Chapter Twenty
I hadn’t known at the time, but Cillian had been staying in New York City more in the past few months than he had in years.
I supposed that our grandfather had that effect on people.
After all, he had made my decision to stay stateside so much easier after graduation.
My cousin hadn’t been the same as he was at school, then left to return to Dublin.
Princeton had mentioned his desertion, as well as other things that had taken place at our alma mater.
It seemed the mountains held more than secrets.
It was also the backdrop for murder. And as I remembered my own brother’s demise, I supposed the same could be said about island beach homes, too.
When I looked at Ekaterina now, I still saw my brother.
He’d been viciously murdered, and his murderer was roaming free, or at least until she had married me.
Now, I had her in my grasp. I would break her one of these days.
But God help me, I also wanted to fuck the consciousness and sanity right out of her, and did as often as I could.
Having a wife was not the worst thing. I no longer had variety when it came to the women I fucked, but this venomous wench was good for something.
She could suck me dry effortlessly, and she never failed to make my dick hard.
Night after night, I’d pound her tight pussy until it milked me dry.
One of these nights, it would pay off when she became pregnant with my son.
An heir. Once I had him, I would no longer need her.
Life for me could then return to normal.
It could even with her.
No, I refused to bring her into that room.
While a sadistic sonofabitch, I did enjoy some harder and kinkier type of play.
I had no reason to think that Ekaterina wouldn’t be amenable to the things I could do to her in there, but I had no desire to find out if I was right or not.
She was not my submissive, no matter how much I enjoyed bringing her to her knees when not bending her to my will.
In fact, I would much rather stay home tonight and fuck her until her screams echoed off the concrete walls.
Unfortunately, my cousin was having his twenty-fifth birthday party, and I had already told him I would be there.
Granted, it had been more at our grandfather’s request than Cillian’s, but the invitation had been accepted nonetheless.
And I would be able to show off my wife.
To the unaware, no one would know what she’d already done to this family, or what she was still capable of doing, and would instead see a beautiful trophy wife—a woman worthy enough to be on my arm.
The Kotovs had been a smaller faction in Russia, but they’d worked with other families in the area, so her maiden name was known around these parts anyway.
I took a final look at myself in this tuxedo, ignoring the claustrophobia I felt, and walked back into the bedroom to find Ekaterina sprawled out across the bed in nothing more than a dark, silk robe.
She had a magazine in front of her and was busying herself with the pages as she absently flipped from one to another.
“Why are you not dressed yet?” I asked her.
She placed her hand on the page to hold her place before glancing over at me. “Because I already told you that I don’t want to go.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re my wife, so your attendance is mandatory.”
“I agreed to marry you in name only and produce a child. Nowhere did I sign up for these asinine parties where you’ll parade me around a room full of people who hate me just?—"
“Who hates you?” I asked her.
“Your cousin, for one. Is this not his birthday party?”
I could see why she would think that, and she wouldn’t be wrong.
Cillian and Princeton had been the same age, and as such, they were fairly close.
My brother’s death—no murder—brought out several emotions in those left behind, and everyone hated Ekaterina for it.
That was what made choosing her to be my wife that much sweeter.
“He doesn’t hate you,” I lied. Or was it a lie? I didn’t give a fuck either way.
“Yeah, okay,” she said before turning her attention back to the magazine.
“I told you to get up and get dressed,” I said, a bit more forceful now.
She just shrugged and continued with her patented defiance until I walked over to the bed and crawled on top of it.
I pushed her onto her back, then straddled her.
As I looked down, I could see the swells of her breasts as they heaved with each breath.
I quickly grabbed both hands of hers, then pinned them above her head.
“My order was exactly that—an order,” I started, and paused as she smirked.
“I am not some obedient little sponge that soaks up your orders and does them.”
She might not be obedient, but as I ground myself against her, I watched her nipples harden into tight peaks behind the black silk.
Ekaterina got off on being manhandled. She liked things rough, which would’ve made bringing her to my secret room that much better, but I didn’t want to mix the two things together.
It was bad enough that she had made a lasting impression on the rest of my loft penthouse.
I didn’t need her to do the same for that room.
“You’re my wife, and I expect you to be ready in twenty minutes.”
As I quickly got off her and back to my feet, I nearly chuckled at the obvious disappointment on her face.
She wanted me to take her roughly, and most nights I did, but this was my cousin’s party, and I would humor my grandfather and attend it.
Did it matter that Cillian would likely be alone somewhere with a bottle?
No, it didn’t because I did what was expected of me, whether I wanted to do it or not.
Taking this woman to be my wife was a testament to that.
“I really don’t see the point in my being there. I?—”
“You’re going, and that is that. I’ll be downstairs. If you don’t join me in twenty minutes, you will greatly regret it.”
“What are you going to do? Try to choke me out as you fuck me? If so, save your effort because you know how much I like that.”
I moved over to her, then gripped her throat, causing her to suck in a deep breath. Her eyes slightly glazed over, and I knew she was taunting me in hopes that I would do exactly that. She wanted me to manhandle her, then force my will upon her, so she could climax.
“If you aren’t ready, I’ll tie you to this motherfucking bed and fuck you all night long,” I said, and when she smirked, I quickly added, “But you won’t come a single damn time. I can take away an orgasm from you faster than I can even bring you to one.”
“Y-you wouldn’t,” she said, and this time her eyes clouded with something else.
My grip tightened as I leaned in and bit down on her bottom lip. “I would, and unless you want me to prove it, I suggest you get that ass up and into a dress.”
I released her from my grasp, then straightened to full height before walking to the staircase.
She mumbled something, but I suspected she would heed my warning.
As much as I wanted to keep her from that one room, I might have to make an exception.
The things I could torture her with in there were plentiful.
And, it would be nothing less than she deserved.
I descended the stairs and was just adjusting my bowtie when I heard a noise at the top of the staircase.
I looked up to see her in a dress that had been the same ebony shade as her robe had been, and a groan escaped my lips the second her long legs came into view.
She had one hell of a set on her, and I was now preoccupied with memories of the various times I’d had them thrown over my shoulder as I ate her out.
If she behaved tonight, I might spend most of the night repeating that.
As it was, the damn dress was so short, I wouldn’t even have to lift it to fuck her.
As hard as that might make me, it also angered me. As my wife, I wanted her to show some semblance of class, or at the very least, a sliver of modesty. Ekaterina liked to toy with me, though. Tonight’s attire was just another way to do so, but I refused to fall into her trap.
“You’re looking so hard, it would be easier to take a picture. It would sure as hell last a lot longer,” she said, and just like that, her venomoustongue had me once more arching my brow.
I walked over to her, and once I did, the scent of her perfume wafted toward me.
Reaching out, I wrapped a large swath of her unbound hair around my hand, then gave it a sharp pull.
A soft moan escaped her lips, especially when she looked into my eyes.
At times, I wondered what she saw when she looked at them, but other times, like now, I could not care less.
“This is a family event, and as such, you’re to be on your best behavior.”
“And if I am not?”
Her defiance was often like foreplay, but this night was important for my cousin.
His thin grasp on his sobriety was tenuous, and since spending more time here in New York City, that time had not included the bottle as much.
I had no idea what happened the summer of his senior year of high school, and I supposed it didn’t matter.
All that did was my cousin became unrecognizable, and only recently had I caught any glimpse of the guy I’d once known.
“Can you not just do this one thing for me? My cousin has had a rough several years, and I think he might actually be turning the corner. Let us just celebrate another year around the sun for him, then I’ll come home and not let you sleep until you see the sun come up in the morning.”