The Sibirian Express - COMPLETE

Chapter 18

The sunrays shine through the curtains and gently wake me up. Slowly, all the events of last night come flooding back.

The bar.
That creepy guy.
Ivan.
The kiss.

Now it's slowly starting to come back to me. IVAN!

I get up from my bed and try to open the door as quietly as possible. After everything that has happened yesterday, Ivan has asked me if he could sleep here to which I agreed of course. I offered him my bed, but he insisted that the couch would be just fine.

Once I'm out of my bedroom I see Ivan putting the pillows back in place. 

"Good morning", a sheepishly smile crosses my face. 

"Good morning."

Yep, this is definataly something that I could get used to. His accent is extremly sexy, but his morning voice makes my knees buckle. 

Ivan slowly makes his way towards me and kisses me gently. 

"Are you hungry?"I ask over my shoulder as I take out all the food to prepare breakfast which consist of pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon. 

Isn't that what the athlets call breakfast of champions? Well I can't remeber but eitherway it tastes too good to care.

"I have missed you so much" I hear Ivan say as we finished eating. "Lexa, I'm so sorry for what happend, but please believe me, I would never hurt you." 

Slowly I turn back around to face him. "I forgive you, Ivan" and I mean it. What happened with Apollo was terrivke, but I knew what Mickey was like and I know what Apollo is like. I was extremely scared for him and it breaks my heart to know that Apollo will be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, but at least it's over. 

"Lexa, I want you. I know everything happend so quickly, but I want you in my life and that's why I want to be completely honest with you. No more secrets and I need to tell you that ..." but just as Ivan is about to continue the ringing of my phone interrupts us. 

"Hello?"

"Yo, Lexi" Rocky doesn't sound good at all. 

"Rocky, what's going on? Apollo?" My heart starts to race inside my chest as panic starts to rise. 

"No, no. He's fine. Um, listen, I have something to tell you and I know you're not going to like it ..."

"Rocky, whats wrong you're scaring me?"

"There is going to be a fight, Lexi!" he signs into the receiver before he continues on. "I'm going to fight Drago."

As soon as the words leave his mouth I'm frozen with shock. Slowly I turn to face Ivan looking at him with wide eyes. 

This can only be a bad joke! 

"Before you say anything, the conference is in three hours. We'll talk afterwards, Lex." And with that he hangs up on me. 

Ivan just keeps looking at me calmly, probably sensing that I'm going to explode any second. "Another fight? Isn't it bad enough that you almost killed Apollo? Why fight Rock? Why now?" I practically shout. 

"Balboa issued the challange."

He what now? Has everybody lost their damn mind? 

"Lexa, I promise this will be differen. I was just about to tell you that, no more secrets I don't want to lose you and after I beat Balboa and bring honour to Soviet Union, we can be. Offically."

"You should go, Ivan." I whisper. "Press conference, we'll talk about everything later."