Read The Lion in Russia for Free Online

did so, filling her nose with his clean,
masculine scent. Her body responded immediately wanting more.
     
    Leo sat on the cold linoleum floor across
from Vries. As they tossed a weighted medicine ball back and forth
he was intrigued by the glistening sheen the hard workout had
brought out on her richly toned skin. More than anything he wanted
her to sweat like that for him and vowed that it would happen.
Distracted by a small bead of perspiration that meandered in a
leisurely course down her cleavage he missed his catch and was
rewarded when the ball slammed into his chest with a hard thwat! Vries St. John definitely did not throw like a
girl.
    “What’s wrong Leo? Are you okay?” she said,
frowning in concern.
    He raised his hand to rub his chest in the
area that still smarted from contact with the ball. “Yes. Yes. I
was just lost in thought for a moment. When will this torture
session be over?”
    “Glad to know I’m not the only one hurting
all over. Pietro is in rare form today. We’ll probably do just a
little more cardio, then after some stretching we should be
done.”
    He nodded. “So where would you like to have
breakfast?”
    “After that workout? I’m scared of anything
more fattening than distilled water in a sterilized glass.” She
said, flashing the broad smile that always left him stuttering like
a boy.
    “Sorry, I require more nourishment than that.
We could go back to my home for zavtrak. My cook makes delicious
blinis and right now I could eat my weight in them.”
    “Don’t say that too loudly. Pietro will make
me run a marathon if he ever even imagines me eating pancakes of
all things. I do love them though, and would love some.”
    “Sounds great,” he said, rising to his feet.
He leaned down to give Vries a hand up as she rose gracefully from
the floor. Pietro stood next to them as they did another round of
jumping jacks, interspersed with several burpees. After some
lengthy stretches that felt impossibly good after the brutal
workout they took advantage of the Spartan shower facilities. Leo
stood under the lukewarm water as it pounded down on his aching
muscles. The shower looked like something out of war surplus, but
what it lacked in heat, it more than made up in force and he
groaned again and again as her muscles surrendered to the
ablutions. Finally the sparse hot water ran out and he turned off
the taps. After toweling briskly and dressing in a pair of running
pants and a navy blue t-shirt he walked out into the foyer. Though
he expected to have a long wait Vries joined him in less than ten
minutes. She looked refreshed from the shower and with her amazing
abundance of hair caught up in two neat ponytails --really one day
he was going to have to ask how she did that-- she looked like a
young girl. Fortunately the look in her eye as she gazed at him was
all woman. Thank God.
     
    “You can’t let me eat another one of these,”
Vries said as she all but inhaled her fourth blini. The tart sour
cream provided a delicious counterpoint to the piquant nuttiness of
the buckwheat in the tiny little pancakes. With the addition of the
salty smoked salmon, Vries felt she’d died and gone to culinary
heaven.
    Leo grinned at her, showing an amazing set of
bright white teeth marred only by a slight overlap of the first
two. “I can’t imagine anything more erotic than watching you eat. I
think you’re giving me a fetish.”
    “Yes, but you saw how I have to pay for such
indulgences.”
    He shuddered in mock horror. “I can make it
worth it.”
    “That’s what they all say.”
    Leo sat back with a frown. “Is that what they say? Who are they?”
    “What?” Vries said, totally distracted by the
blinis still attractively arranged on a platter his cook had placed
on the table. The dining room of Leo’s palazzo was enormous with a
table large enough to seat people well into the double digits. As
there was only the two of them Vries wondered why they couldn’t
just eat in the kitchen,