27. Dimitri
27
DIMITRI
THE PAST
S he looks ethereal tonight.
She’s wearing a blush pink Dolce and Gabbana gown. Diamonds drip down her neck and ears, making her glitter like a star. Her blonde hair is done in big curls and tied with a big black bow. But my favorite part about her tonight is the love bite I left on her neck.
I can’t take my eyes off her.
Neither can the other men at this party, apparently.
I pull her close to my side, reminding myself that she still has my come trickling down her thighs. She’s mine . Her heart, her body, her mind. All of it is mine.
But these people aren’t just staring at Briar because she’s beautiful. They’re staring at her because this is my first time bringing a woman to one of these events.
“What are we celebrating?” Briar asks.
“It’s the marriage anniversary of the Pakhan of the Boston Bratva,” I say. “It’s also a charity gala.”
“Who knew gangsters could be so charitable?” she says.
“It’s just a front for all of us to meet,” I say. “Most of the people here are Russian, but we also have some families from Eastern Europe and Japan.”
I make the rounds, greeting the heads of all of the families. Connections are important in my world. While we wouldn’t hesitate to throw each other under the bus if the situation demanded it, we’re also capable of coming together to stand against a mutual enemy.
And for what I’m about to do, I will need as many allies as possible.
Briar remains quiet all through dinner. For some reason, she's not as enthusiastic about the food as she usually is. When dessert is served, her eyes don’t light up.
After the food is cleared from the table, the earthy scent of cigar smoke fills the air. Briar’s eyes remain downcast.
I reach for her thigh under the table.
“What’s on your mind, solnishko ?” I ask.
Her eyes flick up to mine, but she just shakes her head.
“Are we going to do the same old song and dance again?” I sigh. “Tell me what you’re thinking about.”
Abruptly, she stands and walks away from the table. I excuse myself and follow her. It takes me only a handful of seconds to catch up with her.
I grab her elbow and push her into an alcove. She’s trapped between my body and the wall.
My heart twists when I see her eyes brimming with unshed tears.
“What’s the matter, baby?” I ask.
“I told you it’s nothing,” she says. “I’m just...feeling a lot right now.”
“Like what?”
She looks up at me. Her eyes glint like the edge of a knife.
“It’s stupid,” she says. “You’ll laugh at me.”
“I promise I won’t laugh at you.”
“I couldn’t stop thinking about all the women who came to these parties with you,” she says. “About all the women who came before me.”
Her reply is unexpected.
The entire night, I kept reminding myself that Briar belonged to me, not any of the other men sneaking glances at her. It didn’t even cross my mind that she might be going through something similar.
“I saw the way those women were looking at you,” she says, sniffling. “And I know it’s stupid and pointless, but I’m so mad at the thought of you being with any of them.”
I take her hand and drag her deeper into the shadows, taking her toward a secluded balcony.
“Do you want to know what I’ve been thinking about the entire night?” I ask, pushing her against the balustrade.
She plays with the buttons on my shirt, keeping her eyes level with my chest. “What?”
“All I could think about was fucking you in front of every man in the room,” I say.
Her glittering eyes find mine.
“I wanted to sit you on my lap and make you bounce on my cock as I fed you chocolate cake,” I say. “And I wanted them to see it. I wanted them to see that I’m the only one who brings you pleasure. I’m the only one who gets to come inside your tight little pussy.”
She rests her palms against my chest and takes a deep breath. “Dimitri.”
“You don’t know the way men look at you, princess,” I say. “You don’t know the thoughts they get when they look at your bedroom eyes and perfect tits. It makes them want to drag you to dark places just to have their way with you. Just so they could use you for their pleasure.”
Her fingers curl into my chest, gripping me for support. I know how to make her knees weak. I know what turns her on.
“You like that, don’t you?” I say, yanking up the skirt of her dress until it’s bunched around her hips. “You like being a little cocktease. You like having men panting over your barely legal pussy.”
I grab her mound from over her panties, massaging the hot pocket of flesh between her thighs.
“You’re so fucking wet right now, princess,” I say. “Do you like that I can’t help myself around you? Do you like that I bring you to dark balconies just to impale you on top of my big cock?”
“You can do whatever you want to me,” she breathes. “Whatever makes you feel good.”
I spin her around, grabbing her throat as she arches her back.
“You make me want to sin, princess,” I say. “You make me want to do bad, bad things.”
She’s breathing heavier now. I know exactly what she likes.
“Just give me a few minutes, baby girl,” I say. “Just a few minutes inside your tight little cunt.”
I grab her heaving breasts from over her clothes, molding them against my palms.
“I’m no better than those other men,” I say. “I couldn’t take my eyes off your lush tits tonight. But you knew what you were doing, didn’t you? You wanted me to turn into a monster. You wanted me to snap.”
I slide my hand inside the bodice of her dress and tug on her nipples. She arches into my touch, filling my hands with her softness.
“I don’t think you understand what you’ve started, little girl,” I say against her neck. “I don’t think you understand how deep this obsession of mine runs.”
I push my hips against her ass, letting her feel my thick length. She tries to look up at me. But I squeeze her throat, holding her hostage. I free my cock and push her panties to the side.
She gets on her tiptoes, trying to escape her only fate.
“You feel how hard I am?” I say. “That’s all your fault, princess. You made it this way. And now, you’re going to take care of it.”
“It’s too big,” she says, wiggling around. She only ends up rubbing her wetness all over my cock.
“Don’t act like you don’t want it,” I say. “I know you do. I know that this is what you dream about. Having a big dirty cock inside your princess cunt. You want to know what it feels like to be taken by a man. To be used for his pleasure. You’ve taken me past my breaking point now, so deal with the fucking consequences.”
“I want to go back to the party?—”
I plunge inside her tight little pussy, burying myself all the way to the hilt. She screams, but I muffle it with my hand.
“And you will, pretty girl,” I say. “I’ll send you back to the party with my come dripping down your thighs. Now stay still and let me enjoy this tight pussy.”
I fuck her hard and fast, making her tits bounce with every thrust.
Her teeth sink into my palm. I hold her tight against my chest as I fuck her. Our bodies make wet, slapping sounds that sound illicit in the dead of the night.
“So tight for me,” I say, pressing my nose against her hair. “My good girl. My perfect whore.”
She gives in to my power, becoming completely mine to do with as I please.
“I know it hurts a little, but it feels too fucking good to pull out now, princess,” I say. “I think I’ll die if I don’t empty my balls inside your princess pussy.”
She’s on the edge. I can feel it in the way her muscles clench and unclench all around me, trying to milk me.
“I thought I’d have to take you kicking and screaming,” I growl. “But you’re a horny little slut for it, aren’t you?”
I slap her heart-shaped ass, leaving my imprint on her flesh.
“You can’t wait for me to come inside you,” I say. “You can’t wait to be bred by a man who’s way too old for you.”
Her walls grip me like a vise now, clinging onto me for dear life as she shatters into a million pieces. I sink my teeth into her neck as I fuck her through it.
“You’re such a fucking tease,” I say. “You drove me to the edge of my sanity. You turned me into a madman, making me pant after your princess pussy. And now that I’ve had it, my obsession has only grown stronger, little girl. I’m going to steal you away every time my cock gets hard. I’m going to make you bounce on my big cock until you earn my come.”
She whines my name, still in the throes of euphoria.
“Now tell me you want it,” I say. “I want to hear you say it.”
“Dimitri, please?—”
I grab her delicate throat and fuck her harder than ever, pounding into her tight pocket of flesh.
“Tell me what you need, princess,” I say.
“I need you,” she gasps. “I need you to fill me up. I don’t feel complete without your come inside me.”
“My dirty little slut,” I say, slamming into her balls deep as I empty inside her. “Take it. It’s way more than you can handle, but your pussy looks so good when it’s filled with my come.”
The release feels like a bolt of lightning down my spine. It’s stronger than any drug, wiping my mind clean of any other thought. She’s all that exists.
But when I come down from the high, I’m ashamed.
I turn her around and cup her face.
“I got carried away,” I say, searching her eyes. “Did I hurt you?”
She wraps her arms around me.
“You can never hurt me, Dimitri,” she says. “Never.”
But I can see my handprint on her throat. I see the bruises on her hips and thighs. I see the madness in her eyes that matches my own.
I’m turning her into this.
With every night we spend together, I’m tainting her with my darkness. She was pure and innocent when she met me. But every time I fuck her, I feed her some of my obsession.
“You always get so introspective after we make love,” she says.
I grit my teeth. “What we did wasn’t making love, princess. That was raw, primal mating. It’s the kind of sex that only has one objective.”
“What’s the objective?” she whispers.
I press my lips against hers. “To breed.”
She shivers in my hold. “I’d love to have your babies, Dimitri.”
Her words make me freeze. It’s one thing to talk about in the heat of the moment but another thing entirely to hear her say it so earnestly.
The thought of bringing children into this world fills me with dread.
“You don’t want that,” she observes, blinking up at me.
I don’t have anything to say.
“It just caught me off guard,” I say honestly.
She searches my eyes and then looks away.
“Okay,” she whispers.
I need her eyes back on mine. Thousands of stars shine above us, but I’m only interested in the stars in her eyes.
“You’re the best thing to have ever happened to me, Briar,” I say. “I wasn’t kidding when I said you’re the only sunshine in my life. I want it all with you. I want to build a home with you. I want you to be my wife. I want you to be...the mother of my children.”
“It’s all I want, too,” she says. “I just want to be yours and forget about everything else.”
There’s a heaviness in her words. I think about what she asked me earlier. She wanted my complete honesty. She wanted all of me, exactly as I am.
And I want all of her, exactly as she is.
I hold her close to my chest.
My heart pounds in my rib cage.
If history has taught me anything, it’s that everything I love perishes. A man like me is made to be a lone wolf.
But there’s another side of me that wants to have everything with Briar.
“Your heart,” she says. “It’s beating so hard.”
I can’t tell her what’s going on in my mind. Not until I make sense of my own thoughts first.
“It’s these parties,” I say. “They always remind me of my brother.”
“He used to attend them with you?” she asks.
“He was always there by my side,” I say. “The world doesn’t make sense without him in it. It feels like everything is lopsided. Like something from a dream. I keep waiting for things to become right again, but they remain the same.”
“You miss him,” she says, searching my eyes.
I can’t bring myself to meet her gaze. If I do that, I know I’ll break down.
“He was my best friend,” I say. “We were only a year apart in age. Even on the darkest days, he could always make me laugh. He always had my back. But he’s gone now. They took him, they hurt him, and they might...”
I can’t go there.
My brother is the last family member I have left. I can’t lose him too.
“Who took him?” Briar asks. “Was it the same people who hurt your sisters?”
I shake my head. “I know the family, but I don’t know who they are.”
“I don’t follow,” she says.
“The ‘ Ndrangheta took my brother,” I say. “They’re an undercover Italian mafia family. They don’t work with any other crime families, so nobody has ever seen them in person. There’s no proof that they even exist. They make their moves in silence and keep under the radar for the most part. All we know is that they’re wealthy and powerful.”
“A faceless mafia?” she asks.
I nod. “Tensions are at an all-time high among crime families. And the root cause of it is human trafficking, which is happening at a mass scale. Interpol is all over it, and as a result, all the crime families are being scrutinized.”
She pales.
“And this...’ Ndrangheta , are they the ones who are responsible for the human trafficking?” she asks.
I grit my teeth. “No, but they think I am. They received information that the Russians were involved and they assumed it was me. They couldn’t get their hands on me, so they captured my brother. They’re holding him hostage now.”
“They’re trying to get answers out of him,” she says.
I nod. “Answers he doesn’t have. And I’m worried because my brother is a proud man. He's a hothead and easily prone to anger. Instead of breaking under pressure, he turns tougher. Instead of asking for mercy, he’ll provoke them.”
Briar reaches for my hand.
“You know who the ‘ Ndrangheta are, don’t you?” she asks.
I’m surprised by her observation.
She’s good at reading people. She’s also good at reading between the lines. She hears all the things I don’t say.
“I have some information on who it could be,” I say.
"Who are they?"
"Five brothers," I say. “They’re sons of an American billionaire and an Italian heiress. They live in America now, but they primarily operate from Italy. They run legal businesses by day and illegal operations by night.”
“If you know who they are, what are you waiting for?” she asks.
“Leverage,” I tell her. “Once I have the upper hand, I’ll crush them like they're bugs under my shoe. I’ll destroy everything that’s sacred to them and leave nothing but rubble behind.”
Briar’s lips pop open.
She’s never seen this side of me before. I want to hide it from her, but at the same time, I want her to see all of it.
“Does it scare you when I talk about hurting my enemies?” I ask.
She looks away. “A little.”
“I told you before, and I’ll tell you again,” I say. “I’m not a good man, princess. I’m a sinner. A killer.”
“I know that,” she says, looking up at me.
“I’m not a man who deserves your love,” I say.
“Well, too fucking bad,” she says. “You’re the only man I want to give my love to. So deal with it.”
Her eyes glint with anger. I love it when she speaks her mind. I crowd her against the balustrade once more and seize her lips. I kiss her like I would die if I didn’t.
She moans against me, giving in completely.
Everything is changing. Rapidly.
Not just me, but her too.
The night I first met Briar, she told me between bites of her cheeseburger that she was looking forward to going to college. She said that she wanted a normal life away from her overbearing family.
And now she’s talking about having my children. About being a Russian Pakhan’s woman.About being a part of this life.
For the first time sincemeeting her, a thought crosses my mind.
I wonder if her future would be happier if I wasn’t in it.