Page 66 of Scarlet Vows
Something hits the ground, and I look at the door. He just dumped his gym bag and a satchel.
“Malyshka, how were the dogs?” He comes in, kicks off his shoes, pours himself a glass of wine, and sits on the sofa opposite. “I’m shocked this place isn’t full of them yet.”
Excitement races through me. “I can have a dog?”
“You can have anything you want, Alina.”
I look back at the spreadsheet on my laptop. “Well, right now, apart from a dog, I want to help them, as many as I can.”
“We can donate.”
“I set a recurring donation up,” I say, and bite my lip. “In Max’s name.”
“Then,” he says, taking a sip, “we can set up a second one, too. In my mother’s and father’s names.”
“Are you sticking it to your grandfather?”
He chuckles. “Only if it’s for a good cause.”
Our eyes meet a moment and the air vibrates with heat between us.
He pats the seat next to him. “Show me.”
Eagerly, I cross to him and take him through my plans and thoughts. It’s not until I’m done that my nerves hit. I don’t know what I’m doing and?—
“This is great, Alina,” he says softly. “And it’s the most passionate I’ve seen you in a long time. I like it. All of it.”
I smile. I can’t help it, and my heart flutters. “It’s good to focus my energy on something so useful and good. SometimesI just feel like…” Like it should have been me, the rich, useless member of society who should have died that day. Not Max. “I just feel like a waste of space.”
“Never. Not you, Alina. You light up people and spaces when you walk in. You calm things down when things get heated. I’ve seen you with Demyan. Until Erin, you were the anchor. And you helped make him change his behavior when he didn’t know what to do when he found out about Sasha. When his feelings overwhelmed him, you helped. Without you, it would have been too late. She would have gotten away, and he’d have lost everything.”
I shake my head. “Demyan wouldn’t let that happen. He’d have hunted her down.”
“Hunted, not wooed. There is a difference.”
“Well, this makes me feel good. Happy. Excited.” I glance at him, and my heart skitters at the way his eyes are on me.
Hooded, like a thousand secret thoughts are hidden there, all of them electrified.
“What is it, Ilya?”
“Nothing.”
“No,” I say, “it’s not nothing. It’s something. What are you thinking?”
“You don’t want to know,” he murmurs, not taking his gaze from me.
I’m falling down into the center of him. I can’t stop it, and I’m not sure if I want to.
“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to know,” I whisper, even though I’m not sure I can handle his response.
“I was thinking how beautiful you are…more beautiful…utterly mesmerizing when you’re in your element like this.”
The breath in my lungs catches, and I don’t move.
I can’t.
Ilya reaches over and slides his fingers along my cheek. “It’s such a fucking turn-on.”
