Robin des Bois ✓

eighteen. The L Word

For a moment, I couldn't conjure up a single word.

I simply stared at Aidan with wide eyes as the silence stretched on. I wasn't the only one at a loss for words. Alexei stared at Aidan with raised eyebrows and Nirvana glared daggers at him, her arms crossed over her chest.

Dominic was the first one to break the silence.

"Nice to meet you," he said calmly as Aidan wiped his mirthful tears away.

"So what, is everyone's just gonna ignore the fact that Romanov is dating his cleaning lady? When'd you meet her? When she was bent over cleaning your toilet?"

My face heated up and if it was possible, my shoulders tensed even further.

"Shut up," Alexei snapped as his hand tightened around mine. "Isis doesn't work for me."

Aidan glanced at me dismissively. "Well, if you think about it, she kinda is. Exchanging her services for all the things you buy her is kind of like working."

"Enough." Alexei's tone could've cut through glass.

"Oh come on, relax, Romanov. I'm just kidding." Aidan gave me a honey-sweet smile. "I'm sorry if you felt offended, but I was really just joking around."

I smiled weakly and nodded as Alexei guided me to one of the couches before pulling me into his lap. His arms snaked around my waist and one his hands slipped under my hoodie, his thumb tracing lazy circles on the skin of my stomach. "I think something can only qualify as a joke if it's funny," he said.

Nirvana snorted.

"And you can only find something funny if you've got a sense of humor."

"No one here thinks you're funny, Aidan." Nirvana retorted nonchalantly.

Even though I waited for the questions with baited breath, they never came. No one mentioned my past job and Dominic gracefully maneuvered the conversation away from the problematic subject. It was as if Aidan never even mentioned anything, though I sometimes caught his eyes on me, as sharp and cutting as razors as he watched me with a gaze that made me squirm in Alexei's arms.

Not an hour later, after the pizza was nothing more than a memory, Nirvana politely suggested that they all leave and I was finally left alone with Alexei, anxiously anticipating what would come next.

I twisted my hands nervously as Alexei came back into the living room, carrying my backpack in one hand and a glass of water in the other.

He dropped the backpack next to the couch and handed the glass to me. I drank it in a few gulps and when I looked back at him, he was looking at me with a wolfish grin. I felt my cheeks warming up. I knew exactly what this look meant -the dilated pupils and the flushed cheeks spoke for themselves.

"I wanted to ask you for a favor," I began quickly, before the part of my brain that wanted nothing more than what Alexei's eyes were suggesting could take over.

Some of the heat left his eyes, replaced by curiosity as he sank into the couch next to me and slipped one arm around my shoulders. "You can ask me for anything."

I smiled softly. "I've got this project I'm working on for one of my classes..."

"And you want me to pose naked for you?" He cut in.

I laughed at his hopeful tone.

"No. I do want to use you as a model, but not as a nude model." I patted his chest affectionately. "I was thinking about using body paint and photographing it."