Alexei, Her Russian Billionaire

“Oh, he did. More than.” Maya closed her eyes. She didn’t talk about her s*xual escapades to anyone, not even Jenny, so this wasn’t easy. “It was when we were about to have s*x for the third time…”

“Third? Wow, the stamina of the man.”

“Jenny, please. This is hard enough as it is.” Maya took a deep breath. “I asked if he could keep the condom off that time.”

“Eh? Why would you do that? You’re not on any contraception.”

“It was something that I wanted to do on impulse. I just wanted to feel what he felt like without a plastic bag on his co*k.” Maya sat up and hunched over. “He froze up and pulled away, saying he doesn’t want kids and he’s not getting anyone pregnant.”

“He said that?”

Jenny knew how much Maya wanted kids and would know how much this would be upsetting if her best friend was to hear it.

“He doesn’t want to marry or have kids. Which is exactly what I want.” Maya bit her lip as the tears welled up. “So I had to tell him to leave and that we couldn’t see each other.”

“Oh, honey.”

Jenny uncrossed her legs and slid over. She hugged Maya and rocked her gently as Maya quietly sobbed. Maya leaned into her friend, grateful for the comfort. All the emotions had been building up over the last two days and it wasn’t fair on anyone that they should have it taken out on them.

Maya couldn’t remember the last time she had been like this over a man. Not even with Ash. This was completely different.

“I thought he would be perfect for me.” Maya swallowed the lump in her throat and wiped her tears away. “He accepted who I was. And things seemed to be great. Then to be told he doesn’t want what I want…that was like a kick in the teeth.”

Jenny was silent for a moment. She sighed heavily and shook her head.

“I didn’t realize what had happened would have affected him this badly.” She murmured.

“What?” Maya straightened up. “What are you talking about?”

“You didn’t know about his previous marriage?”

That had Maya almost falling off the bed. Alexei had been married before. But hadn’t he said he had never been married?

Correction: he didn’t want to marry, not that he had been married before. Was this the reason why he didn’t want to go down that road again?

“I didn’t know.”

“I thought you’d read up on him. It’s on the internet.”

“Evidently I didn’t get that far.” Maya rubbed her hand over her face. “I only read a couple of articles.”

“He was married to his childhood sweetheart and then he caught her cheating with his best friend five years ago. Turned out she had also slept with his brother.” Jenny said grimly. “The divorce was finalized four years ago. Alexei had said at the time they had been trying for a baby and he was devastated when he found her cheating on him.”

Now Maya understood. Alexei had been hurt badly by his ex-wife and now he didn’t want to be put in that situation again. And Maya had to be the idiot and suggest something on impulse.

“But why didn’t he tell me?” She demanded. “We spoke about everything but he never mentioned this.”

“There’s only one way to answer that.” Jenny shrugged. “Ask him.”

*****

Maya didn’t have Alexei’s number after deleting it off her cell phone. She hadn’t wanted any more to do with him. But, as it turned out, Rodrigo knew exactly how to reach Alexei. Maya didn’t want to know how Jenny knew this. From the way Jenny blushed when she mentioned Rodrigo, Maya had a feeling it wasn’t a passing conversation over a coffee that she had been told this.

She didn’t want to talk to Alexei over the phone; he could easily hang up on her. And an email was too impersonal. So Rodrigo had found Alexei’s personal Skype address. Even Jenny was surprised he could find this. But Maya was grateful. Now all she needed to do was get the courage to call him.

Jenny seemed to sense she needed to do it alone and went to Rodrigo’s room. Maya lay on her stomach on the bed with her laptop in front of her, trying to make herself press ‘call’ on Alexei’s name. What if Alexei saw her Skype name and didn’t answer. She could be here a long time.

This felt like a bad idea.

But Maya knew she wouldn’t know until she tried. She clicked the call button and waited as it connected. A few moments later Alexei answered, which had delight and nerves shooting through Maya’s body. Now she just needed to know what to say.

Alexei appeared on the screen. He was sitting at his desk in his office. Maya was surprised. It was after ten at night and he was still in the office. She wondered if she had anything to do with him being there.

The man looked exhausted. He looked like he hadn’t slept or shaved and his eyes looked sunken. Maya felt a pang of guilt. She had done this to him? She felt awful.

Alexei looked surprised when he saw her. He stared as if he couldn’t quite believe it.

“Maya?”

Maya managed a smile but it came out wobbly.

“Hey, Alexei.”

“How did you get my Skype address?” A look of worry passed over his face. “Is something wrong?”

“A friend of a friend knows how to contact someone.” Maya bit her lip. Now she was going to have to swallow her pride. “And I wanted to apologize for the other night.”

“No, I should be the one apologizing. How I said what I feel came out too harshly.” Alexei rubbed his eyes. “That was unfair on you.”

“And I didn’t know about…” Maya paused. This was going to be harder than she thought. She tried again. Alexei wasn’t going to like this but it had to be addressed. “I didn’t know about your ex-wife and what was going on between you.”

“You’re the only one who doesn’t.” Alexei grunted. “It’s common knowledge. At least I thought it was.”

Maya could see how it was affecting him by the look on his face. She had read up on his previous marriage and what had happened. Four years on and it was still affecting him badly.

“She cheated on you, didn’t she? While you were trying for a family.”

Alexei closed his eyes briefly. He nodded and sighed heavily.

“Back then I wanted a family. And I thought I had the perfect one. Katya had expressed wanting children as much as I did.” Alexei opened his eyes. He looked pained. “But then I found…let’s just say she’s put me off marriage and children.”

Maya could understand that. But she didn’t think it was fair. She had never met Katya but already she hated her for what she had put Alexei through.