Ten

Mirabel Szelsky

Heavy rain fell from the sky as the plane landed at the Court's airport, washing away the little snow that had covered the ground. Dark, heavy clouds covered the sky above the massive buildings that created the protected Court area. I had been here several times, mostly for a quick visit to my parents. Still every time, I was still blown away by its size and magnificence.

A familiar figure waited for me after the security check at the private airport, holding two umbrellas. His face lit up when he saw me and his arms immediately unfolded to capture me in a large hug.

"My little girl, you have grown so much since I last saw you!" He said and placed a polite kiss on my cheek. Since I last saw him, his hair had turned grey above the ears and he had a few more lines below his eyes and in the corner of his mouth.

"So have you, Dad", I teased. "How have you been?"

My father handed me one of the umbrellas and offered to take my luggage. "I have been well, and so has your mother. She has been talking a lot about you lately."

"Has she?" I mumbled.

Dad chuckled. "We have both missed both you and Leo a lot, which only makes us work more."

"You and Mom are far too ambitious", I commented. I tried to make it sound like a joke, though I meant every word of what I said. My parents, Princess Ariana Szelsky and Vincent Conta, were both bigwigs among the Moroi society. My mother even ran for Queen once, the same round where Queen Vasilisa won the crown, but didn't pass the third test. All Moroi children to important people came in second when it stood between them and work, so the academies came well in hand when they needed to get rid of us for a few years. At least that was what it felt like.

"She's actually thinking about stepping down a little from work, she has been working a lot lately", Dad said. "She's been thinking about travelling through Europe."

I raised my eyebrows. "Europe? Really?"

Dad chuckled and nodded. "Yes, she has realized that she wants to see Paris, Berlin, Rome and all those other large capitals."

"Well, that sounds great", I said honestly. "You two should really take that time together."

We entered through the thick wooden doors into the main building and I folded my wet umbrella. In this time in the afternoon on a Friday, the restaurants and shops in the Court's mall were crowded with people doing some pre-weekend shopping.

"Would you like some coffee, tea or something?" Dad asked and made a gesture towards an open-air café next to an electronics shop. It was a cute café, though it would have fitted better in or near a garden than inside of the mall. On top of the wooden fence that cornered the café's area had someone placed an espalier where a thick, green clinging vine climbed up and created a green and soothing roof above the café.

I nodded. "Yeah, sure."

I took two seats at a round table and Dad went inside to buy us something to eat and drink. I leaned my elbows against the surface of the table and looked out on the people passing. Everybody looked so fashionable, even if they seemed to be off work. Most of the women were dressed in black and straight skirts along with a trendy blouse or perhaps a nice little dress. I saw plenty of people in my own age, give or take a year or two. Many Moroi children seemed to have left their schools to spend some time with their parents during the break.

Dad returned from inside the café and put plates of apple pie and with vanilla sauce down on the table with a clink that snapped me out of my thoughts. A young Moroi waitress had followed him with three cups on a tray and wished us an enjoyable meal before she left.

"Your mom will be joining us in about 10 minutes", he announced and sunk down on his chair before placing his jacket over the back. That explained the third cup.

I nodded and grabbed the cup that I presumed contained tea. I had started to drink coffee during the past months, mostly to keep myself awake while studying to tests and in the morning after a night of drinking. However, my dad did not need to know that last thing.

"I assumed that you still drink your tea with milk?"

"Yeah, I do", I mumbled and took a sip from the hot beverage, immediately regretting that since it burned my tongue.

I couldn't help but to feel that I wanted to leave the café and head out in the mall on my own. Dad sipped carefully on his small cup of coffee, glancing down at his watch at least three times a minute. A pressured silence hung over the table that I wanted to escape from. I was doing one of the most casual things someone could so; having a coffee with one of my parents. Yet, the feeling that came over the table was similar to as if all the other chairs had been occupied and a stranger asked to sit by my table only to get a seat.

"How are you doing to school?" Dad asked, finally breaking the silence.

"Good", I replied. "I failed a test in the beginning of the semester but passed it the second time now just before spring break."

"Oh, good job", Dad nodded. "Are you still friends with Joanna?"

I nodded. "Yeah I am, we see each other almost every day."

Dad cleared his throat. "And are you… dating someone?"

I felt my cheeks heat up. Technically, I was, but I couldn't reveal that I was dating a Dhampir. Despite the modern times when it might be somewhat acceptable for a Moroi to date a Dhampir and vice versa, I had a distinct feeling that it wouldn't be appreciated by my parents. Besides, I wasn't even sure that Alexei thought that what we had was dating.

So I shook my head to avoid unnecessary questions. "No, I'm not."

"I see…" was Dad's only response and he continued to drink his coffee. I finally dared to drink my own beverage; the tea was rather bitter and far too strong, but I drank it anyway.

Luckily, we didn't need to engage in another awkward conversation before I noticed a familiar person approaching the café along with the clicking sound from high heels. As always, she was formally dressed in a black suit jacket and a knee long skirt. She was always dressed like that, no matter if she worked or not.

I gave my mother a smile. "Hi, Mom."

Ariana Szelsky lit up and captured me in a big hug. "My little girl, you've grown so much!"

She let go of me and held me at arm's length, scrutinizing my face with her mouth still pulled up in a wide smile. She gently stroked my cheek with one hand and leaned her head to the side.

"You look more and more like me when I was your age", she sighed. She had also aged since I last saw her, although I began to think that the slimness in her face was a result by poor blood supply and stress from a lot of work over a large period of time. Her otherwise brown hair had greyed a great deal; it was concealed by hair dye in a similar colour, but the true colours were revealed by the roots. The lines around her eyes and mouth were also more defined, though hers were more discreet than Dad's. She gave Dad a quick kiss before joining us at the table and grabbing the last cup of coffee.

"So, how have everything been? Was the trip good?" she asked.

"Yeah, though it was longer than I had -" I began, until the shrilling ringtone from someone's phone began to ring and interrupted me.

Mom flashed me an apologizing smile. "Oh, I'm sorry", she said and opened her purse, putting the phone to her ear. A pause in the conversation occurred as Mom rapidly scribbled something down on a notepad she found in her purse and hummed to the person in the other end of the line. I leaned back in my chair and folded my hands over my stomach. Over the short time that I had been sitting here, the amount of people in the mall had increased. I saw more Moroi with guardians following them with a few feet distance between them.

Then, a man emerged from the crowds with a training bag over his shoulder. He walked slowly, taking his time looking around into the windows of the shops he passed them. Not even a large crowd could conceal his presence from me. Alexei.

I immediately straightened my back, pulling my fingers through my hair to make sure that it wasn't standing in all directions and forced to pull my gaze away from it until he would come closer to the café.

To my giant luck, Mom's phone call lasted long enough for her to not pay much attention to me, and Dad was digging for something in his briefcase. As Alexei approached, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt that discreetly revealed his athletic build and triangular-shaped torso, I stretched my neck and kept my eyes fixed on him to try to catch his gaze.

He spotted me right on time, his face melting into a soft smile. I could immediately see that he was happy to see me, it was like he lit up from the inside, though he tried to look as if nothing special had caught his gaze. Looking up on the sign to the café, he glanced at me again and walked up the small pathway between the round tables before he vanished into the café. He returned a few minutes later with a coffee cup in his hands and took a seat at an empty table diagonally from ours, behind the backs of my parents.

I felt myself blush. How could I possibly engage in a conversation with my parents when I only wanted to rest my eyes on Alexei?

"We should head back home to make ourselves ready for dinner", Mom said and put her phone back in her purse.

I wanted to protest, but I didn't want to reveal why I wanted us to stay. So when we rose to leave, I spoke loud enough for Alexei to hear. "I feel like looking around a little, can I stay a while and look around in some shops?"

Mom and Dad glanced at each other. "Of course", mom sad, giving me a small smile. "It's not very far, you should find your way back without any trouble."

I turned my head to Alexei as we passed him, trying to convey my message through my expression. He nodded at me and I took it as a sign that he understood my message.

Fifteen minutes later, I headed back to the café with rapid steps, trying to see all my check-points that would confirm to me that I was heading the right way. Finally, I spotted the walls and roof of the clinging vines and picked my pace up.

Alexei was still sitting at the table, an open book written by Stephen King in his hands and the coffee cup empty in front of him. I stopped on the other side of the fence.

"Alexei?" I called at him.

His head shot up and he smiled when he noticed me. Oh that smile... It made my stomach flutter and I had to swallow down a mouthful of saliva. He added a bookmark between the pages and packed it down in his bag .

"You didn't tell me that you were coming here", he said quietly as he came up to me. "Last minute plans?"

I nodded. "Didn't want to spend the holiday alone or with along with my parents. Then I remembered that I might stumble into you here."

"And so you did, lucky you", he said and looked down on me with a crooked smile.

"Lucky me indeed", I said. He placed a light hand on my back and led me past the café. I didn't know where we were heading, but I didn't care either. All I could think about was that I desperately wanted to lace my fingers between his.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"To my room, I thought", he said, giving me a smile that revealed that he was lightly embarrassed. "I figured that we shouldn't start kissing in public."

I felt my pulse raise. Alexei and me, alone? In his room? With two hours to our disposal?

This week might be better than I anticipated.

Alexei's home for the week was a small guest room in the residential building. It was a little lager than my room at the academy and it had its own bathroom. He had unpacked, though he'd placed everything on top of the desk instead of in the drawers. It suddenly struck me that he was a tidy person; his clothes were neatly folded and his bed made without a wrinkle out of place.

"I half expected this place to be messy already", I confessed as he locked the door behind us. "Somehow you don't strike me as a tidy person."

"Inherited from my mother, I think", he smiled.

"My mother didn't give me such characteristics", I shrugged my shoulders.

Alexei grinned. "Yet she dressed up for a coffee with her daughter and husband."

"They're not married", I pointed out. "And she works at court, they are all expected to dress formally."

"Will you dress up like that when you work here?" He asked.

"What makes you think that I will work here?"

Alexei looked down. "My apologies, I just assumed that. I thought... since both your parents work here, it would be expected."

I raised an eyebrow. "Like it is for you to be a guardian?"

"No", he smiled a little bitterly. "Not exactly like that. I do not really have a choice."

I walked up to Alexei and placed my arms around his neck, trying to be sensual as I glanced up at him. "Would you like to see me in formal clothing? I can even wear a dress?"

The smile on his lips faded a little, turning smugger. He leaned down, rubbing his nose against my cheek. "No..." he mumbled. "I think that I would like to see you without any clothes at all."

His words made me flinch, though from surprise more than anything else. I wondered for a moment if I had heard him correctly, had he really said that he wanted to see me... naked?

Suddenly, his face dropped. "I am sorry!" He apologized. "I should not have said that."

"No, no, no!" I said rapidly. "I was just not prepared!"

I grabbed his hand and put it on my chest, just above my left breast, for him to feel my heart. It pounded hard against my ribcage and I knew that he could feel it beat hard against his palm. His hand slid upwards, cupping my neck as he lowered his lips to mine. I threw my arms around his neck again, clinging to him until there wasn't a part of my front that didn't press against his. His other hand slid up my shirt, resting against the middle of my back.

"I thought you said without clothes", I breathed, pulling away from our kiss for a tender second.

Something lit up in his eyes and he reached up to pull his own shirt off by grabbing it at the neck. Then he grabbed the lower edge of my shirt and pulled it over my head, tossing it away. "If you say so."

Pulling me in for another ground-rumbling kiss, his movements and hands grew braver. His kissed moved lower, gently sucking on the soft skin below my ear which left me gasping and his hands lowered to cup my bottom. I gently pushed him away, but only far enough to slide my hands down his stomach to unbutton his jeans.

"Are you sure about this?" Alexei asked and swallowed.

I glared at him. "Would I try to get your pants off if I wasn't sure?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Never hurts to ask."

*^* Warning - M-rated scene! *^*

If you do not want to read an M-rated scene, skip the text until you reach the next line of bold letters!

We were quick to take our clothes off, but as we actually ended up naked in bed we took this remarkably slower. Almost his entire weight was on my body, a comfortable weight that I encouraged by hugging his waist to get him even closer to me. I could feel his erection against the inside of my thigh, pulsating warm and hard. His lips explored my body; my neck, my throat, my chest and my stomach. His touches were gentle, touching my body as if it was a rare piece of fabric he had the chance to touch. His tongue, when he let it play with sensitive parts between my thighs, made me arch my back in pleasure. He usually made pleasurable chills run down my spine only when he touched me, I could barely even explain the pleasurable chills when he did more things to me.

Alexei paused the kisses for a second and stroked my cheek with the tip of his nose. "Do you have any protection?"

I also paused. Firstly, I wanted to slap myself across the face a couple of times; the thought of protection hadn't even crossed my mind once since his presence and actions had taken up all of the space in my head. Then, I nodded. "Yeah I do."

Alexei didn't even try to hide a mixed expression of surprise and slight disappointment in his face as I left the bed and opened up my purse. "Do you always carry condoms in your bag?"

I felt my face redden. I suppose that it was a good thing that I carried condoms with me all the time, since moments like this (or similar to this, I had never been with a guy like this before) had happened once or twice before. However, it also sent a message to Alexei that I always carried condoms in my bag.

"Well… Vanessa keeps putting them there", I explained, not entirely lying. Vanessa was usually the ones handing out the things before a party or so, but the contribution was always welcome if the desire would occur. "And for tonight, I guess that's a good thing?"

If he had any other feelings about my stock of condoms, he didn't show it. Quietly, he took the condom from me and opened it. And after a few concentrated seconds, he had the rubber on.

He kissed his way up from my stomach to my lips again, gently rocking his hips from side to side to position himself with his tip just by my entrance. I had a burning fire of desire inside my stomach, I didn't want to wait a minute longer. Slowly he slid into me, stretching me out with slow and agonizing pleasure. He let out a moan, burying his face into the nape of my neck and began to rock his hips forwards. The burning in my stomach slowly began to fade out, spreading its warmth to my arms and legs, then out to my fingers and toes.

With every thrust, which became harder and faster for every minute that passed, I felt an unfamiliar feeling built up in my stomach. I had been with guys before, I wouldn't deny that, but no one of them had ever made me feel like this.

Alexei breathed something in Russian in my ear, but I didn't bother to ask what he said. The feeling kept climbing in my stomach, as if it was walking up a hill. His breathing began to grow shorter and more rapid, his hands gripped my hip and kept them still as he thrust faster. The climbing in my stomach began to reach its peak; I didn't know how I knew that, I just did. And as the climbing reached the top and tossed me over the edge like a rollercoaster rolling downwards from the top, my stomach clenched tightly.

Apparently, the feeling of my orgasm was intense for Alexei as well, for only a few seconds later, he made one final thrust and released himself inside of me with a satisfying moan. His body relaxed and he lay panting with his face still buried between my neck and shoulder for a few seconds.

As the room grew silent from any other sounds, I noticed that I was breathing just as fast. I didn't feel tried or anything, but I breathed as if I just had completed a 5-mile run. I nudged my shoulder to lift his face up from my neck and pressed a long kiss on his lips.

His hair was ruffled from the lovemaking and there was a shine to his dark brown eyes. I didn't know how it could be possible, but he was even more handsome while laying naked on top of me.

*^* End of M-scene *^*

I could have stayed in his bed for hours, preferably with him tightly wrapped around me. I could have spent hour with my head against his hard chest, listening to the sound of his steady heartbeat.
However, like all good things, our two hours ran out and I had to get dressed again to be in time for dinner with my parents. With Alexei stealing a kiss from me every other second, dressing was both fun and took time. I had to brush my hair with my fingers and erase any smudged make-up with some water.

"Can we do this again sometime?" I asked between kisses before I left his room.

Alexei smiled against my lips and nodded. "Of course we can."

And there we have it! An introduction of Mirabel's parents and she finally climbed into bed with Alexei! :)

I won't update next weekend, I'm going on vacation for a few days and thought that I should keep those still faithful to this story on the leash for a week more ;) That will also give me some time finish the current chapter that I'm writing! :)

Have a good weekend and I wish you a spooky halloween in advance!

Love, Zeraphime