by Kay Loren
“Does he?”
“Yes,” Audrina nodded. “He wouldn’t let Alek or Olga near my belly. He kept wedging himself in between and made sure he slept close by.”
“Good boy,” he rewarded Valdik with a scratch behind his ear. He looked up at Audrina’s loving gaze. “How was your day?”
“It was okay. I missed you though… a lot.”
“And I yearned for you every minute of the day I was away.”
Audrina leaned in for a kiss and his lips met hers, igniting an electric feeling within them both. His hand went to her waist and then slid slowly down over her hip and thigh. He felt Valdik nudge his chest with his nose.
“See, he’s doing it now,” Audrina chuckled.
Nikolai ruffled the top of Valdik’s ears and scooped him up, setting him on the floor. Valdik looked up at him for a moment before Nikolai commanded him in Russian to go to the couch. He turned to Audrina again, climbing over her until she laid perfectly underneath him. He leaned in for another kiss but she turned her face to the side.
“What is it?” Nikolai asked looking down at her.
“I wanted to ask you about my bag,” she said now looking up at him.
“Your bag?”
“The one I had at the hotel.”
“Oh,” Nikolai frowned. “I have it.” He leaned down again to give her a kiss but she gave him her cheek instead. He chuckled seeing that she wasn’t going to let him kiss her until he told her more. “I have it in my office. Just for safekeeping.”
“Am I allowed to have it back?” Audrina asked.
“Allowed?” Nikolai raised his eyebrows in surprise. He didn’t know why she used that word as if she was a child or someone under his command. “It is your bag. I just thought I’d hold onto it for the time being.”
It was a good thing she brought all her important documents in that bag although it pained Nikolai to see since she was planning to start a whole new life with those papers. She doesn’t even know who she truly is and she wanted to run away days before. He wondered if she would really run away once he told who she really was… Or what he had found out. He didn’t want to risk that happening. Not tonight. He made a decision to tell her tomorrow night over dinner. Just the two of them. No one else.
“I can grab it right now if you’d like,” he said and was about to climb off of her before she wrapped her legs around him and held him in place.
“No,” she shook her head. “I just thought I couldn’t have it back unless you said so.”
“I’m not your captor Audrina,” Nikolai stated. “I’m just yours. You can have whatever you want. Just ask or grab it if it’s right there in front of you.”
“I know,” she replied with a hand over her face to hide her embarrassment. “I’m sorry. I’m out of sorts lately.”
Nikolai smiled and looked down at her belly. With one hand supporting him up and the other now splayed out on her stomach he asked, “Is this little one making you ‘out of sorts’.”
Audrina pouted with a shake of her head. She couldn’t blame the baby for her own insecurities. “No. I’m just being an ass.”
Nikolai laughed at her choice of words and leaned down to kiss her belly. She loved every time he kissed her belly. “I can’t wait to meet her.”
“Him,” she narrowed her eyes.
“The next one will be a boy.”
“Next one?” She felt the color drain from her face.
Nikolai laughed and positioned himself fully over her again. He kissed her throat, jaw and then her lips. “And then another boy after that. And another one and then a girl.”
Audrina chuckled nervously as he made his way back down her jaw, throat and chest. “I’m terrified of having the one and you’re already planning the second, third, and fourth? Can’t we just focus on the one?”
He smiled against the soft skin of her full breasts. “As you wish.”
“And if I wish to have the one?” she stated in defiance.
Nikolai looked up at her with a smirk, now leaning over her stomach and legs where he inched up her dress and exposed the silky underwear Nikki had given her. He kissed the inside of one thigh and then the other making her squirm. She let out a gasp when she felt him kiss her in her sweet spot. “I highly doubt we’ll have just one since I always want you,” he said as he slid the slinky material over her thighs and legs, tossing them to the side. She was exposed for his eyes only.
“There’s plenty of options of birth control,” she said and then gasped again when she felt him teasing her with kisses and licks everywhere in her lower region but her sweet spot. She rolled her hips upward to get him to tease her there.
Suddenly he stood up. “Or we could just not have sex.”
Audrina bit her lower lip to keep her from smiling at his ploy to be serious. He was near the point of smiling widely but held it well with a smirk.
“Oh really?” she teased.
He nodded with a wicked gleam in his eyes.
She sat up suddenly and kneeled on the bed. He crossed his arms over his chest and watched as she slipped the thin straps of the yellow dress down her arms one by one slowly, teasing him. She peeled one side of the dress down to expose her full, white tender breast. Quickly, she covered her nipple with a long lock of her hair before it could be shown. She did the same with the other side and let the dress pool around her waist covering her lower part. She looked up at him with a mischievous smile.
Nikolai could only watch and feel himself press tightly against the zipper of his slacks. He knew she was teasing him the way she did onstage. She was giving him a personal show.
Quickly he lunged at her and she was pinned beneath him once again giggling. He kissed from her neck on down and quickly peeled the rest of the dress off leaving her to lay completely naked before him. He stood back to see her. Her hair surrounded her head looking like a dark, shiny, glossy wave. She was a complete goddess.
“I thought you said no sex?” she bit her lip.
“I said ‘we could’ not have sex, “ he stated. “Not that I did not want to.”
He ripped the shirt he had on sending the buttons flying about and quickly undid his pants and stepped out of them. Her eyes watched him hungrily as he kneeled down on the floor and grabbed her thighs with his strong hands, pulling her to the edge of the bed.
He slowly kissed his way up one side of her leg before she felt his tongue run slowly over her slit, teasing her. She arched her back with a moan and grabbed a hold of his hair just as he really began to work his tongue into her, keeping a slow sensual rhythm, tasting every inch of her.
“I want you inside of me,” she groaned feeling herself nearly convulsing at the magic of his tongue. He obeyed her immediately and stood up. His lips glistened with her arousal.
“Lay down,” she said and gave him a gentle nudge onto the bed. He smirked seeing her as she climbed over him and straddled him. She positioned herself over him before she slowly guided him into her. He gasped feeling himself buried deep inside of her.
She began to move up and down the length of him taking all of him into her. He watched her face as her mouth slightly opened and her eyes screwed shut. Her hair cascaded over her shoulders and her breasts pushed forward as she continued to move. Nikolai reached up and took both her breasts into the palm of his hands and gave a gentle squeeze.
Suddenly, he sat up until he was nose to nose with her. She grabbed onto his shoulders to steady herself and gasped when he flexed his hips up into her. He did it again and she threw her head back, giving him full access to her kiss her throat and chest. He relished in the moment flexing his hips into her and her meeting his every move with a downward swivel of her hips.
“Fuck!” Audrina cried out when Nikolai pushed himself deeper into her. She pushed him down on the bed and placed her hands on his chest. She began to really ride him. Moving up and down quickly taking him higher and higher into ecstasy. He panted, his hands gripping her waist, feeling himself about to combust.
> She cried out again when she came whispering his name over and over again. Nikolai closed his eyes and stilled, groaning as he poured himself into her. He pulled her down onto his rapid beating chest and held her close to his body. He kissed the top of her head and smoothed the hair off of her damp forehead.
“Okay,” she whispered when their breaths returned to normal.
Nikolai looked down at her on his chest. “Okay?”
“Okay to the whole hoard of kids you want.
He chuckled. He was just teasing her earlier but he did want to have many kids with her. “What made you change your mind?”
She propped her head up onto his chest with her hand resting under her chin. She looked up at him with a grin. “You.”
“I thought it was the sex,” he laughed.
“Oh it was definitely that too,” she bit her lip, running the tips of her fingers from her opposite hand over his stomach. “But, nothing would give me greater joy than having your children.”
Nikolai brought her lips to his and gave her a gentle kiss. “Nothing would make me happier… except one thing.”
“What?”
“I want to you to be my wife.”
Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Your wife?”
“Yes,” he stroked her cheek. “My lawyer is already getting the paperwork ready for my divorce with Tatiana. It should not take more than a year.”
Audrina beamed and then her lips formed into a shy smile that made her cheeks pink. “You sure you want to be stuck with me for the rest of your life?”
“I already am,” he said with a hand to her belly and kissed her again. “I want you to be Mrs. Nikolai Stratauv.”
She chuckled and hid her face from him. He pulled her chin up to meet his loving gaze.
“Do you want to marry me?” he whispered.
“Yes.”
She brought her hand to his face and pulled him in deeper. Her kiss alone filled him with the passion and happiness he believed he had lost forever. He rolled on top of her again and lost himself in her repeatedly through the rest of the night.
Chapter Thirty- Four
Nikolai was already gone by the time Audrina had woken up. She laid in bed wondering what her life with Nikolai would always be like apart from the fact that she could not leave for her own protection. All she wanted -after the threat of Michael subsided- was to visit the aquarium with Nikolai and go on a proper date with him. Just the two of them. No more hiding or sneaking around. She wanted to show the world that he was hers and she was his.
She laughed to herself remembering their conversation from the night before. He wanted to marry her and have a whole family with her! The thought made her so excited that she forgot about the cramping sensation in her stomach that seemed to linger on into the morning. She hurried to take a shower and start the day anew.
“Good morning,” she smiled at Alek who was sitting at the dining room table having his cup of coffee.
“Good morning,” he smiled back, setting down the phone in his hand. “Sleep well?”
“Yes,” she replied feeling a blush creep up on her cheeks. She sat down quickly and avoided looking at Alek.
“Papa!” a child’s gleeful laugh called out.
A dark haired boy ran up to Alek, wrapping his arms around him. The boy peeked up at Audrina with cool grey eyes before he smiled shyly and nestled his face into Alek’s chest. Alek whispered to the boy and the boy looked back at Audrina and gave a wave before turning away again, his shiny dark curls hiding his big, round eyes.
“I assume this is Konstantin,” Audrina smiled at the boy when he glanced at her again. “He’s very cute.”
“Say ‘hi Audrina’,” Alek said kissing his chubby cheek.
The boy waved again and buried his now reddened cheeks into Alek’s chest.
“He’s shy,” Alek laughed.
“When did he come over?” Audrina asked.
“Just this morning,” he replied and sat the boy in the empty seat next to him. “His grandmother needed a break so he’s going to be staying here for the next few days.”
Audrina smiled at the boy again when he gazed at her. He was adorable. She looked at the empty chairs and imagined the baby inside of her sitting at the table for breakfast with everyone else. How would it be with little children here everyday?
“Good morning!” Svetlana’s cheerful voice greeted as soon as she came into the room. “Oh my! You brought Kon Kon! My sweet little boy!” she said and took the seat next to the child. She kissed his cheek repeatedly causing the child to giggle uncontrollably.
Olga walked into the room with breakfast in hand just as Nikki finally came in. Nikki greeted everyone and then gasped when she saw the child sitting before her.
“Is this the little guy Sergei could not stop talking about all night?” she beamed.
Konstantin giggled and gazed at her. She waved her fingers to him and he blushed.
“Look at all this attention from all these beautiful women Konstantin,” Alek nudged his side. “What a ladies man you are!”
Olga came up behind the boy and pinched his cheek. She gave him a special plate of food with hot cakes and eggs and spoke to him in Russian which he just nodded his head to with a toothy grin.
“Where’s my brother?” Svetlana asked Alek.
Alek shrugged. “He had an early meeting in the city. Sergei is with him.”
“And Tatiana?” Nikki asked.
“Asleep,” he sighed. “Apparently she doesn’t get up until noon.”
“She was up all night exploring the house,” Svetlana said. “She didn’t get to sleep until just after midnight.”
“Well at least I can enjoy breakfast without having to be at her beck and call for a few hours,” Alek sighed. “She had me up and down yesterday.”
Olga placed a plate of food before Audrina laden with fried eggs topped with onion and tomato and a thick slice of homemade bread. The food smelled delicious yet Audrina could not shake the cramping in her stomach. It’s worse than the day before.
“Aren’t you hungry?” Nikki asked Audrina, noticing she had only picked at her plate.
“Not really,” she shook her head. “Do you mind if I take a walk around?”
“Go ahead,” Alek and Svetlana said at once.
Audrina left the table and scurried down the hall with a hand to her stomach. Just as she was about to go up the staircase she saw Tatiana slip into the door to Nikolai’s office. Audrina found herself too going towards the room.
Slowly, she opened the door to not make a sound but Tatiana’s head immediately shot up from her place, hovering over Nikolai’s desk.
“What are you doing in here?” she asked as if Audrina had no right.
Audrina thought quickly. “My bag is in here. Nikolai said I could get it.”
Tatiana watched Audrina as she walked over to Nikolai’s desk. She wasn’t sure which drawer the bag was in but she went with her first gut instinct and reached for the larger drawer at the bottom of the desk. To her relief the bag was in there.
“Why are you in here?” Audrina asked as she closed the drawer.
Tatiana tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “I need my papers for my bar,” she answered.
“Need help finding them?” Audrina offered.
Just as Tatiana shook her head ‘no’ Audrina glanced at the open file before her. She walked over to Tatiana’s side and glanced at the picture Tatiana had been staring at. A beautiful woman smiled into the camera pressing a child to her cheek. Audrina inspected the picture closely.
The woman looked a lot like her and when she picked up the picture that laid behind it, there was no denying just how much this woman and Audrina resembled one another. In the second picture, the woman propped the baby up on her lap while a man in a suit stood behind her with a hand on her shoulder.
“Who is this woman?” Audrina asked Tatiana.
“I do not know,” Tatiana’s eyes widened as she shrugged. “I just fou
nd this open on Nikolai’s desk.”
Audrina found herself reaching for the document that was under the pictures. Juliette Cathan, the birth certificate read. This girl was born on the exact same date that Audrina was born on. She was Audrina’s age. Same eye and hair color.
Audrina found herself picking up another document and to her shock, it was her birth certificate… the one that she had brought along with her before she came to the house. All her documents in fact were in the file with Juliette’s. She rifled through all the documents and gasped when she saw her very own foster papers in the files.
Diana Cathan had signed over Juliette Cathan into the foster care system.
“Look at this,” Tatiana said and held up a death certificate stating that Juliette Cathan had died twenty four years ago.
Audrina was puzzled. Why would Nikolai have a file of this deceased woman? And why does he have my papers mixed in with these two women? The further she delved into the file the more shocked she became. Everything in the file pertained to her life growing up in the system and the various homes and jobs she had. She clutched onto her stomach.
“I think this is you,” Tatiana said and held up Audrina’s license next to Diana Cathan’s. “You look just like her.”
“I don’t understand,” Audrina whispered. “Why does Nikolai have this woman’s papers and mine in a file together?”
Tatiana raised her eyebrows. “I believe he found your parents.”
Audrina looked down at the file again, gazing at the pictures displayed all over the desk. “No. Nikolai would have told me.”
“Maybe it is a surprise.”
Audrina clutched her stomach and groaned when the pain hit her.
“Are you alright!” Tatiana exclaimed.
Audrina shook her head and reached between her legs when she felt a moist sensation. Maybe the black leggings she wore were making her sweaty. She raised her hand up and saw bright blood covering her hand. She gasped.
“What are you guys doing in here!” Alek’s voice boomed when he saw them looking at the file. Anger flashed across his face but then softened a fraction when he saw Audrina’s hunched over stance. Quickly, he went over to her. “Are you okay Audrina?”