23. Kelly
23
KELLY
M ore days passed in this new thing I was supposed to call life. I stopped going to class completely. I was fired from my student-worker position. And every morning that I woke up spooned by Rurik, I tried to convince myself that this was better than what I had before.
I had him. Not in my thoughts, not stuck in only my dreams.
Rurik was with me. When he wasn’t in me, making me come and reach heights of pleasure, we were getting to know each other better just by talking and living together. He was often gone, busy with the men, but I was never alone. Eva wanted my help with her wedding stress. Irina was getting nervous about having a baby. I was there for both of them, but if I let my mind wander, it would go back to the scary thoughts of being caught and punished for all my wrong-doings. The last time I experienced this PTSD mindset was after I saw Officer O’Malley. I hadn’t done anything wrong now. It didn’t feel like I’d done anything bad when I “spied” for Oleg because I got so little from that conversation. But it had to be bad in some way that I sided with criminals and killers. The so-called right thing to do when Rurik shot that guard in the basement was to tell the authorities, but my opinion of those who swore to protect everyone else was jaded.
As was our routine, Rurik woke up and started to play with me. Without rolling me over, he slid his hand over my stomach and sought out my entrance. I reached my arms up, lazily arching back to him while I turned my head, and it was with his lips on mine that he pushed his dick between my legs. With a little too much force and eagerness to be inside me with morning sex, he pushed along my crack.
“Whoa.” I jerked, shocked at his hard shaft near that hole.
He chuckled, that dirty, gritty sound that was so much sexier in the morning. “That woke you up.”
“Well, yeah, it did.”
Without any further error, he slid forward, notching his cock into my pussy, but he wasn’t done. Pushing back from me as he slowly thrust inside, he swiped more of my arousal on his fingertips and moved them back to my rear hole. He didn’t penetrate me, but just the touch of his caress around the hole had me hurtling toward the start of an orgasm.
“What are… Rurik?”
“Shh.” He kept it up, pistoning into me as he played around the rim of my other hole no one had ever touched.
Just before I could lose my mind and welcome the euphoria of this forbidden thrill of him pleasuring me there , his phone rang.
“No. No, no, no.” I winced, whining at the interruption. It wasn’t just a call, but one with the emergency ringtone.
“Fuck.” He stayed still in me, keeping his dick deep inside me and pulsing with how close he was to coming. Leaving his fingers pressed around my ass hole, he reached up with his free hand to grab his phone off the nightstand. “What?” he answered curtly.
Please don’t be anything important. Please be a short call of a false alarm.
“Dammit. Fine. We’ll be there for the backup plan.” As he said it, he withdrew from me. He backed up until his dick was out, leaving me needy for him to fill me again. Then as he rolled off the bed, his fingers disappeared from my ass, too.
“No. Rurik, please, no. Don’t stop.”
He chuckled, leaning over to spank my ass lightly. “Time to get up.”
“It was almost time for me to get off,” I replied, sitting up.
“We’ll pick up where we left off in an hour or so.”
I sighed, getting up and doing my best to ignore the throbbing in my pussy where I wanted him to touch me again. Even the sensitive flesh around my other hole felt different, like his absence was noted and I wanted to experience that taboo desire again. “I realize that danger is kinda expected in the Mafia lifestyle,” I said, “but stopping in the middle of something like that isn’t cool.”
Dressed already, he came close to kiss me. “We will pick up right where we left off.”
I sighed, dressing and not even bothering to ask what was going on. This urgency had to mean something had happened, some new development in all the trouble we’d been dealing with. Unless Rurik wanted to completely change in the blink of an eye, I knew he’d fill me in, or the others would.
We arrived at the Baranov mansion, and I wondered if Eva had eaten yet. “Can I get some breakfast first?”
He shook his head before getting out of the car. “No. Let’s talk with the Boss, then go from there.”
I grew more curious about what this “backup plan” was that Rurik mentioned in that short call.
When we entered, nothing seemed different. It was the same extravagant foyer as ever, clean, polished, and busy with Baranov men coming and going. But when we got to the study, where Oleg liked to speak with the men, I was confused.
“Eva?” I laughed. “Why do you have all the flower samples in here?”
She opened and closed her mouth, glancing at Lev.
He strode forward, talking to me, not Rurik. I noticed that all of them—the men at the top of the family and closest to Rurik—referred to me directly, unafraid to speak to me. The common guards and soldiers seemed to keep their distance, though, as though they understood I wasn’t to be bothered.
Which was ridiculous. I wasn’t anyone special or in command.
“Kelly, the cops won’t stop looking for you. They searched your apartment again.”
I frowned, not understanding why this had to matter. “They won’t have anything on me.” Deep down, though, the idea of any cop looking at me made me nervous.
“But as of right now, they can continue to stir doubt and make noise,” Oleg said, stepping forward and entering the conversation. “Don’t worry.”
“It’s crazy if you think I can’t.” I huffed a laugh, looking at all of them so serious. This was the last thing I ever wanted, to be in the crosshairs of drama and threats that didn’t personally matter to me.
“The cops can’t touch you,” Lev said.
“Of course, they can,” I protested.
“No member of law enforcement will get away with coming after a Baranov.” Oleg lifted his chin, looking like every bit of the boss that he was. “So we’re going to make you one.”
“Make me…” I narrowed my eyes.
“No.” Rurik scowled at him. “We’re not going to make you do anything. What he meant to say is we can make you one.”
“Make me a what?”
“A Baranov.” Rurik stared at me intensely. “Marry me. Become an official part of the Baranov legacy and be my wife.”
My jaw dropped.
He’d actually said those words.
He’d… proposed? Ordered me to marry him? Suggested it? I was so stunned I couldn’t wrap my head around what was going on. I saw how concerned they were about the cops’ interest in me, something that had to be Jerome’s doing, but to go this far?
Eva elbowed Rurik. “ Ask her. Ask her to marry you…” she said out the side of her mouth.
He cleared his throat. “Kelly, will you marry me?”
I blinked, snapping out of this reverie. “I, um, I heard you the first time.”
He was serious. He intended to marry me and keep me as his wife, not just protect me and sleep with me. And they were all in on it. The flowers made sense now. Eva must have heard about this plan and wanted to make it slightly sentimental.
But it wasn’t my dream. This wasn’t how I ever thought this could happen. Meeting Rurik, then having a chance to see him again, and later enjoying the bliss of starting a relationship with him—those were all steps that felt rushed yet magical.
But marrying him? Like this?
My heart broke at how he was only asking out of duty. His offer was something from a need to protect me, nothing more. Sure, he had to care about me to want to keep me safe, but this had to be the least romantic approach to marriage ever .
He watched me expectantly. All of them did. I was too timid to speak up and voice my critique that this wasn’t romantic, that it wasn’t a fantasy coming true.
I wanted Rurik to ask me to marry him because he loved me.
Tears stung in the back of my eyes at the bitter sadness that engulfed me. This should’ve been such a joyful moment. A proposal. An invitation to share my life with someone who would promise to be with me in the good times and bad. A partner. A lover. A soulmate.
I looked into his eyes and saw all the affection and genuine concern he always showed me, but still, I struggled to get past the heartache of his choosing me out of necessity, not love.
“Kel—”
“Yes.” I nodded at him, stunned that this was happening so quickly. That with one word, my life was changed. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Eva had to have noticed how shaky my voice was. She approached, frowning at me. “Kelly, this is?—”
Rurik pulled me aside before she could finish. “Are you sure?”
I sighed, nodding before anyone could think I wasn’t confident in my feelings for him. I did want him. I could see my future with him. And the more I tried to accept how this was happening, I told myself to get over the pettiness I was feeling to be upset about how we’d get married.
“Yes.”
“Then let’s get this done,” Oleg said, snapping his fingers.
“Uncle Oleg!” Eva scolded.
Lev wasn’t blind. He’d noticed the tension in the air. “Eva, time isn’t on our side. We can’t have a long engagement and plan a wedding like we can for you.”
Rurik shook his head. “But wouldn’t our being engaged be enough for now if she’s not ready?”
Oleg narrowed his eyes at me. “What’s there to be ready for? Married is married. I hate to sound cold, but the ceremony is just a production to party over.”
Lev put his hand on Rurik’s shoulder. “It’s rushed. I know you didn’t want this to happen like this, but all that matters is making sure the cops—and anyone else—can’t get to her, right?”
Rurik sighed, frowning at me. “Of course. Kelly, your safety is my number-one priority, but?—”
I nodded, forcing a quick smile. “Then we’ll take care of that right now.” Like Oleg had so bluntly said. It was time to get my proposal, engagement, and wedding done . As if it were just another task to cross off a to-do list.
Oleg gestured for us to step up to him. “Then if you’ll allow me the honors…” He held his hand out to another Baranov soldier who’d been standing in the back of the room. A pair of rings was placed in his hand, then a document.
“You…” I blinked. “You had a license filed?”
“Just in case,” Lev said. He shrugged, almost looking sheepish. “When we first realized you’d need protection…”
My jaw dropped again.
“Like I mentioned before,” Eva said. “We have connections at the court.”
Holy shit. They’d just made it happen? I opened and closed my mouth, feeling like I was still stuck between reality and a dream. This was surreal. Bizarre. And I just couldn’t keep up.
“Kelly Garnet, do you take Rurik Baranov to be your husband?” Oleg asked, holding up a ring for me to take.
I accepted it, mentally flailing at the speed with which this was happening. “I… you… are you even ordained?”
He nodded. “Do you take him for your husband?”
I was still holding Rurik’s hand, and as I tried to breathe through the panic that almost could’ve been excitement in other circumstances, I realized I didn’t have the urge to run. I didn’t have that instinct to fight this, either.
“Yes.” I furrowed my brow, sliding the ring onto his finger.
Before letting me move my hand away, he gripped my fingers and pulled me close for a kiss. “Kelly, I know this is happening quickly, but?—”
“But you want to marry me as a backup plan you all orchestrated behind my back?” I shot back.
“I wanted to marry you regardless of?—”
Oleg cut him off, plowing on. “Rurik Baranov, do you take Kelly Garnet to be your wife?”
Rurik snatched the ring with the sparkling diamonds from the Boss’s hand.
Rurik stared at me as he slipped the ring on my finger. Before I could even look at it for more than a moment, he tipped my chin up and kissed me hard.
Under the familiar heat of his mouth over mine, I closed my eyes and clung to the hope that this wouldn’t be a mistake.
Because underneath the unfamiliar thought that I wasn’t alone anymore, I tried to accept that we were now married.
Mr. and Mrs.
Just for the sake of keeping me alive.
Not for the sake of love.