18. Katerina
CHAPTER 18
Katerina
I’m not sure what makes me do it. But it’s a spur-of-the-moment decision that pushes me into Roman’s arms. I seek out his mouth in a warm kiss of gratitude.
It’s meant to be a quick peck. A thank you for what he’s done.
Maybe the first time ever someone has righted a wrong in my life.
I’ve spent twenty-five years becoming accustomed to the fact that nobody cares. Except for Rosita, no one in my life has ever given a damn about what’s happened to me. I learned from the time I was a kid and my parents passed away, I couldn’t wait for justice.
Even sympathy.
None of it was ever coming.
I just had to learn to pick up the broken pieces and move on.
But knowing that Roman heard what I’d told him about my foster life and he’d acted on it— within a few hours —does something to me.
It awakens some part of me that has always wished someone would step in. Someone would fight on my behalf.
My lips touch his and discover warmth and softness that I never imagined. His beard tickles my face but his mouth presses into mine, surprisingly gentle and supple. Roman locks an arm under my thighs and lifts me up so that we’re level.
We’re kissing, our pace slow and explorative.
My mind goes blank after wondering if I should pull away. If I’ve gotten in over my head and I need to get out before it’s too late.
But Roman is a good kisser.
He holds me against his chest and draws my bottom lip between his. He sucks lightly yet methodically, as if he knows what it’ll do to me.
A hot spark courses the length of my spine and makes me shudder in his arms. I part my lips wider and let Roman kiss me even deeper.
I let myself melt into the heat engulfing me.
No one’s ever kissed me with so much passion as soon as our lips touched. No other man has ever held me so securely yet made it clear he’s barely restraining himself. He desires me so much, the second I kissed him, he was a goner.
That was all it took.
The air in my lungs begins running short and my head reels from dizziness. Other parts of me awaken. A pulse between my thighs and fire lit in my belly that leave me flushed and breathless.
Roman cups my face with one large hand and draws me even closer. His kiss becomes more demanding, like he can’t get enough of what he’s tasting.
He needs more of me.
I need more of him.
But another smaller voice in the back of my head screams at me to stop. Some tiny kernel of rationale tells me we can’t do this right now.
“Wait…” I pant, finally pulling back from his mouth. I shake my head, eyes closing. “We can’t… I… I…”
“Shhhh, kitty cat,” he hushes, then nips at my lips. “You taste so good. You feel so soft. I can’t help but want you.”
He sets me down on my feet and the floor feels like it’s shifting under me. I wobble in place, blinking up at him, my skin hot like we’re in the middle of a summer heatwave.
“Come in with me.” He inclines his head toward the shower, where the glass fogs up from the inside.
I bite down on my bottom lip. Even more heat scalds me as I realize Roman’s naked and I just passionately kissed him. Now he’s asking me to take a shower with him.
“Okay…” I say so quietly it might as well be a whisper. My fingers clutch at the hem of my top, eyes meeting his ravenous gaze.
I’m not sure what I’m doing, but I also realize I can’t stop. I’m under his intense study as I tug my shirt over my head and then reach for the waistband of the leggings I’m wearing. The pair slides down my hips as I wiggle out of them and end up only in my panties.
Once those are gone too, Roman holds his hand out for me to take.
My heart’s beating unbearably fast. I let him guide me into the glass shower box, enveloped by the hot steam the instant we cross inside.
He comes up behind me, his arms wrapped around my hips, and drops a kiss to my bare shoulder.
“Mne prikhoditsya vesti sebya prilichno, no s toboy tyazhelo.? * ”
Though I don’t understand what Roman’s saying, I pick up on his tone. The passion that lives in each word as he brings me up under the hot spray of the shower and reaches for a loofah.
My eyes close as I give up any reservations, any kind of protest. I sink into the moment and savor the relaxing hot water pouring over me. The slow, intimate way Roman passes the soapy loofah over my naked curves.
He takes his time as if he wants to make it last. He wants this moment between us to go on for as long as possible.
The loofah travels all over my body. It passes across my stomach and then reaches the fleshy mound that’s my mons pubis.
He pairs the caress of the loofah with another kiss. This time to the side of my neck.
The littlest moan slips out of me. I shudder against him as he lathers up my hips and thighs and presses even more kisses onto my naked skin.
Something about the way he kisses me makes me wild with arousal.
My pussy’s throbbing away before I can even check myself. I’m turned on to the point I’m clenching .
I’m wishing I had Roman’s huge, borderline monstrously sized dick between my thighs…
I turn around in his arms and seek out his mouth some more.
Roman cups my chin and helps me, tipping my head up. Our lips slide together and our tongues touch, finding the perfect rhythm for our kiss.
The water rains down around us. Our skin’s slippery and wet. Our mouths open and hands wandering.
I let mine feel his hard muscles and marvel at how this man who’s built like a tank has come into my life and changed everything. I’m still not sure whether to give in completely or run in the other direction, but I do know one thing as he kisses me dizzy.
No other man has ever made me feel like this.
My hand slips low ’til I’m gripping his thick dick and stroking him. We kiss and I stroke, sliding my hand up and down his length.
Roman gropes my ass in return, then breaks away from my lips.
“On the bench, kitty cat. Now.”
I blink, caught up in the haze of the steam. He takes my hand and leads me to the other end of the shower where there’s a built-in porcelain bench along the back tiled wall. I plop down, unsure what he’s expecting of me.
“Spread. Show me that gorgeous fucking pussy.”
Roman takes a knee and licks his lips. I’m in shock as I do as I’m told and part my thighs.
No man has ever tasted me in this way. No one’s ever offered.
Living the life I did, I had never felt interested enough to let any of them. Sex had never been a huge interest of mine. I was more concerned with finding food and having a roof over my head.
But spreading my legs and letting Roman in feels so right. It feels intimate as the steam floats around us and he hooks my thighs over his arms and draws me to the edge of the bench.
He gives no further warning before he buries his face in my pussy and swipes his tongue from the bottom to the top of my slit.
My jaw drops open.
An instant current of pleasure spreads through me. I grip the edge of the bench and watch in speechless shock.
His tongue flicks up and down my pussy slit, the feeling like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. The warm and wet massaging sensation is almost too much on such a sensitive area, drawing a shudder out of me.
It’s like he’s mapping out the shape of my pussy with his tongue. He’s tracing the folds, exploring the most intimate part of me. He sucks at my labia, kissing my pussy lips like he’d kissed my mouth earlier.
A deep tremble racks through me, right down to my toes. My thighs quake around his head and my heart beats so fast, it just might burst.
My fingers find his hair, sliding through the strands as if in encouragement.
Pleasure has begun to pop and crackle in sharp, electric tingles. It’s hot and feverish, spreading from the inside out.
My eyes snap shut as he sucks at my pussy and then tongues my throbbing clit.
Roman reaches up and squeezes my breast in his hand. He tweaks my nipple and nibbles at the inside of my thigh. I’m soaking wet, dripping while he feasts on my pussy and helps himself to feeling me up.
My orgasm is so close that I’m his for the taking.
I’m enveloped in the warm tingles that are building toward release.
I slump along the tiled wall. My legs dangle over his broad, muscled back. His head’s buried in my pussy. He produces a throaty moan that in turn makes me moan.
The moment feels surreal.
This powerful bratva boss is on his knees before me, worshipping my pussy to the point I’m soaked with arousal. I’m quivering in place as he adds two thick fingers inside me and sucks on my clit, and I can’t hang on another second.
I come with a sharp cry. The orgasm sweeps me up and leaves me reeling for what feels like its own eternity.
For as long as it lasts, the only thing I know is pleasure.
The only thing I feel is the release that erupts from within.
Roman laps at my pussy, tasting my juices as he squeezes my thighs.
“That’s fucking delicious, kitty cat,” he growls. “Net nichego vkusneye tebya.”? *
I’m in a daze for the rest of the shower.
Roman helps me towel off once we’re done. All I can do is blink up at him like he’s revealed the most shocking revelation of my life—and maybe he has.
He’s made me orgasm.
He’s righted a wrong from my past.
He’s done what no one else ever has for me.
Is it possible that someone out there can care for me like I always dreamed of? That I could be loved like so many people are?
Roman wraps the bath towel around me and then kisses the underside of my jaw. “Get changed into something comfortable, devochka. We’ll have dinner.”
And just like that, he walks out of the room.
Roman decides we’re being casual for the night—meaning, he requests his team of cooks prepare us an American classic.
Burgers and fries.
My eyes round as a bacon cheeseburger and freshly cut fries are delivered at the dinner table. He laughs.
“I figure we have had enough of my country’s food,” he says. “It is time we have some of yours.”
I swallow and hesitantly reach for my dinner napkin. “Do you even like American food?”
“It is good. Very filling. Not so healthy sometimes, but it tastes good.”
“We do like our fatty foods,” I laugh.
“I like fatty asses. So it’s good.”
“Like mine?”
His gaze sparks with the same intensity it had earlier during our shower. “Devochka, you know better than to ask a question like that.”
We dine on the burgers and fries and Roman tells me more about his penthouse. He’s only lived here for a few months since his father insisted he buy property in the heart of Northam for business operation purposes.
He tells me how he’s not used to such refined living quarters. Polina and several of his other staff members decorated the space.
“Where did you used to live?”
“In a smaller apartment,” he answers. “Far below my means financially. This is flashier.”
He goes on to say how he’ll take me up to the rooftop tonight once we’re finished with dinner. The view is amazing and he wants to show me the pool and jacuzzi.
“I can’t swim,” I admit with a small laugh.
“Maybe something else you can learn while here.”
“You were serious about the Russian?”
“Yes, devochka. If you are mine, you should know how to speak it. At least understand what you are hearing.”
I don’t completely disagree—though it’s only been a few days in Roman’s custody, I’ve been in several situations where Russian’s been spoken around me and I’ve had no clue what was being said. If I’m forced to be here long-term, it could come in handy to know a few words and phrases.
Roman clears his plate of every fry and crumb of his cheeseburger. I try my best to do the same with my plate but come up short. Hand on my belly, I let out a breath and shake my head side to side.
A handful of fries and a few bites of my burger remain.
“I can’t eat another bite. But it was delicious.”
“Edik is a good chef. He is in charge of the kitchen for a reason.”
We leave the dining room behind to get in the elevator and ride it up to the rooftop like Roman said we would. The doors part to a wide-open plum sky speckled with glimmering stars and a half moon shining down on us.
I gasp at the view despite being warned how amazing it was.
We step out onto the rooftop where a large rectangular pool sits in the center and cross the space to the railing. Roman gestures to the city surrounding us. Dozens of buildings lit up with tiny lights as far as the eye can see.
“Do you like?” he asks.
“Like? Love! This is the best view I’ve ever seen. So this is what the finer things in life are like.” I lean against the railing and look seventy stories below at the cars moving up and down the streets.
Everything’s so miniature from this high up.
Roman rests his hand at the small of my back. “I come up here at night sometimes when I can’t sleep. The fresh air and the view help.”
“I could see that. Am I allowed up here?”
He regards me for a second. “Maybe. If you promise to behave.”
A server arrives on the rooftop to serve us dessert. Champagne and a sweet berry tart that I can’t help having seconds of. Even if I’m still a little full from earlier.
We sit down at the table and chairs on the rooftop and sip our champagne as we bask in the cool air and night sky.
“I didn’t get a chance to tell you earlier…” I pause long enough to stare at the bubbles in the flute of my champagne and gather my words. “But… but thank you. For what you did earlier. My foster parents.”
“I do not tolerate mistreatment, kitty cat,” he says firmly. “Not of my pet. Not of what’s mine. And yes, that’s what you are. Mine.”
I’m not sure what comes over me, but I find a level of comfort in his words. Where I would’ve been insulted and even angry mere days ago, now I’m soothed by them.
Probably because he’s proven he means it.
“I never thought anyone would care,” I sigh. “About what they did to me.”
“Wrongs against you are wrongs against me. Give me a list of your enemies and I will slaughter each one, kitty cat.”
The scary thing is… I believe him now.
We’re interrupted by one of the men in his crew. He appears on the rooftop to mutter something in Roman’s ear. Roman gives a nod and then rises out of his chair.
“I will be back in a few minutes,” he says. “Business has come up. Stay here. Behave yourself.”
He and the henchman walk off without another word. The door leading back inside snaps shut and I realize I’m truly alone for the first time since…
…he took me captive. Wow, this feels weird.
I glance around the rooftop and reach for my champagne to take another sip.
It’s then that I notice what’s lying untouched on the table. My eyes flick back up toward the door as temptation emerges.
Though I’m no expert by any means, Finch and the others have taught me some basics. That includes hacking phones.
I check one last time that I’m alone, and then I do it. I reach for Roman’s phone…
* ? Mne prikhoditsya vesti sebya prilichno, no s toboy tyazhelo - I have to behave decently, but it’s hard with you.
* ? Net nichego vkusneye tebya - there is nothing tastier than you.