Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Viktor
I was sitting at the dining table the next morning when she appeared in the doorway and stopped dead.
It gave me a chance to look at her. And the first thing I noticed was how frail she looked.
There were smudges around her red-rimmed eyes that hadn’t been there before, even when she had been working back-to-back graveyard shifts.
Had I done that?
“Good morning.” Tearing my eyes away, I went back to pouring myself coffee, but out of the corner of my eye, I watched as she moved forward carefully, a grimace on her face with every step she took.
The spanking I had given her last night had been hard, and I wasn’t surprised that she was sore. Or was she sore from the thing that had happened afterward? I hadn’t exactly been gentle, and I had left her before I could get her to finish.
“Do you want me to eat in my room?” Her voice was tiny, a broken little croak like she had cried all night. Casting my eyes back up to her, I smiled even though it felt forced.
There was something wrong with her, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Had last night broken her beyond repair? Because that’s what was missing. The fiery spark in her eyes was gone. They were dull and lifeless now.
I’d seen that look on a woman’s face before, and that woman had left. I had never seen her again.
Guilt twisted my gut, and I hated it. I wasn’t the type of man who felt guilty. Not ever. Not even when I took another man’s life, but I felt it now, and it left a bitter taste in my mouth.
“No.” I tried to keep my voice light and my anger at bay because it wasn’t her I was angry at— it was myself. Pushing out my hair, I patted my knee. “I would like you to eat with me.”
Surprise pinched her eyebrows together. Her eyes darted across the table. “The table is set for one?”
Again, I tapped my knee, and this time her eyes widened in shock. “You want me to sit on your lap?”
“Yes. I would like to prove to you that things between us don’t have to be so difficult.”
She took a step forward, her chin tucked into her chest, and perched on the very edge of my knee. There was no argument, not even a moment where it looked like she was about to.
And I had done that. I had taken that spark and smothered it.
Looping my arm around her waist, I drew her back against me. “You look beautiful this morning.”
She didn’t answer me. Her body was rigid against mine.
“I mean it, Leah.” I tried again. This time, bringing my lips to the skin on the side of her throat. “I really do think you are beautiful and I am—” I stuttered to a stop. Was I really about to say what I was about to say? It wasn’t a sentence I could ever remember using before.
“Thank you.” Her voice trembled when I kissed just below her ear.
“Last night—” again I trailed off. Fuck why was this so hard? At my age, it shouldn’t have been. I wasn’t my father. I should be able to say the words even if they lodged in my throat. “I—”
“It’s fine, Viktor. I won’t do it again.”
Part of me wanted to believe her, but there were still doubts in my mind because wasn’ t that what women did? They left.
“I hurt you.”
Her body went stiff. “Yes, but my ass will heal.
Twisting her head around, I slanted my mouth over hers. Silencing her with a soft press of my lips. I’d kissed her before, but never so gently. I wasn’t even sure I had ever kissed a woman so softly before.
“I’m sorry I lost my temper with you. I shouldn’t have done that. I won’t make excuses for my behavior, but I do want you to know that I am sorry, sorry for spanking you so hard and sorry for,” nipping at her bottom lip, I pulled it away from her teeth, “not making you cum.”
“It’s fine.”
Except the way she kept saying it was fine meant it wasn’t fine at all.
“No, it wasn’t.” I swiped my tongue against the seam of her lips and was rewarded when she parted them softly. She didn’t want to, but her body reacted to me even when her brain told her not to.
“Let me make it up to you.” My next kiss wasn’t as gentle because when it came to her, I was like a man possessed.
That’s why I had acted the way I had last night and before.
I would never admit it, but there was something about Leah that drew me in and trapped me.
It had been that way since the moment I had seen her in the flesh for the first time.
Dragging my hand up and across her knee, I smoothed my fingers up the inside of her thigh, parting her legs gently.
This morning had to be all about her, her pleasure was what was important here, and if that meant I had to reign it back and go slow and gentle, that’s what I would do.
The tips of my fingers skimmed across her panties, and she cried out, her body stiffening as she tried to get away from my touch.
“You’re sore.” I whispered against her lips as I traced the outline of her lips with the tips of my fingers. “Do you want me to make it better for you?” Slipping my fingers under the cotton, I found her swollen, damp folds.
She was sore, and that was all down to me and my inability to control myself around her, but the dampness that coated her was because of me as well .
She might hate me, and I deserved it, but she wanted me as well. Just as much as I wanted her.
“Tell me it’s ok to make you cum.” I murmured.
“Please.”
Chuckling, I parted her with my fingers, coating the middle one with her juices. I slipped it inside of her and curled it against her g-spot.
Leah cried out softly, her breath minty as it blew across my face.
“I love it when you beg, Leah.” With slow, even movements, I began to fuck her with my finger. One at first and then another. I took my time about it, savoring the way her breath kept hitching in the back of her throat and her pussy walls fluttered against me.
There was an overwhelming urge to push her closer to bliss fast and hard, but I fought the impulse. Today had to be like this, slow and steady.
“Vikor.” My name left her mouth like a prayer, and my cock threatened to explode.
“Do you need more, Leah?” I already knew she did.
She wasn’t a soft and gentle kind of woman.
It was one of the reasons we were so compatible in the bedroom.
She needed someone with a firm hand to get her off, and I wanted nothing more than her submission, just as long as that fire stayed in her eyes, of course.
“Lean back,” I ordered. “Put your feet on my knees. Spread yourself open for me.”
She did what I asked, her head falling back on my shoulder. It moved her mouth away from mine, but opened her up so deliciously for me.
My fingers curled inside of her, the heel of my hand pushing against her clit, and I felt the first clamp around my fingers that signaled she was getting close.
A few more minutes, and I would have her screaming my name again, and things would be better. She clearly forgave me for last night.
“Oh, Viktor.” Her whole body went rigid, tremors making all of her muscles shake, and then just like that, she was crying out to God, to me.
Or were we one and the same?
I wanted to be the only god she ever called for.
“Beautiful.” Sliding my hand from her panties, I smoothed her dress back over my knees. Shifting our positions, I sat her in the seat and stood with a smile. “Eat, Leah.”
Her lips trembling, she looked up at me. “You’re not eating with me?”
The smile still firmly on my face, I slipped the fingers that had just been inside of her into my mouth and sucked. “I’m not hungry for food, but don’t worry, I will come and eat you later today.”
To me, it was a joke, but she didn’t laugh.
Bending down, I pressed my lips to her head. “I’ll see you later, ok?”
I’d barely made it to the door when I heard her sob. A wet, ragged sound that sounded like it came from the bottom of her soul. Turning in shock, I stared at her.
“Why are you crying?”
She didn’t answer me. Instead, she unfurled her body and reached for a fork. But her body kept jerking with her sobs.
“Leah,” I demanded again. “Why are you crying?”
Stomping back into the room, I stood at the end of the table and glared at her. “Answer me.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters. I wouldn’t have asked about it if it didn’t matter. Why are you crying? Did I hurt you again?”
She shook her head.
“Then why the tears?” Jesus, women were exhausting. I had just done something nice for her, and yet here she was crying, sobbing like I had broken her heart.
There was not a chance in hell that I would ever understand her or any other woman, for that matter. Not that I could ever imagine caring about another woman’s tears.
“Didn’t I make you cum?”
She looked at me, steadily and without blinking. “Yes.” Her throat bobbed as she swallowed hard. “And then you left just like you always do. ”
“What?”
“You always leave.” Her voice was rising, and another sob ripped its way out of her throat. “You use my body.”
“You enjoy what I do to you, Leah.” I pointed out sharply.
“Yes, I do, but then you leave, and I remember that I’m nothing to you but a paid whore.”
My eyes flashed. “You’re my wife.”
“But you still leave. It makes me feel cheap and disgusting. The way you treat me makes me feel like I’m an animal.”
Silently, I stared at her. “Is this what these tears are about, Leah? Because I don’t stay to snuggle with you after we have sex?”
For the space of one heartbeat, she stared me directly in the eyes, and then she dropped them to the table. “You don’t call me Printsessa anymore. Why is that, Viktor? Why did you stop?”
I walked away and didn’t look back. It was only when I closed the door to my office that I finally let myself breathe.
Were all of those tears, tantrums, and escape attempts because I didn’t snuggle and call her cute pet names? Surely Leah knew that I wasn’t that type of man?
I didn’t do cute. I didn’t do gentle. I had to be strong.
I banged my head against the closed door and groaned.
“Trouble in paradise?” Ivan asked.
“Everything is fine.” Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself for the day ahead. No doubt Leah would try to run away again or do something equally as infuriating.
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Viktor. But everyone in this house knows that things aren’t just fine. The girl is miserable here.”
“She has everything she could ever want or need.” I threw myself into my office chair and reached for the crystal decanter. To hell with whoever said you shouldn’t drink in the morning.
“Is that what you really think, because from where I’m sitting, it sounded like she wanted to be your wife.”
My eyes narrowed. “She is my wife.”
“But you don’t treat her like one. Would it kill you to be kind to the girl?”
Kind to the girl? I downed the amber liquid in my glass. It was five o’clock somewhere, right?
“She hasn’t done anything to make me think she deserves my kindness.”
Across the desk from me, Ivan groaned. “Leah, isn’t Corrinne, Viktor. Why not give her a chance?”