Chapter Eighteen #2
That night still haunts me. How could I ever forget the way my life flashed before my eyes when I saw the gun pointed at me and the hand ready to pull the trigger?
Showing weakness will only make Leonid more paranoid and protective, so instead of letting the vulnerability take over, I allow the rage burning inside me to surge forward.
“And what about me?” I demand. “Do I just spend the rest of my life hiding behind your guards? Looking over my shoulder every second of every day?”
His jaw tightens. Whatever softness there was in his eyes vanishes instantly. “If that keeps you breathing, then yes.”
I stare at him.
The conviction in his voice should terrify me.
Instead, something else settles in my chest, something far more dangerous than Vasili’s assassination attempt, because for the first time I believe Leonid really isn’t saying it to control me.
He’s saying it because he genuinely believes losing me would destroy him.
He’s trying to keep me safe because he cares about me.
The realization steals the rest of my anger.
The air feels heavier now, charged with tension, rage, defiance, and something deeper. It’s almost as if the argument transformed into something else while I wasn’t paying attention.
Leonid takes one last step toward me, and the space between us shrinks to nothing.
The evening breeze lifts a strand of my hair and carries it across my face. His eyes follow the movement before settling back on mine. Still, he doesn’t touch me, and the restraint feels deliberate, like he’s forcing himself not to touch me.
My pulse stumbles. “Why are you looking at me like that?” I mutter, my cheeks flushing from the way his piercing steel gray eyes peer into mine.
A faint smile touches one corner of his mouth. “Because you have no fucking idea how much you drive me crazy, ptichka.” His gaze drops briefly to my lips before returning to my eyes.
The glance is subtle, yet my entire body reacts to it as another wave of silence stretches between us, my heart pounding harder with every passing second.
I should step back. Put distance between us. Instead, I find myself moving until I’m pressed against him.
His expression changes instantly, a flash of hunger hiding quickly behind control. But he doesn’t make a move. He leaves it entirely up to me.
A rush of heat climbs up my neck and every instinct tells me to stop, but I don’t.
Leonid and I have crossed this line several times before.
There’s nothing to be afraid of, despite the voice in my head telling me all the reasons letting this go on is a terrible idea. But it’s not enough to stop me.
I reach for him and my fingers curl around the front of his jacket. The expensive fabric bunches beneath my hand and I forget how to breathe for a second as the entire world narrows to the space between us.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, the words leaving my lips before I can stop them. “I won’t do it again.”
And just like that, as if my apology unleashed whatever beast he’d caged inside himself, he grabs my ass and pulls me closer. His lips crash against mine, and he kisses me like a demon desperate to devour my soul.
It’s intense. Primal. And desperate.
His tongue thrusts into my mouth as he presses me against the wall.
I don’t have enough time to process what’s happening when he starts to rip off my clothes, letting them fall at my feet.
My pulse races, my core throbs, and my body fully melts against his. “Leo.” I rasp his name breathlessly, and he claims my mouth again.
His hand slides between my thighs, and I spread my legs to give him more access, my clitoris pulsing as he rips my panties to shreds.
A wicked smirk plays on his lips when he feels the wetness between my legs.
I flush from how little control I have over myself when I’m with this man.
“You drive me insane, ptichka,” he purrs against my lips, his breath hot and uneven. He presses his thumb firmly against my clit, sending a jolt straight down my spine. “This will be your punishment.”
I cry from pleasure, my stomach fluttering with anticipation as he drops to his knees in front of me. The sudden shift leaves me breathless, watching through a haze of desire as he buries his head between my thighs.
Pushing a finger inside me, he presses his tongue firmly to my clit, circling the hypersensitive peak with a torturous deliberation that matches the pump of his finger inside of me.
Pleasure explodes through my entire body. I clutch his hair for dear life. “God,” I cry out, throwing my head back.
“God isn’t here, baby.” He pushes another finger deep inside me, curling it until I feel him hit my most sensitive spot each time he slides it in and out. “But I am. And you’re only allowed to say my name.”
Fuck.
The roughness of his voice ripples through my body like an electric current, so intense that it draws his name straight from my lips. “Leonid.”
I feel the sharp, wicked curl of his grin against my inner thigh. “Good girl.”
Pulling out his finger, he replaces it with his tongue and begins to fuck me with it. Every inch of my body is cocooned in pleasure. The feeling is so strong that my eyes roll to the back of my head and I feel like I’m floating, weightless, high above the sky.
He increases the pace, driving me over the edge, and I completely drown in the sensation of him making love to me with his fingers and tongue, shattered by the rhythm he sets.
This feels better than anything I’ve ever experienced.
Jesus fucking Christ.
My hips arch as the tension finally snaps, sending convulsive waves of climax crashing through my entire body. I sob his name into the night wind, completely helpless as the ripples of pleasure tear through me, leaving me trembling and breathless.
Before the aftershock of my orgasm fades, Leonid’s hands are on my waist. He bends me over the railing and my skin tingles as he hooks his fingers into my hips and positions me on my stomach.
Then he slaps my ass.
I moan, pain and pleasure surging through me in equal measure.
“Next time you disobey me, I won’t stop at spanking you just once,” he warns, his voice so deep and husky that I drink it in like sin.
I’m still trembling with the residual heat of my orgasm when I feel the warm tip of his erection pressing against my entrance from behind.
He doesn’t wait. He positions himself and slides inside me in one deep thrust.
The fullness of him stretches me completely, pulling a ragged gasp from my throat. He pins me in place as he claims me, the friction of him driving in and out of me instantly igniting a fresh, desperate wildfire in my veins.
I clench the edge of the railing, moving in perfect, helpless sync with his brutal thrusts.
“Fuck,” he groans behind me, his fingers sinking deeper into my flesh to anchor me in place. “You’re so sweet, baby. So delicious. So tight and perfect.”
He grips my hips tighter, his pace turning punishingly fast as the heat between us builds to a fever pitch. Every deep, driving thrust shatters whatever control I have left, the friction rubbing against my clit until the tension coils tight and unbearable once more.
“Leonid,” I sob, my knuckles whitening around the railing as I try to match his frantic rhythm.
“That’s it, ptichka,” he growls, his chest slamming against my back with every possessive strike. “You’re mine. All mine. And I’m all yours. You own me, ptichka.”
His words are the final spark.
My internal muscles clench violently around him, triggering a second, blinding orgasm that rips through my entire body. I arch my back, a broken cry tearing from my throat as my climax locks me in place, squeezing him impossibly tight.
At the same time, Leonid lets out a low, feral groan. His pace turns completely reckless for three more desperate thrusts, burying deeper and deeper until I can feel him hit the walls of my cervix.
Then he freezes, his muscles locking tight as a deep shudder racks his frame and he pours himself inside me.
We both remain in that position for a moment, our ragged breaths syncing and our sweaty bodies pressed against each other.
After what seems to be forever passes, Leonid presses a kiss to my spine, and then another to the back of my neck. “Get dressed, baby. I’m taking you home.”
I do as he says, sliding back into my clothes even as my legs are still weak from climaxing twice within a few minutes.
I’m exhausted.
Hungry.
And most of all, a heavy realization settles into my chest. Being able to leave the mansion undetected means I had a chance to get to my family and Audrey, tell them what’s going on, and run from Leonid and his world, but for some reason I’ve chosen not to.
I’m not shackled by chains or a cage. Far from it.
I’m still here because I choose Leonid.
And that realization terrifies me more than anything else ever has.