Crash into Me: A BWWM Russian Billionaire Romance (2 page)

Never again would he hear one of those lectures, and it made him sad to think that he couldn’t even remember the last thing he’d said to his father.

Something sarcastic, no doubt. Some quip or jibe. It had been months before, since his father had left to go back to Russia for business, and Alexei hadn’t bothered to go see him since he’d come back.

He’d figured that there would be time. That eventually he’d been summoned to the nearly palatial manor his parents lived in. Where he’d be interrogated about what he’d been doing with his life and when he planned to get serious and all of those things that he tried to avoid. His sister would be there, standing near their father like the son he’d always wanted. Wearing that pinched look of disapproval on her face as Alexei joked his way through three courses of dinner, dessert, and then after dinner drinks.

It had all been planned out, down to what he would wear (a purple shirt with a dark grey waistcoat because his mother didn’t like colors and her face always managed to look like she had stepped in something unpleasant when he wore them), and now there wouldn’t be that moment.

Now there would be a funeral and people making speeches about things they didn’t mean. Saying all these nice things about his father that likely weren’t even true, and Alexei didn’t know how to handle it.

The last person he’d known who’d died was his grandfather; and if possible the man had been even more imposing than Alexei’s father. Not to mention the fact that Alexei had been seventeen when he’d died, so it wasn’t like he’d spent a lot of time mourning for the old man. It’d just meant that there was one less person telling him that he was turning out to be a disappointment and needed to cut his hair.

But it was different when it was his own father.

Despite the fact that they had never seen eye to eye on anything, the man had been his
father,
and Alexei loved him. And now he was gone.

“It was a lovely service, wasn’t it?” Alexei’s Aunt, Dagna, asked as they walked up from the spot where they’d had the funeral. His mother was holding the urn containing his father’s ashes (because Oskar Alexandrov had been adamant that his body wasn’t going to rot in the ground or in some tomb in America; he was either going to be buried in Russian soil or be burned), and Alexei didn’t even want to look at it. It seemed morbid to just be walking around with it, and he kept his eyes on the damp grass as they trudged up the hill.

“Oskar would have hated it,” his mother pointed out. “The singing, the speeches. He would have hated it.”

“I’m sure he’s cursing up a storm from beyond the grave, so to speak,” Alexei muttered under his breath, but trusted his mother to hear him anyway.

“Alexei,” she said firmly, and he sighed.

“Leave him be, Mother,” Vera said as she walked up beside them. “If he can’t muster an ounce of respectability or
remorse
at Father’s funeral, then that’s his problem.”

He rolled his eyes at that, not giving his sister the time of day. Heavy sorry was weighing him down, and he didn’t care whether or not his elder sister could see it. Vera was going to think what she wanted about him, and that was fine.

“Well,” Dagna said. “I still think it was lovely. The harpist was a beautiful touch.”

Alexei and his mother traded looks at that as they reached the church, stepping into the cool, shadowed cathedral and out of the heat of the midmorning sun.

Both of them knew that Oskar Alexandrov would not have enjoyed the harpist. He would have made derogatory comments about the instrument. Add in the fact that it was being played by a man with long hair, and it would have all been very offensive. It may have been old fashioned of his father, but that was just how he was sometimes. There was not a chance that he would have found any of it lovely, but Oskar’s sisters had planned most of the funeral. All without any input from Veronika (something that she was upset about), so it had been lovely, but very much something that Alexei’s father would have hated.

Fortunately, Alexei thought morbidly, the man didn’t get a say in anything anymore.

The ladies’ heels clacked on the polished floor as they made their way deeper inside to where a large buffet of food had been laid out.

Veronika sniffed at the sight of it. She’d been all for there being some kind of catered meal at their estate, but she’d been overruled by Oskar’s sisters who’d insisted on cooking something for everyone to eat at the church.

Alexei wasn’t sure about it either, but he didn’t have the energy to argue. In all honesty, he was a little hungover from drinking all night, and he just wanted this to be done so he could find someone to help take his mind off of this mess.

“Mother,” he said softly, one hand on the small of her back. “Just sit down.”

She gave him a sharp look but then seemed to see something in his eyes that made her relent. She went to sit at the head of the table as if determined to make it clear that she was still the most important person there as the widow.

As if anyone could have forgotten that.

For the first little bit, the table was quiet. People passed the large trays of food around, taking their helpings and handing them off to the person next to them. Oskar hadn’t really had
friends
, preferring to spend his time either traveling or with his family. The table was full of his family and the few members of Veronika’s side that had attended, as well as a couple of Oskar’s business associates who had been deemed worthy of an invite.

All four of Oskar’s sisters were there, as well as their husbands and children, and they took up most of the table.

Of course, it was them who eventually broke the silence.

“I remember when Oskar was four,” Leda said with a small smile. She was the oldest of all her siblings, and the others looked at her immediately. “He was always running around taking his clothes off. Couldn’t keep him dressed for more than five minutes at a time, and it drove our nanny crazy.”

Veronika stared hard at her plate and clenched her fingers around her water glass, saying nothing.

“He was such a defiant little boy,” Dagna put in. “Nanny would try to get him to sit down and do his lessons. He would shout that she wasn’t in charge of him and then run off. Mother had to be enlisted to bring him back each time before he disturbed Father.”

Alexei’s mouth curled into a smile at the thought of his father doing that. Certainly the older version of him had been that stubborn, but never really in a way that had amused Alexei.

“And remember when he declared at dinner one night that he wasn’t going to be eating vegetables anymore?” Ana asked in her quiet way with a little smile.

The sisters laughed warmly and Alexei couldn’t help but smile at that. His father had never been inclined to displays of affection or declarations of love. Alexei had only seen him interact with any of his sisters a few times, but it was obvious that they loved him. It was obvious that he would be missed for more than the fact that he’d been good with numbers or was good at business. That was nice to see.

Of course, he was the only one who felt like that. At the head of the table, Veronika slammed her glass down, splashing water over her hand.

“I do not think this is appropriate talk for the occasion,” she said sharply.

Every head swiveled to look at her, and Dagna looked confused. “What do you mean, Veronika? We’re remembering our brother.”

“You’re making a
mockery
of him,” Veronika snapped, clearly upset. “Telling stories about him doing childish things. And in front of his children, too. Is that how you remember him?”

The sisters exchanged glances and then soft spoken Ana smiled. “Of course we remember him for his accomplishments as well,” she said. “But he was our brother before he was a ruthless business man. We aren’t mocking him, but speaking fondly of the man we all loved. Don’t you want your children to know that there was more than one side to him?”

“No!” Alexei’s mother said firmly. “I want them to remember him with
respect
.”

“Mother,” Alexei said softly. “Leave it be.”

“I will
not
! This whole thing has been a mockery of my husband and the man he was, and I won’t stand for it a moment longer!”

She got to her feet and strode away from the table, heels clacking furiously on the floor as she went. The rest of the people at the table watched her in silence for a moment, and then the muttering started.

Alexei sighed, wondering how long he could sit there and eat potato salad before he was expected to get up and try and do something about his mother’s tantrum. He could practically feel Vera’s eyes boring into him while he sat there; so he sighed and pushed his chair back from the table, smiling apologetically at his aunts.

Vera followed as they made their way across the cathedral floor.

“I can’t believe you just sat there,” Vera said lowly.

Alexei gave her an incredulous look. “What was I supposed to do?”

“Take up for Mother!”

“Are you kidding me? She was completely out of line.”

“How? Because she didn’t want to hear about Father as a toddler? Let me guess, you probably thought that was lovely. You loved hearing about Father running about naked and refusing to eat his vegetables, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I did. But I can understand how hearing that our father was human messes with your whole android thing, Vera. Must be hard to find out that he was actually a person because then we have to wonder where you came from.”

It wasn’t a nice thing to say by any stretch of the imagination, but to be honest, Alexei was tired. He was sad and he was sick of his mother’s antics. Of course she was making this whole thing about her and her feelings, even though she was hardly the only one of them who had lost someone.

Vera pursed her lips angrily and then shook her head. “Just stay here,” she said. “I’ll go find Mother and speak to her.”

And then she was striding off, leaving Alexei where he was standing. He cracked his knuckles in irritation and then sighed. Instead of leaving like he had considered, he shook his head and went back to the table, giving a winning smile to his aunts. “So, tell me more about Father as a kid.”

He didn’t stick around for much longer after that. Vera and his mother were probably holed up somewhere cursing his name and talking about how disrespectful he was, so he was perfectly fine with leaving. He hugged each of his aunts before he went, thanking them for the stories and for taking charge in the planning of the funeral in the first place.

“I hope we didn’t upset your mother too much,” Leda said, looking concerned.

Alexei shook his head. “It’s fine, I promise. This is just how she is.”

From the church, he went back to his place and took a long shower, trying to shake the feelings he was having. There had never been any of that light heartedness that his aunts had displayed when he was growing up. If either he or his sister had run away from their lessons, there would have been hell to pay when their parents found out.

On the one hand, it was nice to know that his father hadn’t always been the strict task master that he was as an adult, but on the other, Alexei was fiercely jealous that his father had been able to have a childhood.

He sighed and finished his shower before collapsing into bed. What he needed now was a long nap and then to go out. He needed to get his mother’s voice out of his head and to stop thinking about how much his sister disliked him and how much he missed his father even though they had never really had a relationship that one would call warm.

Thinking about that wasn’t going to make anything better, so he punched his pillow and sighed, letting the warmth of the day and his own exhaustion send him to sleep for a few hours.

It was nearly dark when he woke up again, and that was perfect. Alexei had time to grab a bite to eat for dinner and then get dressed and decide where he wanted to go. He wanted to drink, he knew that much, but he was also very interested in having some company, so he took that into account and chose his club accordingly.

Spectre was one of those hipster type places that served expensive alcohol and had an outlandish cover charge, but it was always packed and that was what Alexei was looking for at the moment. It was nothing for him to hand over his money at the door, and the he just arched an eyebrow when the bouncer gave him a once over.

He already knew from his clothes and posture that the bouncer would be able to tell he belonged there. Alexei could only imagine that since he didn’t seem to be checking IDs at the door, he was checking for something else, and he stood straight backed and proud and let the man look.

After a few seconds he was being waved inside, and he nodded to the bouncer and made his way in.

It was a nice place, that was for certain. Carpeted in certain areas, hardwood floors in others, sectioned off to designate places that were for sitting and drinking from the places that were meant strictly for dancing. The music had a deep, thrumming beat, and it sounded like a dubstep remix of some popular song or other.

All the furniture was dark and made of leather from what Alexei could see, and the bar was packed, the low blue lights showing three thin, pretty blonde women making drinks behind it.