THE SOLDIER

I’m only a shade different from my father. Or maybe I’m not different at all, it’s just Kayla who’s different. A woman who likes to be hurt. Who gets excited by the pain I deliver, who likes to be kept on her knees, servile and sweet.

I change lanes on the highway, driving too fast. “I should go, Mama, I’m driving. I’ll call you when I get back to Chicago, all right?”

“Yes, of course, Pavel. Be safe.”

The sludge in my stomach twists. “Same. Bye.” I end the call and grip the steering wheel too hard.

“Was that your mom?” Kayla asks.

“Da.” I answer in Russian because I was just speaking it, then I remember to switch. “Yes.”

“Is she all right?” Somehow Kayla got the essence of my mother, despite the language barrier.

“No. My mother is…” I trail off, not really wanting to have this conversation, but Kayla waits, those attentive eyes trained on the side of my face. “She’s alone. I pay her bills. She’s depressed, I guess. I had to leave her to come here, but I’m planning to go back.”

There. I said it. Did I say it to drive a wedge between us? To inflict more cruelty, as is my way? Or am I just being honest for once? I sure as fuck don’t know.

Kayla goes still. “When?”

I swallow. “I don’t know. It depends on a lot of things.”

Kayla is not one of those things. Or she shouldn’t be. Why does it suddenly feel like she is?

“What things?” she presses, her voice so quiet I barely hear it over the radio.

“My pakhan and the state of a murder case back in Moscow. And money, I guess. I’ve been saving to get myself set up there when I go back.”

I don’t say she’s part of the decision because she’s not, yet I sense her drawing back and register her hurt.

“I should have told you that sooner, I guess. I’m sorry.” I’ve owed her that apology for hours now-it feels like a relief to get it out.

“Well, how soon?” I hear a tinge of panic in her voice. “When do you think you’ll move?”

I shake my head. “Could be months; could be years. I’ve already been here for three.”

“Three years?”

“Da.”

“Because of the murder case?” she whispers.

A tight band cinches around my throat to choke me. “Don’t ask about that, Kayla,” I manage to say around it. My throat is scratchy and raw.

She looks away from me, probably fighting back tears. Blyad’.

I approach Venice Beach and luck into a parking spot near the pier. I get out and walk around to Kayla’s side to close her door after she climbs out. “Hey.” I press her ass up against the car door, pinning her with my body. “I’m not going to offer you an out again because you told me not to, but I want you to know…I will always respect your wishes.” In this one way, I can resist my genetic coding. I won’t ever keep a woman prisoner until death do us part.

I see a mixture of fear and revulsion on her face, but it’s warring with that misplaced faith she has in me, and I know the moment the faith wins out. She sort of firms up, the way she did last night after the convenience store. Like she’s somehow reconciled herself to what I am and decided she still has backbone enough to stick around.

Crazy, beautiful flower.

“I know.” She lifts her face like she wants to be kissed.

I mean to brush a kiss over her lips, but instead I find myself devouring her mouth with the most ruthless kiss ever taken. My cock thickens against her belly, and the desire to do all manner of terrible things to her over and over again for the rest of our lives makes me want to carry her away to some dark dungeon where I can chain her to my bed and feast on her delicate body.

I force myself back because it’s broad daylight, and there are people everywhere. Not that Kayla seems to mind. It seems she’d follow my lead regardless of how insane I am. And that’s one of the best reasons not to leave the status of this relationship up to her. For me to man up and end it before I hurt her.

But I don’t fucking want to.

And I’m a stubborn asshole who usually gets what he wants.

I take her hand, adjusting my cock in my pants. “Show me this pier.” My voice is gruff, deepened with desire.

“Yes, Master.” She shoots a worshipful gaze my way that nearly drops me to my knees. I don’t know how I got so fucking lucky, how I earned her trust when I’ve been nothing but a dick here, but I’m going to make sure I give her everything she needs while I still have her.

She deserves that much.

The pier is crowded with people, but we ignore them and walk out to the very end of it to lean on the rail. The ocean sparkles cobalt blue and frothy white-bright and hopeful, like Kayla.

“I came here my first weekend in Los Angeles. I moved out here to go to USC-that’s where I met Sasha-and I was so excited to see the ocean. I drove out here by myself and watched the sunset. And that’s when I promised myself I’d never give up on my dream.”

“To become an actress?” I ask. I shift, so I’m standing behind her, protecting her back from the other people around. Or maybe just staking my claim. I wrap one arm around her waist and rest the other on the rail beside hers.

“Yes.” She darts a glance my way. “Sometimes I think I should put a time limit on it. Like, I have one more year, and if nothing happens, I’ll move back home. But then I remember the promise my eighteen-year-old self made, and I say never. I’m not leaving until I’ve made it where I wanted to go.”

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She drops her head a little, so I kiss her temple.

“Tell me. A-lister? Hollywood star?”

“Yes.”