Chapter 8

Adrian

 

 

 

She was driving me crazy, in every good way known to man. The way she touched me, said my name—fucking called me cuore mio—it stroked and soothed something deep inside me. For the first time in my existence, I felt truly alive and happy.

And it was all because of her.

I had known from the instant I had set eyes on her that she was mine. That she was it for me. That I would spend the rest of my life wanting, adoring, and protecting her. And that sassy little smirk as she sat on my lap, teasing me with how wet her panties were, how her body quivered with each inhale she took, told me that she knew it, too.

I cupped the back of her neck, making sure she didn’t turn away from me as I took a moment to memorize every inch of her beautiful face. The shape of her eyes, that luscious bottom lip that begged for my kisses, the ever so slight upturn to her adorable nose. She was the most beautiful creature I had ever set eyes on.

“What?” she breathed when I just sat there looking up at her. “Is my makeup smeared?”

I stroked my thumb over her bottom lip, loving how soft it was against my rough skin. “Not yet. But we can fix that, kotyonok.” Pulling her down, I captured her lips in a hungry kiss.

No sooner had our mouths met was she raking her fingers over my scalp. She was demanding, wanting to be in control, so I gave it to her.

She took her time, kissing me as long and deeply as she wanted, and somehow, I found the willpower to let her without nutting off in my pants.

As she kissed me, her body moved, keeping in time with the music that the DJ was playing below us. I wasn’t sure if she knew what she was doing, or if her body was just that attuned to the music, but it was driving me crazy. The way her hips tilted and shimmied, rubbing over my already rock-hard cock through our many layers of clothes, it was going to make me explode soon if she didn’t stop.

Slowly, as if our kisses were drugging her, she lifted her head. There was a glazed look in her eyes as she licked her swollen lips, making my cock flex uncontrollably against her wet pussy.

I brought my hand between us until I was cupping her wet heat, finding her clit with my thumb and stroking it through her drenched panties, a black satiny thong that only made my blood run hotter for her.

Unsteadily, she grasped my shoulders, her head thrown back as I stroked her toward her first orgasm of the night.

“That’s it, kotyonok. This is only the beginning for tonight, I promise. Let yourself go. Come for me,” I commanded, watching her face as I built her higher and higher.

“Adrian,” she panted. “Oh God, yes. You make me feel so good.”

She ground her pussy harder against me, and I knew I wasn’t going to last much longer.

While I continued to stroke her toward her release, I undid my pants, reaching in and pulling out my throbbing cock. I pushed her panties to the side and rubbed the head of my dick over her wetness, letting her essence drip onto my shaft as I replaced my fingers with my cock.

At the first touch of my hardness to her tender flesh, she jerked as if I had electrocuted her, but she didn’t pull away. Instead, she shifted her hips until my length was stroking between her pussy lips. Her lashes lowered as she watched me while she rubbed herself over my bare cock, her lips parted, her breaths coming in little gasps and pants.

My balls tightened, my toes curling in my shoes as I tried to fight back the need to release every drop of come I had building up for her.

Victoria’s head fell forward. She brushed her lips over my neck and ear. “I want to feel you come on my pussy,” she moaned out. “Let me feel how much you want me, cuore mio. I need your come on my skin again. Mark me as yours.”

“Fuck,” I growled, my cock erupting in powerful spurts as my entire body seemed to clench from the force of it.

Minutes felt like hours as they passed and I slowly came back to myself. She was slack in my arms, having come just as hard as I had. Never, not one single time, had I ever let go like that with a woman. I hadn’t trusted them enough to give them that kind of power over me, but with Victoria, I was different. I would have given up every part of myself for her, including my self-control.

She shifted against me, nuzzling sleepily against my neck. “I’m so thirsty,” she said with a sigh. “I think you drained me of every drop.”

“Give me two more minutes to recover and I’ll order us some drinks.” I kissed to top of her head, reluctant to move just yet. “I have to remember how to walk first, though.”

Her laugh was sweet and infectious.

Lifting her head, she cupped my face in both hands. “Ask me if I’m only pretty sure now.”

I turned my face into her left hand, pressing a kiss into her palm. “Are you only pretty sure now, kotyonok?”

“No,” she murmured softly, causing something wild to unfurl inside me. “I know I’m one hundred percent, completely, head over heels in love with you, Adrian Volkov.”

 

 

 

***

It was getting late, but I wasn’t in a hurry to take Victoria home. I could have sat on that couch with her all night, listening to her laugh, watching her dance for me when the DJ played one of her favorite songs. She entranced me as I silently sat back while she told me of how it had been with her and her twin growing up in the Vitucci compound.

Her brown eyes lit up whenever she spoke of her brother and sister, and she seemed to glow when she told me about her father, but the few times she had mentioned her mother so far, she had lost some of her brightness.

I topped her glass of wine off with the bottle a waiter had brought while she had been cleaning up in the bathroom, then shifted so I was facing her better. She gave me a smile, but I noticed it didn’t completely reach her eyes. I wanted to know why talking about her mother had killed some of her happiness.

“Do you miss your mother?” I grasped her chin between my thumb and forefinger when she looked away, making her look at me so I could see what was going through her mind.

Her sigh was sad, but resigned. “I barely remember her. She died when Scarlett and I were barely walking. But my father says that I’m just like her, in looks and personality. He says that I’m her clone in every way.”

“You? Not you and Scarlett both?” They were identical twins; how could one be their mother’s clone and not the other?

Her lips twisted with grim amusement. “Maybe in looks, but Scarlett is nothing like our mother. She’s too much like Papa, whereas I’m so much like Aslinn that it breaks Papa’s heart.”

“Tell me about her.” I knew very little of the woman who had given life to the Vitucci children. I had heard her name only a handful of times over the years I had been in New York, and every time her name had been spoken with reverence, as if it was sacred and powerful.

“I suppose you have heard the stories about her?” Her brows lifted when I merely shrugged, and she grinned. “Come on, Adrian; surely there are a few brave men in the world willing to tell you everything you possibly need to know about my family.”

“I know plenty about your father and his side of the family, kotyonok. It’s your mother’s side that no one ever wants to speak about.”

“I can’t say I blame them, really.” She grimaced and looked down at her wine glass for a moment before blowing out a tired breath. “I’m half-Irish. I’m sure you know that much at least. When they got married, it united one of the most powerful families in Sicily with the most powerful family in all of Ireland, or so my brother likes to say.”

She rolled her eyes but there was a loving look in their depths as she spoke of her brother. “Supposedly, Papa and Aslinn’s romance was one fairy tales are made of. The kind that little girls dream of having. Papa knew the minute he saw Aslinn that he was going to marry her. She was so beautiful, so full of fire and life, and he couldn’t not make her his, or so he told me. I think at times he embellished the story a little to make me feel better about being so much like her.”

“That sounds just like you.” I took one of her hands, lifting it to my lips so I could kiss her palm. She didn’t look particularly happy to be compared to her mother, and I wanted to know why.

“It didn’t matter to Papa that Aslinn wasn’t Italian, although I’m sure Nona had a lot to say about it at the time. He rushed her through what Cristiano calls ‘the world’s shortest courtship,’ and had his ring on her finger and my brother in her belly within days.”

“Smart man,” I murmured, trying to put a real smile back on her beautiful face, even as I wondered if I could get away with doing the same thing. I could find a way to end my marriage without disrupting Theo’s life, but it would take a while. Putting my ring on Victoria’s hand and a baby in her belly would show the world—and her father—that she was mine now.

“I’m sure he thought the same thing.” Even, white teeth sunk into her plump bottom lip for only a moment before she leaned forward to put her glass on the tray beside the bottle of wine. “I don’t know if I want to tell you everything, Adrian.”

I pulled her into my side. “Why? Because you are supposedly just like this amazing woman?” I brushed my lips over hers, kissing away the hurt she had given herself when she had bit her lip. Pulling back a short time later, I tipped her chin up again. “Maybe you are like your mother, maybe you aren’t. Either way, you are still my kotyonok. Now and always.”

Pleasure filled her brown eyes, and she melted against me. “She was a good woman, most of the time at least. She loved Papa, when he wasn’t making her crazy with all the I, man; you, woman bullshit. And even though I don’t remember her, I’ve made Cristiano tell me about her. He adored her, and I like to think she was a good mother.” A smirk teased at her lips, but it quickly faded. “She was reckless, easy to anger and, at times, dangerous.”

“You are reckless,” I informed her and got a glare in return. “You sneak out of your secure home to come play with a man I wouldn’t ever want a daughter of mine to be in the same room with. That’s extremely reckless. But I’m not complaining.”

“I’m not denying that I do as I please, Adrian. No one has ever been able to control me, and no one ever will. That includes you.”

“Did I say that I wanted to control you?”

Her eyes started to lower again, but I tightened my hold on her chin.

“I don’t want to change you, Victoria. I like you just the way you are.”

Her lashes lowered, forcefully hiding away her thoughts from me. She looked up at me through them for a long moment before pulling away. “I love this song,” she murmured, getting gracefully to her feet and taking my hand. “Come dance with me.”

Letting her put the brakes full-stop on the topic of her mother, I followed her over to the window that overlooked the club below. I didn’t dance often, but with her in my arms, it felt natural to do it for hours.

By the end of the song, she was laughing and back to being the Victoria I adored.

Our time was growing shorter as the night wore on, but I was basking in the here and now. We danced for another hour before she started fighting back one yawn after another.

I wanted nothing more in that moment than to take her home with me and tuck her into bed beside me, but for now, I had to take her home.

With a final kiss, she climbed from my car in the same spot she had left me the night before. “Goodnight, cuore mio,” she murmured before shutting the door behind her.

Victoria disappeared into the night as if she hadn’t even been there, and I waited until her text lit up my phone, telling me that she was safely in bed, before pulling away.