Free Alexandr's Reluctant Submissive by Ann Mayburn

speaking once again to Petrov, but this time he kept her close to his side, stroking her arm lightly and sending pleasant little tingles through her body. The fresh scent of his key lime and cedar cologne filled her as she rubbed her cheek against the shoulder of his jacket. They had entered the city by now and the streets were crowded with trucks, cars, and tons of mopeds, along with a few motorcycles.
    She rested against Alex, gratefully using his silent strength to bolster her own as she took in the chaos of her new world.

 

Chapter 5
     
     
    Driving through an upscale neighborhood filled with an odd mixture of old mansions and modern high-rises, Jessica marveled at the beauty of some of the buildings and leaned closer to the glass to try and get a better look. Yeah, almost everything was unfamiliar, and she was freaked out by their entourage and the attention it attracted, but she tried to be positive about things. Tatiana would get to live in a city that had been the home to generations of her ancestors, and she’d have an extensive family to grow up with. Something she’d thought her daughter would never have. Alex had said that Petrov had many grandchildren for Tatiana to play with, and there were what seemed like an endless amount of cousins of all ages. It sounded wonderful, but she worried her daughter would feel like a stranger in a strange land.
    Like Jessica did.
    In an effort to hide her homesickness from Alex, she smiled wide and continued to look out the window of the sleek car and tried to sound excited. “Wow, this place is amazing! I never imagined this many people would just be out and walking around. What part of the city are we in? Will we be able to come back here sometime? That outdoor restaurant looks really nice, the one with the tulips out front. I love tulips; they always remind me of spring.”
    He obviously saw through her pathetic attempt at being happy. “Easy, prinsessa moya , the threat has been eliminated. You are safe. Please, do not be nervous.”
    She sighed, the turned away from the lure of the city to face Alex’s worried expression. “It’s not my safety that has me antsy.” He gave her a blank look and she reminded herself that he wouldn’t know the slang she’d gotten used to using. “Antsy means full of energy and nervous.”
    “Then what has you antsy.”
    The way he said the word, as if testing it out and finding it not to his taste, made her smile. “I’m worried about how I’ll fit into your life, how you’ll fit into ours. It’s going to be hard with Tatiana because I’ve never had to share the responsibility of raising her. All decisions were mine and things went the way I wanted. I know that it won’t be that way anymore and I worry.”
    “My wife, we will do what parents do, compromise.”
    “You make it sound so easy.”
    He rubbed his fingers over the back of her hand, sending tingles up her arm. “There is nothing that we cannot overcome, Jessica.”
    “You really believe that?”
    “I am sitting next to my wife, on the way to our home, to prepare for our daughter’s arrival tomorrow. Nothing is impossible.”
    Mollified, she placed her free hand on his thigh and gave the solid muscle a squeeze.
    Alex spoke quietly beside her. “You do not know how many times I wished I had a chance to show you my real hometown before I lost you.”
    Biting her lip to keep from crying—she was going to dehydrate at the rate she’d been bursting into tears—she forced a smile. “Well, I’m here now, so tell me about our new place.”
    The gray of his eyes lightened and he smiled, clearly pleased at her “our place” comment. He quickly filled her in on the details of the high-security building and she wasn’t sure if she was relieved or nervous to find Dimitri and Ivan had apartments in the same building, along with a couple dozen bodyguards and staff who lived in the smaller apartments on the lower floors. Evidently their place was four floors above