"So, you are knowing much about great literature!" he said, bringing up a few of the Russian greats: Chekhov, Pushkin, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, of course.

"'I am a sick man...I am a spiteful man,'" he quoted with frightening believability before he broke into a charming grin. "You know this, yes?"

I nodded, awestruck. It wasn't every day a girl met a hunky guy who could spontaneously recite lines from Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground while sitting in a nightclub drinking imported beer.

"I work, during daytime, as house painter and maintenance man. I have work visa and good job here in States. Someday I will be citizen, too, but my true heart"-he brought his palm to his solid-looking chest-"is with poets."

Is he a writer? Jane asked, suddenly paying attention.

I asked him if he was.

"Yes. Of words. Lyrics," he clarified. "I am playing my music now, my guitar, for beyond twenty years."

Ah, a musician with poetic tendencies. Jane declared this to be an interesting development, but Di overheard him and shot me a troubled look. Her soon-to-be-ex-husband's instrument of choice was a Fender Telecaster electric guitar.

"I'd like to hear you play sometime," I told him, partially to be polite and make conversation, yes, but primarily because he'd aroused my curiosity. And a few of my other parts. "Are you currently with a band?"

He radiated pride and waved his hand in the direction of Mikhail and their other buddies still near the bar. "We are Red Square Warning."

"You're what?"

"Our band. We have name-Red Square Warning. We are all here this night."

I sent a look back across the table at Di, whose brown eyes were now open wide with an expression of general alarm. "Mikhail's in the band, too?" I said.

"Yes." Andrei raised his beer bottle to his friend.

Mikhail pointed to himself and boasted, "I am drummer. Like Ringo."

"Oh, h.e.l.l," Di muttered.

"Oh, well-how interesting!" I said, trying to cover for her. "What kind of music do you play?"

"We are like Russian U2," Mikhail said. "Except Andrei's voice is too, too...pree-yat-nee."

I didn't know what that Russian word meant but, whatever it was, Andrei didn't appreciate it. I glanced over at him for a translation, but he was too busy slugging his friend in the bicep.

"He is liar," Andrei insisted, although he shot a grin at Mikhail.

"You sing for them," Mikhail said. "Let beautiful sisters hear." He turned to Di and devoured her with seductive eyes. "You will comprehend then. He sounds like sweet angel, not like rock star. Very, very...pretty."

Andrei snorted and shook his head, but the three of us looked at him expectantly, and Jane said, I wonder at his level of accomplishment.

"I cannot sing here in noisy bar." Andrei glanced around. "Maybe you both come to my place?"

I envisioned the look of horror etched on our mother's face when she and our dad would be called in to identify the dead bodies of their foolish daughters. "What were they doing in this foreign man's apartment?" Mom would say to the officer at the crime scene. "What were they thinking?"

So, to Andrei, I said, "No, thank you, we can't-"

"Not a good idea," Di interrupted, agreeing with me on something for a change.

Andrei nodded, understanding. "Okay. Maybe then we go to upstairs level." He pointed toward the marginally quieter second floor, which was loft-like and rea.s.suringly open, but away from the largest of the speakers and the majority of the patrons. "I will call others to join us. We sing you one good song all together. Very safe then."

He smiled at me, a winning grin that sent my resolve melting to my toes. I'd follow him alone down a dark Chicago alley if he kept looking at me like that.

I glanced at Di. She inclined her head in a gesture of a.s.sent, so we trailed the two guys up the metal stairs. With the flick of Andrei's index finger, their four remaining friends jumped up to join us.

After conferring briefly in rapid-fire Russian, one of the men bolted out of the club and returned three minutes later with two small instruments from his car. One was something kind of mandolin-like. The other was a s...o...b..x-sized accordion.

Mikhail pulled a couple of drumsticks out of his coat pocket, and another guy produced a harmonica and some jingling hand bells.

Instant band. Just add audience.

"Sit, please," Andrei instructed Di and me, pointing to a couple of chairs in the corner farthest from the flashing lights and hip-hop sounds below. "We play you music-from our souls to yours."

Up until now, I knew how to identify all the males I'd encountered in my life. Male Types #1 through #5 could be spotted from a striking distance of several yards and, thus, avoided. My system was developed-and numbers a.s.signed-based upon my personal relationship chronology. To elaborate: Type #1 = Absolute b.a.s.t.a.r.ds like Sam Blaine, however good-looking they may be. Arrogant, heartless p.r.i.c.ks with too much intelligence and too little sensitivity.

Type #2 = The Jason Bertignolis of the world. Nice, overall. Fairly cute. Not as bright or as mean-spirited as Type #1 but, for a number of reasons, not as alluring either.

Type #3 = Fun-loving, sappily romantic, not-quite-one-hundred-percent-all-American males, namely, guys like my college boyfriend Mark Williams and his Gay Band of Brothers (who finally decide to embrace their true s.e.xual orientation after stringing along naive girls like me). Nothing wrong with their lifestyle, but it puts a serious crimp in a woman's fantasies of hot, kinky s.e.x.

Type #4 = Attractive, masculine and definitely in favor of hot, kinky s.e.x. Very verbal guys who possess an artistic flair but have some unfortunate authority issues, an inclination toward procrastination and a decided lack of a work ethic. In a nutsh.e.l.l, Dominic Reyes-Jones and user guys like him.

Type #5 = The macho bad boys, the cheaters-cheaters-pumpkin-eaters of the dating universe whose only regrets come when they get caught, i.e., Brent "Strip Go Fish" Sullivan.

But Andrei presented something altogether different. He formed a new category all by himself, and I was, I confess, smitten with what I designated on the spot to be the rare Type #6: A man who was talented, straightforward, virile and utterly unique.

Di and I sat awkwardly in our new seats as the men readied themselves. Mikhail flipped a chair around and began drumming a rhythmic riff on the back of it. One guy tuned the mandolin thing and strummed a couple of practice chords, and all of the men hummed a few notes in some kind of vocal warm-up.

Then everything stopped abruptly.

A few seconds later, a haunting accordion melody rose above The Dragon's Lair dance mix. The mandolin and the other instruments joined in.

And Andrei began to sing.

6.

A lady's imagination is very rapid;

it jumps from admiration to love,

from love to matrimony, in a moment.

-Pride and Prejudice Andrei's voice pierced my soul with its lyricism and bathed me in an experience not unlike spirituality.

Yes, without a doubt, there was something otherworldly about Slavic Man when he sang, but the celestial cadences struck me as more phantasmal than angelic. I felt myself slip inside an aural dream sequence and wouldn't have been surprised if little bits of my being were spirited away on the wings of each musical note.

The men's voices merged for the first chorus. Although this was a song I didn't know, the words were familiar, English. They'd been grafted, however, with husky Russian p.r.o.nunciation and elongated by the silken melody. So much so that the tune might well have been a completely foreign one.

Then, Andrei sang alone once more.

He sang of freedom and pa.s.sion. He sang of discovery and a call to one's personal journey. He sang to me, directly, and the rest of the world faded into the void.

Amazing.

Some guys really understood foreplay.

When they were finished, Di and I clapped, as did a few other people who'd been listening in on the Russians' second-floor performance.

"Dudes! Awesome song," one drunk guy exclaimed.

"You were great, man," said the drunk guy's friend, who was also wasted.

They were, however, completely in earnest and, in my opinion, right on target. Andrei and his buddies appeared pleased with the positive reception.

The drunk guy's Southern-belle girlfriend, who was, by contrast, as sober as a Sunday-school teacher, turned to me and whispered, "That looker of a lead singer must think you're hotter than a porch swing in August. He didn't take his eyes off you the whole time he sang, so, either you're sleeping together already or he's got plans for you."

I felt my face flush. "We just met an hour ago," I told her.

She raised both eyebrows and tossed me a saucy grin. "You better watch out, girl."

Di cast me an odd look the moment the woman walked away. "She's right, you know." Then Mikhail appeared at her side, presumably to claim a kiss for his part in the concert, and her attention was diverted.

"Did you like it?" Andrei asked me tenderly, as if he hadn't already guessed.

"Yeah." I took a step closer to him. "You have a remarkable voice."

"But it is not 'pretty.' Say no." He gave me a forbidding headshake.

I laughed. "No, it's not pretty. But it is a gift. People must be in awe every time they hear you."

He shrugged. "It is not always possible to sing from my soul, Ellie. I am saving such moments up for special people. For people like you."

He seared me with one of his intense gazes, and I could feel the s.e.xual heat between us nudging me closer to him while, at the same time, nipping me with its tiny burns.

I took a step back and tried to deflect the flames.

I did a quick check on Di's location, only to see her in full lip-lock with Mikhail. Drummer Boy had both his hands covering her b.u.t.t and had pulled her against his chest. Didn't look like water could separate them.

I squinted at the new couple until I felt a calloused finger touch my chin.

"Look at me, lovely lady." Andrei stared into my eyes with another of his commanding gazes, his light gray irises compelling me to gawk at him. "We see each other again, yes? We go out together sometime, you and me?"

He drew his arm around my waist and tugged me near. When my body brushed against his, it ignited.

I considered it an achievement that I managed a nod in response.

"Good," he said, smiling down at me from a very intimate distance. Then he brought his lips slowly and deliberately to mine.

This was no typical first kiss.

This was no sweet union of mouths.

This was a consuming, mystifying, intoxicating combustion of beings.

This was what people meant when they referred to "physical chemistry." Two different elements that, when combined, were transformed into an entirely unique ent.i.ty. So unique, in fact, that I no longer recognized myself.

Andrei s.n.a.t.c.hed a few gulps of air. "Maybe we go out now?" he suggested.

I didn't answer, but I leaned into him and again pulled his mouth down to mine.

Everything about this should've been wrong.

He had smoker's breath and still tasted of beer, neither of which I liked.

He was built large and imposing, both of which made me feel insecure.

He could've had reprehensible motives, the possibility of which had me worried because, for all I knew, he could be merely trolling for an American wife to make green-card acquisition easier.

But, somehow, when our lips met, every reasonable fear washed away. I floated on the waves of a pa.s.sion I didn't have much experience with, my body being spoken to in a language it didn't understand. All of this rightness despite all odds could not, I figured, be without purpose. This could only be part of some Divine Grand Plan.

Do not be so certain, Ellie, though he IS so very handsome and accomplished, Jane said dryly. Then again, she'd witnessed me falling in love before to disastrous results. I could hardly blame her skepticism.

But, this time, it really was different.

"You will come to my place tonight?" Andrei smacked his pelvis into mine in such a scandalously sensual way that my legs weakened under me to the point of near collapse.

I held him tight for balance and said a very eloquent, "Mmmm."