I hadn’t seen Viktor since he put me in bed at home and left me. I’d been shocked, frightened, and then relieved when Viktor had come to save me. He had saved me without a second thought. Hadn’t thought about his safety, what could happen, or even why I was in trouble. He’d just reacted and saved us both.

But then he’d disappeared, leaving me to my own thoughts. And I couldn’t even try to discern his thoughts, since he wouldn’t look me in the eye.

I’d had enough of it, so I went to his office. The elevator was quiet, the ding subdued. I was glad that the office was empty than it had been the last time. Only the receptionist was there, packing up to leave for the night. I assured her that I knew where I was going and headed into Viktor’s office. His light was still on but his head was down, his hands scratching his head.

When he heard the click of my heels on the marble floor, he finally looked up. I barely recognized his face. It was taut with stain, purple bags under his eyes, and his scar stood out on his cheek. “Viktor.”

He didn’t respond to me, only put his head back down.

“Viktor, you need to come home,” I said, begging.

I missed him. I missed his laugh, and his controlling temperament, and I missed his big body against mine at night.

“Home?” He laughed harshly. “It’s just a house. It can be your home. I can live anywhere.”

I heard what he said, but couldn’t figure out what had changed. “But… it’s our home? It’s been our home. What are you saying?”

“Anya, you saw what I did,” he said morosely. “I’m not a good man.”

I stalked over to his desk, grabbed his chin, and forced him to look up at me. His beard was both soft and ticklish against my palm. “You’re the best man that I know. You saved me. You saved me, Viktor. I would’ve died if they’d given me over to one of the Dons. And I would’ve died had you been taken into custody.”

“But don’t you get it, printsessa? I belong in custody.”

“Da. Mine.”

“Anya…”

“Viktor, I—” I thought about it for a second, and then admitted in hushed tones, “I need you. You’re my life now. I love you.”

He blinked in surprise. “No, you don’t. You can’t.”

I laughed. Typical. “Leave it to you to tell me what I can and can’t feel. I do, Viktor. I love you. I want my husband back. I miss him.”

He stood up, pushing me back against his desk. “Don’t say that.”

“Don’t say what? That I love you? That you’re my life? That you’re my husband? That I’m going to have your child?”

His grip on me loosened, his eyes wild as they met mine. “What did you say?”

“I’m pregnant, Viktor. I’m going to have your baby. Our baby.”

It wasn’t exactly how I wanted to tell him. I wanted to celebrate, not use it as a kind of emotional weapon to lure him home. But he was leaving me with few choices, and I had to work with the ammunition at hand.

I placed his hand on my belly, willing him to feel the truth of it. I knew my body, knew that it was changing. That something was different. We were going to be parents, and I wanted him to understand the sheer joy and happiness that I felt in knowing that.

“Printsessa…”

“You’re going to be a papa.”

He looked in amazement at my face and then my belly. “I’m going to be a father.”

I smiled through the tears welling up in my eyes. “You are. Are you happy?”

“Anya, I… I don’t know that I’ll be a good father. I was raised with violence and aggression. That’s the world that I know.”

I covered his hand with my own, pressing it into my belly. “You’ll be wonderful. You’ll be you, and that’s enough. You’ve been kind and generous, and protective of me. I know you’ll do the same for our child.”

He laughed. “I don’t know that those are the words I’d used to describe me, Anya. I’m a killer. I’m cold. I’m ruthless.”

“Now you’re just bragging.”

He smiled, as I’d meant him to.

“You’re not a killer,” I told him. “You killed men because you had to. And you killed that man because I would’ve died if you hadn’t. You’re my savior, not a killer. He was going to traffic me or confess everything to the military. You would have gone away for life or been killed, leaving me unprotected and alone. You did what you had to do. Don’t you know that I would have done the same if the roles were reversed?”

He chuckled. “You would’ve killed a man for me?”

I knew the answer before even thinking about it. “I would do whatever I had to do to save you, Viktor. Anything. And that’s how I know I love you.”

He thought for a moment, his hand coming to rest on my cheek. “I think I’ve loved you since I first saw you, though I didn’t want to.”

My heart raced. Could it be true? “Say it.”

“I love you, Anya. Deeply and forever. I can’t stop loving you. I’ve tried.” He smiled his eyes a little misty.

That couldn’t be right; Viktor, crying? That must mean exactly what I thought it meant. Joy filled me.

“You love me,” I repeated back to him, tears slipping down my face.

“Yes, printsessa.”

His lips crushed down on mine. He kissed me deeply, his mouth salty with the taste of my own tears. His mouth slanted over mine, over and over until I was aching and my lips bruised and red.

“I want you, Viktor. Here. Now.”

“I am your slave, Anya. But a man has his limits.”

I raised an eyebrow at him and offered him my swollen, tender breast. He growled in defeat. “I never claimed to play fair, Viktor. You’re mine and I am yours.”

He grabbed my hands and placing them on the desk. “I’m not going to tie you, but you’re going to keep your hands there until I release them. Understand?”

A shiver ran through me at his words. God, he was hot when he was like this. I never wanted him to change. I didn’t need gentle. I needed him—rough, controlling. If this was something he needed in order to let go of his own guilt or whatever plagued his heart, then I would go all in with him. I would take whatever test he put before me, and gladly.

I placed my hands against the desk. He spread my legs with his feet so that I was in the shape of an X against his desk. He unbuttoned his shirt slowly, making my mouth go dry with every inch of tanned skin that was revealed. He ripped off his tie and threw it on the ground. He tore off his shirt and let it drop in a pile, adding his pants and shoes so that he was standing before me naked, except for a pair of black boxer briefs.

He looked like a god, or a demon… I wasn’t sure which one could set me on fire more. I felt my pussy grow wet, my breasts ache and grow heavy.

I wanted him. I’d missed him.

He kneeled before me, lifting up my flowy floral dress and pulling down my pink lace underwear.

I couldn’t stop my shudder at the feeling of air on my mound. The shudder turned into a gasp as he ran his tongue along my skin and over the top of my clit, suckling on it until I screamed.

I had never been in this kind of tortured agony of pleasure before. I wanted to come from the heady sensations, but I needed to hold out. When his hand reached up, grabbing a breast and squeezing, I lost all control. I came, over his mouth and his hands, my entire body quaking with the force of my release. I was dazed by the rapidity of my fall.

He spun me around, flicking up my skirt. When he pulled down his boxer briefs and entered me in one smooth stroke, we both moaned with completion.

“Yes!” I hissed, feeling triumphant. Whole. Loved.

I’d never felt that kind of pleasure in my life. He was so big, entering me so hard that I felt it all the way up my body. I clenched around him, unable to prolong it. He thrust inside of me a few strokes and then dove so deep that my pussy started to pulse around him, milking his orgasm as my own flooded through me.

He shouted, releasing his seed inside of me, squeezing and holding me against the desk while I collapsed on it. After a few moments, he withdrew and flipped me over. My legs went around his waist, just reveling in the closeness of our bodies.

I was sweaty, aching, and ridiculously happy. “I love you, Viktor.”

His mouth twisted into an expression that looked strange, until I realized it was his smile—a pure smile of unabashed happiness. “And I love you, printsessa.”