied us. That terrifying truth that hung me at a crossroads devoid of information. Where was I going? How should I act?

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