That Summer In The Country

Two

Two

The property needed to be walked. The Morozova family weren't royalty, exactly. Ravka didn't have royalty anymore. But they were oligarchs, with obscene amounts of money to burn, that had once had positions of power within the monarchy. The Morozova estate was inherited from their long, rich family history that involved barons and dukes and presidents. All kinds of important men.

Aleksander Morozova was one of them, or he would be. When his father stepped down at the CEO of Morozova Industries, he would inherit the role. Until then, Aleksander was charged with the upkeep of the family estate. He woke in the morning, slipped on a pair of boots still muddy from the previous day, put on khakis, a black turtleneck, a tweed jacket, and a grey, flat cap.

It was summer but it was early morning and a fog hung over the property. Normally, he would have done this with the groundskeeper, but she had left early to go pick up her niece from the train station.

Little Alina Starkov's mother had been the former groundskeeper's daughter, and it was her aunt Ana that was the current one. He vaguely remembered the girl visiting a few times and being all knees and elbows. She was eighteen now, and according to his brother Mal, was much the same.

The two apparently had become friends during one of her trips and they stayed in touch online.

He wasn't certain that he liked that. The last thing that he needed was his younger brother becoming involved with the servant girl. Well, the niece of a servant. Regardless, it was a headache that the family could ill afford.

It was why he had coerced his brother into going to a party with friends for the weekend. He had stayed behind, with there being too much work to do, and to get a glimpse of the girl to determine how much trouble she would be. If he needed to, he would throw money at the situation, or find some way to distract her.

He had lied to Ana and told her he was going to the party too. He wanted to take them by surprise.

Which meant that he was doing his normal morning chores alone. He went to the stables where his horse was waiting for him, and he rode the property line. It was mid-afternoon when he saw Ana Kuya's red jeep rattle along the road. He saw the glimpse of a girl inside, and he rode up to the groundskeeper's house, following them.

When the jeep pulled to a stop, he saw a petite, young woman with jet black hair and brown eyes. His eyes widened when he saw her. He knew this girl. This was the girl he had spent all of early May with, on the shores of Novyi Zem. He had come across her walking on the beach. She'd been collecting seashells.

They had never gotten each other's names. She'd insisted, for some reason, that they keep it anonymous. He remembered spending all day walking on the beach with her and then, he had taken her to his hotel room, and fucked her senseless. He still woke sometimes, thinking about how his cock had felt as she'd cum around it.

When he'd woken in the morning, the girl had been gone, leaving behind no note and nothing but the smell of Iris perfume. That smell had haunted him. He'd even bought a bottle of it when he'd gotten home, just to remember the girl. But he knew with absolute certainty that the petite dark-haired girl getting out of the groundskeeper's jeep was her.

The girl was busy adjusting the straps of her backpack but after a moment she looked up and her eyes locked with his. Her eyes widened, and a smirk crossed his face. Now he knew why she hadn't wanted to exchange names. He had fucked Little Alina Starkov. The groundskeeper's niece who once pushed his brother in the pool one summer. And oh, how lovely she had tasted and felt inside of him.

He had remembered thinking he had wanted to stay inside that girl forever. And now, the Saints it seemed, had brought her to him all for his pleasure. He would make her his by the end of summer.