When I glance at Ariana, she’s staring blankly at the coffee table, the show on the TV forgotten. She’s been putting on one hell of a brave act since yesterday’s call with Sergei, but right now, the worry is written all over her face.
My phone begins to ring, and pulling it out of my pocket, I see Yuri’s name on the screen.
Fuck. Here we go.
Answering, I mutter, “Hold on.” I rise to my feet, I go to the security room so Ariana won’t overhear the call.
When the door shuts behind me, I bring the device to my ear. “Yeah?”
“My father passed away early this morning,” Yuri says, his voice devoid of any emotion.
It’s going to hurt Ariana so much.
“Sorry to hear that. The Bratva lost a great man.”
“Where are you?” he asks.
“Working.”
There’s a moment’s silence, then Yuri lets out a sigh. “I know you have Ariana.” I keep quiet, and it has him continuing. “Bring her to me.”
“Sergei ordered me to protect her.”
“My father is dead,” Yuri snaps. “I’m head of the Bratva. You take my orders now.”
“You’re not head of the Bratva… yet, and I only take orders from Alexei,” I reply calmly to his outburst.
“Are you really going to start a war for a girl you know nothing about?”
“If there’s a war, it won’t be because I started it.”
“Vetrov,” Yuri growls. “Don’t fuck with me.”
“Alexei will be in touch,” I mutter, and then I hang up.
I send Alexei a message that Yuri called and he knows we have Ariana, and then I leave the security room.
As soon as I walk into the living room, Ariana glances at me.
Fuck. This is going to suck.
When I sit down beside her, her eyes lock with mine, and she must see the news on my face before I can say anything.
Grief settles over her like a dark cloud. With a quivering voice, she asks, “My dad’s gone, isn’t he?”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I offer her my condolences.
She begins to get up, but I grab hold of her hand and tug her back down. She leans forward and turns her face away from me.
“Your father was a great man, Malyshka,” I murmur softly, and then I link my fingers with hers, trying to give her some of my strength.
Ariana nods, and taking a quivering breath, she whispers, “Thanks.”
We sit in silence for a long moment, and then Ariana pulls her hand from mine, and getting up, she walks out onto the deck. I rise to my feet and follow after her as she makes her way toward the stretch of boulders on the side of the island.
Reaching the very top, I stop a couple of steps behind her. She wraps her arms around her waist, and then her shoulders shudder under the weight of her grief.
“He was just Dad to me,” she whispers, and I move closer so I can hear her better. “He wasn’t the head of the Bratva or a criminal. He was just my dad.”
Her sorrow creates a fire in my soul, and when she lets out a soft sob, it wakes a part of me that’s been dormant for so long I’ve forgotten it was there.
She takes a couple of deep breaths then turns to face me. “Can I have the phone? I need to call my brother.”
Fuck.
Thinking up a quick lie, I shake my head and say, “It’s not safe right now. We can’t give away where we are.”
Instantly a frown forms on Ariana’s face. “But we spoke to my dad yesterday, and you call Alexei.”
Christ.
“Things are tense in Russia,” I try another angle.
“What does that have to do with me talking to my brother? God, Demitri, you’re being impossible.” Her voice begins to climb, and emotions flash over her face, reddening her cheeks, “Our father just died!”
Things are going to shit fast, but there’s no way I can let her talk to Yuri. Learning of the betrayal will kill her. She needs time to process losing her father.
I shake my head again. “I can’t let you talk to him. Just wait a bit longer.”
Anger tightens her features as she stares me down. “Just because my father asked you to protect me, it doesn’t make you God over my life. Give me the phone,” she demands, holding her hand out to me.
Keeping my voice calm, I reply, “This is me protecting you.”
“Oh my God. I can’t win with you,” she cries, her chin beginning to quiver from all the emotions that must be overwhelming her.
When I take a step closer to her, she glares at me. “Don’t you dare touch me right now. I don’t want your pity. I want to talk to my brother.”
I shake my head again, hating that I can’t make her understand without telling her the truth. I reach a hand out to her, but Ariana takes a step backward, and then she lets out a startled shriek as a piece of the boulder gives way beneath her.
Just reacting, I dive after Ariana, and I grab hold of her arm right before we slam into the icy water of the lake.
ARIANA
The breath is slammed from my body as the water engulfs me. Demitri’s grip on my arm tightens, and then I’m yanked toward him.
Not opening my eyes, I instinctively grab for him, and when I feel his shoulders, I quickly wrap my arms around his neck. A current pushes and jerks at our bodies, but a second later, our heads break through the water, and I gasp for air.
As the cold sweeps through my body, I begin to shiver uncontrollably, and my teeth start to clatter.
“Hold on tight,” Demitri orders, and keeping one strong arm around my waist, he begins to swim toward the shore. The waves shove against us, but it doesn’t deter Demitri from getting us back to land. I have no idea how he does it because I’m so frozen, I’m finding it hard just to breathe.
When it’s shallow enough for Demitri to stand, his arm becomes a steel band around me, keeping me pinned to his body. It’s just as well because I don’t think I can move a muscle. The moment Demitri steps out of the water, his other arm slips beneath my knees, and then he carries me up the stretch of sand toward a stairway carved out of the rocks.
God, what is this man made of? Is he even human?
I can’t control the shivers wracking my body, and my breaths come out loud and choppy.
Demitri heads straight for the house and carries me all the way to his bathroom. He sets me down in the shower, and all I can do I lean against him as he opens the faucets.
The cold water feels warm on my skin, but it only makes me shiver more.
There’s nothing I can do as Demitri begins to pull the sweater off me. He keeps going until I’m butt naked, and then he strips out of his own clothes.
My eyes widen as inch after inch of his body is revealed to me, and for a moment, my mind short-circuits, and I even forget about the cold.
Holy crap. Every solid inch of him is perfect.
Grabbing hold of my arm, he yanks me right against his naked skin. Somehow he’s still warm, and I practically melt against him.
His arms wrap tightly around me, and he begins to rub a hand up and down my back.
I stand shivering in his arms until I can finally manage to whisper, “S-sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” he replies instantly, his tone brusque and strained.
The shower begins to fog up around us, and the cold slowly seeps from my body. And then I start to feel more than just the warmth of Demitri’s body.
His muscles are solid steel against every soft inch of me.
The intense attraction that’s been driving me insane comes back with the force of a nuclear bomb.
Demitri keeps brushing his hand up and down my back, and it sends a tsunami of tingles rippling through me.
“Better?” he murmurs, his voice now hoarse.
“Uh-huh,” I manage to mumble, overwhelmed by the fact that I’m naked with Demitri. My eyebrows knit together when I feel his cock starting to grow hard against my abdomen.
Oh. My. God. He feels huge.
Still, I can’t make myself move.
Demitri’s hand stills between my shoulder blades, and then he pulls back enough to look at my face.
A blush creeps up my neck as our eyes lock. A tense moment stretches between us, and I expect him to pull away from me, but then a predatory look tightens his features. My ovaries self-destruct from how hot he looks right now with the water trickling down his face.
Demitri moves like a force, shoving me back against the tiles, and then his mouth crashes down on mine. My mind and body are overwhelmed, and it takes me a moment to realize what’s happening.
And then my mind says fuck it all, and my body takes over. When I part my lips and Demitri’s tongue drives into my mouth, all reasoning vanishes into thin air. There’s only the heat between us that’s quickly turning into a blazing inferno.
I reach up and run my hands over his shoulders and neck as I kiss him back with every overwhelming and destructive emotion I feel. I pour the last week’s fear and uncertainty into it. But above all, I admit to myself that I want this. Even if it’s just once.
Even if it’s crazy and wrong.
I give in to my desire as my palms move down Demitri’s chest, and I get to relish the feel of every hard inch of him.
The kiss quickly spirals out of control until it’s a wild tug of teeth and plunging of tongues. The taste of him clouds my mind, and it’s so good, I let out a moan.
Demitri’s hands burn a hot path down to my butt, and then his fingers dig into my skin, and I’m lifted against his body.
He pins me to the tiles, and I wrap my legs around him. Another moan escapes from me when his hard length meets the junction between my thighs.
Oh, God.
Yes.
My fingers find the wet strands of his hair as he kisses me like I’ve never been kissed before. It’s filled with power and dominance, demanding I submit to him.
It’s out of this world hot.
Demitri’s hands move up the sides of my waist, and his lower half keeps me pinned to the wall as he breaks the kiss. His palms cover my breasts hard and possessively, and then his eyes lock with mine again.
Caught up in the raw passion between us, I don’t feel any embarrassment as we stare at each other.
Demitri pinches one of my nipples, and it draws a gasp from me as my abdomen clenches with the need for more. When I rub myself against his hard length, the corner of his mouth lifts. His voice is low and demanding as he asks, “Do you want me to fuck you, Malyshka?”
I don’t have to think about the answer and quickly nod. My reaction makes a dangerously hot smirk form on his face, and then he thrusts hard against my clit.
It makes a burst of air explode over my lips, and I dig my nails into the back of his neck.
Slowly he begins to rub his cock against my sensitive bundle of nerves, his eyes as dark as a million sinful nights.
Feeling him between my legs makes wave after wave filled with tingles and need crash over me.
Suddenly he stops, and I let out a frustrated groan which makes him give me a domineering smile. “How badly do you want my cock?”
Oh, God. He’s a filthy talker, and it does things to me I didn’t expect.
I freaking like it.
I move my one hand down to his chest and then lower until I reach his abs. Stroking the skin there, I gather all my courage. Like a damn hussy, I purr, “So… so… badly.”
Heat flares in Demitri’s dark gaze, and then he thrusts hard against my clit again. I let out a satisfied moan which rewards me with another hard thrust.
Demitri moves his hands back to my butt, and then his mouth skims over my jaw. Sliding one of his hands further down, he begins to circle my entrance with a finger. Having him touch me so intimately sends mind-clouding pleasure through me. He keeps teasing me until my abdomen is nothing more than a tight ball, and my hips are swiveling, begging for more.
“Beg me,” he demands, his voice strained as if it’s taking all his self-control to hold back.
I turn my face to his and tug at his bottom lip with my teeth before I breathlessly give him what he wants. “Please fuck me, Demitri.”
Like a wild beast, he loses all control. There’s no time for me to brace myself as he positions himself at my entrance, and with a powerful and painful thrust, he fills me. I grab hold of his shoulders as a cry explodes from me, and it mixes with the satisfied groan rippling from his chest.
His mouth claims mine in a brutal kiss, and then he begins to move, hard and fast. His pace is relentless, but after a couple of thrusts, pleasure makes the pain fade.
Unable to gain control over anything, it feels like I’m being devoured. My senses are inundated by the forceful way Demitri kisses and fucks me.
His muscles tense and roll with every thrust, his well-endowed cock stroking me into oblivion. Caught in a haze of pleasure, cries and moans keep spilling over my lips. I’ve never been so loud before, and there’s no way for me to stop the sounds.
My body begins to tremble out of control, and I slap a hand against the tiles, looking for something to grab hold of. My fingers find the showerhead and clamp tightly around it as I’m repeatedly shoved back by Demitri pounding into me.
“Oh, God,” I whimper against his mouth. When the pleasure builds to breaking point, I cry, “Demitri!” My voice is strained, and then my body tenses.
“Eyes on me,” he demands, and I barely have enough brainpower left to do as he asks, but the moment I focus on his dark brown irises, it makes a level of intimacy weave around us that I feel in my soul.
My body strains for release, my hips meeting every one of his thrusts. His cock fills every inch of me, stroking me hard.
“Please…” I beg when it becomes too much.
“Come, Malyshka,” he orders possessively as if he already owns my body.
In this moment, he does because I unravel at the speed of light.
I can’t tear my eyes away from his as I begin to convulse, and then ecstasy seizes every part of me. It’s overpowering, and I can’t think. I can’t move. I can’t breathe.
I can only feel as the orgasm rips through me.
“Christ,” Demitri hisses through clenched teeth. “You’re so fucking tight around me.” His body begins to jerk, and he pushes deeper inside me, sending more paralyzing waves of ecstasy through me.
When Demitri’s orgasm hits and I feel him swell inside me, sobs of pleasure begin to spiral over my lips, and just when I’m sure I’m about to blackout from the intensity, he slows his pace and allows me to come down from the orgasm.
Desperately I gasp to fill my lungs with air, spasms rippling through my body from the echo of pleasure that was just wrung from me.
Our eyes lock, and then Demitri pulls out of me and the moment between us shatters.
Activity returns to my brain, and then the realization of what I just did settles awkwardly between us.
It makes everything worse when the first words to leave my mouth are, “Damn, you have the stamina of a horse. For a moment there, I thought you were trying to break me in half.”
But it was good. So, so, so damn good.
The best sex I’ve ever had.
As if Demitri can read my thoughts, a smirk lifts the corner of his mouth.
Unable to hold his gaze, I lower my eyes, and then my eyebrows shoot up. “Da-yumn, no wonder. You’re hung like a horse as well.”
Demitri lets out a smug chuckle.
…And now would be a good time for the ground to open beneath my feet.
