“Didn’t I promise you once a day?” Kaz asked.
Violet’s lips curved into a knowing smile. “I think it was twice, actually. And you’re behind a few days.”
Kaz watched her unflinchingly when he replied, “Oh, I think I can make up for that missed time. No worries.”
God, why did that sound so bad?
But good, too …
“Speaking of days,” she said quietly.
Kaz’s brow rose high. “What did I say, hmm? Whatever it is, we’ll talk about it after.”
His strong hands traveled down the column of her throat with the softest touch, but still just as sinful and promising as ever. Then the pads of his thumbs dragged a little firmer against her skin, silently assuring without even having to say a word that what she liked—what she always wanted from him—was close behind the softness.
Violet sighed against Kaz’s lips when he pressed another kiss to her mouth. “You always know just the right thing to do, Kaz.”
“Did you expect anything different?”
“No,” she admitted in a whisper.
How could she?
He was her one perfect person made just for her.
No … of course, she didn’t expect anything different from him.
Kaz leaned forward again, his lips grazing over hers, and then a buzzing started, freezing him solid.
“Ignore that,” he muttered, kissing her hard and pushing against her until her back hit the door. Violet gasped into the ferocity of the kiss, feeling his teeth scrape along the seam of her lips until she gave in and his tongue struck against hers. The buzzing of his phone eventually stopped, but only after his hands had found their way up the skirt of her dress and fisted into her panties.
Kaz was just attempting to pull the panties down her thighs—rough enough to sting—when the buzzing started again.
“Fuck,” he swore severely, pulling away and reaching for the device in his pocket.
Before Violet could even think to move, Kaz was back on her, gray eyes boring into hers, lips curved into a wicked smirk, and then his mouth was at her ear.
“I’m going to have to take this, but while I do …”
Violet’s hand grabbed his leather belt, wanting to keep him close. A shudder worked its way over her skin when he continued with, “While I do, you get your ass to my bed and be naked by the time I get in there, yes?”
She couldn’t even fucking speak.
The phone buzzed again.
“Violet, yes?”
Something was dark in his tone—his words had an edge she hadn’t quite heard him use before. And maybe that worried her a little because she wanted to know what caused it and why.
But maybe the sound of it turned her on a hell of a lot, too.
“Yes,” she said.
“Go.”
Violet didn’t wait around to be told again; she simply pushed off the door the second Kaz lifted the phone to his ear with a snarled, “What the fuck do you want?”
She felt just the faintest graze of his fingertips slide along the curve of her backside over her dress as she bolted for the back hallway that would lead to the bedroom.
On her way, Violet began shedding the few bits of clothing she had on, leaving them to lay wherever they fell from her hands. If nothing else, Kaz would have a trail to follow, not that he’d need one to find her.
She probably should have asked about things the first moment she could. Like why she was back in New York. Her father. His father.
Everything.
Right then, with the sensation of his gaze still lingering on her body as she stepped into the shadows of the hallway, she really didn’t give a single fuck.
He’d said the bed, but Violet went to the windows first, a goddamn nagging sensation working its way into her chest as she grabbed the slightly opened curtains and yanked them closed.
There would be no more pictures.
Not again.
Behind her, somewhere in the apartment, she could hear Kaz’s murmurings. Sharp, heated Russian words. He spoke far too fast for her to pull even a single word out of his conversation that she might understand.
Not even a name jumped out …
Despite having taken off all of her clothes except her matching lace underwear set and the suede heeled boots—Kaz had asked for naked, after all—Violet moved to the edge of the bed, sitting down to toe the heeled boots off and kick them aside.
She hadn’t even straightened back up completely before Kaz was darkening the doorway.
And damn, was he a sight.
In just a few short minutes, he looked like he’d walked a fucking mile to find what he wanted instead of the short distance of a room and a hallway to get to his bedroom. His tie was hanging loosely from his hand before it dropped to the floor and he took a step farther into the room. He’d unbuttoned his dress shirt. Although, guessing by the crumpled look of the silk, he’d actually just yanked it open instead of fussing over the buttons.
And his belt was undone, his dress pants unbuttoned and unzipped, showcasing that hard V of his groin.
Violet knew right then … there would be no softness between them that night, not like there usually was mixed in with the roughness of their fucking.
It was just that hard glint in his gaze as he looked her over, sliding that silk shirt off his shoulders and down his arms as he walked closer, that told her everything she needed to know.
He missed her.
Wanted her.
Something was wrong, likely.
He wouldn’t want to talk about it.
She really didn’t mind.
“I thought I said naked,” Kaz said, coming to stand in front of her at the edge of the bed.
Violet chewed on her bottom lip, staring up at him. “I’m working on it.”
“Not fast enough. I thought we went over this once—what I ask, you do.”
“No, when you ask, I answer.”
Kaz’s grin grew a little more sinful in the dimness of the bedroom. “Actually, you’re right. But we can work on the other thing, too, no?”
His hand came up, palm cradling the side of her face, and his thumb stroking over the seam of her lips. The second time the pad of his thumb swept across her mouth, he stopped in the middle, pressing down a little to part her lips without even speaking.
Violet complied, opening her mouth just enough to take his digit in and suck, tasting the heat of his skin dragging along her tongue.
She enjoyed nothing more than taking Kaz in her mouth when he demanded it of her. There was never a question, just his sharp words and a husky groan of her name that followed right behind as soon as her lips tightened around his cock.
That was what she wanted then.
That sight.
His sounds.
The taste of him in her mouth before and while he was fucking her.
It was almost primal, and she loved it.
She hadn’t even said a thing, but the way her gaze flicked down to his unzipped fly must have been enough because Kaz shoved his pants and boxer-briefs down just enough to free his already hard cock in his palm. He stroked himself with a tight fist, bruised knuckles turning nearly white.
That low groan—husky and thick—she wanted to hear was right on the tip of his tongue. Muscles tight and teeth clenched, he watched her from above.
Violet’s stare wavered between Kaz’s face and his hand around his cock.
He lifted a brow at her, almost mockingly.
He knew exactly what she wanted, and he wasn’t going to give it to her.
What I ask, you do.
“Kaz—”
“No,” he murmured.
Violet blinked, and she pressed her lips together when his thumb swept across her mouth again.
Kaz smiled just a little. “Open that pretty mouth for me, Violet.”
“But—”
“Open.”
She did, letting him slide his thumb into her mouth once more before he withdrew the digit and ran it across her lips, leaving a trail of wetness.
As slow as his hand had moved one second, it struck blindingly fast the next, fisting into the hair at the nape of her neck and driving her forward, making her back straighten. Kaz flashed her another knowing grin as he slid the crest of his cock against the seam of her parted lips, never quite letting her have more than just the taste of her tongue sliding along the soft flesh of the tip.
“If you think this is torture for you, krasivaya, just imagine how it feels for me,” he told her.
Violet didn’t really have to imagine anything. She could see it in the tension crawling over his muscles, how his gaze flashed with lust, and the way his hand tightened in her hair a little bit more to hide the shake.
Yeah, she knew.
“Just a taste. Get me wet,” Kaz said, a thickness coloring his words, “but don’t make me come just yet.”
Violet barely had time to prepare for his next move before he had let go of the base of his cock with his one hand, pushed at the back of her head with the other, and then grabbed under her throat as he filled her mouth. With his palm flat to her throat, Violet had no choice but to relax the muscles in her throat as his length slid all the way in and then back out again. Her lips tightened around his cock, and her teeth grazed the pulsing vein along the underside of his shaft.
Kaz chuckled, his fingertips drumming on her throat as he fucked her mouth. “Yeah, shit, I missed this.”
But as quickly as he’d given her a taste, he was pulling away. Withdrawing his cock from her mouth, he released his hold on her throat and hair.
He tipped his chin down at her, saying, “Take it all off—the rest of it. Get it off now.”
Violet felt like it took her fingers way too long to unclasp the hooks on the back of her bra, never mind pulling the lace fabric off her body. By the time she was kicking the matching panties off, Kaz had already shed the remainder of his clothes and was kneeling down on the bed, forcing Violet back on her elbows.
His mouth found hers—hot, demanding, and hard. She sucked in a shuddering breath when his hands spread her thighs. He hooked her legs around his hips, and his cock lined up perfectly to her bare sex. One second he was there, and the next, he flexed forward, taking her fast and deep.
That immediate sensation—being stretched and filled, even as wet and hot as she was—still ached.
Violet only craved more, only asked for more.
Kaz’s fingers threaded into the waves of her blonde hair, fisting tight and then tugging hard enough to make a sting radiate over her scalp as he urged her head back until the muscles in her throat protested with a burn. Another angled, brutal thrust of his hips filled her all over again, and made her cry out. His teeth found the cord on her neck, adding a sharp pain to the bliss currently lighting a fire through her nerves and over her skin.
Her thoughts and wants came tumbling out in a mess of words.
There and fuck and don’t stop because just a few fucking days were too fucking many with this man.
Too. Fucking. Many.
“Louder,” he rumbled against her throat. “Scream a little louder for me, Violet.”
Her hands fisted into the bedsheets, and she met him push for pull, nearly there but just barely hanging on.
And as always, his words took her over that first cliff.
Falling, breathless, and spun.
Mine, Violet and every single inch of you is mine.
Had she ever been anything different?
She couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t been his now.
Violet didn’t have time to crash down completely from the orgasm racing through her blood. She didn’t even have the chance to take a single breath before Kaz let out a harsh breath and pulled away from her again. She only saw a flash of his gray gaze before he spun her around, and her knees hit the bed, her ass high in the air.
His arm linked around her legs, pulling her back until she heard his feet hit the floor almost soundlessly, and her knees rested on the very edge.
“All mine,” he said, repeating his words from earlier.
Violet tried to catch her breath, running a hand through her messy hair so she could look over her shoulder. She caught sight of his hand coming forward a second before it snapped fast and hard along swell of her ass where it met her thigh.
A whine caught in the back of her throat but died before it could escape, and only because the tips of his fingers stroked the same spot he’d smacked.
Tender.
Soft.
Sweet.
And then his other hand struck the other side of her ass, leaving it with a deep ache, too.
“Jesus,” Violet groaned.
“You trust me, don’t you?”
Violet only nodded.
She didn’t think he needed words.
Apparently, Kaz disagreed. “Violet.”
His palm landed on her ass again, but that time it fell close enough that the tips of his fingers stroked along the tender, wet slit of her sex. Just as fast, two of his digits sunk in, curling hard and making her scream from the shock of pleasure it caused.
But when his fingers slipped out slowly and trailed a little higher, Violet tensed.
It was a brief flicker of anxiety as Kaz’s fingers stroked the tight hole of her ass with insistent, firm circles. Never pushing in, his fingers only teased.
“I need words for this, krasivaya.”
Violet’s initial hesitance slipped away at the sensations beginning to crawl up and down her spine. Deep and burrowing, it twisted hot and heavy in the pit of her stomach, and she pushed back against his hand.
“Yeah, Kaz.”
The first finger was easy—tight and new—but good. His dark whispers fell across her back as he worked that one finger deep into Violet’s ass until that feeling intensified and she asked for more.
More.
It felt like that was becoming a mantra of sorts.
But he gave her what she wanted, adding a second finger to the tightening ring of muscles. It burned with a sting, and it ached like nothing she’d ever felt before. But as fast as those flickers of pain had come, they were fleeting, leaving behind a different kind of ache.
New.
So good.
Kaz stilled his movements for only a second, but Violet was far too immersed in feeling to really pay attention to what he was even doing behind her. It was only when she felt the cool drip of something slick slide along his fingers buried deep in her ass did she realize what he had reached for in the nightstand.
“Breathe, yeah?” he said quietly. “Don’t tense up too much—trust me and feel.”
The last two things he demanded were easy enough.
The others?
Not so much.
The cool sensation of the lube helped the sting for the brief moment when Kaz withdrew his fingers. She almost expected him to be right back, but he was reaching for the nightstand again, and Violet did look that time, only to find he’d grabbed a condom.
His hand swept over her backside once, then twice, and it settled reassuringly along the swell of her ass before his fingers dug in deep.
That one shock of pain—something she hadn’t been expecting in his light touch—distracted her for just a passing second, and then she felt the head of his cock pressing into the tight hole of her ass. Still a bit tender from his fingers stretching her open, Violet sucked in a breath, holding it and tensing, waiting for that pain.
It was inevitable.
Even if for a short while …
She knew it would come.
Kaz’s fingers dug in again, his other hand tangled in the waves of her hair, and he tugged her head back. Violet chose to focus on those two things—the way his grip tightened, and his fingers bruised—and the sounds of his breaths coming out a little harsher as he started to push in.
He was slow at first—careful, even—working through that tight ring with measured thrusts and nothing too hard or fast.
That pain still came—sharp and fast—making Violet stiffen and bite down hard enough on her bottom lip to draw blood.
“Shhh,” she heard him say softly.
His hand in her hair let go, his fingers trailing down the length of her spine until she relaxed. Her muscles loosened, and the pain was gone—or damn near.
“Jesus Christ,” Kaz muttered heavily.
Violet wanted to agree, but the sound that left her lips was nowhere near coherent. She was just vocalizing a mixture of pleasure and need, and nothing else.
If he wanted words, she was fucking out of them.
Again, his fingers stroked her skin.
“It’s going to be a little faster—harder—now,” he told her.
“Please.”
Kaz only chuckled, as if he knew exactly how she felt and just what to do about it.
The withdraw came a hell of a lot easier than that first thrust had. It felt like he was raking over every single one of her nerves but in the best way.
There was still that sting.
That strange newness.
That too-full sensation.
But still …
“More,” Violet whimpered.
Oh, Kaz gave her that—pulling out near to the tip and then thrusting right back in, almost sending her off balance with the force. That ache burrowed deeper—the want clawed higher. The second her muscles relaxed again, he didn’t hesitate, beginning a brutal rhythm that was sure to leave her sore but satisfied come morning.
His fingers found her hair again, his other meeting the junction of her shoulder and neck to grab tight and yank her back to meet every flex of his hips.
That fleeting moment of slowness and softness was gone.
Violet didn’t even care.
She came faster the second time.
Harder.
Violently.
Crying into messy bedsheets and biting down on her own knuckles, she fought to find a goddamn breath because she couldn’t even breathe.
And it was fucking wonderful.
There was something about the quiet moments, after everything had calmed and when nothing but silence and ease was left. And after the last few days, that was all Kaz wanted. Between trying to find Vasily while simultaneously staying one step ahead of whatever he was planning—he severely doubted his father would walk away quietly—he was fucking exhausted.
But this was what he had prepared for.
Rooting through the slacks he’d left abandoned on the floor in his haste some hours ago, he grabbed a cigarette and lighter, inhaling the burning nicotine the moment it lit. But it wasn’t nearly as calming as it usually was because he still had too much to do.
“What are you thinking about?” Violet asked with wide expressive eyes, bunching the pillow beneath her head as she turned to better face him.
Looking down at her, he felt at peace. “That I missed you.”
“Really? Because as long as you were gone, I might have forgotten that.”
“It was necessary,” Kaz said after blowing out a stream of smoke. “But you’re here now, yes?”
“But for how long?”
Before Vasily had taken off, he would have never taken the chance of bringing her back here, but now that he was no longer the hunted, Kaz didn’t feel the need to keep her hidden away.
“For however long you want,” Kaz said, thinking of what he had left locked away in his desk across the hall. He intended to give it to her tonight but was waiting for the right moment.
“What’s the plan now?”
There was a lot to be done—a lot of meetings and sit-downs to be held—but none of that really involved Violet directly. Kaz didn’t doubt that Alberto knew they were both back, so the man’s absence was answer enough. He also didn’t doubt that Alberto would try to send anyone he could to drag her back to his side.
And he wasn’t having that happen.
Maybe there was no better time than the present …
He left her staring after him to head to his office. Yanking one of the drawers open, he grabbed the small box inside, turning the thing over in his hands as he headed back to Violet. The minute he was back in the room, her gaze strayed to him and then down to what he was holding.
Seeing it, she sat up a little straighter, dragging the sheet up to her chest as she did. “Kaz, what—”
“Some things have changed since I’ve been back,” he started to explain, knowing he just needed to lay it all out there for her to hear. “Vasily has gone off the grid, and as of now, no one can find him.”
“You will,” she said with all the conviction in the world.
He nodded. “It’s only a matter of time.”
Violet was quiet for a moment before asking, “But what does that have to do with that?”
“I’m only boss in action, not in title,” Kaz explained. “With Vasily gone, I’m free to take his seat, but while that guarantees me a certain respect from the Bratva, it doesn’t for you. Don’t misunderstand. If I ever hear someone speak a bad word about you, I’ll cut out their tongue, but as things stand, you are still the daughter of a man my people want dead.”
The muscle in her throat worked as she swallowed, and he caught that look of apprehension on her face before she could turn away.
Kaz wasn’t going to pretend with her—not when there was no way to soften the fact that her father was a dead man walking anytime he left the safety of his home. He had never doubted that she wouldn’t take it well—Alberto was her father, after all, and she loved the man—but the only thing he could hope was that she would allow him to try to lessen her pain.
“But Russians and Italians … we’re not so different, no? We both honor the sanctity of marriage and all it stands for. So if you became my wife—”
“Then I’ll go from being Alberto’s daughter to your wife,” she finished, not betraying a single emotion as she did.
Not sure how she was feeling about that, Kaz added, “At the very least, no one would dare try to take the wife of an enemy unless they wanted to start a war.”
And if Alberto tried, it would be a bloody fucking day.
“So this is about my protection?”
Scrubbing a hand down his face, Kaz didn’t answer. Not right away. He wanted to pick his words carefully. “It is about your protection, Violet, but that’s not the only reason. Ya tebya lyublya, Violet. You know that—I’ve made no secret of that fact to anyone. I’m not trying to marry you because it would be convenient, but because I want to.”
He heard her sharp intake of breath the first time he said ‘marry,’ but he needed to finish. He wanted her to understand that it was for them first, and everyone else was a distant second.
Flipping the lid of the box up, he crossed the floor, holding it out for her. “So are you going to make this easy on me?”
Her eyes were fixated on the oval diamond, one he had agonized over for two fucking hours, before she looked at him with stark emotion in her face. “Ask.”
Losing the playful note to his voice, Kaz asked her the question that had plagued him since the moment he knew she was the one. “Violet, will you marry me?”