Chapter Twenty-Eight
I hadn’t known how long Kingston intended to be gone on what he’d called a business trip, but I hated the way things were when he’d left.
He’d naturally been furious at me, and I supposed I could understand his point.
After all, his keeping his family organization was dependent upon him fathering a child and taking a wife.
I’d helped him meet the latter requirement, but not the first. And I had no real reason to go back on a vow I’d made.
In our world, the one of organized crime, no matter which continent or country you hailed from, pride and legacy were all the same.
His grandfather obviously wanted to make sure theirs would be passed down to an heir, where it would continue, even if my own father hadn’t given a damn about the organization he’d inherited from his father.
Generations after generations of Kotovs, and now it was in ruins because he’d become addicted to gambling and lost our entire fortune.
I guess when I looked at things like that, I could understand where some of this residual anger came from.
While I would be helping Kingston expand his own empire by having his child, it would do nothing for mine.
My last name, and one I had always held such pride in, was now synonymous with cowardice, greed, and shame.
My father failed us all, and now I had to pay for his mistakes.
It hadn’t always been that way, though. After the incident with Princeton had gone down, my father had flown straight from Moscow, where he’d been, to New York, and he’d been relentless until the authorities cleared me of any wrongdoing.
He’d been powerful, productive, and it was one of the only times I could ever recall him being an actual father.
Then you throw it all away by selling me off to an enemy.
And not only was Aram Grigoryan an enemy of our once organization, but he was unscrupulous, shameless, and abusive.
I’d heard the stories of most of my father’s one time enemies, and I supposed they had been drilled into my head to make sure I never found myself in a situation like I was currently in.
How ironic! But is it really?
Kingston was a thousand times the man that Aram was.
While they both wanted the same things from me, my current husband treated me somewhat like an equal.
He at least didn’t keep me under lock and key, even if he had men around the clock watching me.
With Aram out there ready to grab me at a moment’s notice, I did need protection, which was one of the main reasons I had ever agreed to this asinine proposal to begin with.
Having escaped from Russia and taken up escorting powerful men for money, I’d hoped that one day I would either save enough cash to make a fresh start somewhere else or find someone powerful to provide for my safety.
Never did I imagine I would end up in an arranged marriage after all.
And even more surprising, I never thought I would even like it a small percent.
“I’m losing my fucking mind,” I muttered to myself before picking up my cell phone.
Again, there were no returned calls or messages from Kingston.
After he left, I’d swallowed my pride and sent him a series of messages, both via text messaging and voice mail.
I’d apologized profusely, but he was unmoved.
I had no idea what was going through his head now, and I knew his grandfather was with him in Boston.
“Maybe he’s convinced you to cut me loose,” I mused.
A month or two ago, I would’ve been ecstatic at the mere thought, but the truth was that I liked Kingston, and I felt as if he liked me, too.
As memories of the night of Cillian’s party came rushing back, he had not only been jealous of every male I spoke to in there, but after I had been drugged, he’d still taken me out of there.
Granted, he had tortured me afterward, but he wouldn’t have done either if he didn’t care.
I got up as the silence in this place was starting to get to me.
I walked over to the window, and when I peered outside, I could see Nolan there in his SUV.
There was no escape from this place. I supposed the good thing about that was that I didn’t want to leave right now.
Maybe Kingston was right. I had been only half in on this.
Everything had been great until the doctor opened her big mouth.
There was no way she could’ve known that I was even trying to get pregnant, or that my husband would be so upset over me actually having birth control.
I couldn’t blame him, though. That was basically the equivalent of trying to start a car with a battery cable disconnected.
I’ll make this up to you!
And I knew how to prove to him that I was finally all in on this arrangement—this marriage. I moved away from the window and over to the fireplace. Multiple photographs sat atop the mantle, and as I picked up one of them, my pulse quickened.
Princeton Brannington. He’d been one of the most popular kids on campus.
The Prince of Summit Crest Preparatory as others used to proclaim.
He attended there at the same time as me, and so did their cousin, Cillian.
Kingston had graduated a few years before us, but the lore of all the Brannington men echoed up and down the hallways of the hallowed mountain school.
The girls who attended there all wanted to date Princeton.
I’d never seen him without at least one hanging off of his arms, whether in the hallways before class, on the shores of the lake, or anywhere else on the grounds.
I supposed the lore of being alone with him that night in the Hamptons had been what made me follow him upstairs.
Brannington men were notorious for getting what they wanted, when they wanted it. Kingston was living proof of that, and Princeton had been too until he jumped in front of me that fateful night.
Clutching the picture to my chest, I closed my eyes as the fear and panic sent me spiraling once more like it had then.
All I could think about was getting away to a place where I could not only catch my breath, but to think clearly.
A car I was unfamiliar with driving and a drink or two I never should’ve had contributed to the worst few minutes of my entire life.
After, I had to tell them why I was in such a hurry to get away from him. I knew the Branningtons, especially Ronan, hounded and harassed the local police daily, but it had been my father who saved the day. I’d truly thought I would end up in jail for most of my life, but I had been spared.
I opened my eyes and let out a sarcastic chuckle. “Only to end up with a Brannington, and in a different sort of prison.”
I exhaled sharply, then placed the photograph back on top of the mantle. I turned to the other man in the photo, and my heart did a small somersault. Kingston was so devastatingly handsome, and in a James Dean kind of way. Princeton was the preppy jock, while King had been the bad boy.
“And you still are,” I said, then froze at the sound of a male voice.
“Who is still what?”
“King,” I said a bit more cheerfully than I should have as I turned around. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
“You looked like you were lost in your own world. I suppose reliving your first kill can bring back fond memories.”
“I wasn’t,” I quickly retorted.
“I still remember mine, and his ring is upstairs in my jewelry box as a reminder. Your kill of Princeton likely didn’t garner the same medals of achievement. I understand he was roadkill when they found him.”
“King—”
“Enough about my brother. What the fuck was so important that you’ve been blowing up my cell phone the entire time I’ve been gone? Were your toys not doing the job?”
I gasped. “You’re such an asshole. I have no idea what possessed me to even miss you a little when you were gone, but since this is the way things are going to be, I won’t make the effort next time.”
With that, I took the stairs nearly two at a time, then flopped down on the edge of our bed.
I knew he could see me as I felt his gaze on me the entire time.
Despite the fact that any warm, fuzzy feelings I’d just had for him had been doused with ice-cold water, my body still betrayed me by reacting swiftly to his intense gaze.
Anger began to fill me, and I jumped to my feet. As I went to my purse, I pulled out the birth control packet, then went back downstairs. By this time, he had gone ahead and made himself a drink, and only glanced briefly up at me as I strode over to him.
“Here! I wanted to let you destroy these yourself. I haven’t even been taking them regularly, so I doubt the few I had taken even mattered, but this is all I have left. Do whatever the hell you want with them.”
I tossed them in his direction, and he caught them midair. He then threw them down onto the table with something else, which made me take a step or two backward. He smirked in that moment, likely at the look of fear in my eyes. I shook my head as King motioned with his finger for me to come to him.
“W-what is that?” I stammered in question.
“Your punishment. If you’re truly as sorry as you claimed to be, then you will be a good girl and take what it is that you’ve earned.”
“Where is that supposed to go?” I asked as I pointed at the plug with a long dark tail that looked to be the same shade as my hair.
“In your ass, which was the only place my cock was going to go from now on until you were ready to give me the child you’d promised me.”
“I just gave you my birth control. Isn’t that proof enough?”
He chuckled. “Maybe going forward, but your past misdeeds...” My heart rate began to accelerate.
The urge to flee was strong, but as soon as I took a step forward, I fell to my knees.
After all, this was simply to humiliate me.
“Take off all of your clothes. I want to see my fucking puisín completely naked.”
His words should’ve made me flee the moment I returned to my feet, but he was right.
I slowly removed the little bit of clothing I had on, the entire time watching as he coated the metal bulb in lube.
It wasn’t nearly as long as his cock, or as thick, so I knew I could take it.
Begrudgingly, I moved to him, then turned when he motioned for me to do so.
Seconds later, he had me bent over the arm of the sectional, and he was working his fingers into my ass.
I had missed him so much, so any touch was enough to arouse me—even this.
After he had stretched me, I felt the glass bulb at my entrance, then moaned as he inserted it inside of me.
Right after, I returned to my knees once more.