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His infuriating grin said he knew it and didn’t give a fuck.

18

YURIY

Stas’s room was dim when I slipped inside, the soft click of the door swallowed by the hush of the house. Sounds drifted up the stairs from cutlery, voices, Yelena’s laugh, but in here, everything was still.

He lay on his side, on top of the blankets, chest rising and falling in slow, careful breaths. Two days of “a cold” had kept him in bed. Two days of me pretending it wasn’t my fault he could barely sit without wincing.

Guilt was an annoying feeling. Sticky. Persistent. Like sap you couldn’t scrub off. I should have never listened to him when he said he was fine. If he were really fine, he wouldn’t have stayed home while I ran around with Yelena and Zasha, buying the matching holiday pajamas Yelena claimed were “mandatory,” creeping through neighborhoods to judge Christmas lights, and demolishing half the pastries in the city on a bakery crawl.

Maybe I could still convince him to go to a doctor, but he was right that the bleeding hadn’t been much. Just spots here and there on the sheet that told me I’d been too rough on him for his first time.

Damn, I’d never been anyone’s first before. Turned out I was completely inept at it.

“You still alive?” I eased the door shut quietly behind me.

Stas cracked one eye open, glared. “Don’t you dare come near me.”

Hells bells, he was grumpier than normal.

“Didn’t the bath I drew for you do anything? You should be feeling better by now. Instead, you’ve spent the whole day moving like your spine’s filing a complaint.”

He groaned, rolling onto his back with the caution of a man three times his age. Christ, I’d fucked him through the mattress. He’d never let me near him again, and I couldn’t stand that thought.

“I thought you were the more experienced one of us,” he grumbled, shifting gingerly. “So why am I the one walking around like I got hit by a truck the one time I let you fuck me in the ass?”

Actually it was two times.

He didn’t look like he was ready to hear that though, so I moved over to the bed and sat on the edge, skimming my hand along his arm. He didn’t flinch away. He hadn’t flinched from my touch once in the last forty-eight hours that I’d secretly catered to him and his “cold.”

“If I remember correctly, you were the one begging me for more.” I brushed my knuckles along the rough growth of his beard. He hadn’t shaved in two days. “It’ll feel better soon. Unless you want to change your mind and I take you to the emergency room?”

“No, thanks. What would I even say?”

“That you bit off a bit more than you could chew?”

He scowled, then dropped his head back onto the pillow. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Maybe next time, hand over the warning label before introducing your dick to someone. Possible side effects: unable to sit still for five minutes for the next forty-eight hours.”

“You want me to slap a warning label on my dick for other people to see?”

A growl rose from Stas’s chest, and he grabbed my shirt, yanking me down to him as he half rose from the bed. “Don’t test me, Yuriy. Although we’ve fucked, I’ll still hurt you.”

I rolled my eyes and pushed him back down. “As hot as that sounds, your ass is off-limits, so stop turning me on with your threats. Although I could fuck your mouth, but then I don’t want to break that too. Oh my, what to do?”

Stas groaned. “Why are you here, Yuriy?”

“Checking up on you before I go down to dinner.” Since we’d had sex, whenever I was close to him, we were like magnets, pulling at each other. I couldn’t keep my hands off him. “I was going to ask if you’re sure you don’t want to join us, but I can see you’re still not up to entertaining. Guess it’ll just be the four of us.”

“Four?”

“Didn’t I tell you? Yelena invited one of her friends to have dinner with us.” I climbed to my feet. “How about I sneak a plate up to you later?”

“Shut up about the food. What’s this about Yelena inviting a friend?”

“Claudia? She’ll be the baby’s godmother, but between you and me, I think Yelena is trying to set me up.”

Stas hauled himself upright into a sitting position. “What the hell’s going on down there? Is she beautiful?”