Chapter Seven

The lightest sensation of something feathering over her closed eyes woke Viviana. Instead of giving away her awakened state, she relaxed into the pads of Anton’s thumbs tracing down over the apples of her cheeks before sweeping over her parted lips. She could still taste the faintest trace of her sex on his skin.

It brought with it a hot, heady memory of his hand grabbing the inside of her leg as he spread her legs father apart. By then, juices had smeared down her thighs; she had been so ready and wanting of Anton before they’d even gotten started.

She could remember his teeth possessively biting into where her hickey had finally faded, his cock buried balls deep into her from behind. A strong arm wrapped her middle, lifting her onto the bed higher, giving him better access to hit all those spots she needed him to with the hardest, deepest thrusts she’d ever felt in her life.

When she’d looked back over her shoulder with teeth biting into her bottom lip, his face had been right there, meeting hers, staring so honestly. With a single fleeting glance, Viviana swore she saw the insides of his soul and back again. Everything and anything he was ever going to want was laid bare in his bright blue cerulean eyes.

“No more marks,” he had said, his voice throaty and severe. The words had been punctuated by his hips meeting her ass, the force of the thrust sending her sprawling forward to catch herself. “None on your skin unless I put them there. No man touches you again, Viviana.”

The promise from her was a broken sound as his demanding, rough rhythm started. “No … none.”

“I’ll fucking kill them if they do.”

Any other woman might have been frightened by his admission, especially when his hands grasping her body tightened almost painfully. His clean-cut fingernails scratched into her thighs, scoring red lines she’d see for days. His actions only really served to show and prove to her just how serious he was, how much he wanted and needed her, too.

Mob men had a possessive streak over their women. What was theirs was theirs, and that was all there was to it. They didn’t marry a woman who wouldn’t look good on paper, who wouldn’t be appropriate sitting beside them on a pew at church. They didn’t speak vows to mistresses. No, they only made public lives with women who understood exactly what was expected of them. Some would lie, cheat, and hurt their wives until the bitter end, but they still expected their women to be as pure as a dove.

And if that woman failed, well, there was a place for them, too. Six feet under. Whether or not that was true, Viviana couldn’t say. She’d heard and seen enough things over the years to believe it was, but just like the rest of her life had been, walls could not speak and windows did not see.

She didn’t want to be that woman, but she didn’t want a husband who had five other women he could turn to at any time, either.

“You’re not really sleeping, Viviana. I can see those wheels of yours turning.”

At his blackstrap thick voice, her eyes finally fluttered open. Anton cocked his propped up head to the side in an almost animalistic way, regarding her with an intense gaze that set her insides to a fever pitch all over again.

It was the same expression he wore earlier that day when the front door slammed open and his hand was already up her shirt. The same piercing stare he leveled on a bull who was inside talking with the maid before he snarled at them both to, “Get the fuck out.”

The doors between floors had been locked, keeping the upstairs from coming down and vice versa. When his cell phone began beeping, she vaguely remembered him leaving her body long enough for her back to meet the bed before he was gone to grab the offending device. The bedroom door slammed closed once more before his phone had even hit the hallway floor and he was crawling back between her open thighs again.

Anton had a purpose with her, clearly, and he didn’t want to be interrupted by anything.

“What’s on your mind?” he asked.

Viviana caught his thumb on the corner of her lip, turning her face into his palm. Anton tasted distinctly of sex, and her stomach was already clenching with a heavy desire to have him so rough and hard again. The possessive dominance he seemed to own that screamed she was only his. She wanted it all.

“Nothing.”

“Mmm, I think you’re lying to me. Don’t lie to me, baby.”

Telling him that she had once again been considering the possibility of his mistresses probably wasn’t the best idea. “Really, it’s noth—”

Their naked legs intertwined beneath soft sheets. Without warning, she found herself above him, black hair falling over her shoulders in a curtain wave. Straddling his waist, Viviana could plainly feel the length of his hard erection pressing between slick, fleshy folds. With every jostle of their bodies, it rubbed so deliciously sweet along her swollen clit. When his hands grabbed to hold the curve of her hips, grinding his cock up into her harder, she let her head fall back to just feel him like that for a single moment.

“Tell me.”

“It was … Oh, fuck, don’t stop doing that.”

“Viviana. I swear if you don’t start speaking, I’ll tan your ass to a pretty red.”

Would he? The thought might have excited her more than she was willing to admit.

“I promise it was nothing.”

Really, it was starting to feel like that, what with the circumcised tip of his cock teasing the hood of her clit the way it was. Every strong stroke as he slid her along his length again and again was making her wetter and hotter.

Bare he felt so much better. Without latex sheathing him, she could feel every glorious inch of him when he was inside. Every vein and ridge was exposed for her to explore. The way she took him in and surrounded his cock like a perfect fitting glove was delirious. Her body was made for his. Given his very clear demand that she keep up whatever appointments needed for her birth control shot, Anton obviously didn’t have a desire to use condoms with her.

The heady smell of her arousal hung heavy in the air. The juices spread along the length of his cock and between her thighs, smearing more as he came a little closer to her waiting sex.

“Were you thinking about school?”

“No.”

“Your walk with Ivan, then?”

Another stroke and his hand was moving, guiding his cock into her entrance and stretching her full with a single movement. Her fleshy folds parted so easily, taking him all the way in as she sighed, relieved. Goddamn, he felt so good hitting that hyperaware spot inside that made her tremble and had her fists clenching against his muscled abdomen.

“Viviana …”

The tone of his voice was almost a singsong, if the warning hidden behind it wasn’t so clear.

“No, not that.”

“Are you worried?”

She spread her knees wider under his urging hands, lifting along his length before slowly dropping down again. How could she be worried being with him like this? There wasn’t a single thing that could even possibly bother her when she got to have him like this.

“Of course not.” The reply from her lips fell like a breathy gasp. “Not worried.”

Suddenly, Anton’s teasing rhythm stopped. “Me, then?”

Viviana choked on the emotions that built up so quickly inside her chest. “Please, Anton. I said it was nothing.”

Again, she found herself turning in a flurry of movement. On her back, he was still buried deep, leaning high above her to hit a switch over the headboard. Light illuminated his beautiful, striking form better for her to see. The heavy, dark curtains had been pulled closed in the room.

“I don’t want you lying to me.”

“It wasn’t anything I needed to bother you with,” she argued, avoiding his gaze.

“Anything that concerns you is my top priority,” Anton replied. “I’m not sure if you think it would be nothing more than an annoyance to me, but it wouldn’t.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I think it’d be. It’s not my place—”

“Whoa, stop that bullshit right there.” Viviana’s head snapped up at his angry tone. Disbelief flitted over the handsome features that she’d missed for so long. “Not your place? Viviana, your place is with me, baby. Yeah, I can’t have you throwing a tantrum in public or walking in on me or my associates, but that has nothing to do with this right here.”

Didn’t it, she thought. Their whole arrangement had come together because of business and family. She was, after all, meant to be the quintessential mob wife. Perfect in every sense of the word. Polite and pretty on the arm of her husband. Appropriate and quiet about what went on behind closed doors. Sadness or discomfort was to be hidden behind with designer sunglasses and lipsticked smiles.

“I don’t know what you expected of me, but that isn’t it,” Anton murmured softly.

“Isn’t it?”

For a moment, he looked torn above her. The clenching of his fists along her sides moved fast, dragging down the sheets to rest at her spread legs. Tension was written so painfully clear along the tight line his lips had drawn.

“No.”

Viviana didn’t want to anger him, but she wanted to make her point, too. “How many homes do you have, Anton?”

“Six. One in Moscow, a small vacation home in Hawaii, two in New York besides this one, and large acreage out of state.”

“And how many do you use?”

“All of them at one point or another. Why?”

Viviana licked her lips, trying desperately to ignore the hard, twitching cock still buried deep between her thighs. “How many can I use?”

Again, Anton appeared confused. “What?”

“If I wanted a change in scenery, or if I needed to go on a vacation but you still needed to work … could I take any key to those six homes and leave without you? I asked about homes, but what about apartments or penthouses. How many of those do you own?”

“None. I don’t need them. And yes, of course you’ll have access to all of my other properties. What are you trying to get at here?”

“How many children do you already have?”

Anton froze, eyes narrowing. “I—”

“Mistresses, too. Maybe you don’t own their apartments or flats. Did I not ask the right question to get the best answer? Should I have asked if you bought it for them instead?”

“For fuck sake, Vine. Shut up for a second.” Hot, wet tears had snaked lines from the corners of her eyes down over her cheeks and she hadn’t even realized it. He brushed the wetness away. “Jesus, stop crying … never cry in our bed. That’s the last thing you should ever do here.”

Before she could continue with her rant, Anton had spread her knees farther apart, opening her body so damned wide for him. It was a quiet, gentle beat of his hips meeting her slowly rising ones. Watching his hands hold tight to the silky soft skin of her legs, she could see the slight tremors that rocked his arms and he plunged deeper into her clenching walls with every thrust.

Viviana couldn’t stop the wanton moans from tumbling out of her fast rising chest. Both of her hands found purchase on the pillow behind her, fisting in and grasping tight as her back rose off the bed. The hottest flames seemed to lick at her nerve endings, a sweet burning hum of pleasure and love rocking through her veins like the best drug.

“No mistresses. No children. Not a fucking one.”

The words were growled above her and she found his gaze had sought out hers with that piercingly intense look again. A lump formed in her throat, keeping her ability to speak at bay as he released her legs from his grasp. The weight of his form pressed her into the bed, fingers finding hers in the pillow to uncurl and wrap with his.

“I don’t know who you thought I would be, but that is not it. I’ve got drug dealers on speed dial, guns in the basement, and two strip clubs with women who’d blow any man for the right price. I do bad shit on a daily basis. I dabble in anything that’ll buy me another car or house to make you smile.”

“Anton,” she whispered, feeling him hit just the right spot with the slightest reposition of his hips. Her breath shuddered. “It’s—”

“It’s not okay,” he interjected lowly. “There’s no sense in me going to the temple because even I can’t buy my way into heaven, so what’s the point in pretending. You want to know my secrets, baby? All the dark, bad things I did to get me where I am now? I’ve got a list in my safe a mile long of women and children I’m paying for because their husbands no longer can. My hand, a gun, and their grave. Do you understand that?

“Answer me …”

Her mouth was dry, words hoarse when she answered, “Yes, I understand.”

“Don’t act like some quiet mouse, Viviana. Don’t stand at my side with your head tucked down in those pretty dresses I buy you. Don’t be the weak little mafia princess your momma said you’d have to be. That’s not what I want—not what I need. Stand straight, meet their stare, and be my fucking queen. You’re the only one at my side because you can be—because you’re worthy and beautiful and mine. Do you understand me?”

His fingers clenched with hers, pushing her arms up under the pillow as his lips met her jaw so tenderly. Already she could feel her body beginning to sing and fly under his fucking. No one had ever taken her quite so high so fast before.

“But—”

“No buts. Question me if I’m late. Be angry if I piss you off. Run our home or hire maids. Go back to school or don’t. Birth me children or enjoy your life the way it is. Those things don’t matter to me; they never have.”

She was staring at him again, searching for some sign of a lie behind the open, truthful gaze with which he regarded her. He wasn’t hiding a thing. For years, Viviana found herself wondering if the quiet, whispered words he’d promised and swore under those blankets nine years ago had been as true as they felt. Now, she knew they were.

Anton loved her. Maybe he always had. It sure wasn’t like she completely understood why, but it was obvious she couldn’t deny the feelings were there, either. Once more, she was reminded of how much their situation just didn’t feel like the contract it had been made out to be. Whatever they were together, it was much more than men who shook hands and decided their fates. Destiny had its own plan.

“I stepped in to take you out of Toronto because I was terrified I wouldn’t get the chance if I waited one more day. I had men watching you for years. Not once did you lay your head down and I didn’t know where you were. I always knew, Vine. Fuck, don’t you know I love you?”

The orgasm that rushed down and swept over her senses hit like a tsunami. From head to toe, it ravaged and wrecked what was left of her worries, taking with it the fears and expectations she thought she had. Viviana twisted in the bed under the weight of her lover, crying out so broken and high because everything felt alive and awakened all at once. Too much, it was far too much. She didn’t have a choice but to let it consume and take her under.

Anton’s throaty, muffled groan against her throat followed the release she felt spurt from his cock, coating her core in thick, hot streams. Tight … Oh, God, he held her so tight to his body, letting her feel and take every bit of him he gave. Her name was on the tip of his tongue and the blissful feelings of sex danced across her sensitive skin.

With emotional waves washing over Viviana in choppy bursts, she felt him finally let go of his rough hold and move. His fingers roamed down her sides as their mingling fluids leaked between her legs to the sheets, his cheek turning to press into her stomach before he laid the softest kiss there.

“I’m sorry,” she breathed. “I didn’t realize or think … You kept pushing and I thought you didn’t understand. I suppose it was me who didn’t.”

Anton’s heavy sigh tickled her sweaty flesh. “I know.”

“All this time?”

“Hmm?”

His confusion had her lips curving with a sentimental smile. “I can’t believe you held onto that feeling for nine years, is all. People grow up, and we were separated for all of it. I mean, I always held onto you because that’s all I ever knew and when it wasn’t going to be anymore, I was fucking lost. Just … why?”

“I told you,” he said gruffly, “you’re mine. I found who I wanted when I was eighteen. I still got to live, do what I wanted, whatever, but I knew where I was ending up. That’s what I was working towards. I fell in love the one time, it was more than good enough for me; I wasn’t about to let it go.”

Viviana felt overwhelmed again. Like her heart had grown double its size and her lungs wouldn’t accommodate the growth. Their attraction had been one thing, and it came naturally, but hearing those statements had all but whipped away any doubts she might have had about the rest. Still, there were people she knew who loved and loved and loved, but time moved all things and feelings changed.

“Can you say you’ll never stray, though? Six years, ten years … it could change.”

“Not for me. Don’t think you’re just here to hang pretty on my arm and birth a few kids. I want a wife—my wife. And she can be whoever the hell she wants to be so long as she’s with me.”

She went to speak, but his rising head stopped her words up short. When their gazes met, the faintest smile played on his full lips. “Don’t apologize again. You have every right to wonder if you want this, baby. There’s very little I expect from you, except for you to follow the rules for your own safety, to get dressed up in something pretty when I want to take you out, and to turn the other cheek when the time is not right for you to step in. That’s all.

“Here …” he added, waving his hand to the space they were in, “… is your zone. When it’s just me and you alone, Vine, the only thing I want and need is for you to just be you. Normal. Happy. Mine. That’s it.”

Resting back into the bed, she let his fingers trace pathways over her stomach and sides. There wasn’t much else for her to say when he laid it all out bare for her like that. The comfortable silence that enveloped them didn’t feel awkward. She wasn’t even sure how long they stayed like that before the light hum of Anton’s phone vibrating out in the hallway had him sighing an unhappy sound.

“Insufferable idiots,” he grumbled.

“You’ve ignored them for hours.”

“They pissed me off. You had a terrible bruise on your back and cheek; I’ve got a massive bill to pay in Toronto, and a shipment is coming in at the end of next week that is probably going to get intercepted by the authorities if they can’t get the cargo in after midnight. Given the way the trip has been going, it’s probably not going to happen. I need a goddamn break.”

Viviana coughed, knowing Anton probably shouldn’t be telling her some of those things.

“Well, I’m here and the bruises have already started to fade.”

“True,” he agreed, sounding sullen. “But I’ll still remember.”

“Everything is taken care of in Toronto with all the important aspects, right?”

“For now.”

“And this … cargo …”

Anton’s brow furrowed in the sexiest way as he glanced away from her. “What about it?”

“Guns or other?”

“Does it make a difference?”

“I don’t know,” Viviana replied just as quiet. “You told me, Anton. Does it?”

“Not really.”

“So, delay it.”

The laugh that barked from him sounded a bit contrite. “It’s not that simple.”

“Sure it is. A few loose bolts on the ship’s mainframe can cause a complete security failure. Engines stop. Ships just float. Maybe it’ll float for a few extra hours just out of US waters with a viable excuse to be doing just that while someone else keeps an eye on the docks and coastguard to give a signal. See, simple.”

The surprise that registered in his eyes had her grinning.

“That’s brilliant.”

“I’ve overheard a few things here and there. Some of it could be useful, but a lot of it really isn’t.”

Anton was covering her body with his again, lips finding hers as his tongue swept the seam of her lips teasingly. The languid speed he took to taste and love her mouth was a soothing beat to the aftershocks her body was still experiencing from their previous coupling. Before Viviana could try to get his cock rising again, he leaned over and hit the call button on the conference phone sitting on the bedside table. The panel on the wall lit up with an immediate response.

Clarissa’s voice suddenly chimed through the panel. “Mr. Avdonin?”

“It’s nearly six, yeah?”

“Yes, sir. Supper is almost finished, but if you’d like to take it in your office, I can bring the plates up.”

Anton hummed indecisively.

“I’ll unlock the door to your stairwell. Allow Rocco up. How many calls have Ivan and Erik pestered you with, Clarissa?”

“Not many.”

“Are you sure?”

“A few …”

“Next time, tell them to stop calling. You’re not my assistant and you don’t deliver messages. I’ll call them back when I can. Otherwise, turn the phones off for the evening. Viviana and me, we still have some catching up to do.”

Viviana smiled against the strong arm lying beside her face. She caught his eyes traveling over the length of her naked form with an open brazenness that was filled with want. That lump returned in her throat with a vengeance. Despite her muscles being sore and her body feeling sticky and in serious need of a bath, she wasn’t about to complain.

“Oh, and you have all that spa nonsense in the bathroom downstairs, yes?” At Clarissa’s quiet agreement, he said, “Bring it up for Vine, and in the next few days you can take her out to show her where she can get some more if she likes it. You can pick up whatever you need also, okay?”

Viviana swore she could hear the knowing smile in the woman’s voice when she answered, “Absolutely, sir.”