Chapter 31
CHAPTER
THIRTY-ONE
ANDREI
I drag her back to the cabin, desperate to have her one last time.
There is no gentleness as I lead her to the dining room table, pressing her back and spreading her wide.
Harder than steel, I unzip my pants and push inside of her.
It’s wild between us. She claws at my back and kisses my neck and murmurs things against my skin that make no sense, but still drive me insane.
Her words come out in pants and sobs—telling me it’s okay, that we made a deal.
That this is for the best. That whatever this is between us would never last.
We knew from the start. We agreed. It has to be like this.
Then why does it feel so fucking wrong?
I squeeze her waist with both hands and barrel into her again and again, each slap of flesh echoing off the walls in the small cabin. My private sanctuary. And now she’s here, ruining it with her very being. Because I’ll never be able to forget her being here.
My chest collapses against hers and I bury my face in her hair, savoring her smell, her sounds, her softness underneath me. Committing all of it to memory.
Her lips find mine. Her kiss is gentle and sweet, but this tenderness only serves to destroy me. I don’t want her mercy. It was easier when she hated me, and I played the part of a beast. This is all wrong.
A fever unfolds inside of me and I come inside of her with a grunt. My fingers are still working her clit, until she sobs out a cry and comes all over me, leaving me wrecked and hollow.
Hours later, I’m lying in bed when my eyes snap open.
A sense of foreboding intrudes my sleeping brain and lodges itself there, forcing me awake despite the exhaustion coursing through my limbs.
Looking over at Georgia lying beside me, dark lashes fanned out over her cheeks, my heart scrambles in my chest.
I’m in trouble. Big fucking trouble.
The call came in last night as Georgia and I drove back from Greenpoint. Oleg is firmly back in play. He’s making moves, making his presence known on the streets of Brighton Beach, meeting with his allies. Most importantly, he wants those loyal to him to show their face.
And Georgia is included in that group.
Oleg already had a few of his men scope out Georgia’s father’s home. He hasn’t forgotten about her, but he doesn’t know we have her, exactly what I hoped for. She’ll tell him she’s been staying with a friend out of town, laying low, and walk right back into his world with him none the wiser.
Except the idea of handing her over to my enemy feels like fire ants buried deep in my skin.
Seeing her with her father today, realizing she’s the only one he has left in the world, and vice versa, destroyed me.
I’m disgusted by my weakness—and she truly is a weakness—but it’s too late to change the course of events. What happened has happened.
A glance at the alarm clock beside her bed confirms that it’s just past midnight. First thing in the morning, Georgia will meet with my men before we send her back to the nest of vipers.
I slip out of bed, retrieving my clothes from the floor of Georgia’s room. She shifts in her sleep and mumbles something, but stays in dreamland.
With a pounding headache, I head towards the library. I light a cigar and pour myself two fingers of scotch before settling into an armchair, the light from the Cuban’s heater the only light in the room. That’s how I want it, dark, so I can stew in my own turbulent thoughts.
But that doesn’t happen. Leo steps out of the shadows, silently joining me where I sit with his own glass of amber liquid.
“You can’t sleep,” he says simply.
I nod, then take in his full Armani suit, but note the missing cufflinks and the open buttons of his shirt. “And where were you?”
“Out.” He’s a man of few words, but I take this to mean he was at Dark Side, relieving tension. “What’s on your mind?”
I shrug. “Uncovering family secrets is dirty business. I just hope it’s worth it.”
“You’re having second thoughts about sending Georgia to Oleg?” Leo studies me quietly, taking the cigar from my hands for a puff. If Daniil was here, with all his swagger and cockiness, I doubt I would admit the truth, but it’s hard to deny Leo. He can see right through my lies anyhow.
“I fucked up.” A sharp stab works its way through my chest, hollowing out my insides. How could I expect Georgia to have her head on straight when mine is all over the place?
“You sure did.” He sighs. His lazy gaze travels over me as he takes a sip of his drink.
“You don’t sound surprised.”
“Nah. I saw this coming a mile away.” Leo hisses out a breath, his eyes boring into my own. “Are you sure?”
“The only thing I am sure of is that she’s mine and the thought of Oleg laying a finger on her…
” I bite out a curse word. The thought is revolting.
“There’s another way to get to him. I know there is.
I lead this family for a reason, and fuck me if I can’t take down Oleg and find my sister without the help of someone that we should have never dragged into this in the first-place. ”
A blanket of tension covers the room. If Leo isn’t with me, he’s against me. But when I look up into his eyes, I see what looks a lot like pride gleaming there, as if he always knew I’d make this decision.
A bitter breath passes over my lips. “You’re not going to tell me I’m making a mistake?” My brothers respect me but they also have no problem pushing back if they think I am in the wrong.
Leo puffs out a smoke ring from my pilfered cigar, eyes sparkling with dry amusement. “Oh, you’re making a mistake. It’s just one you have to make.”
I shake my head. “You’re wrong. I can’t have her. I know I can’t. But neither can Oleg.”
A grunt of amusement. “Funny that you think you can let her go.”
“I have no choice.”
A woman in this world is a liability. A weakness my enemies will exploit, just like Oleg exploited my mother. The best thing I can do for Georgia is to let her go and figure out another way to find Kira.
“There is always a choice.” He leans back in his chair, directing his gaze upward. “Georgia isn’t Mama, her eyes are wide open. History doesn’t always repeat itself, brat.”
I hold my hand up, having had enough of this conversation.
But Leo’s words are enough to create tiny splinters in my resolve to push her away.
Is there a world where I get to keep Georgia, where she wants to be with me?
Could she ever be happy in this life, or will the dark underworld I inhabit eventually destroy her from the inside?
“I’ll let the others know I am calling it off,” I tell Leo roughly. “Tomorrow we will send Georgia and her father into hiding. I’m working on another idea to find Kira, one that doesn’t include using an innocent.”
Leo gulps the last of his drink and brings the glass down on a side-table. “That innocent, as you say, developed quite the impressive set of skills under our roof. She may not be so innocent anymore. She may even be disappointed that we’re taking her out of play.”
An ache in my chest blooms so intense it steals the breath from my lungs. Georgia will argue with me. She won’t be happy that I’m giving up on her and giving up Kira, for now.
“Maybe. But my decision is final.” I wasn’t able to protect my mother, but I will protect Georgia. She’s mine even if we can’t be together.
I got her into this goddamn mess, and now I need to get her out of it.