CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Tuesday Afternoon
Hank sat at the kitchen table with his laptop open and read the same sentence for the fifth time. Realizing his concentration was shot, he pushed back from the table and rubbed his hand over his face. He and Stazi had come home from the hospital a couple of hours ago and Stazi was still napping.
He’d gotten up an hour ago because he wanted to see where the Feds were on locating Firtash and Belikov. According to Lucky, Sam and his team had apprehended several brigadiers at Firtash’s warehouse with over fifty million dollars of heroin. It was a decent size bust and would certainly put a dent into the ongoing drug business the Bratva engaged in around the city.
Which was good news, certainly, but not what he cared about most. He wanted Belikov held responsible for snatching Stazi off the street along with whoever helped him. They were still in the process of putting the pieces of her abduction together and hoped to have a full picture by the end of the day.
Unfortunately, Stazi might not be able to help them out much because she’d been given a dose of ketamine along with the secobarbital to knock her out. The ER doctor had told him it was a dissociative anesthetic that often caused amnesia. It also produced a trance-like state that made it near impossible for people to move once they were under the influence.
Knowing that Stazi was so vulnerable when she was in Dmitry’s hands made a rage burn through his gut that was hard to control. Fortunately, no one had taken advantage of her and they’d gotten to her in time.
Hearing footsteps, Hank looked up and saw Stazi coming down the stairs. “Honey, what are you doing up?”
“My rumbling stomach woke me.”
He stood and held out his hand. “What can I make you?”
“Can I have a grilled cheese sandwich?”
“Coming up.” When she got close enough, he took her in his arms and wrapped her up tightly in a hug. “I’m so fucking happy you’re okay.” Her soft hair rubbed against his cheek and his chest swelled with emotion. “The last twenty-four hours have been the longest of my life and I don’t plan on ever letting you out of my sight again.”
“Thank you for coming to get me. For a while, I thought I was going to be stuck there forever.”
“After I’ve fed you, I want you to tell me as much as you can remember.” He felt her hands tighten on his waist as she moved closer. “I promise you that once you get it out, you’ll feel better.”
“I don’t know if that’s true.” Lifting her head, she looked into his eyes. “I was hoping we could go upstairs after lunch and have a lot of mind-numbing sex and put off reality for a while longer.”
“I bet we can do both.” He gave her a wink and grabbed a handful of her firm ass. “Food, sex, and then we talk.”
“Fine.”
He released his hold and motioned to the couch. “Go relax while I make lunch.” The mock salute she gave him made him laugh, and he tapped her bottom and pointed to the living room. “Go rest.”
“Yes, sir.”
He walked into the kitchen and realized having Stazi home safe and sound gave him a similar feeling of satisfaction that he’d experienced when he returned after his first deployment in Afghanistan with all his men. Stazi was his responsibility just like the men who’d been under his command and knowing that she was safe was all that he cared about.
When the threats had started besieging Stazi, he made her safety his responsibility, and when she’d gone missing, he’d felt a crushing fear he never experienced on the battlefield. Something that was going to take him a while to process, despite the fact that extracting her from Firtash’s home had been a cakewalk. All of it made him wonder why anyone had bothered to take her in the first place. It didn’t make any sense and once they put all the pieces together, he hoped to have all his questions answered.
The team was going to get together tomorrow and download, and he hoped that Sam was going to be able to share what they discovered about Belikov’s involvement.
Looking across the kitchen, he saw Stazi’s small feet propped on the end of the couch and felt a wave of gratitude that the op had gone as well as it had. Going against the Bratva hadn’t cost them a scratch and that made him extraordinarily uncomfortable because it should’ve. Belikov had Stazi under surveillance for weeks and attempted to break into her apartment, and to leave her unattended in a poorly guarded house just didn’t add up.
He didn’t want to borrow trouble, but there was something in his gut that told him they were not done with Dmitry and Sergey.
And his gut had never been wrong.
***
Stazi took one step and felt her back hit the wall. “I thought we were going upstairs.”
“I can’t wait any longer,” he said in a half whisper before he prized her mouth open and slid his tongue against hers. “I have to make sure you’re okay.”
“Oh, Hank, make me forget the last twenty-four hours. Take me to the place where it’s just you and me.” He answered her by stepping forward and pressing his weight against her. As he ground his hips, his erection thrust against her stomach.
“Always.”
As she threaded her hands through his hair, he yanked her panties down.
“I promise to never let anything bad happen to you again,” he said against her neck. “Never.”
The moment his fingers slid across her folds, her hips bucked off the wall. “Yes…yes, yes!” She chanted as he pushed two long fingers inside. “I want all of you.”
“That’s what you’re about to get.” He opened his shorts and his cock sprang free. He rounded the crown with his hand. “You’re so tight. I want inside you.”
“Yes, deep inside.”
He dropped his lips onto hers, grabbed her ass, and lifted her against the wall. “I’ll go slow.”
Nodding, she then gasped as he filled her. This was what she needed to wipe away the fear and anger that had filled her since she’d been snatched off the street. Being entwined with Hank, having him buried so deep inside her body that she felt as though she was going to burst.
All she wanted was to feel him against her walls, driving his hard flesh inside her, chasing away all the tears that were threatening to erupt. She needed him as close as she could have him.
Adjusting her hips, he slipped in a little deeper. “More,” she cried out and he slowly lowered her onto him until she was so full that all she could see, feel, and hear was Hank. Knowing any movement could set off her orgasm, she pressed her palm against his chest. Wanting to stay in this perfect state, she concentrated on the way her skin looked against his, the feel of his fingers digging into her and how he smelled like home. This moment was perfect because everything was right in the world and the desire between them was pure, blunt, and untethered. “Now,” she said against his neck.
“Now,” he repeated.
He drove into her and she threw her head back as his thrusts pushed her to the edge of her climax.
“I love your expression right before you…” He jabbed himself up like he couldn’t help himself and it set her orgasm free. It rippled across her body in waves, getting stronger and stronger as she dissolved, and her heart spun in her chest.
Seeing his desire for her prolonged her climax. Just as it began to ebb away, he grunted and his fingers dug deeper as he poured himself into her.
His breaths were hot and fast against her neck, and he growled as he shifted them away from the wall and began walking up the stairs. “Where are you taking me?”
“To bed.”
Once they made it to the bedroom, he set her down and grinned. “You belong here and nowhere else. No one will ever keep me from you for as long as I have breath in my body.”
Seeing his ferocious gaze made her realize how this whole ordeal was as hard on him as it was on her. “I know.”
His mouth tipped up and a satisfied grin appeared on his face. “My come belongs here…dripping down your legs.”
“Hank, you can’t say something like that. It’s so…”
“True?” He tugged her closer and then got rid of her top and his own clothes. Standing over her, naked, he put his hands on his hips as his eyes darted from her face down her body and then back up again. “Open your legs, Stazi, and show me what’s mine.”
There was something in his gaze that told her he needed this. He needed her to open herself completely so that he could claim her and let them both know that they were irrevocably tied together. Maybe she needed it too, so she did as he asked willingly.
He groaned. “Yes. Like that. Nice and wide.” Gripping his cock in his fist, he took a step closer, standing between her open legs. “I need to be with you every day.” He moved the tip of his cock to her clit and made slow, lazy circles. “And you need to be with me every day.”
Not waiting for a reply, he gripped the top of her thigh, tracing his thumb across the juncture between her legs, rubbing the mixture of her wetness and his come into her skin. “I will keep you by my side always.”
Without further warning, he pushed himself in and she cried out. No matter how many times they were together, she never seemed to get used to his size. No one would ever fill her as he did. Not only physically, but emotionally as well.
“There is only us,” he bit out as he drove into her relentlessly. Her climax rushed over her and the drumming in her ears reached a crescendo. He joined her seconds later and then collapsed.
When her ability to breathe returned, she realized that he would never let her go. As much as the thought warmed her heart, it also scared the hell out of her.
Was she ready?