Chapter 21 – Rafayel
Four Months Later
“Can’t believe you went ahead and did it.”
Andrei clapped my back from behind, but his blue eyes held mirth when I turned around. He tipped his chin up, with that rugged jawline exuding a familiar intimidating air I’d already grown used to.
“You never listen to me, do you?”
“I did listen,” I said honestly. “But life happened.”
He shook his head, taking his glass to his lips. “Life never just happens to you, Rafa. You have everything fucking planned out. If you didn’t want it, I wouldn’t be wearing a tuxedo.”
Andrei wouldn’t be anywhere in a tuxedo. My best man was scarce and always preferred working behind the shadows or undercover. Frankly, I’d known the man for decades, but today was the first day I saw him formally dressed up. His dirty blond hair was neatly styled, and the black tuxedo was a perfect fit, emphasizing his broad shoulders and lean frame and hiding the map of tattoos he’d inked all over his chest.
Andrei was family. Our bond went beyond blood; it was built on years of loyalty. He was one of the few men I could trust. He was right. Life didn’t happen to me; I made things happen.
Having children before marriage was disallowed. It was tradition. So, this morning, Leonora and I got married. We swore our oaths before the priest, took our vows, and sealed it with a kiss in front of my men and family. Timur and Serena couldn’t make it, but I had Andrei and Tikhon standing firm by my side.
I fished her out from the crowd of people she warmly greeted and kept my eyes on her the entire time. She was breathtakingly gorgeous in her gown. I knew she wasn’t the fairytale-wishing type, and I wasn’t surprised when she insisted on keeping things simple, from the bun on her head down to her makeup, dress, and shoes. With her small baby bump more visible, Leonora’s glow intensified.
And yet, one glance at her had all the blood in my veins flowing south. She wasn’t even doing anything besides talking and laughing with people she didn’t know. And that was one of the things I liked about her.
Leonora was feisty, resilient, super smart, fucking sexy, and bitchy. But she also had heart. She didn’t wear it on her sleeve often, but it was there. She only stepped on your toes when you stepped on hers.
Neither Enzo, Marco, nor Matteo made an appearance, either, and I knew how much their absence affected her, even if she was too stubborn to admit it. She’d moped for a second, wiped the soberness off, and excused herself to grab a drink. She wasn’t ready to reconcile with her papa, and I had no intention of forcing her.
At the corner, someone tapped her shoulder and whispered into her ear, and in a second, they were on the floor dancing.
Leonora danced like she knew how to, undeterred by how many times she tripped on her own feet and almost knocked down the poor girl dancing. I recognized the girl—Mary. One of the maids. Bunching up her dress, Leo tried again, following her partner’s tune and swaying to the tunes.
When she threw her head back, laughing like she did when we talked about cars, warm fuzzies upset my chest, and it took me a minute to realize I was smiling.
“She’s got you whipped, Rafa. That’s for sure.” Andrei patted my shoulder before walking away.
****
“ Dio mio. Today was one of the best days of my life.”
Leonora walked out of the showers, smelling like soap and jasmine, with a dreamy look in her eyes, as she wrapped a big fluffy pink towel around her hair. “I can’t remember the last time I partied so hard.”
Peeling off my shirt and pants, I chuckled at her silliness. “You partied hard at your own wedding?”
“Hush. Don’t judge, okay? I had fun.” Cinching her bathrobe, she hummed her way to the mirror by the dresser, picked a bottle of lotion, and bent over to start squeezing.
“Come here,” I said to her in Russian. She rolled her eyes but obeyed, dropping to the edge of the bed with her smile intact.
Taking the bottle from her, I dropped to my haunches to help her apply the lotion to her legs. It was a ritual she’d started two months into the pregnancy. Every night, before she slept, she’d apply lotion on her skin. I’d never told her, but watching her do it always drove me crazy with an insatiable lust that made me want to take her right there on that stupid dresser.
But she was pregnant, so I kept my cock in my pants because the doctor’s orders were to take things slow.
I’d barely even touched her, but my balls were already hanging heavy in my boxer briefs. I wasn’t sure how slow I was willing to go tonight.
Leonora lay back on the bed, gluing her eyes to the ceiling while I pressed the lotion onto my palm. I started from her feet, rubbing her heels and gently massaging all the way up to her ankles. She hmmed. I knew they were sore from all the moves she’d made on the floor.
“Rafa?”
Blood thrummed in my ears, my cock grew between my legs, and I wasn’t sure whose heavy breathing filled the silence in the room.
“Yeah?”
“Why do people call you Zver ?”
I laughed, swearing under my breath. The memories were still as fresh. “I ripped a man’s throat out once. And another time, I fed a man his dick. Both happened years ago.”
She shuddered, and I expected her to question it, but she didn’t. “You did stand in the middle of a goddamn road to shoot at me once, so I believe you. The other two, what did they do?”
“Both were pedophiles. Both trafficked women, and one raped his twelve-year-old daughter.”
She gasped. “Who raped his daughter?” When I didn’t respond, she arranged the pieces and immediately knew the answer. “God. The one who had his dick fed to him.”
Silence.
“And the scar?” she continued.
I didn’t bother asking what scar. It wasn’t related to her previous question. The scar she pointed out was the one she kissed on my eyebrow. I gritted my teeth.
“My father,” was all I offered. And I appreciated it when she didn’t push.
Tonight was my wedding night. Not gather-around-the-fire-to-share night.
I continued in silence, rubbing her calves and stretching her skin under the pressure of my palms. She made too many noises. Many, many moans that made it hard to concentrate. But I focused, taking the cream up to her knees.
My head came up, positioned between her kneecaps. Her robe had risen high above her thighs, exposing soft flesh—a long stretch of olive skin and curvy hips. My mouth watered to taste her, cup my mouth over her pussy, and eat her out the way I’d desperately craved to since I watched her walk down that aisle.
“You didn’t dance with me,” I heard myself say.
She raised her head, holding my eyes above our baby bump. “What?”
“You danced with Mary, Varya, and Tikhon. But not with me.”
Leonora lifted her body, leaning back on her elbows. “I didn’t know you’d have loved to dance.”
“You didn’t ask.”
She snorted, a wry smile playing on her lips. “What world do you come from? The husband does the asking.”
“Doesn’t matter. I ought to punish you for that.”
Her smile grew wider. “And how do you intend to do that?”
“What do you suggest?”
The sound of her laughter left me needy and hungry. And I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold back from unleashing.
“In what world does an offender suggest his punishment?”
“In my world, Leonya,” I murmured.
Being this close to her was intoxicating, as always. I wasn’t getting used to it anytime soon. I bent my head, pressing a kiss on her thigh. Christ. She smelled even better up close. She fisted her fingers in my hair, and I supported her weight, snaking an arm around her back when she lay down.
“Okay,” she rasped shakily. “I want my punishment to be quick but gentle.”
“I can do quick. And for your sake, gentle.”
My fingers found the knot keeping her robe tied together, and I unraveled it. The soft material came apart, and I skimmed a hand, brushing past her stomach, to knead her breasts. They were soft and full. And her tits pebbled under my touch.
She arched into me, whimpering. “You don’t even know what the punishment is.”
“Well, it better be what I have in mind.”
Growling, I pulled away the robe off her thighs, kissing my way up to her sex. As expected, she was already so pink and so fucking wet for me. I buried my face between her legs and covered her hot cunt with my mouth. An oasis.
I grazed her nub with my teeth, sucked hard on her pussy, keeping her from squirming with a firm grip on her waist. I dipped my head, licking from the base of her ass up to her quivering folds and back again. And when I couldn’t get enough, I smacked her ass hard.
Her hips bucked, driving her pussy deeper into my mouth.
“ Si—Rafa.... Dio mio…!” More Italian words poured in a rush from her lips, and she choked on a sob when I lapped my tongue over her clit, latching hard enough to leave a bruise. But her cry was of pleasure.
She cupped one of her breasts in her hand, pulling and tugging, and…she was so fucking beautiful. So fucking gorgeous. I needed to be inside her. Unable to keep up with the torture, I rose to my feet, freeing my cock from its prison. It sprung out, and her pupils dilated. Loosening the towel from her hair, she edged deeper into the bed, spreading her legs wider for me.
I stroked my shaft, clenching my jaw as I held her gaze. “What’s your punishment, Mrs. Yezhov?”
“Fuck me, Rafa.” Her eyes stayed glued on my hands while I stroked. She knew I liked it when she begged. She could get me to do almost anything when she was at my mercy. “Fuck me hard and fast, please, Rafa.”
I grabbed her by the hips, closer to the edge, and sunk inside her. We groaned at the same time, reveling in the pleasure we knew, deep down, only we could provide for each other. These weren’t words we spoke aloud, but she saw it in my eyes, and I’d seen it in hers. Every time we plunged into ourselves, that ravenous hunger we had only grew stronger. And it wasn’t going away anytime soon.
I fucked her gently but hard enough to make her titties bounce. Hard enough to force my name out of her lips multiple times. Hard enough to have her screaming and trembling when her orgasm hit stronger than I’d witnessed before.
And when she opened her eyes and gave me a lazy half-drunken smile, I lowered my lips to hers, kissing her hard when the tension rolled off my shoulders and my body tightened. I came inside her, as hard as she’d shattered beneath me.
I started to pull away, but she threw her arms around my neck and hugged me.