The night air is cool against my skin as I close the door behind me and hustle over to the hot tub, clutching the towel around me. My swimsuit is packed away in some box and I don’t have time or energy to search for it. Besides, I’ve scoped out the patio from the backyard. It’s lined with a combination of wood lattice and small decorative hedges for privacy, so neighbors won’t be able to see me naked.
I sink into the water with a dramatic sigh. The hot tub is built into the stone wall of the house and is set to the perfect temperature. A car passes on the street and I sink a little deeper into the water, the tension in my body loosening and the stress of the day melting away with the heat from the water and pressure from the jets on my back. I don’t even care that the back of my hair is getting wet and probably damaged from the chemicals in the water. This is supremely comfortable and I’m not moving.
No wonder he banned me from using it. With my eyes still closed, I smile a little to myself. He’d be so mad if he knew.
My previous comment about the hot tub being filled with Alexei’s semen is laughable. He’s way too tidy and meticulously clean to jerk off in his hot tub.
That doesn’t stop me from picturing it, though.
A noise has me opening my eyes, and I suck in a sharp breath.
Alexei is standing in his bedroom doorway, frowning around the room, because I left the light on as I passed through to the patio. My heart starts pounding.
My eyes go wide as dinner plates. Why is he home so early? He wasn’t supposed to get home until after midnight. I hit the power button to turn off the lights and jets and watch with rising panic.
He can’t find me out here. I don’t care about breaking the rules, but I care about him winning, and him finding me out here, relaxing in his hot tub, naked, will definitely be him winning.
We can’t have that.
Alexei’s still frowning, and then he glances at the patio. He can’t see anything out here because it’s dark, but I have maybe ten seconds until he comes out to investigate. My towel is on the chair on the other side. My wet footprints across the stone would give me away in a second.
Fast as lightning, I slip out of the hot tub, careful to stay on the side closest to the wall so he doesn’t see the wet footprints, and sneak behind the hedge. If any neighbors peek up at his balcony, they’re going to see my glowing white ass.
The patio door opens and I hold my breath, staying very, very still.
Footsteps move across the patio and I close my eyes, willing my heart to pound quieter in my ears.
Eternity stretches in that moment and I don’t dare move, don’t dare breathe. Finding me here butt naked would be the ultimate humiliation.
“The f*ck?” he mutters. That’ll be him spotting my towel.
More footsteps. Oh god. My heart can’t take this. A moment later, though, the door closes. I let out a slow breath.
And then he locks the door.
“No,” I hiss, cringing.
Now I’m really screwed. Okay, deep breaths. This is fine. I have options. I take a deep, calming breath. I’m trained for stressful situations. I can handle this.
I could try to get the attention of one of my neighbors, but I don’t know how I’d do that without also getting Alexei’s attention. And there’s the chance that they might say something to him about it in passing. No can do.
I could climb down off the patio myself, but I doubt the drain pipe is rated to withstand my weight like in the movies, and I really, really don’t want to break an ankle. My horrible husband isn’t worth the pain. Also, still a chance of neighbors seeing me naked. Also also, I’d have to get back inside the house and find my way to my room without him seeing me.
I start to shiver. It was a refreshing chill out here when I was dry and warm but now that I’m all wet without my towel, I’m freezing.
Maybe I just wait out here until Darcy wonders why I didn’t come to work tomorrow and comes over to investigate.
A drop hits my face, and then another. Another. The sound of rain hitting the trees and house begins and I take a deep breath, close my eyes, and start to laugh silently to myself. Of course it’s raining.
I could go back in the hot tub until he notices, but that could be hours, and by then I’ll be a human-sized prune. And he’ll still see me. There’s no way out of this without him unlocking that door. I need to be brave and pretend I’m not fucking mortified.
With my face burning hotter than the surface of the sun, one hand across my boobs, I take a deep breath and slide out from behind the hedge.
The towel’s gone. Good. Good, good, good. So I’m stranded out here naked.
He’s no longer in his bedroom, so I summon the last of my courage and knock on his bedroom door. I knock for about three minutes until he opens the bedroom and I quickly dart my hand in front of my ladybits. For one heartstopping moment, our eyes meet and his flare with something dark and hot before he rolls his eyes and storms over to me.
I am not embarrassed. This is fine. I don’t care if he sees me naked. He should be so lucky.
He stops in front of the door, and even though I’m about to burst into a million pieces from mortification, I give him a cool, smug smile, like I planned this. Hard to be smug when my wet hair is sticking to my forehead and my butt is covered in goosebumps from the cold, though. His jaw twitches.
“Unlock the door, Volkov.”
He stares at me for a moment before his gaze trails over me, so slowly I have to fight not to fidget. I’ve got all the good stuff covered—just barely—but that’s about it. Everything else is fully exposed, cold and wet. I’m shaking from the cold. I can already feel this experience keeping me up at night for years to come.
“Rule number three,” he says through the glass door with a scowl. “No nudity.”
“Alexei.”
“Rule number five, no using my hot tub.”
My teeth are starting to chatter. “You’re not actually going to leave me out here to freeze and die, are you? That’s low, even for you.”
He arches an eyebrow, folding his arms over his chest. “What’s in it for me?”
“Are you serious?” I shout. “Alexei, I’m cold. Open the door before I murder you.”
He stares at me, waiting, and my blood boils. This is good, actually. This is helping with the cold.
“What do you want?” I ask helplessly.
He takes a fucking eternity to think, narrowing his eyes at me while I shake. “I want you to owe me one,” he finally says.
My eyes narrow. “No.”
He starts to walk away.
“Wait,” I say quickly, throwing a hand up and then rushing to recover my boobs as he turns around. His eyes flick down to my arm covering myself and back up again. “Fine. Nothing weird or illegal.”
“Say it.”
“Say what? Alexei, I’m freezing my tits off out here.”
“I can see that. Say that you owe me one.”
“Fine. I owe you one.”
He flips the lock and opens the door for me. I straighten my spine and walk past him like I’ve done nothing wrong and I’m not bare-ass naked.
“Was that so hard?” he asks, and I whirl around. He yanks his gaze up, the corner of his mouth tightening like he’s trying to keep scowling at me, but his eyes dance with amusement.
He’s laughing at me with his eyes, and I hate it.
“Get fucked.”
And with that, I stride out of his room, his eyes searing me the entire way.
“You owe me one, doctor,” he calls after me. “Don’t forget. I sure won’t.”
