Page 45 of Mafia Christmas Vows

The 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 lotnicer 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.

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