Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
KATYA
A nton’s eyes darken, and without a word, he kisses me back. There’s no asking me if I’m sure. If I’m ready. He’s trusting that I am.
Anton is a man who takes, and I’m giving myself to him. I don’t think he could say no if he wanted to, and judging from his kiss, he doesn’t want to say no.
I grip his shoulders with all my strength. I could have easily lost him again, and that thought spurs me on, making me press my body to his tightly.
Anton’s hands run down to my thighs and grip the back of them to pull me up. Immediately, I wrap my legs around his waist.
“I don’t want you to feel any pain,” I say.
“Trust me, baby. My gunshot wound is nothing. It’s not going to stop me from fucking you. Nothing will.”
Shaking my head with a smile, I lean down to kiss him again.
Anton growls low in the back of his throat, sending goosebumps over my skin. His entire presence lights me on fire. Already, I can feel my arousal building in my body. It’s electric.
We kiss each other like we’re dying of thirst. It’s messy and sloppy yet perfect.
My hands dig into his hair, and I pull hard. He gasps against my lips, smiling.
“You like a little a pain?” I ask.
“Oh, you fucking know it.”
He walks us into a bedroom. It’s not the one I’ve been using. It’s his bedroom, I realize. It’s a space we’ve never shared before, but now, we’re crossing that barrier.
Anton drops me onto the bed.
“You could be gentler with me,” I say.
“Not the way I do it, baby.” He grabs my legs and pulls my hips to the end of the bed in one smooth motion before running his hands over my feet, then moving up my legs. I part my legs of my own accord as my dress settles around my hips.
He stares down at my underwear for a long moment. I wish I knew what he was thinking. What dirty thoughts are going through his head? But maybe it’s for the best I don’t know. I don’t want to combust before we’ve had the chance to be together.
He presses a kiss against my lower stomach right above the waistband of my underwear. “I can already smell you.”
I blush, but that doesn’t stop me from saying what I say next. “Then you know I want this. So, take me, Anton. I want to feel it.”
“All of it?”
“Stop messing with me, and just take me.”
“What if I asked you to beg me? Would you?”
Another one of his tests.
I sit up and grab his face, digging my fingers slightly into his skin. It only makes his gaze turn more eager. “Never. Either take me now or don’t. But I won’t beg you.”
“I think I can make you beg by the end of the night.” He rips my panties right off me. I gasp. His hands don’t stop as they push my dress up my body and over my head.
He leaves my bra on as he parts my legs and places his face right there . I arch my back the second his lips find my clit. The pleasure of it is like nothing I’ve ever experienced.
“Oh!” I moan. He runs his tongue around my nub, pressing and easing off. Going fast, then going slow. It’s a mixture of pressure and pace, and it drives me crazy.
When my hips jerk up, Anton holds them down.
“Don’t move,” he orders before running his tongue back over my most intimate area.
“Easier said than done,” I gasp.
I can feel his smile on my skin. Bastard. Even though he drives me crazy, I think I love it. I have no freaking clue why. Call it primal instinct or just plain stupidity, but I know I like Anton, and there’s no getting past it.
His tongue moves down to my entrance. He doesn’t place it inside me but teases the spot instead. I grind my hips down, pressing my vulva closer to his face. Anton kisses and licks me like he’s going to die unless he can make me come.
And I do come.
It happens suddenly and so fast; I barely have time to breathe.
Anton sits up as my body trembles and gives me a wicked grin. “I want to hear you call out my name.”
“Well, too late.”
“I’ll just have to hear you say it when my cock is deep within you.”
My inner walls clench at the idea. Never have I been more turned on in my entire life. This feeling for Anton is intoxicating. I think I might just die from the overwhelming pleasure of it all.
“Want to bet?” I ask, giving him a smile of my own.
He leans down to whisper in my ear. “You won’t win that bet, baby. Trust me. You’re going to come on my cock and scream my name as you do, and nothing will be able to stop you.”
“What about you? Will you scream my name, too?”
“Only if you want me to.”
“I want you to.”
Somehow, his eyes darken even more before he kisses me. It’s long and lingering and sexy. I could get lost in his lips forever.
And then, it’s done too soon.
I pout.
“Don’t be disappointed, baby,” he says, standing up. “We haven’t even gotten to the final show yet.” He slips his shirt off, giving me a good look at his muscular chest. It’s a thing of beauty, I swear. Not that I would ever tell Anton that. No need to feed his large ego any more than it already is.
“Your pants next,” I order.
“Bossy.”
“I know what I want. I’m not afraid of your cock, Anton. I had it in my mouth, remember?”
“How could I forget?” Instead of taking his pants off, he reaches his hand between my legs and cups me. His palm presses against my clit.
My hips jerk up on instinct, desperate for another release. My body is still sensitive from his mouth, and everything feels even more heightened.
He rubs me harder and harder and harder.
“I said, take your pants off,” I gasp.
“We’re not doing it your way, baby.” His palm presses right against my clit. Wetness seeps out of me. “We’re doing it my way.”
I can feel another orgasm stirring within my body, but before it can reach its climax, Anton pulls his hand away.
“You’re so mean,” I breathe out.
“I know.” With a smirk, he pulls his pants and underwear down, letting me see his naked body.
It’s still just as beautiful as it was the first time I saw it, but back then, I was frightened of Anton. Now, all I want is to feel him against me. I want to become one with him, no matter how cheesy it sounds.
He kneels on the bed. His large erection is right before my eyes. Unable to help myself, I grab him and stroke up and down. He hisses and removes my hand.
“I don’t want to come on you, baby. I want to come inside you.”
I grow even more excited.
Grabbing my hips, he pulls me flush against his body as his erection teases my entrance.
Anton gives me one more dark look before thrusting his hips forward and entering me. It’s pain mixed with pleasure.
My moan is both happy and pained.
Anton doesn’t ask if I’m ok. I told him to take me, and that’s exactly what he’s doing.
I want this to be rough. I need it to be.
He remains on his knees as he brings my ankles up to his shoulders. Then, he begins to move.
First, he starts with rolling his hips around. The sensation of him inside me is a strange one. I feel new and yet exactly the same as I did before.
But one thing I do know is that once the slight pain in my body leaves me, all I feel is pleasure.
The rocking of his hips turns into thrusts. Anton grips my ankles tightly in his hands. I need this. I need him to keep me steady. I might not make it otherwise.
I arch my hips up to meet his thrusts, trying my best to match his pace.
“I knew you’d feel amazing around me,” he says.
“You knew for a fact?”
He smirks. “Of course, I did.” Thrust. I gasp. “You were made for me, Katya.” Thrust. My inner walls clench down around him. “I knew you’d be perfect.” Thrust.
My eyes flutter closed as I let the sensations wash over me.
“Look at me,” he orders. My eyes snap back open. It takes everything in me to keep my gaze locked with his. Anton’s eyes are so intense; I feel like he can see straight through my skin into my body.
“Tell me how much you like this.”
“I never said I like this,” I say.
He grinds his hips against mine, making me choke on my gasp. “You little liar.” Letting go of my ankles, he places my legs around his waist and leans over me so our chests our pressed together.
His hand wraps around my throat, but he doesn’t press down. When Luca tried to choke me, I was terrified. But Anton’s hands don’t frighten me. I know he doesn’t want me dead; if anything, he wants me more alive than anyone else in this world.
I’m officially his now, after all.
Our bodies move frantically together as he holds onto my throat. My gaze lock with his.
“Scream my name, baby.”
“No.”
“Don’t make me spank you.”
“You’d have to let go of me to do that, and I don’t think you want to do that.”
His smile is dangerous right before he kisses me. His thrusts are wild and frantic. I’m just as crazy as he is at this moment.
My hands grip his back, my fingers digging into his skin. Anton hisses slightly but doesn’t let go of me. Neither one of us wants to let go.
“Scream my name, baby.”
“How many times do I have to tell you?”
“I don’t believe you. I think you want to do it. Just let go.”
“No.”
He brings his hand between our bodies and presses right down onto my clit.
It sends me over the edge.
I gasp and moan as I come. Anton increases his pace, fucking me with wild abandon.
My eyes flutter closed, and my lips part as I say the word I tried so hard not to say.
“Anton.” It slips out of me as my body continues to tremble.
“Katya,” he growls as his own release washes over him. I can feel his seed inside my body, linking us together. If I end up pregnant, then that’s that. I’ll be Anton’s forever.
And that thought doesn’t bother me as it once did.
He’s breathing heavily as he rests his face in the crook of my neck.
“Are you ok?” I ask. “You’re hurt, after all.”
“And it was all worth it.” He slips out of me and falls onto the bed, pulling me straight into his arms. “It was more than worth it. You want to know why?”
“Why?”
“Because you said my name.”
I roll my eyes and swat his chest, which only makes him laugh.
ANTON
Holding Katya in my arms is the best feeling in the world.
I’ve blown up buildings and fought in life and death matches and faced a lot of obstacles in my life. I’ve loved them all. But they don’t compare to having Katya in my arms.
I’ve fucked my share of women, and it was all nice and good, but it never felt like this: an overpowering sensation of calm. Of contentment.
“How was it for you?” I ask her, running my fingers up and down her arm absentmindedly.
She snuggles into my chest. “It hurt a little, but then it felt amazing. You were a little rough.”
“I didn’t hear you complaining.”
“That’s because I wasn’t. I knew you’d be your true self. I knew it’d be rough.”
I give her a cocky grin. “You like my rough edges?”
“You’re so annoying, you know.”
“Didn’t stop you from asking me to claim you.”
She sits up, looking beautiful in her naked glory with messy hair, and rests her hands on my chest. “Who says I’m not the one who claimed you?”
“I wasn’t the virgin.”
“So?” She puts her hand over my heart. “I think I still claimed a piece of you.”
I inhale sharply. “No one has that piece of me.”
I can tell right away it’s the wrong thing to say. Katya’s eyes dim, and she start to pull away from me, but I grab her wrists, stopping her.
“But if anyone were to have that part of me, it would be you.”
Her eyes light up. Who knew something so simple as falling in love would make her so happy?
“Are you capable of love, Anton?”
“I’m capable of caring for you—I do care for you. When I lost you, I thought …” I shake my head.
“What?” She snuggles back against me, gazing up at me with soft eyes. Fuck, she’s so beautiful.
“I thought for a moment I wouldn’t be able to go on. That there was no point.”
“You wanted to die? You ?”
“Hey, I have a death wish as much as the next person.”
Her smile is tight as she sighs and turns to look up at the ceiling. “For a moment, when I was with Luca, I thought he was going to kill me. He was choking me.”
I look at her sharply.
“I thought,” she continues, “that if I just let go, everything would be easier. The peace of death would save me from the pain Luca would give me. But then I thought of Evie and my brother. My family. I knew I couldn’t leave them behind. I had to fight for them.”
“Just for them?” I ask carefully. Never before would I have cared if someone did something because of me or not, but with Katya, I care. I care so fucking much it hurts sometimes.
She slants her eyes at me. “Maybe for you, too.”
“Maybe?” I waggle my eyebrows at her, making her laugh. It’s like sugar, her laugh. It’s fucking corny and shit, but that’s what it sounds like.
“Ok. Yes. I thought about you, too. I thought about how you were fighting to get me back at that moment and how I couldn’t give up. I thought about how I wanted to see you again.”
“No one has ever fought so hard to see me again.”
“Oh, Anton. Don’t make me pity you.”
I laugh a little. “It’s not that. It’s the truth. I’m a hard man to care for. You know this. Hell, if anyone knows this the most, it’s you. I know you weren’t happy about marrying me.”
“You can say that again,” she mutters.
“But you still chose to go through with it. That showed courage and bravery. More than your brother has shown.”
“Dimitri is a brave man. He’s risked his life to save Evie and me so many times. Just because I’m still mad at him doesn’t take that away from him.”
I give her a steady look. “How long are you going to be mad at him? I love holding grudges, don’t get me wrong. I’m just curious.”
She turns to look back at the ceiling as she replies. “Honestly, after today … I’m not as angry with him. I sort of … miss him.”
“You just saw him earlier today.”
“That’s not what I mean. I don’t miss him in a physical distance sort of way. I miss him in an emotional sort of way.”
“Emotions. Those are what will get you.”
“They always do,” she murmurs, sliding her eyes back to mine. “I could’ve easily died today. Luca is still out there. Yeah, I stabbed him in the eye, but I doubt he’s dead.”
“He’s like a cockroach. You keep stepping on it, but it just keeps popping back up.”
“I know you still have to deal with him.”
I tighten my arms around her. “Katya, I won’t let him hurt you again. I’ll make sure of it.”
“I know you will.”
“Really?”
“Why do you sound so surprised?” she asks with a laugh.
“I didn’t know you trusted me to do that.”
“I didn’t. Not at first.”
“Don’t hold any punches.”
She rolls onto my chest and gazes down at me with soft eyes. She looks like a fucking goddess right now. I could eat her up all over again.
“But now, I do,” she says. “I trust you to fight for us. You saved my life once before. And even though I managed to escape Luca, I know you were coming for me. You were right there when I escaped from his apartment. I trust you now, Anton.”
Hearing those words come out of her mouth makes my heart fucking clench. Who even knew a heart could clench?
“Do you trust me?” she asks.
“With what? To save my life? No offense, baby, but I trust myself more in that regard.”
“Hey, I did a damn good job in saving my own life today.”
“True. I’ll give you that.”
She rolls her eyes before sighing. “That’s not what I meant. Do you trust me? In general?”
“I’m starting to. I trust you not to leave me now.”
“Good. Because I need to ask you something.”
“Why do I feel like I’m not going to like the sound of this?”
“Because you’re not.” She traces circles with her finger on my skin.
“Hey.” I make her look at me. “Tell me.”
“You’re going to go after Luca again, aren’t you?”
“Of course. Nothing could keep me away.”
“I was worried about that,” she mutters. “Which is why I wanted to ask if you would consider going to my brother for help.”
My mood instantly shifts, and I pull away from her and sit up. “Why the hell would I do that?”
“Because you can’t do this alone, Anton. You’re still hurt.” She points at the bandage on my stomach.
“That didn’t stop me from showing you a good time.”
“Be serious, please. You need help. Ask Dimitri for it. Ask Nikolai and Maxim. They’re your business partners after all. If Luca is coming after you, what’s going to stop him from coming after them, too? The point of making an alliance with them was to work together—to be the most powerful force in all of New York. So, work with them. Please.”
“Begging is not becoming on you, baby.”
She swats my arm. “Just do it.”
“My pride won’t let me. I wanted to make an alliance with them because it was the smart thing to do. And also because I wanted to have my fun with them. But I can’t ask them to help me. Luca is my problem and mine alone.”
“If you die because of it, Anton, I’ll be on my own, and Luca could hurt me.”
“You have your brother. He’ll protect you.”
“I don’t see why you can’t just ask him to help you now?”
“Because I can’t,” I say. “I have to do this on my own, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
With a huff, she gets out of bed. “I’m going to sleep in my own room tonight.”
“Just like that? You’re mad at me?”
“Yes! Because I think you’re being stupid. An alliance is supposed to mean working together. You don’t have to do this on your own anymore.”
Her words punch me right in the gut. The idea of asking for help is so foreign to my nature; I can’t even consider it.
“I can, and I will,” I growl.
“Then good luck dying.” She storms out of the room in her naked glory, and I don’t stop her.
KATYA
Anton is so stubborn and stupid and insufferable.
I grab a silky nightgown out of my closet. I don’t even care when my skin burns a little from how roughly I put it on. Then I get into bed and …
Nothing.
I stare up at the ceiling, my heart racing. So many things are moving through my head right now. I almost died today. Anton almost died today. I finally had sex with him. I’m no longer a virgin, and yet I don’t feel any differently. And he’s willing to die again all because he refuses to ask for help.
I could kill him if I didn’t want him to be alive so much.
I toss and turn for the rest of the night until my mind finally quiets and sleep takes over.
Luca is the only thing I see in my nightmare. Him choking me. The life leaving my body. Everything going dark. Never getting the chance to see my family again.
To see Anton again.
I wake up drenched in sweat. My body thrashes around and hits something hard.
“Ow.”
I flinch back when I realize it’s only Anton that I hit. In my bed. “What the hell?” I turn on the light and glare at him. “What are you doing in here?”
“I came in to talk some more and found you asleep. I didn’t want to wake you. Why were you moving around like a madwoman?”
I blush. “Was I?”
“Having a bad dream?”
“About Luca.”
He frowns, nodding to himself. “I know you want me to ask for help in dealing with him. But I have to end him on my own. I just have to.”
“Then it’s your funeral.”
“How little faith you have in me. Need I remind you that your brother was incapable of taking me down? Or how Nikolai could never manage it? I don’t die easily, Katya. You know that.”
“I know. But I just think if you have the help, it would make everything easier.”
The grin he gives me is wicked. “You know I don’t like easy. Why do you think I married you?”
“What does that mean?”
“I knew you would be a challenge. The moment I met you, I could sense your backbone. I could tell you wouldn’t be easy to break.”
“You never broke me, Anton.”
“I tried.”
“Yeah, and you failed.”
He chuckles. “I know. I realized after a while that I didn’t want to break you. I wanted to push you to great new heights. Because of that, you were able to escape Luca on your own.”
“It wasn’t because of you, Anton. I did that of my own accord.”
“Oh, I know. And I have to do this of my own accord, and I need you to get on board.”
“I’m sorry. I just can’t.”
He sighs deeply before opening his arms up to me. “Want to call a truce for tonight? You were having a nightmare. Come here.”
I hesitate for a moment before I let myself sink into Anton’s arms. I hate to admit it, but his arms are the most comforting thing in the entire world.
He holds me until the sun rises.