Chapter 18 Grace
GRACE
When I went looking for Maxim earlier, I didn’t think we would be ending the conversation with the best sex of my life.
I had gone into the shooting range to have it out with him and demand he take me home to my family.
Instead, I ended up confessing my feelings for him, and he rocked my world and declared that he was never letting me go.
Not sure if that was a win or not, and I’m not sure if I’m mad.
Clearly, I’m messed up. And again, I’m not sure if that is a bad thing.
It has to be the post-sex endorphins speaking and creating this happy little bubble I’m finding myself in because if I really think about what has happened between Maxim and me, it wouldn’t make sense that I just let him fuck me in the middle of his shooting range.
We’re going to have to talk about what this all means, and what it means for me seeing my family again, but we can save that for another day. I need food, stat.
Maxim organized a late lunch out on the terrace by the pool. There are platters of cold meats and cheese as well as a bottle of white wine. Maxim takes a seat beside me, still bare-chested, the sun illuminating his olive skin like a Greek god.
“Wine?” Maxim asks, and I nod eagerly.
I could get used to this life, my days spent in bed with this gorgeous man, drinking wine, eating, and living in Italy. I sit back and let the sun beat down on my skin. I pop a couple of olives into my mouth, the wine buzz kicking in. This is what I need.
Maxim and I eat in silence, but it isn’t uncomfortable, we’re just enjoying the endless view of vines, the rugged mountains, the blue sky, and sun.
“You live in what I think heaven looks like,” I mumble after my third glass of wine.
“I think it’s pretty close to what heaven would be like,” he agrees, his cheeks flushed from the sun and the wine.
“Why did you choose Italy?”
He turns the glass in his hand as he contemplates my question. “This location was what sold me. I am isolated enough for my job but close to everything too. Also, it’s easier to bribe people here compared to other countries.”
His job, of course, you must think of these things. “Do you have homes anywhere else?”
“I do.” He grins.
I raise a brow at him.
This makes him chuckle. “I can’t tell you all my secrets at once, Wildcat.”
“Fine, Mr. Mysterious. I’m assuming your job is lucrative judging by this villa, the cars, and the boat.” Reminding him of the boat he kidnapped me in.
“Yes,” he says with a shrug, “but it also has a short shelf life.”
I still, my stomach swirls with the thought that someone might want him dead. Don’t be stupid, Grace, Maxim probably has a long laundry list of the people that want him dead.
“Is that hard? Constantly having to have eyes in the back of your head.”
Another shrug. “Wish I did then I would have seen you take my car and escape out of here.”
“You deserved that.”
“I totally did.” He chuckles.
Are we fucked up to be joking about my kidnapping like we are? Or is it because we have cracked a second bottle of wine that I’m finding it funny.
“Come, let’s lie down on the sun lounge. This wine is going to my head,” Maxim mumbles as he picks up the bottle of white and walks over to the lounges. I follow him, stumbling a couple of times as it’s been a while since I’ve had alcohol and this wine has gone straight to my head.
We both slump against the soft cushions as we lay out under the setting sun, the cool breeze taking the edge off the heat of the day.
“Can I ask you a personal question?”
“I don’t know, can you?”
I roll my eyes at his dad joke. “Did you grow up wanting to be a hitman?”
Maxim stills, and the smile falls from his face as he rolls over onto his good shoulder.
“You think someone grows up wanting to do this?”
I shrug. I don’t know, there are psychopaths out there. Not that I think Maxim is one, but there must be something there that he can take people’s lives so easily.
“This was not my dream, Grace. My father worked for the Bratva back in St Petersburg. I had no choice, there was no other life for me.”
That’s sad that your own parent would want that for you.
“Sergei was an acquaintance of my father. He didn’t work in the Bratva but was hired by them and others to do their hits.
My father’s boss’s daughter took a liking to me, but she was engaged to her father’s second in charge.
When my father found the two of us in bed together, he shipped me off to Sergei to study as his protégé because he didn’t want his boss to kill me. ”
Guess that’s kind of sweet. “I thought once you were in you were in for life?”
“That was my father, but at that point I was still young, not yet eighteen. Once you turned eighteen you had to pledge. My father was very trusted in the Bratva, and when he told his boss training me to be a hitman would benefit them over any other job, they agreed.”
“Are you still close with your father?”
He shakes his head. “He died this year. Some upstart in a rival family took him out. I found him within the hour and repaid the debt.”
I would, too, if someone murdered my father.
“What about your mother?”
“She hated this world. When we lost Elena, my parents split up. She always suspected my father’s job had something to do with it. She blamed him for Alexandra’s death as someone in the Bratva got her hooked on drugs. When Elena passed it was too much for her, and she disappeared.”
All this pain only to find out Elena is alive.
“Do you want to talk about your sister?” I ask, seeing as the topic has been brought up.
He shakes his head. “Let’s enjoy tonight. Everything else will still be there tomorrow.”
He’s right. Getting up off my sun lounge, I straddle Maxim’s hips in my sundress, the short hem riding up exposing my bare pussy for him.
Maxim curses in Russian as he bites down on his fist when he notices. “You feel frisky again, Wildcat?”
I bite my lip as I throw back the rest of my wine before placing my glass beside him. “Always with you, but that can wait because I want to get to you, Maxim. I want to know more about the man that lives inside of here,” I tell him, placing my hand on his bare chest.
“Anything you want to know I’ll tell you, Grace,” he says, running his hands up my thighs.
“Are we alone in the villa?”
He nods. “Sergei lives in a cottage at the bottom of the vineyard, and I sent the rest of the staff home on leave so that no one could disturb us.”
“Did you have plans for me?”
“My plans were being on my knees groveling, trying to win you back.”
“Are you saying I took you back too easily? I should have made you work for it more?”
“I’ll never stop making sure you never regret your decision to choose me,” he says, rolling his hips so his dick presses against my center. He’s playing dirty.
“Didn’t have much of a choice.” I giggle, letting my hips roll against him.
“You saying I forced you to choose me?” He arches a dark brow.
Moving back, I slide his sweatpants down, and his thick dick pops out slapping his stomach. Cheeky bastard went commando too. I let my hand run up and down his thickening length. “This was a big factor in my decision.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. He is very convincing.”
“Of course, he is. He knows what he wants.” Maxim grins.
“Mine’s a picky bitch, too, so you’re lucky he was even let in.” I smile playfully as my hands continue to slide up and down his length.
“I know we have a lot to talk about regarding your future. Do you mind if we add that to the list of things we need to talk about tomorrow? Honestly, I want to enjoy this bubble we’ve found ourselves in before reality pops it,” Maxim asks.
“I agree. There is one thing though I do need from you,” I ask.
“Anything,” he answers quickly.
“I want you inside me while we talk?”
“You think we’re going to do a lot of talking if that happens?” He grins.
“I’ll make it worth your while if you do. Think you can last?” I state, daring him.
“I’ll try, Wildcat, but your pussy feels like fucking heaven wrapped around my dick.”
I love his dirty words. I’ll never get sick of the filth that falls from his lips.
“Think of this game as the best kind of edging, and when it’s over, it’s going to feel so damn good.” My hands grip his dick tightly.
“Fine. Fucking jump on, I’m over you teasing my dick.” He moans.
Without even thinking, I sit up and slide down on his dick.
We both still.
“Shit.” I try to slide off him, but his hands hold me tightly around the waist.
“Don’t you dare fucking move, Grace,” he growls, the sound reverberating through his chest and to my clit. “Your bare fucking cunt dripping over my cock is too much. Fuck, Wildcat, you’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?”
“Sorry, it was the wine. I wasn’t thinking. Let me off, and I’ll go grab protection. I promise I’m clean, I’ve been checked. I have an IUD implanted so there’s no chance of pregnancy.” The words tumble out of my mouth.
Maxim closes his eyes and sucks in a deep breath, his fingers dig into my hips.
“Do not think about removing your pussy from my cock. Do you hear me?” His chest is moving rapidly as he tries to calm himself down.
“I’m clean too, sweetheart. I was tested not long ago, and I know you are clean as we hacked into your medical records and checked when you were detoxing, and I saw them then. ”
I should feel some kind of way about that gross invasion of privacy, but all I can think about is how I can feel his dick twitching inside me. “What does that mean, then?”
“It means, Wildcat, that I’m going to be fucking you bare from now on. I want nothing between us anymore. You okay with that?” he asks as his hips thrust up into me hitting a spot so delicious that I see stars.
“Yes,” I say as a whimper falls from my lips.
“Good, now, sweetheart, what about those questions,” he says with a grin.
I’m trying to think, between the wine buzz and the dick buzz my brain is short-circuiting.
“Were you attracted to me the first time you kidnapped me?”
Maxim chuckles. “Yes, your sass and balls turned me on. I thought you were beautiful, but then we found out about the drugs and that changed the way that I saw you.”
Oh. “When did it change?”
“When you were clean and picking fights with me. You were such an unruly captive it made me hard.”
“Did you fantasize about tying me up and having your wicked way with me?”
“I fantasized many different scenarios. That wasn’t one of them, but now I know that’s on the table I could arrange it.”
He didn’t fantasize about that scenario because of what happened to me. If I hadn’t fallen for him before, I did right now in this moment.
“What we did earlier in the shooting range, number one fantasy.”
My brows shoot up in surprise. “Really? You’ve never taken another woman in there before?”
“No woman has ever been to my home let alone to my sanctuary.”
Oh. Why does that bit of information make me feel giddy?
“How many women have you slept with?”
Maxim gives me a deadpan look.
“I bet it’s loads. You’re fucking hot,” I tell him as my nails run down his chest making him shiver.
“Women are a distraction in my line of work. Before you, they were a means to an end. I used them to get off, scratched an itch we both needed, and moved on with my life. Never wanted anything serious with anyone.”
Maxim is being very honest.
“Till you, Grace,” he says, reaching forward and cupping my face. “I don’t deserve you. I sure as hell know I’m not good enough of a man for you. But I’ll take whatever you want to give me because I’m yours.”
Why the hell is this killer so fucking sweet?
I’ve had men who are lawyers, doctors, footballers, or actors all doing jobs that hold them in high regard but this man, a man whose job it is to kill people, treats me better than any of those normal men.
Leaning forward, I let him kiss me as his dick twitches inside me, waiting for me to move along him.
I lift my hips up and let his dick almost fall out of me before I slam myself back down on him again making him bite my lip as he hisses.
“Such a naughty little tease.” He chuckles darkly.
“If you’re not going to answer how many people you have slept with will you tell me how many people you’ve killed?”
This question makes Maxim still. “Grace, you don’t really want to know the answer to that, do you?”
Maybe. I’m not sure until I hear the answer.
Maxim is quiet as he contemplates answering it. “Seventy-seven.”
“People you have killed?”
“Or people I’ve slept with. You wanted an answer to both. And that’s it.”
“You’ve either slept with that many or killed that many?”
He nods.
Right, so he’s either a womanizer or a serial killer?
“See, this is why I didn’t want to tell you. I can see it on your face you’re disgusted.”
“It’s a lot either way,” I tell him honestly.
“I can’t change who I am, Grace. But I promise I will be the best I can be for you.”
Isn’t that all we want?
“I don’t know what the future holds for us, Max. But I’m all in.”
Maxim grabs my hips and holds me in place as he starts to thrust into me slowly, methodically.
Both of us connected, no need for dirty words or sexy promises.
It’s just the two of us declaring our true feelings for each other underneath the pink-streaked Italian sky.
Maxim wraps his hand around my throat as he thrusts.
The way he’s looking at me as if I’m the most precious gift in the world melts the last barriers built around my heart, and they explode at the same time as my orgasm does.
Maxim’s is not far behind, filling me up thanks to that missing barrier.
“Never thought I would find someone like you,” he says softly as he pulls my lips to his and kisses me gently.
Then the next thing I know, Maxim is picking me up and rushing toward the pool.
No. No. No.