Settling Slowly

Chapter 33 - Reach for the moon

When we got home I didn't even look at my house before walking up to Grigory's front door. I wasn't sure if it was in his plan for tonight, but he didn't say anything. He silently opened the door and flicked the light on.

"What time do you have to be up in the morning?"

"We," I said. "We have to be out the door at about half seven. But I can sleep on the train."

"We?" he asked.

"Lex said you'd told her you were taking Dan, Evan and me to the station."

"Oh yeah. So –"

"Oh shut up about tomorrow," I said and kissed him.

"Ummm," he sighed and pulled away. "That's..." he kissed me again. "What is that?"

I laughed but didn't tell him.

"Is it cherries?" he asked with a frown and looked to my lips. "You haven't even had cherries." He kissed me again just to be sure and said something in Russian that might have been 'delicious' or 'delectable'.

"Grigory. Shut up," I said and leaned upwards to kiss him.

This time as our lips came together I also let myself take in the feel of his bare chest against mine and the feel of his skin under my hands. I felt his muscles go a little taught under the light touch of my fingers as I moved my hands from his chest to his back. I let him pull me closer for a moment as the satin smoothness of his skin sent me heady, but then he tried walking us backwards.

I stumbled and fell up the stairs a little. He chuckled at me and helped me up.

"Maybe we should just walk like normal people," I suggested.

"Or I could do this."

He picked me up and kissed me all the way up the stairs.

*     *     *     *

"What's your favourite colour?" I asked.

We were snuggled up in bed together, happily exhausted from root to tip, sleepy and mellow. Sex had been everything I had imagined and a lot more on top of that. It wasn't anything I could describe with words, it was actions and emotions, but it had been incredible and wonderful. I supposed the best way I could describe it would be to compare it to Pandora's box. Ok, so you knew what was in this box, but you didn't know at the same time. You didn't know how it would make you feel or how it would change your relationship afterwards. It was like a gift in a box that you could only unwrap when the time was perfectly right. And you had to open it with someone else.

"What?" he asked half amused, half confused. Ok, so maybe the question was a bit strange given what had just happened, but I wanted to know.

"Your favourite colour. What is it?"

"Azure blue. Yours?"

"Mauve."

"Mauve?" he asked.

"Yeah it's –"

"Yes, yes, I know what it is," he waved off. "Mauve isn't a real colour. You can't have that."

"Oh, yet you can have azure blue?" I lightly jibed. "What are you doing, dreaming of Caribbean beaches?"

He laughed. "Freedom," he murmured a moment later his eyes unfocused. "It's the colour of freedom."

I kissed the hand that was holding mine. "Hey, your grandfather and his plans for you to take over the business are long passed. You beat him at his own game, remember?"