Chapter 24

Adrian

 

 

 

Victoria slowly stretched over me like a well-satisfied feline and started to roll onto her side. I tightened my arms around her back, holding her in place.

Slowly, she lifted sated, sleepy eyes to look down at me. “I can’t sleep on you. I love your body, but you feel like a rock.”

“Just give me a few more minutes, love.” I pushed her hair away from her face then pulled her head back down on top of my chest. “Let me take it all in for a little longer.”

She sighed, but it sounded happier than frustrated to my ears. Then she relaxed over me again. She rubbed her legs over mine, tangling them as she lifted a hand to trace over the day-old stubble along my jaw. I stroked my fingers up and down her spine, and she made a soft humming sound in pleasure. We stayed like that for a long while, neither of us speaking, just simply enjoying the afterglow of our lovemaking.

“I really do love you,” she whispered sometime later. “Please … just don’t break my heart again.”

I shut my eyes as regret burned through my chest.

Biting back a curse, I flipped her onto her back and lifted myself onto an elbow. I traced my index finger over her cheek and down to her lips. “I swear to you, kotyonok, I will do everything in my power to make sure you never hurt as I hurt you. I love you and promise I will spend the rest of my life proving to you that you are the most important person in my life.”

“Are you really getting a divorce?” The continued doubt in those brown eyes was like a kick to the gut.

“Yes. As soon as Klara signs the papers, I will be a free man.” I skimmed my finger over her kiss-swollen lips.

“But …” She trailed off, shifting her eyes away from mine, as if she were afraid to finish what she was going to say.

I caught her chin and forced her to meet my gaze. “But?”

Pink filled her cheeks. “I was just wondering what would happen to Theo. You said your name is on his birth certificate. Will you share custody?”

I shook my head, and something darkened in her eyes until I spoke.

“No, I plan on gaining full custody of Theo. The less exposure he has to his mother, the better. It’s part of the settlement deal I offered her. She gets a nice nest egg that I suspect she will put to good use and snort up her nose, and I get Theo. Perfect trade.”

“What do you mean, snort up her nose? As in, drugs? Klara is into that lifestyle?”

I shrugged. “She spends more time with her dealer friends than she does her son. Even if she tried to fight me on the custody matter, she doesn’t have a leg to stand on.”

“Poor Theo,” she breathed, her eyes filling with tears. “Who takes care of him when you aren’t with him? She’s not left alone with him, right?”

I wiped away a tear that had spilled onto her lashes with my thumb then kissed her lips. Her concern for the boy gave me hope that one day we could have Theo live with us. However, I wanted to sort the two of us out before I even suggested we travel down that road.

“He has a nanny, and she takes good care of him.”

“But a nanny isn’t a mother,” she murmured.

“You’re right. Elissa does a great job, but he needs a mother. That won’t ever be Klara, though.”

Her mouth opened again, but I covered her lips with mine to stop whatever words she might have spoken next.

“Don’t worry about Theo, kotyonok. I swear to you, he will be happy no matter what happens with his mother.”

I thought I saw a flash of hurt fill her eyes, but she lowered her lashes before I could figure out if I had really seen it.

“Okay, I understand. Tell me what your plan is for me, instead.”

Reaching between us, I spread her already wet pussy lips and teased her clit with my thumb, forcing a purr-like moan from deep in her throat. “My plan is to keep you in this bed until we have both been truly sated.” I teased her lips with a butterfly soft kiss. “But I’m afraid that won’t ever happen, so be prepared to stay here for the rest of eternity.”

“I like this plan,” she murmured, her lips lifting in a sexy, teasing smile. “For now, at least.”

 

 

 

***

I wanted to stay in our bed until neither one of us could walk, but when I got a text from my lawyer, I knew that wasn’t going to be possible.

With a groan, I climbed over Victoria and kissed her long and deeply, taking my time as I vowed to always do with her.

She sighed contently when I pulled back. “You’re leaving?”

I nodded. “Take a long, hot bath while I’m gone, kotyonok. It will help your soreness. I will have the housekeeper bring you up some food. Any requests?”

She shook her head, burrowing a little deeper into the covers. “Only that you hurry back.”

“I promise.” Brushing a kiss over her nose, I climbed out of bed and went into the bathroom.

After showering I went back into the bedroom and dressed. She had already drifted back to sleep, and I couldn’t blame her. We had gotten very little sleep in the nearly twenty-four hours we had been in bed together. I probably should have felt selfish for how many times I had taken her during that time, but she hadn’t complained once. Only begged for more.

And I wasn’t about to deny her when she begged me so sweetly.

Downstairs, my car was already waiting for me in front of the house. Climbing behind the wheel, I slammed the door, finally letting my irritation at the text I had gotten from my lawyer surface.

Klara was supposed to sign the divorce papers that evening, but she was demanding to see me. For what, I had no fucking idea, but I wasn’t in the mood to deal with her shit. She was going to sign the damn papers, even if I had to hold a gun to her head to get it done. I was ready to have her out of my life so I could start fresh with Victoria.

As I drove into the city, my phone rang and Cristiano’s number popped up on the car’s touch screen.

Gritting my teeth, I hit connect. “What do you want?”

“My sister okay?” he bit out. “Is she safe?”

“Yes, to both,” I assured him. “I assume Anya told you?”

“Something like that.”

“Anything else?”

There was a pause on his end, before he blew out a harsh breath. “Yeah. Take care of her. Treat her right. And if you break her heart again, I will kill you slowly.”

“Noted, but that won’t be necessary.” I pulled up in front of my lawyer’s office building. “I love her.”

There was another pause before he grunted. “Tell her I’ll see her soon,” he muttered, and then the line went silent.

Despite everything, I understood where he was coming from, and I respected it. Mostly. If it were Anya, I would have been throwing out a few threats myself. But I knew my sister could handle Cristiano Vitucci. Mostly.

Less than five minutes later, I was walking into my lawyer’s office. It was after hours, yet he and his partner were still in the conference room, along with two security guards who were standing over a pouting Klara who sat on the other side of the large conference table from the two older men in expensive suits.

“What’s the problem?” I demanded as I stepped farther into the room.

Two graying heads lifted, something akin to relief in their eyes as they each stood. “Mrs. Volkov refuses to sign the documents, sir. She wished to speak to you and refused to leave until you did so.”

“Of course she did,” I grumbled half to myself as I turned my gaze on my wife.

The look in her eyes told me she wasn’t going to make this easy for me. Then again, I was past the point of playing nice with her.

“Gentlemen, will you please give me a moment alone with my soon-to-be ex-wife.”

They hurriedly ushered the two security guards out of the room, telling me to take my time. I waited until the door clicked shut behind them before I turned the full force of my darkness on Klara.

“Take the settlement. Sign the papers, forget about Theo, and never fuck with me again.”

“It’s her, isn’t it?” she said in a whiny voice, her bottom lip pouted out, ignoring the anger that was coming off me in waves. “You’re cheating on me with that Vitucci whore.”

One minute, I was standing on the other side of the room, and the next, I was leaning over her, rage blinding me. As I got in her face, she shrank back, revealing the first sign of how scared she was of me underneath her proud façade.

“You will not ever call her that again; do you understand me? I have put up with you for over four years now. Four years of my life lost on a pathetic disease like you. You won’t take up another minute. Sign the papers in the next ten minutes or I will leave you with nothing.”

She folded her arms over her chest, pushing her breasts up as if she thought it might actually entice me. “I won’t let you have Theo.”

I slammed my hand down on the table, causing her to flinch. “The fuck you won’t. I’m not letting you fuck up his life, not after you stole Taras’. Why would you want to keep him, anyway? He will only get in the way of your partying and drugs.”

“Oh, and what’s your plan, mister high and mighty? Hand him over to your heroin addict girlfriend? How is what she does any better than me having a little fun with my friends every now and then?”

A laugh rumbled out of my chest at how ridiculous she sounded. “You have a few screws loose, Klara. For one, every now and then to you is every fucking night of the week. I’m still pissed you took Theo with you to score off one of my men. For another, you don’t know Victoria. She’s nothing like you. Nothing.”

“You only think you know her. I saw her shooting up at Valor just a few weeks ago.”

I just stared down at her, unmoved by the way she was attempting to toy with me and turn me against Victoria. I was tired of her games.

“Sign the papers, Klara.”

With a smile that was full of malice, she lifted her phone and unlocked the screen. Turning it around, she showed me the picture that was on her phone.

“You don’t know her after all, Adrian.”

I saw it, but I didn’t believe it.

Snatching the phone from her hands, I lifted it so I could look at it again.

I would have recognized my kotyonok anywhere. Would have been able to determine if it was her or her twin at a hundred yards away. Victoria held herself more gracefully, as if she didn’t have to try. And there was something about her eyes that always told me it was her.

There was no denying that it was her in the picture on Klara’s phone, but my brain wouldn’t comprehend what I was actually seeing.

Victoria in a bathroom, with a syringe in her hand, pushing the needle into her thigh. With the bright florescent lighting over her, I could see the pink in her cheeks, the slightly glassy look in her eyes.

Disgust rolled through my stomach. I didn’t want to believe it. Fuck no. She wouldn’t do something like that. She was smarter than that. Drugs and Victoria would never go hand in hand.

But there was hard proof right there in my hand, glaring up at me in vivid color.