Billie and the Russian Beast - Theodora Taylor Page 0,29
me.
“Let me show you rest of house,” he says instead of responding to my suggestion. Then without waiting for me to answer, he reverses the hold on our hands and pulls me back inside.
So no, we’re not exactly communicating at one-hundred percent. But that conversation feels like a good start.
Maybe Cheslav’s plan isn’t so crazy, after all.
Chapter Sixteen
“No! No! You’re crazy if you think I’m going to do that!” I yell after Cheslav comes into my room and pulls the covers off me the next morning.
Cheslav tugs at my wrist. “Come, krasotka. It is only few miles.”
“A few miles in the sand!” I respond. “And I’m not a runner.”
“Not yet, no,” he answers. “How about one mile, and we slowly increase?”
“But why, though?” I whine. “I just want to stay here, eat breakfast, and get to studying.”
“No breakfast, no study until you run with me.”
What kind of cruel beast…?
“Then I’ll starve and fail the CPA,” I answer, pulling the covers back over my head.
I feel the bed depress beside me with his weight. “You want me to leave you alone while you study, but we must spend time together so that I can convince you to become my wife.”
“Can’t we just talk or something? Get to know each other like that?” I ask, my voice still foggy with sleep.
“Nyet. Exercise is something I must do every morning. Or else my mind is not right.”
I lower the covers with an, “Aha! You never exercised once during our four days together.”
“Da, I did. But it was different kind of exercise.” His eyes darken with bitterness. “The kind you say is off limits because it is not good way to get to know each other. But if you remember, this kind of exercise is how I always woke you up.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “So you’re saying we either exercise or we fuck in the mornings. No compromise?”
“Yes, that is exact meaning of my words,” he answers without any shame whatsoever. “No compromise. Not on this.”
Uggghhhhh!
And that’s how I come to find myself on the beach, jogging beside Cheslav.
“So you do this, every morning?” I ask, trying to distract myself from the fact that I’m out here, jogging at the butt crack of dawn.
“Da, usually in home gym. Then, hour or two of strength training before practice or game day.”
“Wow,” I say, impressed. “I just do YouTube yoga and Just Dance to keep my cardio up.”
“Just dance,” he repeats.
“You’ve never heard of Just Dance?” I pant, bugging my eyes at him. “It’s the best thing ever.”
“You will show me.”
And that’s how we end up in front of the television in the living room after we finish our beach run. Dancing and laughing as we try to pull off all the choreographed steps.
After six songs, Cheslav nods and says, “It is like video game, except you move instead of sitting on couch. I like this for cardio. From now on, we will do one mile on beach then come back to house for this Just Dance.”
So that’s what we do.
Again, I could do without the beach runs. It takes days for my legs to adjust to the new routine and stop being sore. But after years of being a single player on Just Dance, it’s fun to do all the two-player routines with someone else.
And Cheslav is a shockingly quick study. I think a lot of guys—especially elite athletes would have thought me silly. Cheslav not only does the six songs with me every morning but also analyzes all the dance moves to improve his performance for the next day. Not going to lie, this makes me feel all kinds of gooey inside.
By the time a few days roll around, he’s totally keeping up with me.
“I was telling my publicity person about new workout, and she is asking that we record it for her so that she can post on my Instagram TV,” Cheslav tells me later in the week over lunch.
We’re eating the grilled chicken and salad Vlad brought us for lunch out on the balcony, and we’re both dressed a lot more laid back.
Usually, I stick to business casual, even when I don’t have Zoom meetings. And Cheslav tends to throw at least a blazer over everything he wears.
But today I’m wearing one of the sundresses from the beach resort wardrobe that magically appeared in my closet a few days ago (courtesy of Vlad I suspect). And Cheslav is wearing nothing but a pair of running shorts.
Can’t say I mind the