Orlando

Evelyna’s POV

I stared at him. “Sergei? Sergei was the one who killed Mason?”

He nodded, biting his lip. I couldn’t believe this. If Brock knew that Sergei Gonchar was the Star involved and that he was the mentor to Val, I couldn’t begin to imagine the pain and agony he’d put the poor man through. He sniffled.

“You must think Sergei is a bad man, now.”

“No, no.”

“He killed someone….he should have gone to jail, but he bailed out. He told me it was an accident. He said that he had gotten in some kind of accident and it changed him. But I didn’t know it was murder.” Val burst out in tears.

At once I threw my arms around him in comfort. I embraced him, while my roommates got up and hugged him as well. We all clung to him, reassuring him that everything would be fine.

“Brock won’t know about this. No one will. Only us, okay?”

“Okay.”

We broke apart and one-by-one the girls returned to their spots on the couch. I remained attached to him and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. It made him smile slightly. I nuzzled against his shoulder.

“Sergei lied to me.”

“He didn’t lie. I think he was protecting you. He didn’t want to cloud your mind with his past issues. Everyone had flaws, Val, even Sergei.”

“But...murder?”

I pulled back and wiped the tears from his eyes as they trickled out, down his cheek and onto the table and his lap and me. I didn’t mind getting drenched in his tears. I pulled his head into my shoulder and he rested it there as he sobbed. I patted him on the back, as though he were a little kid.

“Don’t worry Valeri,” Caitlyn spoke up, “You didn’t know, but you shouldn’t look at Sergei any differently. He may have made a mistake, but he’s learned his lesson and he is guiding you. He’s done marvelously, I see and that’s all that matters. So what if he murdered someone on accident. He made a mistake getting drunk and learned from it. That’s maturity.”

Val snapped his head up. He knew she was right. He blinked away the tears and nodded. I smiled at him.

“Only to make you feel better, Patrick Kane is no bucket of roses either. He had an incident. But do you hear his name mentioned in the media for anything bad, no? Why? Because he learned his lesson and he has matured. Sergei just doesn’t want you following in his footsteps and he is looking out for you. He’s a good guy.”

Val nodded again. He rubbed his eyes. “You’re right.”

We smiled at one another. I leaned over after a few minutes and whispered into his ear, “Wanna go fool around?” I watched him beam some more.

“We’re going to go to my room and call it a night, I think.” I grabbed his hand once more and pulled him into my room, closing the door behind me. As soon as it clicked into place, I was scooped up into Val’s arms and carried over to my bed. He laid me down on it, while he stripped his jersey off and stepped out of his pants.

I removed my own fan jersey and jeans. We made a pile by the dresser, before he crawled onto the bed with me. He took the wall side, lying on his side, as I snuggled back against him, almost immediately feeling his arm drape over my side and his hand slip into my bra.

I let him explore and have his fun, leaning back, enjoying myself and feeling grateful for the massaging moment of bliss I had. He was only here until October 6 anyway. I was going to be sad, when he had to go, but I knew neither of us would forget this time we spent together.

As he massaged my chest, I found my head turning to face him. We locked lips and kissed, eventually falling asleep together once more.

Thursday was low key. For the most part Val and I hung out together in the apartment. We didn’t dare step foot outside. And luckily my roommates were respectful and understood the dire situation and remembered to lock the door behind them each time they left.

The two of us spent the day being couch potatoes and snuggling together. Val seemed to have some kind of amusement and liking to my chest and I didn’t mind. I let him touch me. But he was courteous of the roommates and behaved when they came around.

I worked on my homework as well and got a lot done. While I worked, Val played with the cats, who still loved him to death, but knew I was the chosen one.

When I finished we retreated back to my room and watched a little TV. I put on the Big Bang Theory on TBS, which Val seemed to enjoy. Of course he was clueless about what the main character Sheldon was saying, but when he heard the studio audience laugh, he laughed. I thought it was incredibly adorable.

We settled in for the night together once more, cuddling and laughing. As I gazed into his eyes, I smiled, running my hands through his somewhat spiky blond locks of hair. I got an idea in mind and I was going to surprise him tomorrow.

I had actually gotten the idea when we decided to be a couple. I had told Melissa to look into getting two Disney tickets to Epcot. And I knew that Val would like it. We’d go together and he could finally go to Disney, what he wanted to do on this vacation. But I’d be with him and Brock couldn’t get to us; after all we’d be surrounding by millions of people and tourists.

I snuggled in for another evening of sleeping with a man beside me, something I never thought would happen months ago. Now here I was, sleeping with a man who loved and cared for me. And the surrealness of the man being a hockey player from the Dallas Stars. I was in love with Valeri Nichushkin and I knew he was in love with me.