Page 115 of Thorns of Lust
My mind immediately took over flashing images of me down on my knees, sucking him for breakfast. Goddamn my imagination. It was the last thing I needed. It was hard to deny the chemistry I felt when that man was around. Aside from that gazebo experience with Adrian, I had never felt such a strong attraction to another man. Just the thought of it made my thighs quiver.
Fuck, lust was the thorn that would be my downfall. I’d better get my head screwed on right before the thorns of lust struck again.
My steps felt as heavy as lead as I made my way to the door. Just as my fingers gripped the handle, Sasha’s voice stopped me.
“Tatiana, you’re playing with fire.” Sasha knew me too well. It was the downfall of being close to your family.
I glanced at my brother over my shoulder, our gazes clashing. “My dear brother, we were born in fire. We might as well make just as dramatic of an exit.”
“I’ll kill him for you. Just say the word,” he vowed and I knew he meant it. “But you know it won’t end there. We’ll have to put a plan in place. Hide.” His lips twitched. “Somewhere warm if I know you.”
The world must be off its axis if my craziest brother was being cautious.
Sasha’s warning rang in my ears all the way back to my bedroom.
* * *
The Nikolaev Siberian family home.
So many memories. So many freeze-your-ass-off winters. But it felt good being surrounded by family. Sasha and his woman were the center of attention, leaving me to dig through my memory for the next clue.
The key that would open this box.
It was probably back in New Orleans. Somewhere. But I couldn’t wait that long to open this box. So I resorted to lock picking using my hair pin. My brother Sasha would be proud. After all, he was the one who taught me the skill, allowing me to sneak out without being caught.
I bent the bobby pin to a 90-degree angle. Then I inserted it into the lock. I wiggled the hairpin. Up and down. Left and right. I pushed it in, applying pressure inside the lock barrel. I kept trying. One position. Then another.
Until I felt it.Click.
The lid popped open and I eagerly opened it. I stared at the discolored photos. I dumped them all out all over the floor of my bedroom that I hadn’t occupied since I was a little girl. I studied each photo, but I had no idea what they meant. Or who they were.
A woman with beautiful blonde hair held a baby in her arms, leaning against a man who almost looked like… Adrian. Maybe they were Adrian’s parents. It would make sense. I turned the photo around and found a year written in neat handwriting.
“That was the year Adrian was born,” I muttered to myself.
I moved on to the next photo, showing a little house with a white picket fence around it and the man working in the garden and a six or seven-month-old baby sitting in a chair next to him, holding a tiny shovel. Whoever snapped the photograph caught the exact moment when the man looked at the camera and his smile was blinding.
I hadneverseen Adrian smile like that. It was the same smile but so fucking different that my chest cracked. A knowledge that I never wanted to admit to myself. A question I never wanted to ask.
Did he ever love me?
I didn’t know. Or maybe I didn’t want to know.
It was slowly becoming clear to me that I hadn’t known Adrian well at all. I didn’t understand the dark edges of what made him. The deep, dark secrets he harbored. Now that he was gone, I might never know him.
I go on. Standing in the shadows.
Was that what his message meant? That he’d haunt me forever. Or that he’d give me answers while he lingered in my heart like a ghost. I let out a heavy sigh.
Damn it. I wished he’d just left a notebook behind explaining what the fuck he was doing, instead of these cryptic photographs that told me absolutely nothing. Shuffling them all, I wondered why my late husband sent me on this errand.
Just to retrieve photographs.
Studying every single one of them, I searched for clues, anything that would tell me what was important about them. Aside from the sentimentality.
Thirty minutes of staring at the old photographs, and I was no closer to understanding them than I was when I first opened the box so I stashed them all in my bag.
The answer would eventually come. It seemed to be the case with all these clues.
