Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 35580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 178(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 119(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 178(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 119(@300wpm)
“You’re a cold bastard.”
Leaning up, Lucas kissed along Andrei’s jaw until he finally saw a hint of a smile. “That’s why I have you to keep me warm.” Andrei huffed a laugh, but still lifted his head just a little to give Lucas better access to his throat. “Stay tonight.” As soon as the words escaped him, he felt the muscles in Andrei’s neck tense. This was a change from their normal routine. It was more…
“It’s Sunday night,” Andrei said, his voice carefully neutral.
“Stay. I’ll get up early with you. Drive you home so you can be at work on time. Stay tonight.”
Andrei surprised him by pulling away so that Lucas could look into his dark eyes. There was something in his stare that struck his chest, catching his breath. Lucas didn’t want to put words to the look, it was both frightening and exhilarating.
When Andrei spoke, his voice was rough and low as if pulled from a wounded, shadowy part of his soul. “You stayed today.”
Lucas reached up and threaded his fingers through Andrei’s long, soft hair. “Nothing could have made me leave.”
Andrei captured Lucas’s lips in an almost savage kiss, thrusting his tongue deep in his mouth as if he intended to claim Lucas, mark him as his own and Lucas welcomed it. He couldn’t get enough of Andrei. Every time they were together, he learned something new about the man and there were thirty new questions in his head about other things he was dying to discover.
“Bed,” Andrei whispered when they pulled apart.
Lucas helped Andrei settle the duvet back on the bed and arrange the pillows before they climbed in. But when they were both under the covers, Andrei just curled against him the same way they always lay when they slept together. As Lucas reached for the lamp on his side of the bed, Andrei’s words halted him.
“I got off easy today,” he murmured, his lips brushing against Lucas’s bare chest. “I just keep thinking that I got off easy and that I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
Dropping his hand down to push some hair back from Andrei’s forehead, Lucas swallowed back a sigh. “Your parents are good, open-minded people who love you. Just appreciate that. There are plenty of other people in the world who aren’t.”
Andrei lifted his head and looked at Lucas. “But you stayed.”
Lucas smiled, his fingers still playing with Andrei’s hair because he simply couldn’t help himself. “Even if we weren’t fucking, we’re friends. I don’t leave friends alone to face shit like that.” Lucas paused and gave a little snort at himself. “I know this is going to sound stupid and cliché, but I’m here if you…if you just want to talk.”
They stared at each other for several seconds until Lucas felt like he was drowning in Andrei’s eyes.
Andrei finally grinned, breaking the moment—to Lucas’s relief. “Well, my parents liked you. That’s a good start.”
Lucas laughed and released Andrei’s hair before reaching to turn off the bedside lamp. “If you keep me around until Christmas, I think you’re going to have to start teaching me Romanian so I can keep up with the conversations.”
Andrei grunted, settling his head back on Lucas’s chest. “I don’t think I want my mother or father liking you more than they already do.”
Darkness settled over the room, broken only by the soft glow of lights from the city, gilding the man lying half across Lucas.
“Say something in Romanian.”
Andrei tensed, drawing in a shaky breath before he finally whispered. “Cred că…cred că…te iubesc.”
The air froze in Lucas’s lungs. That was not the sentence about the monkey stealing the bicycle that Andrei always said. Lucas couldn’t speak a single word of Romanian, but something in Andrei’s tone, in the way his hand tightened a little on Lucas’s ribs, gave him an idea of what Andrei said. And he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. The only thing he was sure of was that he was happy.
“What does that mean?” Lucas asked when he could finally find his voice.
“Not tonight,” Andrei murmured. “Ask me again some other time and I promise I’ll tell you.”
Picking up the hand on his chest, Lucas pressed a kiss to his palm. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Thanksgiving
1
The Arrival
“What the fuck was I thinking?” Andrei groaned, slumping in the passenger seat as Lucas turned off the car engine. It was not the first time Andrei had uttered those words, but his tone seemed to have gotten more desperate now that they were parked near Ian’s townhouse in Mt. Adams. “This is going to be a disaster.”
Lucas pulled his gaze up along Andrei’s long legs, encased in black slacks, and over the dark red button-down shirt half-hidden under the heavy wool pea coat he was wearing. God, the man looked so good in red with his dark hair, dark eyes and swarthy complexion. It took some effort to drag his thoughts from what he planned to do to him much later that night. They still had to get through dinner.