Climb on My Stepfather (Ashley and Alex) novel Chapter 95

8: Georgina.

None of this college. None of this college?

Didn't I know something like this was coming? When Aleksei said he never intends to leave me, I should have questioned him further. In the back of my mind, wasn’t there always a belief that he couldn't simply move me into the dorm and drive away? Furthermore, that it would be so...wrong to part from him, after everything we've been through?

My mother’s death, high school, my driver's test, college applications.

Thunderstorms, injuries, loneliness.

My Twilight phase.

Aleksei was there for it all. The only one who was there.

Especially now that I know what my body sensed all along wasn’t a fluke...and we are oh - so — freaking compatible...not being with Aleksei every day fills me with unimaginable sadness. Not only do I love this man, but there’s no denying he just woke up something inside me. Wild, consuming sensations that I don’t think I can live without. And there’s a beat pounding in my heart, telling me Aleksei is the only one in the universe who can give them to me.

But. Oh, there are some serious buts.

I stopped trying to make Aleksei notice me as something but an honorary niece long ago. No matter what I did, he didn’t seem interested in me beyond my being his ward. A...job. So I threw myself into school work — focused on it hard — and realized a degree is something I want badly. Some day I want to be the one unlocking the library doors and deciding what's stocked on the shelves. Maybe for a lot of girls, college is a given. But not in my world. If my father had it his way, I would be kept under lock and key until I need false teeth. I fought for this chance to attend school, and I’m not going to compromise one dream for the sake of another.

Currently, one of those dreams is carrying me down a crowded sidewalk like a sack of potatoes, and fine, the caveman routine might work for me a lot of the time. But not today. Not when the future I’ve worked so hard for is at stake.

“Aleksei!” I scream through my teeth. “We have to talk about this. Put me down. Right now.”

“I do not think this wise,” he says, sounding completely calm.

“I don’t care.” I bunch a fist and ram it awkwardly into his back. Of course, it ends up making my own wrist throb. “Ouch, dammit.”

Aleksei clucks his tongue. “I taught you to punch better than that.”

“Excuse me, miss? Are you okay?”

My blood cools, then freezes, at the sound of a strange man’s voice. Not because I feel threatened. Oh no. An angry mob could be chasing me and as long as Aleksei was there, I wouldn't feel an ounce of fear. No, my jolt of alarm has everything to do with the newcomer's safety. Not mine.

Beneath my draped body, Aleksei’s shoulders turn to rippling iron, his step slowing to a stop. I struggle in his grip to get myself upright, and Aleksei lets me, remaining still as a marble statue as I slide down the front of him. I can count on one hand the number of times another man has dared to question Aleksei — and it has never happened in relation to my well — being. When !

catch sight of the deadly intensity he’s directing at the stranger, I know I have to intervene or he’s going to decorate the sidewalk with homeboy's guts.

“Hey.” I frame his face with my hands and attempt te get his attention, but his neck is stiff, his gray gaze never leaving the stranger. “Aleksei.”

“Move...” he rasps, one of his eyes twitching. “Along.”

A nervous laugh. “I was only checking to see if the girl was —”

Aleksei surges forward with malice written on his face.

I shoot onto my tiptoes and kiss him.

There's a long beat of tension. A standoff where my lips work over his stiff ones. Someone questioned my safety. If that man knew how serious Aleksei takes my well — being, he would have kept on walking. I don't like it, either.

The insinuation that my Aleksei isn't taking good care of me. A classic tale of “Il can yell at my possessive Russian bodyguard, but God help anyone else who does.” And when the fight drains out of him and he groans, the edge is taken off my earlier anger, even more so. One big hand slides into my hair, the other finding my hip as he begins ravaging my mouth. Wait. No. I was only going to distract him from committing murder, but now...what's happening?

Aleksei walks me backward until I feel the familiar shape of his car pressing into my back. There are low murmurings all around us from passersby, but I’

m having a hard time making out their words over the chirping canaries circling my head.

College. He just told me I’m not going to college.

I puil away from his kiss and drag in a gulp of breath. “Me. School. I'm going.”

“Still you believe this?”

Oh, hello, anger. There you are. “Did you ever plan to take me?”

He tilts his head, like I'm daft. “Nyet, Georgina. After five years of making sure no one breathes on you, do you think I could leave you in the care of strangers?” His eyes glitter with malice. “Males. No supervision. Alcohol.

Those things mixed together will not set foot near my Georgina.”

Fire floods my cheeks. “Then where are you taking me?”

“Get in the car and you will find out.”

I try to push Aleksei off, but he only pins me tighter between his body and the car. And...and...my train of thought is busted because his erection is so thick where it lies across my belly. Focus, Georgina. You can't let another man dictate your future.

Isn't that what it all comes down to? I haven't been in control of my own life.