When I entered the kitchen, my gaze immediately landed on Maxim.
He stood in the corner opposite the door, eyes locked on me. But his eerie, almost ominous expression, wasn’t what got me. Nor was it the coldness in his eyes. I’d experienced both before, and though I didn’t know if I could ever get used to either, they took a backseat to what else was unfolding.
He’d rolled his shirtsleeves up to his elbows, the slight imperfection in his clothing making him seem more human. And while his shirt made him seem more human, the small baby he held pushed him the rest of the way.
I stood, mind trying to reconcile the person who had shown up at my doorstep and told me what would happen to my father should I not give in to his demands with the person who was across from me.
They looked alike, but whereas the Maxim I had first met seemed otherworldly, this Maxim was decidedly human, cradling the baby who babbled and shook a ring of rainbow-colored plastic keys.
“Welcome to my home, Daniela,” he finally said.
For a moment I said nothing, but then I remembered my manners. “Thank you for inviting me,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.
He hadn’t invited me. I realized after I’d said the words, but he nodded curtly as Senna lifted the baby from his arms.
“You’ve met Maxim, I see,” she said, pausing to coo at the baby. “And this is our son Luka.”
She walked toward me and then stopped when she stood in front of me. Luka babbled excitedly, and Senna smiled at him and then kissed the soft sandy-brown curls on his head.
“May I hold him?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.
“No,” came Maxim’s immediate response.
Senna continued to smile down at the baby, and I felt a blush begin to burn my cheeks.
“For a moment,” he said a second later.
They hadn’t even looked at each other, but the communication that had passed between them was apparent. Senna didn’t acknowledge it, and neither did Maxim, but I’d witnessed it nonetheless.
I had no capacity to understand that.
As a child, when my father spoke, it had been his word, no thought, no consideration. I’d thought it would be the same with Maxim.
Actually, I hadn’t thought Maxim would have anything reassembling the little family that lived in this normal homey house, but he did. Even more surprising, he seemed to care about Senna’s wishes, her thoughts. Enough that he would reverse himself.
Could he be more than I’d thought he was?
Could Sergei?
I looked at Maxim quickly and received a standard icy stare.
I wouldn’t test the proposition, but I was comforted nonetheless.
“He’s beautiful,” I whispered as Senna settled Luka in my arms.
Seventeen
Sergei
“That wasn’t very nice, Sergei,” Daniela said.
“What wasn’t very nice?” I asked, my voice sounding distant, even to my own ears.
I was busy watching Daniela unwrap herself from the sweet little dress she had worn to dinner. I hadn’t told her where we were going because I hadn’t wanted her to be nervous, but I’d almost changed my mind when she’d stepped down the stairs, the dress hugging her waist and curving against her sweet ass.
I’d held off, though, and was glad I had. I’d wanted Daniela to meet the people most important in my life, and seeing the way she’d hit it off with Senna and tolerated Maxim had proved that instinct right.
Senna and Maxim were the closest thing I had to a family—the only thing—and I hadn’t realized until then how much I wanted Daniela to be a part of that.
Then, for those brief moments when she’d held Luka, my heart had rattled around my chest so hard it left an ache. The look of awe on her face as she stared down at the baby, the longing in it so beautiful.
I couldn’t stop myself from imagining what her face would look like as she held our baby. That would happen, I decided, and my hardening cock agreed.
“Daniela, come here,” I said.
“Just a moment,” she responded, her voice sweet but not like her.
I was immediately suspicious and excited. She was up to something, and I couldn’t wait to see what.
She unlatched her bra, but kept her back to me as she pulled her panties down and then slipped the bra off her shoulders. I lay back against the fluffy pillows, drinking in her body with my eyes as she turned and walked toward me, lying against me briefly before she began to idly kiss me.
“So like I said, it wasn’t very nice, surprising me like that, Sergei,” she said as she began kissing down my chest.
“I didn’t want you to be nervous,” I replied.
“Still, you should have told me. I would have worn a nicer dress,” she said, her breath warm against my side as she continued to kiss me.