Dmitri had things to do, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to leave Keira in their bed alone. Last night had been a turning point for them, and he woke up wanting to ensure they didn’t backslide.
With her face relaxed in sleep and her hair a tangled mess on her pillow, she didn’t have her barriers in place for the first time since he’d met her. This is what it could be like all the time if the rest of the world wasn’t going to hell around us.
The peace was a small reprieve. They had a single day until the party and a lot to accomplish in that amount of time. The danger was nowhere near past, and Dmitri should be focusing on that instead of curling Keira’s hair around his finger.
Her eyes flicked open, asleep one moment and awake the next. “It’s creepy to watch someone while they sleep.”
“Nyet, we had this conversation. You’re in my bed—our bed—so that gives me certain rights.”
She rolled her eyes. “Always an argument with you, isn’t it?”
“Can you blame me when you’re so entertaining to argue with?” He kissed her shoulder. “Walk me through what you’ve set up for the party.”
“I assumed you’d already have all the details.”
Claudia had dropped a report on his desk, but Dmitri hadn’t had the opportunity to review it yet. No, that wasn’t strictly true. He’d had the chance but chose not to. This was important, and it felt almost like a breach of trust to check up on Keira after he assigned her to it. “If I did, I wouldn’t ask you to fill me in.”
She gave him a look that said she didn’t quite believe him, but she finally rolled to face him. “Claudia had me picking menu choices—one vegan, one seafood, and one red meat. Covering all our bases. There were a lot of silly decisions to be made—reception colors, what flavor of cake, that kind of thing.”
“What did you choose?”
“You really want to know?”
He wanted to know everything when it came to her. Even mundane choices offered a window into Keira. “Da.”
“Well then.” She settled against the pillow. “Black and red for the colors. Claudia thought it’d be too gothic, but I think it fits and I like it, so I vetoed her. Cake is chocolate on chocolate.” She made a face. “Damn, I probably should have asked you how you felt about chocolate, huh?”
“I adore it.” He stroked his hand down her arm to her hip. “Though I don’t indulge often.”
“I can tell.” She poked his stomach. “It would figure that you’re a control freak about your body the same way you are about everything else.”
It didn’t exactly sound like she had an issue with it, but he still felt obliged to add, “Being in fighting shape is an asset.”
“I don’t doubt that.” Something flickered over her face, and he could have kicked himself for missing something so obvious.
Dmitri kissed her shoulder again. “The gym I mentioned has been cleared, and you can start immediately if you want to.”
She brightened and then frowned. “Part of me wants to just go for it, but we don’t know how things are going to play out at the party, and I’m not going to be much use if I can’t walk or move my arms because I’m so sore.” She bit her bottom lip, and he had to remind himself not to soothe it with his tongue when she released it. Keira sighed. “This whole being in charge of shit has some downsides, doesn’t it?”
“Da, though the perks are…enticing.” He couldn’t resist any longer. Dmitri kissed her. She tensed as if she’d pull away, but he didn’t give a fuck about morning breath, or anything but doing exactly what he was doing, and Keira melted into his arms. She pushed him onto his back and straddled him, her skin sliding against his in the most intoxicating feeling he’d ever experienced. As if she couldn’t get close enough, couldn’t touch enough of him, couldn’t think past the need for him.
Fuck, that’s exactly how he felt.
He grabbed her ass and ground her clit against his cock, letting the hard ridge of him drive her wild. She tore her mouth from his with a gasp, and he growled. “I didn’t intend this.”
“Sounds like I did you a favor, then.” She writhed, but it didn’t seem to be enough for her, so Keira reached between them and squeezed his cock. “We’ll make it quick. Just a little fucking before you get back to vengeance and world domination, and I go back to that damn party.” Keira didn’t wait for an answer as she guided him into her in a smooth move. She braced a hand on the middle of his chest and rose to take him deeper. “Just so you know…” She rolled her hips. “I talked to Pavel about having men stationed at every exit to both the room and the house. She won’t make it in, Dima. We won’t let her.”
It was beyond fucking sexy to hear her talking vengeance while riding him. He bent up and captured her mouth for several long seconds. “Good.”
“Mmm.” She clasped the back of his neck, keeping him close to her as she fucked him. She was totally and completely in control and intent on her pleasure, and she’d never been more beautiful to him. “I want Mae. I want to be the one who deals with her—for Charlie.”
By all rights, he should hand Mae over to Aiden to secure what little goodwill they could scrape together, but Dmitri would deny Keira nothing. “She’s yours.”
She kissed him hard, her teeth scraping against his tongue, her nails pricking the nape of his neck. Her strokes hitched, and he thrust up to keep the rhythm going. She was close. He could feel it. Another stroke, a third, and then Keira orgasmed with a cry that he swallowed down.
Dmitri flipped them and drove into her, chasing his own pleasure even as he kept kissing her. My queen. My wife. Mine. His orgasm hit with the force of a freight train, and he sucked her bottom lip as he came. He buried his face in her neck and just let himself…be…for a moment. With Keira drawing abstract patterns on his cooling skin, his mind was blissfully blank. He dragged his mouth along her neck. “You are a gift.”
“Glad you think so, but maybe wait until you see the bill for the dresses I just bought yesterday.”
He chuckled. “They’ll be worth every penny, I’m sure.”
“They’d be a better deal if you don’t make a habit of ripping them to shreds every time we have sex.”
He lifted his head to find her grinning at him. He raised his eyebrows. “Worth. Every. Penny. But next time we dine alone, I want you wearing this and nothing else.”
“This being…naked.” She made a show of looking at the nonexistent space between their bodies. “I can get down with that.”
“Much obliged.” He kissed her again and slid off her. “We have work to do.”
Keira stretched her arms over her head, and her entire body turned into a beautiful arch as she stretched. The move had the sheet sliding off her hips and her breasts practically begging for his mouth. He dragged his gaze away through sheer force of will, but there was no missing the laughter in her voice. “I suppose that means I shouldn’t suggest showering together to save time.”
I shouldn’t…
The thought didn’t have a chance to properly form before he rounded the bed and scooped her into his arms. “All in the name of saving time, of course.”
“Of course.”
* * *
The fact that Keira wasn’t walking funny defied the laws of logic. They fucked again in the shower, her braced against the built-in shelf of the tiled wall while Dmitri took her from behind. Her entire body was sore in the most glorious way possible, and she still wanted to spend the next week locked in their bedroom with him. First, vengeance, then honeymoon fucking.
Keira took her time getting ready. Her usual outfit of jeans and a tank top didn’t fit the image she wanted to project, and so she dug through the closet to find something that screamed Queen Bitch. She had to start taking this shit seriously, and as much as she liked the grunge look, maybe it was time to grow up a little. She found a color-blocked pencil skirt in black and gray, and a matching black lacy tank top. After the slightest consideration, she delved into the lingerie drawer for a garter belt and thigh-high black stockings. When Dmitri came back from wherever it was he’d gone, she’d give him a little surprise. It was silly to miss him when he’d been inside her less than an hour ago, but she swore the house felt emptier without him in it. She sighed and got dressed, throwing a slim-cut gray blazer over the top to tone down the sexiness of the lace.
One last check in the mirror gave her pause. The woman staring back at her looked only vaguely familiar. They had the same wavy hair, the same hazel eyes. But there was nothing of the self-loathing she’d borne like the weight of the world on her shoulders for years. Her hands didn’t shake from needing whatever drug she could get her hands on. Her mood wasn’t dark and tipping into despair.
She didn’t look like a pawn.
She looked like a motherfucking queen.
She grinned at her reflection and headed downstairs to grab a quick bite to eat. Claudia wouldn’t arrive for another hour or so, but Keira wanted to go over the plans with Pavel again to make sure they’d anticipated every option. They’d need to go through it a third time with Dmitri tomorrow, but she wanted it as foolproof as it could get.
A quick bite later and she cornered Pavel in the secondary office the men used throughout the day. He saw her come through the door and shot straight. “Mrs. Romanov.”
“O’Malley-Romanov.”
He hesitated like he wanted to contradict her but nodded. “Mrs. O’Malley-Romanov.”
Good boy. She noted that he very carefully kept his gaze on her face, and almost laughed. She’d obviously traumatized the poor man last night, but it was just as well. There was wisdom in not allowing any of the men to become too familiar with her. Right now, they weren’t quite sure where she fit in with the overall hierarchy, and they weren’t willing to do anything to piss her off. That suited her purposes just fine—for now. Once they were past this mess with the Eldridges, Keira had every intention of ironing out all sorts of shit within the household.
She gave him a tight smile. “Let’s go through it once more.”
“Gladly.” He didn’t hesitate this time, leading her to the table they’d set up with blueprints of the house. She had to wonder why Pavel didn’t seem too worried that she might use the information to sneak out or maybe smuggle it to her brother, but that was something to address later.
Right now, she had a bitch to catch.
They went over the placement of the men and how they would ensure no one uninvited got past them. With Keira’s family attending, most of the power players in Boston would be in one place. It was practically inviting their enemies to attack, but her siblings and their spouses couldn’t skip attending any more than Keira and Dmitri could skip making the invitation in the first place. Power was a funny thing. They only had it as long as they had the perception of it. Sometimes that meant taking stupid risks instead of bunkering down to hunt their enemies to the ends of the earth.
If the people in their respective territories thought the Romanovs were afraid of the Eldridges, the people bold enough to attack would multiply.
She got it. She just thought it was stupid.
Dmitri thought Alethea was going to try to leverage an invitation to the party. The more Keira thought about it, the less sense it made. Alethea might have the utmost faith in Dmitri’s word—and rightfully so—but Aiden hadn’t made any promises about her safety. If given half a chance, Keira’s brother would put a bullet into both Eldridge women if only to save Charlie a future of uncertainty. Keira didn’t blame him for that, and Dmitri likely wouldn’t, either.
So, no, Alethea had something else up her sleeve. The question was what.
Keira tapped a finger to her lip. “Pavel, I have a question for you.”
“Da?”
“Did Dmitri assign you to me because you’re being punished or rewarded?” She’d seen no indication that Dmitri operated his household that much differently from her brother, which meant that his men shared a lot of the duties. Keira knew for a fact that they rotated through for whose turn it was to leave the house for various reasons. Pavel had been designated her personal bodyguard for a reason, and she wanted to know why.
For all his talk, is he still looking at me as a possession to be protected?
She hated how the thought grated. So much so, she almost missed Pavel’s hesitation. Keira zeroed in on him. “Don’t even think about lying to me. It won’t go over well, and I’ll find out the truth regardless.”
He took a slow breath. “My father was Mr. Romanov’s father’s second in command. I grew up in this business, and he’s known me since I was a child. He trusts me.”
Which meant he didn’t trust someone else. Anyone else. She nodded, and the relief on Pavel’s face would have made her laugh under other circumstances. As it was, she was too busy thinking about the implications of Dmitri not trusting his men. From what she understood, many of them had been with him for years, and he wasn’t the type to keep people under his roof—and give them access to Keira—if he didn’t trust them beyond a shadow of a doubt.
The only reason she could think that he would do that was if he didn’t know who he could trust and who he couldn’t.
Shit.
She faked a smile and put a bit of brightness into her tone. “Thanks, Pavel. We’ll walk through it once more with Dmitri tomorrow and then put everything into motion.”
He nodded. “It’s a good plan.”
This time, her smile was closer to the real thing. Their plan might be good, but it depended upon the enemy being outside the house. If one of Dmitri’s men was a threat, keeping watch on the exits wouldn’t do them a damn bit of good. “Thanks.” She strode out of the room, already considering how best to corner Dmitri and convince him to tell her what the hell was going on. The good mood she’d captured from the superior fucking she’d experienced last night and this morning slipped through her fingers.
It’s more than fucking, and no matter how many times I think of it that way, it doesn’t change the truth.
She didn’t know what the truth was, but things had changed between her and Dmitri. He’d teased her last night, and when she’d trusted him, he rewarded her for it. And this morning, waking up and lying there in bed talking about their plans was such a married thing to do. For the first time, she actually felt married—and she liked it a whole hell of a lot.
Movement at the turn in the hallway caught her eye, and she stopped short, her heart beating too hard. She’d felt safe in this house, but if there was a traitor in their midst, then anyone who wasn’t Pavel or Dmitri was a potential threat.
A familiar form detached himself from the shadows—familiar and wrong. Keira shot a look around and hurried over. “Mark? What the hell are you doing here?” She grabbed his muscular arm. “Get out of here before someone sees you. And you can tell Aiden to shove his rescue mission—”
“I’m not here for you.”
She froze, the pieces clicking together so quickly, it was a wonder they didn’t a make an actual sound. “Aiden sent you for the Eldridges.”
“For Mae,” he corrected.
It was right about then that Keira realized she didn’t know much about Mark at all. Liam was the one who had been friends with Aiden since forever. Mark was just Liam’s cousin who couldn’t adapt to civilian life after he got out of whatever branch of the military he’d been in and needed a job. Sure, Mark had been her babysitter more often than not for several years, but that didn’t mean a damn thing. He was a shadow. He sure as hell wasn’t a friend.
She removed her hand from his arm, but didn’t step back. “If you’re here with Dmitri’s permission, that’s one thing, but don’t think for a second of playing the Lone Ranger and fucking up our plans.”
He smirked. “You can let Romanov know that I’ll play nice…for now.”
Which was as good as saying he wouldn’t the second it suited him. She clenched her fists at her side and strove to keep her aggravation out of her tone. “If you do something that causes the Eldridges to escape, Dmitri will be the least of your concerns.”
Mark stepped close, towering over her. “Pay attention, little girl, because I’m going only to say this once—stay the fuck out of my way. You might be playing wifey to that Russian bastard, but that doesn’t make you shit. You’re not an O’Malley anymore, and that means I won’t hesitate to put you in your place if you get between me and my mark.”
If she didn’t do something to regain the power of this situation, that would be the end of it. Mark had never been a particularly nice guy from what she’d seen, but he looked seriously unhinged in that moment. Mae shot Liam. He hadn’t died, but it was a close thing. It stood to reason that Mark would want revenge.
Too fucking bad.
Keira stepped back, putting a reasonable distance between them, and raised her voice. “Pavel?”
Just like she’d suspected, he appeared from where he’d been lurking, monitoring the situation. Whether it was for her protection or because he thought she’d turn on Dmitri was irrelevant. She jerked her chin at Mark. “Remove this man from the house.”
Mark froze. “What the fuck did you just say?”
But Pavel was already moving, another man appearing behind him. She made a mental note to memorize the names of all the men in the house as they took Mark to the floor and pulled zip ties from somewhere to fasten his hands behind him and bind his ankles together. It wasn’t quick and it wasn’t easy—Pavel was bleeding from the nose by the end of it—but they managed. They flipped Mark onto his back, and only then did she approach again.
Keira leaned over and raked a glance over him from head to toe. “My husband will hold to whatever agreement he and Aiden made. I revoke whatever permission you had to be in this house before the reception, so you’ll have to find other arrangements. If you’re caught trespassing, I can’t be held accountable for the consequences—and you can relay that to my brother.” She straightened and nodded at Pavel. “Please see him out.”
They picked Mark up and strode away, his curses echoing the halls for several long moments after they disappeared from view. Keira turned away and picked a door at random, ending up in a small powder room. She locked the door and leaned against it. Only then did she start to shake.
Sheer bravado. That’s all her act had been—an act. She hadn’t known for sure that Pavel would appear and obey. He said he could be trusted, but that didn’t mean a damn thing until Dmitri confirmed it. It was a gamble that Pavel would do what she commanded even if it potentially counteracted Dmitri’s initial order.
Mark’s words played through her head. You aren’t an O’Malley anymore. It was nothing more than the truth, though a truth she hadn’t been ready to face. She still wasn’t ready to face it. Too bad she didn’t have any choice.
To distract herself, she pulled out her phone and sent a quick text. Kicked O’Malley man out of the house. Aiden will be pissed, but it was necessary.
Dmitri didn’t make her wait long for a reply. Noted. I’ll call shortly. Stay with Pavel. Quickly followed by a second text. Please.
She let her head fall back to rest against the door. This little breakdown couldn’t last long—Claudia would be waiting by now. She had to put on a smile and pretend everything was perfectly fine when all she really wanted to do was go to the nearest liquor store and buy the biggest bottle of vodka they had in stock. Her mouth actually watered as she spent several precious seconds imagining the taste of it hitting her tongue and the way it would burn her throat and warm her stomach, of the precious numbness that would spread in its wake, until she didn’t care about anything but her next sip.
One breath. Two.
On the third, she forced the fantasy away. Her hands shook as she pushed her hair back and walked to the mirror to check her appearance. This time, her reflection didn’t look nearly as sure of herself. Fake it until you make it. It was the only option she had left.
Keira threw back her shoulders and marched through the door. She had the rest of the goddamn party to get lined up, and she wasn’t going to let shit get to her until she had some private time alone to deal with it—or maybe she wouldn’t deal with it at all.
After all, she wasn’t an O’Malley anymore. She was Keira motherfucking Romanov.