He didn’t like prying.

Vladimir hated it when his mother did it, hated it when his father tried to slip past his defenses to manipulate things the way he wanted, and he hated when his brothers tried to interfere in his personal affairs.

The moment his brother had arrived in the office, he’d taken one look at Vlad and pronounced that he looked like hell. The woman aside him - Athena, he believed, was her name - took one look at Toshiro before rushing off to make coffee for the both of them. Coffee she never returned with.

Instead, she left the two of them alone while she worked at the opposite end of the room.

In all honestly, the moment Toshiro visited his proclamation on Vladimir, he tried to flee. It almost would have been better to head back to the conference room, where he was torn between staring at Charlotte’s radiant smile as she spoke with the executives and the tantalizing line of her cleavage beneath the top she wore. He had done his best not to remember how sensuously the clothes he bought her hugged the lines of her body - the way she’d looked at him and the way he looked at her in the damn store...And so he’d left the room. Charlotte had things pretty much handled anyway. Later on, the execs would come to him with the logistics and he’d answer all their questions.

Of course, his escape was foiled when he ran into his brother - who hadn’t even warned him that he arrived in the city. He was hardly given the courtesy of a greeting and a brief hug before Shiro commented on his appearance. Everything went downhill from there.

“Well, when Lucas called me, I assumed it was bad, but I didn’t think it would be this bad.”

Vladimir’s mouth fell open - he didn’t know what to address first - the fact that Lucas had obviously ratted on him, or that the whole damn family was now privy to what he considered to be a very private dilemma. Ultimately, he decided that, perhaps, playing dumb might be the best policy.

“What on earth,” he responded, his voice more than a little strained, “Is so horrible?”

“You.” Toshiro didn’t waste any time beating around the bush. “I assume you’ve taken the noble route and haven’t been with any other women since you met Charlotte Gardner.” If anything, Vlad went even more rigid than he already was, glaring at his brother. “Might have saved you a little frustration.” Shiro added, his tone somewhat gentler than it had been. In his gaze, there was something horribly like sympathy, and Vladimir found himself growing angry.

“Last I checked, it wasn’t the family’s business who I slept with,” he snapped - perhaps a little too loudly. If Athena heard him from across the room, however, she didn’t make a peep, continuing to work devotedly on her laptop. She was a pretty, pale little thing - about half Charlotte’s size, perhaps, and Vladimir found himself wondering why on earth Shiro had hired an assistant. He seemed to work quite well by himself before.

“You’re right,” The Japanese man answered succinctly, drawing his chair even closer to Vladimir’s, “But it is my business to make sure my brother is happy and healthy. And it’s apparent to see that you’re not happy, Vlad.”

The Russian man snorted, still loathe to discuss what Toshiro was attempting to bait him with. If he discussed it, that gave the issue power - and in his mind, the damned thing already had enough power as it was. “I’m perfectly happy. Two of our biggest building projects are going according to schedule and, if things continue this way, I’ll be back in New York by the end of the year.”

“Right. Ready to take father’s place.”

“Perfectly ready.” The mere thought was enough to give him heartburn.

“And three thousand miles away from Charlotte Gardner.”

Vladimir opened his mouth to reply - and found that he couldn’t. Inexplicably, the words stuck in his throat.  Toshiro merely stared at him, waiting - and Vladimir cursed him silently. “Vlad,” His brother started, carefully, “I know how you feel about workplace relationships.”

“Do you?” That unstuck his throat. The sheer force of his sarcasm was enough to force the words from him. “Then you know that they don’t exist for me, Toshiro.”

“Right. And I also know that you’re probably driving yourself crazy in increments trying to deal with this. So I’m going to give you a piece of advice.”

“It better have to do with the construction,” Vladimir warned him, his tone deadly soft. Toshiro, however, merely ignored him.

“Get her out of your system.” Shiro deadpanned, unblinking. “You look as if you’re fit to kill someone, Vlad. I’m surprised you managed to go all this time without touching her.” As he said the words, his gaze flickered towards where Athena sat in the corner and Vladimir realized, with no small amount of incredulity, that Shiro was finding his fuel from his own love life. If he had taken leave of his senses and was engaging in a relationship with someone who was supposed to work for him, that was his business. Shiro wasn’t going to tell him what to do.

“Shiro, I’m not talking about this.”

“Vladimir, you’re thirty-five years old. I’d hope by this point that you might have realized talking about things helps sometimes.”

“Not with this.” Vladimir was adamant. When Charlotte wasn’t near, he could afford to be. It might make up for the times she was close to him and he felt himself losing control - micrometer by torturous micrometer.

But then she was there. She walked into the room completely unexpectedly, and he was forced to introduce her to Toshiro and his “assistant” like nothing had happened. Worse, Toshiro went with her when she decided to leave, and God only knew what havoc his brother was wreaking when he wasn’t there to supervise.

Toshiro, Vladimir knew, wasn’t as discreet with his affairs as he himself. That didn’t make him Ethan, who was emblazoned across the cover of some of the world’s most prominent news outlets with a new woman every week, but it certainly didn’t make him enough of an authority on relationships that he could afford to lecture Vladimir on the prospect of one.

The impossible prospect.

Kissing her was one thing - buying her clothes and indulging himself in a few, fleeting moments of her touch...that was all he had allowed himself so far; and Vladimir knew that going any further was dangerous. He wouldn’t do it. Couldn’t do it.

Even if something almost animal inside him threatened to spring free whenever Charlotte was near him.

“Mr. Kensley.”

“What?” The answer ripped sharply from him before he could stop it, and he looked up to see Athena standing over him, her expression somewhat startled. He’d all but yelled at her, with no provocation at all.

It was completely unlike him, and he was immediately ashamed. “My apologies, Athena.”

Christ, he really was losing control. “What did you need?”

The young woman looked hesitant, and Vlad found himself momentarily worried that he’d put her off speaking with him altogether, when that hadn’t been his intention. It was Shiro he was mad at, not Athena. Hell, he didn’t even know anything about her, other than the fact that there was obviously something between her and Shiro.

She took a deep breath before answering him. “Mr. Kensley, I know you and I just met, and I have no business speaking to you on your personal affairs. But Shiro has been really, really worried about you. He’s been losing sleep over it.”

Vlad knew he should cut her off there. The moment she’d mentioned “personal affairs” his wariness had slammed back full force. It was one thing to have Shiro lecturing him, but this slip of a girl? He’d rather be rude than show her a single iota of his vulnerability.

But the young woman continued before he could pass judgement on her - and, to his shock, Vlad found her words cutting him to the quick where Toshiro’s had fallen on deaf ears. “Mr. Kensley, I love Toshiro.” As she spoke the words, Athena’s face reddened. “He doesn’t know it, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell him. I know you two are close - that he depends on you for guidance when he comes up short. Now, he’s trying to help you. I don’t think it’s him trying to lord over you or tell you what to do...he wouldn’t dare. He just wants you to be happy. I think...I think he’s worried because it’s been a while since he’s seen you truly happy...he doesn’t like to know you’re struggling. I’m...quite aware that what’s between Shiro and I is only temporary, but I’d like to do the best I can to make him happy. At least, as long as we’re together.”

It was a bit much for him to process.

Athena was right on all the facts: They didn’t know one another, and she had no place drawing him into the tangle of she and Toshiro’s affair.

But that didn’t mean her words didn’t touch him.

As much as he relied on his logic to guide him, Vladimir wasn’t made of stone.

She had just poured her heart out to a stranger - a stranger who she had to know could have her job if the notion occurred to him. Who could separate her from Toshiro in the blink of an eye - but someone who cared for the Japanese man just as much as she did. Certainly, Vladimir was pissed at his brother’s meddling, but he was well intentioned - and Vlad didn’t like the idea of Shiro losing sleep just because he was.

It was absurd.

Slowly, the dark-haired man ran a hand through his hair. It seemed as if the universe was conspiring against him.

As if in confirmation, at that moment, the elevator door opened and Shiro returned, a small smile playing about his lips. At the sight of him, Athena flushed slightly and turned to hurry back to her couch.

For the briefest of moments, Toshiro’s smile wavered.  “What did the two of you find to talk about?” He inquired, attempting to keep his voice light. It was that strain that gave him away, and Vladimir glanced from him to Athena, who was already buried in her work once more.

He stood, grabbing his coat from where it was slung over the back of his chair.  Striding over to his brother, he clasped him on the shoulder firmly. “Nothing you need to worry about.” When Shiro arched a dark brow, Vlad allowed himself a small smile. “Get some rest, Shiro. Lord knows you must be jetlagged out of your mind. If you want to argue, we can argue tomorrow. I’m tired and it’s been a long day.”

“Vlad, I think-”

“Tomorrow, Shiro.” He repeated, squeezing his brother’s shoulder briefly. “And let’s start with business, alright? If you still want to interrogate me after that, I might be better disposed to listen then.”

Toshiro seemed to take the fact that his brother wasn’t visibly angry anymore as a good sign, and, after a beat of uncertainty, he reluctantly nodded. “Alright. Tomorrow then. I’m coming to your room before breakfast.”

“As you wish.” He was in the elevator before Toshiro - or his surprisingly wily lover - could try anything else.

Vladimir needed air - and a lot of it. He had a lot to think about in the next twelve hours - and he strongly suspected that after all the thinking was done, his resistance would be eroded to next to nothing.

Which couldn’t bode well for the woman sleeping just down the hall from him.

 

**

It was always comforting to be in familiar places. By this point in his life, Toshiro had stayed at the Four Seasons in St. Petersburg so often it was almost like home - like one of many homes. He was always on the move, so any hotel he stayed at more than a handful of times was home.

As he lay back on the bed, staring at the ornate ceiling above him, he wondered what was going on a single floor above him.

That didn’t mean that he was trying to picture his brother’s sex life in his mind’s eye - God no. If the restraint he showed in almost every other aspect of his life was any indication, he could only imagine what might happen once Vladimir did give into his latent desires.

And he would give in.

Shiro certainly knew that now, after losing his own battle with temptation.

The fruits of that little endeavor were currently lying in bed beside him - fast asleep.

Shiro should have supposed his father had an ulterior motive in his “suggestion” that he hire an assistant. The man was infamous for trying to get his sons to settle down and, up until now, they had sidestepped him at every turn.

But, in Shiro’s opinion, there was no way his father could have known just how compatible he and Athena were. It was...perplexing, to be sure. Here, lying next to her, listening to the way she breathed, he could almost be convinced that nirvana truly existed - and this was coming from a man who had seen a good portion of what there was to see in the world.

Once Shiro had allowed himself to give in, everything had changed.

But he and Vlad were two different people, to be sure. While the younger man was fairly sure that it wasn’t a question of if Vlad would crack, but when, Vlad was Vlad. He could turn around and surprise his brother - reject his inner impulses and shock the hell out of them all.

But, this wasn’t just about impulses. One simply had to take one look at the way Vlad changed when Charlotte walked into a room to know that it was more than sexual between them. Oh, certainly, it was immensely sexual… but there was something more there. Something Vlad might never have experienced before in his entire life…

“What are you looking so pensive for?”

He looked down to see Athena’s wide blue eyes fixed on him and his stomach did a funny little twist in his gut - completely and utterly beyond his control. “I thought you were sleeping.”

She made a soft, tired little sound that beckoned his libido tantalizingly. “I was on my way.” When her lips curved into that radiant, full smile, he knew he was lost. Of course, she didn’t know it yet - and he planned on keeping it that way for as long as possible.

“Well, since you’re awake, maybe you can tell me just what it was you and my brother were talking about?” He’d been trying to get it out of her ever since they left Dansk, but Athena wasn’t budging - not even under the assault of his most persuasive techniques.  At his question, the dark-haired woman merely smiled, two spots of color appearing on her cheeks.

“I told you already, Shiro, it was nothing. Just small talk.”

The Japanese man rolled his smaller lover under him in a smooth motion, relishing her soft sound of surprise.  “I don’t think I quite believe that.” He nestled himself in between her pale, milky thighs - a place he increasingly believed he belonged. “Want to tell the truth?”

Athena laughed - if a bit breathlessly. “I am telling the truth!”

“Oh, really?” Shiro cut off the sound of her mirth by pressing his mouth soundly to hers. Within an instant, the kiss became deep, sensual and tantalizingly arousing. “Let’s see if we can’t get you to open up?”

**

 

She hadn’t expected to sleep, so when Charlotte woke at four in the morning to a firm knock on her door, she was momentarily disoriented. She groped blearily in the dark for her phone on the bedside table, and the moment she saw the time, she cursed lowly.

Who the hell could be knocking on her door so early?

Charlotte dragged herself out of bed, struggling to keep her eyes open. A combination of jetlag and the bottle of wine she’d indulged in for dinner was doing everything it could to keep her unconscious. Yawning hugely, she stumbled over to the door and shoved a mess of curls from her face before yanking it open.

The sight that met her gaze made her straighten almost immediately.

Vladimir stood in the doorway - wearing the same clothes she had seen him in before she left the office, his collar undone and his gaze intense. Beneath his scrutiny, Charlotte found herself growing slightly nervous. She was wearing only a double XL t-shirt that barely came down to mid-thigh and absolutely nothing else. If she were in her own apartment, she would be sleeping naked, but the luxury of the Four Seasons St. Petersburg demanded something a little more modest.

All at once, she wished her purchases from the previous day had included some sort of flannel pajamas. She felt woefully exposed in front of the man before her, but Charlotte was still so fuzzy from sleep that all she could do was stare up at him.

Goddamn, he was gorgeous. The thought was even more flagrant when she didn’t have her good sense to dissuade her from it. He kept himself buttoned up in those tight suits all the time - and while they did justice to his broad shoulders and narrow waist, without a suit, he was simply more impressive. It was almost as if the strong lines of his body were about to pop the seams of his shirt...and, shamelessly, a part of her wished they would.

“For Christ sake, don’t look at me like that, Charlotte.” His sharp tone was enough to jerk her gaze back to his, and the redhead’s cheeks colored. For the briefest moment, she thought Vladimir was admonishing her like a child.

Until she saw the flagrant heat in his eyes.

He was staring at her as if she were the main course at a particularly decadent dinner, his blue gaze intense and focused as it moved over her from head to foot. Charlotte swallowed thickly, doing the best she could to pull her t-shirt lower over her thighs as her body reacted blatantly. Her nipples hardened beneath the thin cotton material covering her breasts and, all at once, she could hardly breathe.

But, somehow, she managed to force a single question past her lips. “Vladimir...what are you doing here at this time of the morning?”

The tall man raked a hand through his dark hair - which Charlotte noticed looked as if he’d been doing much the same the entire evening. She was fixed with the ridiculous urge to rise to her toes and smooth it back into place - completely and utterly reproachable.

But that was honestly one of the least risqué thoughts she’d ever had about the man who was supposed to be her boss. “I... came to check on you.” He finally managed, prompting Charlotte’s brows to join her hairline. Check on her? The last time she checked, she wasn’t five. “Make sure jetlag hasn’t gotten the best of you.”

Like it had obviously gotten to him? Charlotte didn’t quite know what to say. It was obvious that there was more to this, but she didn’t feel like starting an interrogation when she was still half-asleep. “I was asleep.” She finally managed, as another huge yawn that threatened to dislocate her jaw. “I’m fine. You should try and get some sleep, Vladimir.”

His hand swiped through mussed black locks once more and he stared at her a moment longer before nodding, curtly. He looked faintly embarrassed, as if he himself didn’t know why he’d shown up on her doorstep. “Right.” Vladimir spoke more to himself than he did to her, before turning to go. “Goodnight then.”

Charlotte had no idea why she reached out. She should have let him go. That would have been the smart thing to do. Instead, she found her fingers catching in the sleeve of his shirt. “Vladimir, wait.”

Dear sweet God, she was out of her mind. But when Vladimir slowly turned back to her, his expression somehow hungrier than before, Charlotte ceased to care. All that mattered was that she had wanted this man for weeks. Months. And here he was, outside her hotel room, thousands of miles away from anyone that might interrupt them. “Do you…” she swallowed thickly, hoping she wasn’t being too forward. “Do you want to come in?”

The dark haired man stared at her for a long beat before the sleeve she gripped twisted. All at once, Vladimir had a firm hold on her wrist and was backing her into the hotel suite, kicking the door closed behind them. Within four steps, he had her hips hedged against a heavy venetian sofa, trapped against his own.

And evidence of what he’d really come for.

“Charlotte.” When he spoke, his tone was low, gravelly and almost pained. “I can’t...I need…”

The mere sound of him on the edge of begging was enough to take her breath away. Here was a man always steadily, obsessively in control. One of the most powerful men on the planet...and he was in her hotel room. “What do you need?”  When she finally managed a reply, her own voice was breathless with desperate want.

She had to hear him say it.

“You,” He growled, without hesitation, “I need you.”

And then he was kissing her - just as hot, heady and hungry as he had in his office all those weeks ago. Charlotte’s arms were around his neck and his tongue thrust hungrily past her lips. He tasted like vodka, chocolate and everything good in the world.

Charlotte wanted more. Her hands sifted through the dark ebony of his hair and Vladimir made a low sound of approval in the back of his throat, nipping at her lower lip before sucking at her mouth tantalizingly so a soft moan escaped her. As she was still trapped against the couch, there was little the redhead could do but writhe against the rising jut of his erection against her lower stomach. She wanted to wrap her legs around his waist - to feel the pressure lower, where she needed it so desperately she was almost willing to climb the man like a tree.

As her tongue tangled with his, Charlotte rose onto her toes, arching against him shamelessly in a bid to feel the full length of his body against hers. With a groan, Vlad’s hands slid down, from her minute waist to cup the curve of her behind and pull her even more flush against him. In a smooth movement, he lifted her from the floor to perch precariously atop the back of the sofa. Charlotte’s grip on the man held her in place and, all at once, her t-shirt hiked up so that the clothed bulge of his erection pressed against the most sensitive part of her.

With nothing else between them.

A sharp breath hissed from her as Charlotte’s fingers curled tightly into the back of his neck. “Fuck…” She undulated against him slowly, creating hot, delicious friction that soon had her all but gushing against him as their mouths devoured one another. Perhaps later, she would worry about ruining what had to be an expensive pair of slacks and an ungodly dry-cleaning bill, but at this particular juncture, Charlotte cared little.

It wasn’t long, however, before Vladimir noticed the mess she was making. He tore his mouth from hers for long enough to glance down and realize the thin cotton shirt hiked up to her waist hid absolutely nothing.

He stared at her bare lower half for long enough to make Charlotte’s cheeks burn - but Vladimir was too preoccupied to noticed. He muttered something low and dark in Russian a moment before one of his hands trekked down to curl into her thigh. A thumb stroked teasingly over her lower stomach, making the muscles there quiver, and Charlotte gasped as Vladimir worked on kissing and biting a series of dark, livid marks over the line of her neck. She squirmed in a blatant attempt to escape his grip - to somehow gain control of the heat spiraling through her in ever-cresting waves.

But the moment Vladimir touched her between the legs, she was absolutely lost.  A soft cry escaped her when he used a muscular thigh to brusquely part her legs even wider before his hand slid down to cup the blazing heat of her.

For a long moment, he held her - just like that - and Charlotte could feel her heart beating between her legs. She didn’t know if she wanted him to just cut pleasantries and fuck her, or if she wanted to endure his teasing until her brain melted into a puddle of mush between her ears. All she knew was that she never wanted it to stop.

“You are so hot here…” When Vladimir growled the words, low, in her ear, his suddenly thick, Charlotte shuddered.

“For you,” She breathed, her fingers tugging so hard at the buttons on his shirt that they popped off, scattering on the floor in an instant. “You’re damn right I am.”

“Only for me,” Vlad affirmed, biting at her neck sharply so she yelped - a split second before two fingers sank deeply into her.

Charlotte gasped at the sudden intrusion - the digits were long, thick and glorious - so much more substantial than her own. But then, she couldn’t even compare her own ministrations to what Vladimir was doing to her. Long, agonizingly deep thrusts of his fingers that soon had her writhing against him, whimpering and bucking her hips into the very welcome intrusion.

Vladimir held her in place with a hand on her hip as he pleasured her, his mouth still busy mapping the landscape of her throat. When he fastened on at the juncture of her neck and shoulder, biting down firmly as he rubbed some ungodly place inside her, Charlotte shrieked, clutching at his shoulders as she tried in vain to keep herself grounded.

Vladimir had hardly been touching her five minutes and she was already painfully close to orgasm. To be frank, she had never been this absorbed in a lover the first time they were together. She usually took the first time she slept with a man to scout him out - to write up a mental dossier of his strengths and weaknesses.

But with Vladimir, she hardly had the wherewithal for that. “Oh God…” She groaned, as his fingertips rubbed and pressed at that heavenly spot high inside her. “God...Vladimir...please. Right there….” She had no idea where there was - only that she had never been able to reach it herself and that it was rapidly ruining her for every sexual experience that would follow.

“Yes… kukla…” He hissed against her throat. “Come for me.”

She could hardly have refused him.

Charlotte found herself gasping his name, every muscle in her body clenching as her orgasm crashed over her with the force of a tsunami. It was centered right in that spot...the one that he kept stroking...exploiting while she was contracting around his fingers -  and it felt so good she could hardly breathe, let alone think. 

Charlotte was jolted back to the present, her already short breath hitching as Vladimir stroked over her lower folds gently - almost soothingly. At least, it might have been soothing if she weren’t already so over sensitized from the high she’d just come down from. She moaned lowly, reaching out to grasp at his hand in a plea for mercy.

In reply, Vladimir merely kissed her, soundly, as his fingers slid from her. He caught her gasp of sensation in his mouth a moment before they parted and she watched him taste her, sucking a single glistening finger into his mouth. When he groaned in in unadulterated pleasure at her flavor, Charlotte shuddered, her womb clenching in blatant desire for the rest of him. She tugged him back into another kiss, tasting herself on his lips, a moment before he hauled her into his arms to carry towards the bedroom.

The brief period of respite gave Charlotte a minute to gather her wherewithal. The moment Vladimir set her on the bed, she was on her knees, her mouth molding to his as she pushed his shirt from broad shoulders.

God, he was just as mouthwatering as she had imagined. More so, even - broad shoulders, tight, lean abdomen, and a sprinkling of hair that led inexorably southward towards the tent he was pitching in his pants. Charlotte ran her hands over the firm muscles of his chest and felt his abdomen clench under her exploring fingers. When her mouth left his to bite briefly at the line of his throat, he groaned, and his fingers curled into her forearms as if he meant to stop her.

But he didn’t - and for that, Charlotte was unspeakably glad. She wanted to explore every inch of him...taste him until his flavor was burned onto her tongue. When she reached down to undo the fastening of his slacks, Vladimir made a low sound of disapproval in the back of his throat. In a trice, she had been pushed onto her back on the bed - just in time to give her a lovely view of the man above her shucking his pants.

He wore boxer briefs beneath, which flagrantly displayed the size of the erection he boasted.

But before Charlotte could appreciate it fully, Vladimir was climbing onto the bed - looming over her body and capturing her mouth once more. Quickly and efficiently, he peeled her shirt up over her bare body to toss away into the darkness.

And then there was nothing at all to hide her from his lustful gaze.

Charlotte had never been shy about her body. If anything, she was absolutely shameless in her own home, to the point where Lila had to warn her to put clothes on when Benny was on his way.

But now, she found herself suddenly self-conscious beneath Vladimir’s gaze. His eyes roamed over her restlessly, from her burning face to her bare, ample breasts, her flat stomach and legs she’d always thought far too long and gangly for their own good. Any thoughts of her own inadequacy, however, fled her mind the moment her lover lowered his head to tug a nipple between his teeth.

Charlotte inhaled sharply, her fingers threading through Vladimir’s hair reflexively. He worked on her slowly - teasingly - suckling her alternatively with soft, hungry bites that soon had her all but trembling in need. When he finally lifted his head from her breast, a trembling cry escaped her and her fingers tightened against his scalp in an attempt to guide him back to where she wanted him.  He obliged her with one final, brief bite to her nipple before his hands clamped over her hips and he shoved her northwards with a strong motion of his arms.

A small sound of surprise escaped the redhead as her crown brushed against the headboard. Vladimir’s mouth was now situated right over the heated core of her. This wasn’t what she wanted. Charlotte had a fool-proof plan to have the man inside her and he was ruining it-

At the first touch of his mouth to the most sensitive parts of her she gasped his name and twisted, gripping the headboard in an attempt to escape. But Vladimir was even stronger than she had imagined. He held her hips firmly in place as he tasted her at his leisure.

And his leisure was torturous.

At first, Charlotte did her best to concentrate her efforts towards freeing herself - but in under a minute, Vladimir’s shockingly talented tongue had turned all her protestations to ecstatic undulations.

The man pressed his lips to her, mouthing her between the legs with such enthusiasm that Charlotte was soon begging him for succor. Every lap of his tongue, every subtle, hungry suck devastated her. And she couldn’t pull him away. To every man she’d ever been with, this, more than anything else, was a chore - a treat that she might get after a particularly creative blowjob. But it was clear that Vladimir’s head was between her quivering thighs for the sheer enjoyment of it.

All too soon, Charlotte lost her grip on the headboard entirely, grasping at pillows, sheets, the coverlet - anything she could for purchase. But it did no good. She came twice more to the tune of Vladimir’s low, sinful sounds of pleasure against her lower lips. The staggering pleasure left her breathless - boneless- against the coverlet, and she realized, dimly, that there was no way she gained the upper hand here. Vladimir had her right where he wanted her.

And she hadn’t a single protestation.

He dragged his body up the length of hers as she tried to slow her breathing. Of course, the attempt wasn’t helped by the drugging kisses he trailed up over her stomach - or the brief suck he gave each of her nipples. When his face finally came level with hers, his eyes were dark and desirous, his mouth glistening with her leavings. “If I didn’t need to be inside of you,” He murmured, his tone gravelly with want, “I would live between your thighs, Charlotte.”

It was, by far, the hottest thing any man had ever said to her. Ever.

Though Charlotte had been doubtful of her ability to move just seconds before, she found herself reaching blindly - frantically - for the waistline of Vladimir’s underwear. This time, he let her, and she yanked the cloth down to feel his heated erection spring up against her hand.

It was safe to say that everything was proportional. Vladimir was a sizeable man, and that equaled an impressive member. But despite his imposing size, Charlotte had never been so desperate to have a man inside her. She wrapped slender fingers around the girth of him, stroking slowly from base to tip, and was rewarded with a low, throaty groan.

Inside a single second the man caught her wrist in his hand, shaking his head. “Not now,” he growled between clenched teeth. With his free hand, he hoisted one of her thighs over his, parting her legs once more. When Vladimir’s erection slid against the seam of her, there was no resistance at all. Charlotte caught her breath and held it as he began to push inside her.

It was glorious.

A low, ragged moan escaped her as he slid deeper and deeper - filling her up completely as her inner passage clenched around him in warm welcome. A low curse escaped the man above her as his hips finally came to rest against hers and Charlotte raised her head to kiss away the lines around a mouth pulled taut with restraint. “Let go,” she murmured against his mouth, pressing her hips up against him to take him even deeper as one slender leg wrapped around his waist.

And that’s exactly what he did.

With an almost pained sound, Vladimir withdrew slightly to slam back home with a force that took her breath away. Each additional stroke went deeper, drew shuddering breaths from her until she was moaning his name, clutching frantically at his shoulders and back as she bucked back against him.

There was something animal in the way that Vladimir took her. While he had taken his time seducing her, this was nothing but fucking - pure and simple. The demonstration of months of frustration. And like everything else that Vladimir endeavored upon, he excelled at it.

Charlotte was sure she must be scratching welts down his back, moaning and gasping and screaming his name as he pounded into her. It was rough, carnal and absolutely breathtaking in its intensity.

Despite her exhaustion, the redhead’s body urged her towards another orgasm. How could she resist? Vladimir’s grip on her was iron, the fingers of one hand tangled firmly in her hair and the other at her hip as he drove into her - his erection cleaving through parts of her already seared raw by sensation.

Charlotte couldn’t help it - she toppled over the edge with her lips parted in a silence scream. When her inner muscles seized hungrily around Vladimir’s powerful thrust, his rhythm faltered. He clutched her even tighter, stroking twice more into her shuddering body before he succumbed as well, a hoarse shout and the flood of him inside her announcing his completion to the otherwise silent bedroom.

Dear God.

Dear fucking God.

For almost a full five minutes, Charlotte lay beneath the weight of the man atop her, unsure which direction was up. She had never, in all her thirty years, had such an earth-shattering sexual experience.

She wasn’t even sure if she remembered how to move.

Vladimir, however, was already stirring atop her. He straightened, propping himself up on strong arms to look down at her, his expression unreadable. When Charlotte merely smiled lazily up at him, his lips turned downward into a frown.

In a trice, he rolled off her and stood from the bed, headed for the bathroom in the darkness. Charlotte stared after him as her smile faded.

It would be just like Vlad to withdraw back into that impermeable shell of his now that their ardor for one another had finally been cooled - she just hadn’t expected that it would be so soon.

With no little amount of effort, she rolled onto her side, reaching for the nearest sheet to cover herself. It was a scant minute or so until Vladimir returned, and she half expected him to start dressing to leave. Instead, however, he merely scowled at her, one knee dipping the bed as he climbed back onto it.  For a moment, Charlotte was struck, once again, by how mind-bogglingly gorgeous his body was. At least until he urged her onto her back once more. “Lie back. Don’t move.”

Charlotte watched, surprised, as Vladimir revealed a damp washcloth. Gently, painstakingly, he parted her thighs and wiped her clean between the legs. It was a surprisingly intimate gesture that caught her completely off guard. All she could do was watch as he continued to use the cloth to wipe the dampness of their sweat from her - over her stomach and breasts and up her neck before finally setting it aside. When he finally spoke, his words only further perplexed her. “I apologize.”

Charlotte’s brows raced towards her hairline as she turned onto her side once more to face him. “What the hell do you have to apologize for?” She might have reassured him that he had ruined her for any other man, but she didn’t want to stroke his ego too much.

Vladimir made an oddly displeased face. “I was rough with you. I could have hurt you.”

At that, Charlotte merely rolled her eyes. “Is that all?” On impulse, she reached up to cup the stubbly line of his jaw, forcing him to look at her. “Vladimir, I’m fine. You warmed me up plenty...besides that, I’m not a little girl. You’re not going to break me.” When he still refused to smile, she went on. “I liked it. Just like that.” Leaning forward, she pressed her lips to his firmly, nipping sharply at the lower one so a soft sound of surprise escaped him as she withdrew. “And don’t you dare treat me like one of your little debutantes because I’m not. I can take anything you can dish out, and that includes a thorough fucking.”

With a groan, Vladimir covered her mouth with a hand, his expression simultaneously exasperated and aroused. “Dear God, woman, your mouth.”

Charlotte only laughed against his palm before peeling his fingers away. “You like it. Come on, admit it.” She traced a finger across his chest. “I’ve got a mouth like a sailor and I’m built for rough handling. Isn’t that new for you, Mister Kensley?”

With a low growl, Vladimir caught her hand as her finger began to drift southward. “Charlotte, I’m warning you…”

Charlotte felt proof of his renewing erection against her thigh and glanced down in surprise. Sweet Jesus, the man’s recovery period was nothing at all. She herself was completely tuckered out…. but she couldn’t deny that the feel of his cock stirring against her skin had her growing warm in places she wouldn’t have thought possible so soon after he’d thoroughly blown her mind the first time. “Vladimir…” She kissed him again, lingering and slow this time, and when she drew back, her hazel eyes held a blatant invitation. “Do me again?”

His eyes went wide a moment before skimming over her still mostly naked form. When he answered her, his voice was low and tentative. “I didn’t hurt you?”

“No. You can’t,” Charlotte replied, wrapping an arm around his neck to press her body flush against hers. Dear God, it was like she’d somehow turned into a succubus. She didn’t know if her body would hold out but her mind was definitely willing. More than willing, “So do me again. Please. I want it. I need it.”

Vladimir groaned, his restraint giving way as he wrapped an arm around her to bear her back to the mattress once more. “I need it more.”