cmh Ruskin

Ruslan tenderly ran his fingers through his young partner's long hair, as if he were afraid of damaging it with his large, rough palms. He dried her hair as if it were a sacred act, almost a ritual. Quietly, carefully, as if any careless movement could disturb the fragile world they shared. The girl sat surrounded by pillows, half asleep, in his T-shirt, with damp hair, her head resting on his stomach. The man held the hair dryer, and the air was warm, soft, as if the device itself was afraid of burning her.

The room was filled with the evening twilight, so that the bright light would not hurt the eyes 333. Behind the panoramic windows, curtained with dark curtains, a downpour was falling, and drops were quickly running down the glass. The dim light from the table lamp painted the far corner of the room in golden-honey tones. A faint aroma of strawberry shampoo and home comfort hung in the air, a feeling that everything was fine.

Their relationship was half secret. She had just recently turned twenty-one. Ruslan was seventeen years older. He hadn't come to her birthday party - he was afraid. He didn't want to meet her friends, to see their looks. He knew too well what it was like from the outside: a man of almost forty, next to a young girl. He didn't want to see the stern looks of his parents, almost his peers, either. And he himself would have been bored. Ruslan wouldn't have allowed himself to do anything if it hadn't been for her persistence and impudence. In public, the brunette tried to be reserved and unnoticeable, like a shadow. But at home, he became her reliable rear: closed the window at night, brewed ginger tea at the first sign of a cold, hugged tightly, like a teddy bear, giving love, a feeling of comfort and safety.

The man turned off the device, put it on the bedside table and ran his fingers along her cheek. Not as a man to a woman, but as a person who still does not believe that he has the right to love her. But in this room, in the silence and semi-darkness, no one could forbid him to be near.

"Come on, my little star, get into your pajamas and come back to me."

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