Chapter Fourteen

Cool air whispered along Viviana’s bare legs, pebbling her skin at its passing with goose bumps. The quiet sounds of the Brighton Beach boardwalk hummed around the pair, but neither seemed to notice the passersby. With Viviana up on the hood of Anton’s Mercedes, he stood on the ground between her legs with his arms wrapped around her shoulders. His chin rested on the top of her head, and they were quiet. Somewhere along the line, one of them decided they had spoken enough and the comfortable, close silence ensued.

“Too heavy,” he’d told her before they left the Oceana house. “It’s my birthday, and we made this day way too heavy with all this nonsense. Between last night, this morning, the ring, and this? We need to take five minutes away from all of it and chill out.”

And so, they ended up at the boardwalk. With the sky just beginning to darken and wind picking up from an oncoming storm, most of the people at the pier had left. The few stragglers that were there were also making their way home, so despite the cold as October was coming to an end, Viviana was happy … content.

“We’re going to be late,” she mumbled, not even bothering to try to move out of his strong grasp. The party started at eight, and the club would open at ten for regular services.

“We already are.”

“Oh. Damn.”

His broad shoulders shrugged. “They expected me to be late. It’s fashionable, or so I’ve been told.”

Well, she was quite relaxed, so it wasn’t like she was going to complain. “Okay.”

“Ya lyublyu tyebya,” Anton murmured.

The sweetest feathers of his kisses dotted down the bridge of her nose as Russian rolled off his tongue like dark molasses. Very rarely did she hear him speak it, and usually he only conversed in that language when it was a conversation she wouldn’t want to be a part of anyway. Still, there was something about those unknown words that called to her, drawing Viviana closer into his embrace and body. Anton held her a little tighter, repeating the same phrase again as his mouth brushed over hers.

“I don’t understand.”

“I know,” he said, laughing deeply. “You should learn, even if it’s only a few choice phrases.”

“Italian and English is enough,” she replied, nipping at his cheek playfully. “What did you say?”

“I love you.”

“Oh.” Viviana tried to repeat the words he’d said, failing miserably and getting another round of his laughter at the lame attempt. “Ugh. Never mind.”

“Ya tozhe tyebya lyublyu. Try it.”

“That’s not what you said first.” Now she was starting to wonder if he was just fucking her around. “Are you being smart?”

Anton winked. “No. But good catch. It’s the reply, working in both feminine and masculine forms, katyonak.”

“Kat … what?”

“Cat is close,” he teased. “Kitten, actually.”

Viviana made a face. “No thanks.”

“Well, I wasn’t about to call you a pussy. There’s about ten different ways to say it and none of them mean nice things in Russian You’re going to hear a lot of this muttering tonight, although it’ll be nothing you’ll want to learn, but you might as well get used to it. Come on, try it,” he urged, hands slipping up under her coat to splay against her stomach. “Say it slowly. Ya. Tozhe. Tyebya. Lyublyu.”

Viviana tried the words again and again until she’d finally managed the pronunciations to his satisfaction. At the sight of his smirk, she knew he liked hearing Russian in her mouth a lot more than he was letting on. Tugging on the collar of his buttoned up suit jacket, she brought him back to her level again.

“I love you, too.”

That smirk curved into a brilliant smile. “All right, it’s better like that. You ready—”

The sudden sheet of rain stopped his words up short. She shrieked at the cold droplets splashing down over her head, keeping her face hidden and hoping to God the bit of makeup she still had left on wouldn’t be ruined.

“Shit … get in the car.” Anton groaned, pulling her down off the hood and steadying her with one arm. “Go, go, go.”

Heels slipped on the slick pavement, but it wasn’t long before Viviana found herself shoved inside the dry vehicle. Of course, where she landed wasn’t quite where she expected, either: across the back seat. Anton was right behind her, slamming the door hard as his chuckles echoed inside the cab.

“Well, damn it.”

“I think you messed up where we were supposed to go,” she said, struggling to get upright, her voice still breathless. It certainly didn’t help that large hands were gripping both of her thighs up under the short skirt of her dress. “We need to get to the club.”

Anton made a dismissive sound. “Take your clothes off, Vine.”

“Excuse me?”

He waved at the sopping wet coat she had on. It was already seeping through to the dress. “Hurry, before it wrinkles the hell out of your dress. We’ll lay it over the seat, let it dry out a little and then go.”

“Anton, we’re in a public parking lot.” The words came out slowly, as if she were speaking to a small child. “Anybody could just walk right by and see.”

“Nope, glass is tinted too dark.”

Viviana groaned. “I’m not—”

“Take it off.”

He didn’t give her another chance to refuse, snapping open the buttons to her tweed coat and pulling it down her shoulders before it fell like a heavy lump of wet wool to the floor. Under his influence, she turned to let him unzip the back of her dress, too. When the black garment was slung over the front driver’s seat, Anton made quick work of removing his own. The grey silk shirt, black tie, and jacket hung off the passenger’s seat.

After staring out the window and watching the few cars left in the parking lot zoom out, Viviana was satisfied no one would notice her nakedness. The cool leather of the back seat met her back as she lay down across it. Leaning between the two front seats, Anton dug for something up front before she heard the low purr of the engine starting. Quickly, he was back between her thighs with a cell phone in hand. Warmth blew through the heaters almost instantly.

“Seven forty-five,” he informed her. Hot kisses danced from the line of her thong up to her navel. She weaved her fingers into the hair on the crown of his head as he looked up and grinned a wicked sight. “We might be more than a little late.”

With the heat of his hips pressing into the lace of her covered sex, Viviana wasn’t really sure she cared anymore. “You just wanted to get me naked and in the backseat of a Mercedes.”

“Maybe. The dress would have wrinkled, so it was a perfectly plausible excuse to get you out of your clothes.”

“You don’t need an excuse.”

“Sometimes I like to think I have to work for it, okay? Let me have this.”

Viviana snorted. “All right, work for it, Boss.”

Anton growled a hoarse, sexy noise that had her soaked from the sound alone. Just as his lips lowered to kiss the sensitive flesh at the inside of her thigh, that cell phone he’d dropped to the floor began ringing. There wasn’t anything quite like bad timing, and by the specific ringtone that was chiming through, she knew it was one of her bulls.

Anton cussed and grappled for the device, holding it up to his ear. “What?” A beat of murmuring passed on the other end before he huffed. “Yes I know what time the fucking party starts and no, I don’t care. Where are you, anyway?”

“We can go,” Viviana piped in, but the shake of his head had her sighing.

“Three rows down?” Anton asked. Pushing his frame up, he squinted out the back window. “Yeah, I see you now. Are you holding anything?”

Viviana’s heart sped up at the question. Once she’d asked about her guards beyond just who they were and why he’d chosen them for her, and Anton hadn’t given her much to go on other than he trusted them more than some. When she wondered about drugs, given the occasional smell of pot coming from the back end of the house, he’d shrugged and said he didn’t care so long as they weren’t using anything chemical-wise. It wasn’t like she did, either.

“Shit, yeah. Cali grown … Bring that to me, would you?” At her light tap to his bare chest, Anton only grinned in response. What in the hell was he planning on getting? “Yes right now. The rain isn’t going to kill you, Rory. You’re not made of fucking sugar. Stop acting like a whiney prick.”

Oh God. Crass would be an understatement. His mouth only got worse when she did understand what he was saying. Viviana could only imagine the words he spit in Russian when somebody irked him into a shouting match.

“Anton!”

He ignored her completely, keeping all of his attention on his phone. “You have thirty seconds or I’m coming over there and I can promise you won’t like it. I bet it costs one hell of a buck to replace a damned headlight in that SUV. And keep your fucking eyes out of my windows, got it?”

Before the phone was tossed back to the floor, Viviana swore she heard the younger man mutter, “Got it, Boss.”

“What did you do?”

“Nothing too bad. Might as well have a little fun before we have to go and be serious, right? Now, quiet that pretty mouth of yours and let me work here.”

Her lover’s lips found their way back to her thigh before she could say another thing, trailing a burning path over the crotch of her panties where his teeth nipped gently. Sizzling sparks burst along her already pulsing sex. When his hands pushed her thighs wider, they skimmed down her legs lightning fast. The throaty hum that built in her chest only urged him on, until two raps on the glass interrupted his wandering fingers.

The window lowered only a single inch when Anton pressed the button behind her head with one quick tap. Two fingers popped inside the car, a pin-sized joint dangling between the digits before it disappeared out of Viviana’s sight into the hand reaching above her.

“That all, Boss?”

“Yep.”

Just as quick, the bull was gone and the window rolled back up. Anton’s heated blue gaze leveled on Viviana with a sinful gleam as the joint was waved almost tauntingly, his head lowering enough for a pink tongue to strike out and lap at her stomach.

“You gonna smoke with me, baby?”

“Should I?”

“Oh, you definitely should.”

• • •

Anton’s parted lips skimmed up Viviana’s neck as he held the harsh hit he’d just inhaled inside his lungs. He could feel it, the smoke, tumbling through his chest and making it ache with the best burn as he bit the trembling line of her tilted up jaw.

Her hips straddling him shifted in the most tantalizing way, muscles constricting and the sensitive tissues of her pussy fluttering around his cock that was buried balls deep inside her hot core. The action made him groan loudly, allowing just the faintest billow of smoke to escape his mouth. The wisps curled over her face as her lashes blinked and fluttered, fanning over her cheeks. Another roll of her body and his hummed in response with a high induced by her and California grown bud.

The pungent, thick scent of weed in the Mercedes soaked straight through everything, including his very skin. It wasn’t often he got high, but when he did, he preferred a certain kind of smoke to get him there because it simply fucking electrified his nerves like nothing else. Mix that sensation in with Viviana riding his cock above him with a slow, teasing rhythm and he was just about ready to explode.

Nothing ever felt so damned good.

Anton had been a little more than surprised to watch her take hit after hit off the joint and never once choke on the smoke, never mind how goddamn sexy it was to see it roll off her lips. He’d dragged the straps of her lace brassier down her shoulders, kissing and biting her collarbone until it blushed with a pretty pink under his rough motions, just before he removed the item from her body completely.

“Hmm … there … yeah, right there,” she breathed, shifting to rock on him again. Her one hand was lifted, fingers brushing against the soft roof of the car as she tilted her head back farther, giving him better access to the hollow of her throat. The other scratched down the black inked rose that covered his pec with shaking fingers. “More, Boss.”

Oh, he heard that title three dozen times a day, but nothing quite compared to the way it dripped like silken honey from her sinful little tongue. Fuck, her airless voice had him throbbing. From his fingers, to his toes, to dilated pupils, he burned. With the hand that wasn’t holding the small blunt, he pinched her chin between his forefinger and thumb to draw her head downward.

She shot-gunned the smoke he gave without even hesitating. Anton felt the heavy pressure build inside his middle a little more, causing his heart to stutter and begin to race. It wasn’t just the situation or the smoke that had him feeling so damned sentimental, but the woman above him always trusting and willing.

“Right there?” he asked, bracing his one foot to the floor and the other to the seat as he flexed his hips up into hers. Viviana shuddered on top of him, eyes flying open as air and second-hand smoke blew over his cheeks. “You love my cock, huh? Who fills you like this, Viviana?”

“You. Only you.”

He was thankful his pants had joined the rest of his clothes because her juices had soaked him beautifully. They’d been teasing and touching for only a short while, but he had her just about wet and ready enough to take her like he knew she wanted.

“Who gives you this feeling?” he asked.

Another rock, another roll, another lift of her body on his shaft and she trembled with a cry. Achingly full, that’s how he felt. Damp from sweat, sticky with her, high with smoke, and topped with love. It dripped down every nerve in his body like liquid gold.

“You.”

“Mmm …who’s yours, baby?”

Pink lips curved around the half inch roach he offered, sucking in a good puff before she whispered, “You.”

Sixteen and curious she wasn’t anymore. Hesitation didn’t flicker in brown eyes, hands moved with knowing yearning, and words fell like a beautiful song. She was so far from the same it hurt, but she still wasn’t any different, either.

It was the third time in less than twenty-four hours that he’d had her body, and it didn’t feel any less intense than the last time. Anton wouldn’t ever tire of the way it felt, or how she pulled him deeper inside than he ever thought possible. Overwhelming and wholly gone, she had him broken to pieces and put back together again in one swift motion.

So close, he was so fucking close to telling her everything he’d been hiding. Anton didn’t want to keep the things he knew that she didn’t inside any longer. Beyond the way she had him tied all the way around her like a protective, wanting bow, he also knew the secrets he held felt like personal bars of a terrible prison he shouldn’t have ever been inside.

Smoke billowed again, twisting in thick spirals to the roof, clouding his vision and the car.

“Feel me. Always.” It came out soft and torn, almost like an admission forced from a ripped open heart. His thumb rolled over her lips, down her chin and throat, between perky breasts and the flat expanse of her stomach. Viviana swallowed a gulp of nothing when the tips of his fingers slipped deftly over the hood of her clit and drummed a circling beat. “Almost, yeah?”

A lazy nod answered him back, her body tensing and gently rocking hips still moving. “Yeah.”

The rhythmic clenching of her walls around his dick had him moaning. Her orgasm was so close he could practically feel it clawing its way through his veins himself. But, Anton wanted her sweating more, panting harder, with her body, nerves, and sex singing from smoke and bliss before he filled her in a whole new way.

Still, Viviana didn’t make the move to quicken her riding pace, keeping it unhurried and delicious in the most provokingly lustful way. Anton’s head fell back to the seat as her breath caught on the exhale. Removing his hand from between her thighs, those fast rising breasts of hers caught his palm one after the other, his thumb rolling over taut nipples that felt hot to the touch.

One light draw off the roach and he blew a perfect line of thick smoke from her neck down to her stomach, letting the sharp-tasting weed roll over her skin in billowing waves. Her teeth cut into her bottom lip, reddening the plump flesh to the same hue as her swollen, wet sex. Viviana mewled with the quietest whine of need that said she was so close to toppling under the building pressure that her spine was beginning to curve and her head drew farther back.

“God, yes. I’m creeping up so hard. We gonna do this?”

Oh, she’d been so surprised when he waved a condom he brought back from the front console before they’d really gotten started. They didn’t fuck with them, didn’t have to, and he wouldn’t ever so long as she was only his, but he’d use one this time and she got his point in wanting to straightaway. There wasn’t fear in her voice when she agreed, but he heard the quiet waver even so. It wasn’t like he blamed her; despite the toy they’d played with earlier, his cock was longer and thicker and sure to make her ache.

Anton hummed his assent, feeling that heat sizzle in his blood as a buzz roamed his mind. “Yeah, just wanted you rolling hard first.”

Her fingernails dragged along the ceiling, waves of her hair tumbling down her back, and he caught her free hand curving his jaw with a quick turn of his head, laying a loud open-mouthed kiss to her palm. A shiver rolled over every muscle in her body as two of her slender fingers slid between his lips. His tongue swirled around the digits, tasting the weed and her arousal on her skin.

“Oh … almost,” she sighed, lips smacking as the trembling in her legs grew a bit more.

“One more, just the one. Take it and give it back,” Anton murmured, reaching up to tug on the few strands of hair that had fallen over her shoulder gently. “Come on, I want to taste it out of your sweet mouth.”

With her face leaning down close to his again, his hazy line of vision cleared enough to watch her drag that last hit off the joint hard. Viviana let the smoke roll from her lips upward, French inhaling the final pull from the joint as their gazes met. The pelting rain outside had dimmed to practically nothing at all, but the thundering storm clouds remained, keeping the car dark. The humidity in the air mixed with the heat of their sex and the whispers of smoke fogged up the windows.

“Hold it hard, don’t let it out until I want it, hmm?”

Again, her teeth bared to his cheek when he pulled her close to kiss her eyelids. When his mouth found hers, a tongue was quick to spear into wet heat, allowing the exhale from her lungs to inhale into his. The harshness of the weed was lessened with her taste and he burned all over again. Their lips moved a leisurely speed, slow enough to taste and relish and seek.

Then, her high and broken cry of his name caught in his mouth. The walls of her pussy clamped down tight with the sudden sweep of her orgasm, holding him in as his hand grasped her hip. When her eyes glazed and hands shook, she gasped another one of those sighing sounds. He let her roll out the waves of bliss.

“Just like that, baby. Up, raise up for a moment.”

“Now?” Viviana asked breathlessly.

“Mmhmm. Right now.”

“It’s going to hurt.”

“Some,” he said, not wanting to lie. “Not for long, I promise.”

With a quick movement, Anton had the window rolled down just enough to toss the stub out. At the same time, Viviana had lifted up, her still trembling-thighs straddling his sides. In a flash his hand was between their bodies, grasping his shaft at the base as her hips tilted upwards and forwards and her spine arched to give him better access to her back entrance.

He needed her steady, wanted her movements controlled and careful. Given the toy had prepped her a little and she had soaked him with more than enough of her fluids to give them plenty of lubrication, it could be an easy go for her first time … or if she went too fast, took him too hard, it might not.

Viviana didn’t give him the chance to get her steady or careful. The moment the latex-covered head of his cock slid against the tight hole of her ass, she was pressing down on his length all over again. Damn, he could feel her vibrating under the hand that was splayed to her back … muscles practically shuddering with want and need, so beautifully harsh.

Beads of perspiration had dampened the valley between her breasts. That pink stain she’d applied to her lips earlier was all but gone, but they were kissed and bitten so red she didn’t need to put on any more. The dark kohl that had lined her lids was smudged at the corners, making her eyes look deeper and smoky.

Anton went to speak, to tell her to take it slow, to breathe, to calm down, but the ring of muscles and walls of sensitive tissues that flexed and stretched to take him in had his throat tightening like a vise. The channel of her ass felt like velvet gripping steel.

The fit of her ass around his shaft was tight. Tight like his teeth gritting between parted lips. Tight like his fingers squeezing to dig into her waist. Just fucking tight and hot. Too goddamn tight. So tight it hurt and his eyes flew open, flicking up to seek out hers.

Before he’d even really knew how it happened, Viviana had sunk down his length totally, taking in his cock completely. The pulse in his shaft increased. Anton swallowed, blinked, and forced himself to breathe again so he could think for a moment.

The flicker of pain that flitted over her features had his grip tightening. “Baby …”

Viviana whined under her breath, air rushing from her nose as her eyes screwed shut. Suddenly, her hands clenched into balled fists on his chest. It was clear she couldn’t quite find words to say, or she wasn’t able. Either way, the last thing he wanted to see in her eyes was pain.

Finally, his voice was working again as he slid those hands up her spine and drove her forward into his embrace, shushing a low sound in her ear. Gently, he rolled the tips of his fingers over her trembling shoulders. Her face buried into his neck with another noise that had his heart racing and guilt rising. He could feel her bearing down.

Shit, he should have slowed her the fuck down.

“You all right?”

“No. Jesus Christ.” Air blew in a huff against his neck before she whispered, “Out, I want it—”

“Okay, okay.”

Keeping his hands splayed open on her back, Anton urged her body upwards much slower than she had lowered herself onto his length. With the feeling of muscles rippling around his cock, he found himself biting the inside of his cheek to ignore the sweet burning hum that swept throughout his entire nervous system.

Fucking hell, she was still tighter than a fist and hotter than fire.

Then, Viviana sighed shakily, her legs almost relaxing. Her fists unclenched and the pads of fingers pressed down softly to each of his pecs.

“Wait.” The word didn’t even sound like it came from her, but more like built up pressure that burst from somewhere inside. Raw and aching, that’s how it felt caressing his senses. “Just … oh God, do that again.”

Anton swallowed thickly. “I didn’t do anything.”

“That … I-I don’t know … that, Anton.”

Still not knowing what it was she wanted, he pressed a kiss to her temple, smoothing out her hair and waiting for the turmoil of emotions running through his soul to simmer. He flinched as she lowered onto his length once more. Again, her teeth clenched, air hissed, and her fists balled.

But when she raised … Oh, fuck, when she raised, her chest expanded with a tumbling moan that rocked him to the core. It almost felt like the inside of her channel was grasping even harder on the withdrawal, wanting to keep him inside. Warmth created by her and the buzzing high still creeping around his senses licked like flames over his skin.

“That,” she repeated in a breath.

Anton nodded. Releasing his hold on her back, he untangled her curled fingers on his chest and weaved them with his own. Pressing feather-light kisses to her knuckles, he let her stretch and open around his cock, feeling muscles relax ever so slightly with every single slow rise and fall. Pants of her breaths turned a little faster against his neck. When her fingernails bit into the skin of his hands, she moaned a deep noise as the tightening in his groin increased.

“That,” Anton echoed.

Her mouth ghosted over his cheek, searching out his as the air turned a little thicker, a little damper. Bright eyes with darkened, widened pupils met his own as her forehead pressed down to his and lips curled back with another low whine. The desperate expression taking over her features was the most beautiful sight.

“You got this, huh?”

“Yeah,” she said all airless but still full. “I got this.”