35. Ayana
CHAPTER 35
Ayana
V uk was laughing again. This time, I was less charmed than the first two instances.
“It’s not funny.” I crossed my arms, still heated from our dinner encounter. “They were so rude. Who does that? It’s not like our tables were that far from each other. They had to know we would hear them.”
“They’re college students. They’re lost in their own world.” Vuk was surprisingly calm. “I told you, I’m used to the stares and whispers. Their insults don’t come close to the worst thing people have said about me.”
“Which is what?” I was too curious not to ask.
He shook his head, the remnants of a smile playing on his lips.
We were walking home from the restaurant since Vuk had left his car at my parents’ house that morning. We’d been Ubering all day. It was a thirty-five-minute trek, but the weather was beautiful, and I needed to cool off.
“I didn’t think you had an insulting bone in your body,” he said. “You’re full of surprises, Ayana Kidane.”
“Only when I’m fired up. It doesn’t happen often. I’m as non-confrontational as they come,” I admitted. But I had my limits.
We made a right onto my parents’ street. A strange tug of sadness pulled at my gut. I wasn’t ready for the night to be over yet. It was the first time I’d felt carefree in ages. Even though we were staying in the same house, and Vuk would be there in the morning, it wouldn’t be the same. Tonight held a special kind of magic.
“That’s weird,” I said when we arrived at the house. The windows were dark, and it was eerily quiet. “They should be home by now.”
An irrational streak of fear raced through me. Had the Brotherhood followed us to D.C.? Were my parents locked up in a dingy basement while Vuk and I had been eating and shopping our way through the city? Or was it something more mundane but equally insidious, like a car accident or mugging gone wrong?
Vuk tensed beside me. I wasn’t the only one whose thoughts were running wild.
I was about to call my mom and check in on her when she texted me with eerily perfect timing. I swear, she had a magical sixth sense.
Mom: I forgot to tell you earlier. Your uncle got us last-minute tickets to the Kennedy Center tonight. Don’t wait up for us.
Mom: I hope you had a good time with Vuk. Remember to lock up before you go to bed.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God.
“Everything okay?” Vuk asked.
“Yep.” I fished my keys out of my bag and opened the door. “My parents are at the Kennedy Center. They won’t be home until late.”
Vuk relaxed. He didn’t say anything else as we stepped into the entryway and removed our shoes.
I wasn’t used to the house being this quiet. My parents didn’t go out often, and the rooms were usually filled with the rumble of my father’s voice or the background noise of the television. The stillness was disconcerting.
Vuk removed his jacket and hung it on the brass tree by the door. I did the same. Our arms grazed, and a tiny electric thrill sparked at the base of my spine.
If he felt the same, I couldn’t tell. The silence seemed to swallow our earlier camaraderie, twisting it into something heavier. More significant.
“Well, this is it,” I said. “I hope you had a good time today and that it wasn’t too, um, terrible. I know my mom kind of forced you to spend the day with me.”
I winced. Great job, Ayana. You really have a way with words.
“It wasn’t…terrible.” Vuk placed an amused emphasis on the end of his sentence. Fire blazed across my face. “It was nice to have a distraction. You’re better company than Sean and my men.”
“I’m flattered.” We walked toward the stairs, our steps falling easily into sync. A teasing edge slid into my voice. “Is that what I am? A distraction?”
“Among other things.”
I stumbled over the edge of a rug. I caught myself before Vuk noticed—hopefully—but the fire spread from my cheeks down to my neck and chest. A thousand velvety flutters disrupted my heartbeat.
Among other things.
Our day together had been perfectly platonic. We hadn’t kissed, held hands, or exchanged sexual innuendos; we’d simply been two friends enjoying each other’s company.
But now that we were alone, away from the bustle of the city and the company of crowds, a latent spark of awareness flared to life.
The wooden steps creaked beneath our combined weight. The staircase was so narrow we couldn’t move without bumping into each other.
My heart slowed beneath the weight of our proximity. He towered to my left; the wall hemmed me in on the right. Yet his body seemed even more solid and immovable than stone.
Vuk’s hand brushed mine when we reached the second-floor landing. The hairs on my nape prickled. It was an innocent touch, but the promise of something more danced in the air.
We stopped outside my bedroom. It was so quiet I could count the thuds of every heartbeat.
“Thanks for letting me drag you around the city today,” I said. “Happy birthday and, um, good night.”
The birthday part slipped out before I could stop it. Shit . I winced again, hoping I hadn’t ruined the night with my slip-up.
Fortunately, Vuk didn’t appear upset by the reminder. He dipped his chin, his face inscrutable in the darkness. “Good night.”
A beat passed. He didn’t move, and my pulse skyrocketed. This was it. He was going to?—
Walk away and disappear into the guest room.
My chest deflated when the door shut behind him. I followed suit, kicking my door closed and flopping onto my bed with a sigh.
“I’m such an idiot,” I muttered.
I turned my head to check the time. It was only a quarter to nine. In hindsight, I could’ve suggested we stay downstairs and play a game or something, but it was too late for that. If I sought him out now, it would be too obvious.
Like buying him freaking cologne isn’t obvious. That was the type of gift you received from a girlfriend, not a friend—a friend who happened to possess intimate knowledge of the way his kisses tasted and his touches felt.
A full-body flush consumed me. I’d done a good job of pushing our hotel room tryst to the back of my mind given everything that’d happened since then, but the memory resurfaced with sudden, staggering intensity.
The hand curled around my throat. The weight of his body pinning mine against the glass. The?—
A knock startled me out of my filthy reminiscence.
I bolted upright, my heart rate accelerating again. Heaviness gathered between my thighs.
I stared at the door, frozen, until another knock brought my feet to the floor and across the room.
Obviously, it was Vuk. It couldn’t be anyone else, but that didn’t stop a sliver of pleasant surprise from piercing my chest when I flung open the door and found him standing a foot away.
Like me, he hadn’t changed out of the outfit he’d worn all day. A black T-shirt stretched across the width of his shoulders; black pants hinted at the solid muscles underneath. Piercing blue eyes glided over my face with a tingle of heat.
“There’s three hours left of my birthday.” Soft, so soft the words were a shadow of a whisper.
I merely nodded in return.
I couldn’t speak. I could barely breathe. The air was so thick I was afraid any errant noise on my part would send it crumbling to pieces around us.
“I was about to go to sleep when I realized I forgot something.” His tone was impassive, but his eyes—his eyes burned so hot and deep , I felt it in my bones.
My toes curled. The heaviness between my thighs throbbed, and I scrounged up a reply from somewhere in my throat. “What’s that?”
My breathless response earned me a dark smile. I was acutely aware of how flimsy the physical barrier between us was—nothing more than a few inches of space and even fewer heartbeats, closable with one decisive step.
“This.” That rough, single word was my only warning before he gripped the back of my neck and smashed that barrier to smithereens.
His lips claimed mine, and my mind blanked, the commanding pressure of his kiss dragging me under to a place where oxygen didn’t exist. My blood turned to molten lava, but my nipples pebbled like I’d plunged headfirst into a lake of ice. The contrast of hot and cold set off a series of mini fireworks across my skin.
Vuk’s tongue thrust into my mouth, parting my lips and coaxing a moan from my throat. I gasped, and the world snapped back into hyperfocus.
I was no longer underwater; I was in my childhood bedroom, clinging desperately to Vuk for strength while he systematically and expertly obliterated my defenses. He kissed me like a man starved, like he could drink me in for eternity and not be sated. I thrilled at his possessive hold on my neck, and if he weren’t holding me up, I would’ve melted to the floor in a puddle of need.
“More,” I breathed. I tugged at the bottom of his shirt, and he obliged. He pulled back to yank the shirt over his head with one hand before he brought me close again.
He tasted like ice and sin—a combination so intoxicating, I barely noticed when or how the rest of our clothes ended up on the floor.
His skin was hot against mine. I pressed tight against him, loving the way my soft skin molded to the hard planes of his body. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I possessed a hazy recollection of reasons why we shouldn’t be doing this. I was sure they were good reasons. Great ones, even. But they didn’t hold a candle to the desperate, clawing need inside me.
What happened in the hotel room had been a tease, a taste of what could happen if we let ourselves cross the line we’d so carefully toed.
Well, that line had been annihilated. Demolished by every secret shared, every look exchanged, and every touch stolen, not only today but every other day for the past two months.
I didn’t care if this was wrong. How could something be wrong when it felt so right? And when I was with Vuk, it always felt right, like a sweater that fit perfectly on the first try or a puzzle piece that slotted into place with little effort.
This was where I wanted to be. He was who I wanted to be with.
The air was heavy with our pants and sighs. My head spun, but when he reached for the light switch, I had enough presence of mind to stop him.
We hadn’t come this far to sneak around in the dark.
“No.” My voice was so husky it barely sounded like mine. “I want to see you.”
Vuk stilled. After a long moment, he dropped his hand so it rested by his side, and the urgency of our kiss dissolved into something more languid.
His throat flexed when I dropped my eyes from his face to his torso, soaking him in.
Appreciation hummed in my veins. I didn’t care what strangers or society dictated. Vuk Markovic was beautiful .
I didn’t mean the type of beautiful you saw on social media or movie screens—men with gym-chiseled abs and spray-tanned skin, their features nipped and tucked and sculpted into such uniform perfection that they all started to look the same.
His was a raw, primal beauty, free of pretension and vanity. At six foot five, he eclipsed me by a solid seven inches. Thick bands of muscle corded his arms and legs; a light dusting of hair trailed over his chest and past his navel. An old bullet wound and knife scar pitted the skin on his lower left abdomen. They weren’t as stark as the scars on his neck and face, but they were vicious all the same.
His body was a portrait of the life he’d lived—hard, sometimes brutal, but so strong and imposing there was no questioning his raw power. Every scar and every burn was a testament to the trials he’d survived so he could be here , living and breathing and looking like a god of war before he rode off to battle.
Pure magnificence.
I met his gaze again. It was weighted with the tiniest hint of trepidation, like he was waiting for me to run and scream or recoil with disgust.
That trepidation melted into a flare of surprise when I slowly sank to my knees before him.
His lips parted, but I shook my head before he could say a word.
“It’s your birthday,” I said in a low voice. He’d mentioned the occasion when he showed up at my door, so I assumed it was okay to bring it up now. “Just relax…” My hands glided up his thighs. “And let me take care of this for you.”
On the ground, with my knees digging into the carpet and his heated stare burning into my skin, I was eye level with the evidence of his arousal.
It was as gorgeous and intimidating as the rest of him. Long, thick, and so hard I could see the veins pulsing along its straining length. Pre-cum dripped freely from its swollen head.
My mouth watered. When I looked up at him again, his face had darkened with pure lust.
Without taking my eyes off his, I leaned forward and dragged my tongue across his slit. His nostrils flared, but he didn’t make a sound as I licked up every drop of pre-cum before engulfing the tip in my mouth. I grasped the base of his cock with both hands and swirled my tongue around the head, moaning at the salty, masculine taste of him.
I sucked and licked my way down his length, getting him all nice and wet before I took as much of him down my throat as possible. I choked, my eyes welling with tears, but I didn’t let that deter me as I quickly settled into a rhythm. I squeezed and twisted my hands in opposite directions, enjoying the way his cock pulsed while my head bobbed up and down with greedy slurps.
My gurgles and moans mixed with the sloppy choking sounds of his cock hitting the back of my throat. I was on fire, drowning in the taste and heat of him. My clit pulsed with such urgency I almost reached down to touch myself, but I didn’t want to let go of him. Not when a strong hand came down on the back of my head and Vuk finally uttered a deep, guttural groan.
“ Fuck ,” he hissed, and every nerve ending sparked like live wires in the rain.
I loved his taste, loved the way his girth stretched my throat and filled it so completely I could hardly breathe, but hearing someone so controlled lose it because of me sent my hormones into overdrive.
Triumph and lust pooled between my legs.
I sucked harder, my cheeks hollowing. Instead of easing the ache with my fingers, I spread my legs and leaned forward, trying to grind against the floor. The need for friction burned through me like a lit match.
“Look at you, trying to come.” Vuk grabbed my head and pushed himself deeper down my throat. “You like choking on my cock that much? Hmm?”
My whimpered reply turned into a muffled squeal when he pulled out only to slam in again. He started slow at first, but soon he was face fucking me hard enough to make tears spill down my cheeks.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I dropped one hand and frantically rubbed my clit while the other pinched and rolled my nipple between my fingers. I was so turned on I could feel my arousal slicking my thighs, and every thrust sent a new zap of pleasure through my body.
“God, look at you.” Vuk groaned. “You take my cock so well, don’t you? I can see it bulging your throat. So fucking needy.”
Yes, yes, yes .
His filthy words poured straight through me like bourbon. I moaned again, my fingers working faster. My clit was so swollen and sensitive, I might die if I didn’t come soon, but I didn’t want to finish before he did.
He was close. His thrusts were becoming erratic, and I redoubled my efforts until he cursed loudly and thick, hot jets of cum flooded my mouth.
My orgasm hit me at the exact same time. I cried out, my body shuddering. Cum leaked from the corners of my mouth, and I choked a bit before I swallowed the rest of it eagerly. The mixture of his taste and the white-hot waves of sensation almost pushed me toward a second breaking point.
I pulled back to catch my breath. I must have looked like a mess, covered in sweat and drool and cum, but I didn’t care. I reached for him again to clean him up. I only made it halfway before he lifted me to my feet and tossed me on the bed as easily as someone tossing a rag doll.
“You’ve had your fun.” The dark glint in his eyes made my thighs clench. “It’s my turn.”
I opened my mouth, but whatever I’d planned to say died the instant his lips latched onto my still-tender clit.
“Fuck!” I was the one cursing this time. Cursing and screaming and sobbing as he ate me out with the same single-minded determination that had earned him his title as one of the most powerful men in the world.
He was ruthless, his mouth and fingers and tongue working in tandem to bring me to the edge of delirium and back again. Over and over, harder and harder, until he pulled me apart and put me together so many times I lost count.
Somewhere between one sea of pleasure and the next, I heard the rip of foil. A second later, the head of his cock nudged my entrance.
I was humiliatingly drenched, but he was so big, and it’d been so long, that his initial push made me tense with discomfort.
“Breathe, srce ,” Vuk murmured, his voice surprisingly gentle considering the brutal orgasms he’d wrung out of me. “You can take it.”
He was only halfway in. I felt like I’d already reached my limits, but I gritted my teeth and tried to relax as he sank deeper inside me.
“That’s it.” He groaned. “Your cunt is so fucking wet. It’s begging me to stretch it.”
And he did. Inch by inch, his girth threatened to split me in half as it spread me wide and penetrated me deep. I didn’t think it was possible, but eventually, my pussy swallowed the full length of his cock.
A shudder rippled from my head to my toes. I was stuffed so full I couldn’t think straight, and the noises that came out of my mouth sounded barely human when Vuk started moving.
Long, easy strokes morphed into faster, harder ones, and pleasure eventually eclipsed pain as he set a punishing rhythm. He fucked me to the hilt, his balls slapping against my skin. Sweat and sex soaked the air. I cried and bucked, too delirious to do anything except give in to my body’s basest needs.
My nails clawed at him hard enough to draw blood. Instead of deterring him, it only made him more feral. His teeth closed around my nipple and tugged. Hard.
The sharp sting wrenched another cry from my throat. The helpless sound was still hanging in the air when he flipped me over and pounded me harder. The headboard banged against the wall, and my body trembled and shook with each forceful thrust.
My arms were weak, and my elbows finally bucked when he hit a spot that made me see stars. I collapsed face first onto the bed. Vuk took advantage of the new angle and lifted my hips higher. The pillow muffled my screams when he drove in so deep it felt like he would come out of my throat.
The sex was raw and animalistic and blissfully, mind-bendingly wonderful.
The past few years, I’d spent more nights with my vibrator than a man. I hadn’t minded. My previous sexual encounters were satisfactory but nothing to write home about, and at least I didn’t have to make small talk with my vibrator before it got me off.
But this? This unraveled parts of me I hadn’t known existed.
“Oh, God. Yes !” I moaned when Vuk reached around to play with my clit.
“You didn’t think you could take it earlier, but look at you now,” he mocked. “Such a greedy little cunt. Stuffed tight with every inch of my cock and it still wants more.”
His filthy words washed through me, burrowing past any pretenses of decency to awaken the darkest parts of me. He was wrong; I wasn’t greedy. I was insatiable.
“Yes, please,” I whimpered. “I want more. I need— oh God —I need you to fuck me?—”
My pleas devolved into a strangled cry when he gave me exactly what I was asking for and more. If he’d been rough before, he was merciless now, and it took only a minute before my orgasm hit with blinding intensity.
One second, I was on my hands and knees, taking him deep. The next, I was splintering into a thousand jagged pieces that floated and whirled through the air like flakes of snow in a winter storm. My pussy clenched and spasmed. I screamed over and over as each wave of pleasure hit me, but he kept going.
Vuk turned me over and crushed his mouth to mine. The possessive urgency of his kiss set me off again, and I came around his cock for the umpteenth time that night. Third? Fourth? Fifth? I’d lost count. They all rolled into each other, undulating as one giant sea of sensation.
Eventually—right when I was at the brink of begging him to stop, to have mercy and let me breathe because if I came one more time I might actually die—he came with a guttural cry.
He collapsed next to me, his breaths ragged. My mind was still short-circuiting from the rush of endorphins, and I was too dazed to do anything except lie there when he got up a minute later.
I heard the door open and close. Vuk returned soon after with a glass of water. Huh . So he’d put on his pants before going downstairs. How’d I miss that?
“How do you have enough energy left to walk?” I mumbled. “That’s not normal.”
I was exhausted, and I wasn’t even the one who’d put in the most work.
His low chuckle made me smile. He sat beside me and brought the glass to my lips. “Open.”
I obeyed. He tilted the glass so cool, crisp water flowed down my throat. Once he was satisfied that I’d been properly hydrated, he picked me up without asking and carried me to the bathroom.
I was hoping we could check shower sex off my bucket list. To my deep disappointment, Vuk shook his head and tucked my hair into a shower cap before he gave us both a quick but thorough rinse instead.
“Next time, srce , or you won’t be able to walk in the morning.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s too late for that,” I sulked.
He laughed again, the sound filled with amusement and pure male satisfaction.
He dried us off and carried me back to bed. I mustered enough energy to tie my hair down with a silk scarf before I slid beneath the covers and sighed, lazy with contentment. There were a hundred things we needed to talk about after tonight, but they could wait until tomorrow. I was too happy and sated to allow anything to burst my current bubble.
Vuk slid into bed next to me. He pulled me close to him, and I allowed myself one indulgent stretch before I curled into his embrace.
Maybe it was a good thing he’d said no to more sex. The shower had sapped me of my remaining energy, and I couldn’t…I couldn’t…
My eyes drifted closed. The last thing I felt was a soft kiss on the top of my head before sleep claimed me, and everything went dark.