Saints and Sinners

Fifty-eight:

Fifty-eight:

On the beach in Novyi Zem, Zoya stared fretfully at her cell phone. "I shouldn't have left. I should have waited until they were both awake. Just because the ancient immortals are statues, doesn't mean that Alina and Aleksander are going to be fine."

Nikolai kissed her bare shoulder, and brushed back a strand of her black hair. "You've got to stop worrying."

"That's easy for you to say. Aleksander's your enemy. If he's dead, you don't have any competition left in the court room."

Nikolai snorted. "As much as it would please me to see Morozova bite the dust, I know it would hurt you. So that isn't at all what I would like to happen. Besides, if he dies, Alina dies, and I do like Alina."

Zoya frowned. "Do me a favor."

He grinned at her. "Anything."

"Don't tell me that you like another woman, ever."

He kissed her other shoulder. "I think I can manage that. You're the only one for me, anyway. Besides, you've got nothing to worry about."

"How do you know?" Zoya said.

"You know Aleksander. He's one of the scariest bastards in the world. If he dies, Alina dies. DO you really think he would let that happen?"

Zoya huffed. "No. I don't think that he would. But----they've both been unconscious for so long..."

"They'll be fine." He stroked her cheek. "Stop worrying. Because there's much more interesting things that we could be thinking about."

She raised an eyebrow. "Such as?"

"Why don't you let me show you?" he offered, waggling his eyebrows.

"On the beach?" Zoya grinned.

"Amongst other places."

"Oh," she said, kissing him deeply, "I like that idea."

"Thought you might. Now if you just lay back I can make all of those thoughts go away."

"You really think highly of yourself, don't you?"

Nikolai laughed. "Always. It's how I stay so pretty. Now, allow me to show you how much I love you." He flipped her on her back in the sand, straddled her, and it was not long before Zoya was lost completely to him.