Fredericka joined him in his suite ten minutes later, and he welcomed her inside with a slight smile. After closing the door, he followed her in the en-suite living room. She had changed before coming here, swapping her summer dress for a lace shirt tucked in a pair of high-waist shorts. She had also let her silky red curls loose, and the sight of it made him want to drive his fingers through her hair, made him imagine pulling her head back as he devoured her mouth.

“Sergei?”

The wide-eyed look on Fredericka’s face made him realize he had been staring at her, and Sergei willed himself back into control. “What do you want to drink?” She smiled at him, and the sight was irresistible and adorable, enough to have a brief smile tug at his lips as he asked, “Coffee, I take it?”

“As always.” Her gaze drifted to the espresso machine behind him. “Shall I make it for us?”

“It would be my pleasure,” he drawled, “to have you serve me.” The sexist remark was purposeful, and the billionaire’s eyes gleamed in amusement when Fredericka gave him a properly professional response by sticking her tongue out.

Even so, she still padded towards the coffee station and his admiring gaze followed her every move, Sergei loving the seductively gentle sway of her hips.

Taking a seat on the couch, the billionaire watched her leisurely while his mind considered the many ways his life had changed ever since Fredericka had entered the picture.

Whereas once he had always been cynical and ruthless, Fredericka’s passionate belief in the need for giving second chances had inevitably rubbed off on him. He usually fired airheads, idiots, and bigots on the spot, but lately he had found himself actually giving them a week to prove to him they could change, and all because he wanted to impress Fredericka with his nice-guy act.

Even his usual routine had been thrown upside-down, with Sergei having no choice but to delegate more to his team of executives so that he would be able to free himself for weekend trips to Miami. In the past, his siblings had teased him for being a workaholic. Now they teased him for being a hedonist, with the way he made Florida look like it was just a ten-minute ride from California.

In front of him, he caught sight of Fredericka wetting her lips as she stole glances at him while making coffee, but he pretended not to notice. His little bee had changed, too, the billionaire thought. She was so much more feminine now, and he knew he wasn’t being conceited in thinking it was due to him. That one night they shared had been more than enough to awaken the earthy sexuality that she had been born with, and since then the way she would stare at him with innocent, unconscious yearning had been his ultimate source of torment and pleasure.

Her inexperience made her so wonderfully easy to read, and it was his secret hope that she would always stay that way. If she spoke to him with a telltale tremor in her voice, it meant that she was missing him badly – but was too proud to tell him. If she smiled at him too brightly, then it meant she had probably succumbed to the temptation of reading lies of gossip about him, and that it had hurt her, even knowing it was a lie.

And if she came to him like she had earlier, eyes suspiciously bright and a lovely flush covering her cheeks---

Well, that could only mean one thing.

She had touched herself before meeting with him.

The knowledge made Sergei shift on the couch, trying his best to get his erection under control. The idea of Fredericka masturbating was a major turn on, and the sight of her now, with her post-climax glow, made his little bee even more irresistible.

“It’s ready,” Fredericka announced then, and Sergei’s gaze lifted up to hers just as she reached him. After placing her cup on the center table, she handed Sergei his, her bent position affording him a generous view of her cleavage. His cock stirred more insistently under his pants, and he had to strive harder to keep himself in check. “Spasibo,” he murmured as he accepted the cup. Thank you.

She took her seat next to him on the couch and for a few moments, they enjoyed their coffee in silence while doing their best to ignore the way they could feel each other’s heat even without touching.

Fredericka suddenly sneezed, causing Sergei to put his cup down to feel her forehead.

“I’m fine,” she protested even as the mere feel of his hand made her tremble.

Noticing the tremor that struck her body, Sergei asked with a frown, “Are you cold?” She didn’t have a temperature, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t about to come down with something.

“Just a bit,” Fredericka lied, knowing that was better than the truth, which was that her body was aching for his touch.

At her answer, he immediately took off his blazer and placed it over her shoulders, and she mumbled her thanks. She caught the scent of his cologne from his blazer and her nipples started to pucker. Not again, Fredericka thought, horrified. Needing to distract herself, she blurted out the first thing on her mind. “What’s the next thing we should target on our bucket list?”

“How about a party for your birthday?” Sergei suggested after a moment, recalling that the item was listed on the Moderate category. He had actually never been one to throw any kind of party, not even for his family members, but for Fredericka he would gladly make an exception.

“Please don’t,” she said with a light shudder. “I don’t need additional reminders that I’m going to turn older.” And for three months, it would also mean she would be seven years older than Sergei, too.

The thought made her mentally flinch.

Six was bad enough, really, but seven just made her positively feel like, well, a cougar.

The billionaire’s gaze narrowed at her. “You should really stop caring so much about the difference in our age.”

“Easy for you to say,” she retorted. “You’re not the one who’s older.”

“It’s just six years,” he pointed out exasperatedly.

“When I have my birthday and until you don’t turn twenty-six, it will be seven,” she grumbled, “and that’s almost like a decade!”

“You’re being ridiculous. No one can tell the difference, and besides---” The billionaire’s tone turned dry. “Between the two of us, we both know who’s the adult one---”

“And that’s me,” she finished firmly. She was the adult one between them…so why was it again that she was spending too much time with Sergei Grachyov? A random memory fluttered in her mind, a time when she and her friends had attended Family Day at Christopoulos University and the three of them had suffered serious pangs of envy at seeing Mairi Tanner-Leventis, an American schoolteacher who had once been rumored to be a scheming gold-digger, enjoying her happy-ever-after in the company of her Greek billionaire husband and baby girl.

I want that for myself, Fredericka thought glumly. Or if she couldn’t have love, then maybe she could at least experience the passion even just once. As soon as the thought popped up, an idea began to form in her mind.

An idea that might also just put an end to her grossly inadvisable infatuation with a younger man---

“Do you have any plans for your birthday?” Sergei was asking.

“Umm, yes.” Fredericka cleared her throat. “I actually do.” Just now, actually, but he didn’t have to know that.

Sergei gazed at Fredericka curiously, having noticed the way she had suddenly started chewing on her lip. That look on her lovely face meant she was lost in her thoughts, and they appeared serious enough to have her nervous.

“Won’t you share with me what your plans are?”

“Umm…”

“I take it I’m not a part of it?” he asked dryly, easily guessing the reason for her discomfort.

She slowly nodded.

“Is it something just for you Alyx and Anneke?”

She shook her head just as slowly.

Sergei’s tone became faintly puzzled. “Then what?”

“It’s…a…secret?”

Sergei stopped smiling. For as long as he knew her, Fredericka had always been vehemently against any kind of duplicity. Secrets were synonymous to lies in her book, which was why the fact that she was trying to keep something from him now made the billionaire both wary and suspicious.

“You know I’ll find out sooner or later,” he told her lazily, “so why don’t we just cut to the chase and you tell me now what your plans are.”

“It’s my birthday,” she tried to prevaricate, “so my plans are my business---”

“Erie.”

She gulped.

“What,” the billionaire asked very softly, “are your plans for your birthday?”

She mumbled her answer in a nearly inaudible voice, but when the billionaire suddenly cursed, Fredericka knew he had still heard her, and she gulped again.

“What the fuck, Erie? Why the hell are you going to meet with Julian Alexeyev on your birthday?”

“I was thinking…” Taking a deep breath, she lifted her chin and say, “I’m thinking of dating him.”

His jaw clenched. “Did he ask you out?” Julian. It was always that fucking Julian Alexeyev!

“I don’t need to explain anything---”

“Answer the question!” His fury worsened at the flash of defiance in her gray eyes, and leaning forward, he grabbed her by the shoulders, snarling, “Answer me, dammit---”

“Because I’m tired of being a virgin!”

The words were out before she realized what she was saying, and as the billionaire stared at her in disbelief, something inside her started to unravel and suddenly she couldn’t stop talking.

“I’m never going to fall in love, and I know that. I’m okay with that. But what I’m not okay with is turning forty and withering before I ever have sex!” Her voice started to rise. “So I will have sex, and I will lose my virginity, and---”

“Then FUCK ME!”