Chapter 39 – Luka
V ivian started shaking the moment the lights turned on, according to Laurel. I didn’t offer Ilya, our club manager, help cleaning up. He had the pakhan and the whole fucking bratva. There was one flickering soul in this entire place, and she needed me. I left them, keeping Vivian on my lap the entire drive home.
A kidnapping attempt. One of the fuckers was still alive enough to squeal. Someone had hired mercenaries to come after our women—just as I predicted.
The thought threatened to make me sick.
My foot was lead on the gas. The RPMs ran high as I kept the gears low. The engine died and the car jerked violently, because I didn’t bother putting it in neutral when I stopped. Clutching Vivian close, I raced into the house. She hadn’t looked at me, hadn’t spoken, the entire way home. Chiara’s questions peppered my back as I jogged up the stairs.
“Dimi can explain. Call him,” was all I said.
Once in our rooms, I went straight to the shower. Tightening my grip on Vivian, I turned the tap on as hot as it would go. The glass surrounding the single stall instantly began to fog. While the rest of this industrial building my parents turned into a home was receiving a makeover, it never crossed my mind to add a tub to my ensuite.
That would be rectified immediately.
“I’m sorry, baby,” I muttered into her hair, turning the nozzles so we wouldn’t burn our skin. “Do you want me to take you to Laurel’s soaker tub?”
Teeth clattering, Vivian shook her head. “I don’t like tubs.”
Oh, what do you know? “Okay, shower it is.”
Without bothering to remove any of our clothing, I sat down with her on my lap. I pulled her close, tucking her head under my chin. I didn’t know a single red-blooded male who enjoyed scalding water. But for her, I endured the suffocating precipitation. It was such a little price to pay after…after….
Fuck.
Today was going to screw with me.
I tasted fear.
I’d been so scared.
History nearly repeated itself.
“But it didn’t,” the sweet voice in the back of my mind murmured. “ She’s still here. She’s a fighter.”
“So were you,” I whispered.
Vivian stirred. “I’m feeling better.”
“Good,” I murmured. “Just stay here, baby. Hold onto me.”
“Okay, but really, I think I’m fine. We could have stayed and helped clean up.” Those last three words were accompanied by a full body shudder.
“Ilya is in charge of the clubs and will do damage control.” It would be good for the surly ass to have a problem to fixate on. “Besides, we have a clean team.”
“Oh, of course, you do.” Vivian hid her shiver by trying to pull away.
“Don’t,” I pleaded.
“I’m going to ruin my sneakers,” she protested.
“I need you,” I croaked, the words sticking in my throat. I cleared my voice. A hand scrubbed over my face, fingers reaching to tug at the back of my neck.
“What is it?” Vivian peered at me from under her thick, dark lashes.
“Just tell her, Cool Hand.” Memory mixed with present.
There’d been so much blood.
I closed my eyes.
Was the voice in my head right? Should I bring down this final wall and open up to my wife? She would see me as weak, though. What kind of man quaked as he drove to a fight?
“Just tell her!”
That voice was always right before it became a memory that I talked to when I was lonely. Pulling a gulp of air deep into my lungs, I pushed the words out.
“I need you to hold onto me,” I confessed. “Because I’m not okay.”
A shiver ripped down my body, making my limbs vibrate violently.
“Luka?” Vivian reached out and trailed her fingers over my cheek.
I hugged her tightly to me, keeping our faces out of the spray. “My late wife was gunned down.” The words came out in the barest of whispers. “Today…brought it all back.”
“Oh, I see.” Vivian watched me for a second. Her touch lowered to drag across my chest. Back and forth, back and forth. “I’m not okay, either. I guess that makes two of us.”
“I guess it does.” With those words, an ounce of self-loathing vanished. Vivian didn’t react as though I was weak. She didn’t see my fear as a defect.
As the shower splattered down on us, I relaxed my death grip on her. She hadn’t left me. Even if she decided she was done with this marriage someday, I would haunt her from a distance. Vivian was it for me.
I would spend every damn minute making sure she knew that.
Her head tipped to the side, and she studied me with an unwavering gaze. I expected her to ask about Sasha. Not sure I was ready for that conversation, I braced myself for the inevitable.
What Vivian said instead made me blink in astonishment. “You kill so easily, Luka.”
A muscle in my jaw flexed. “I do.”
“How?” The word caught in the back of her throat. Vivian cleared it.
I shrugged. “I’ve been killing since I was a teen.” The confession made the beautiful woman on my lap shudder. “I’m not proud of it, but it’s the way things are.”
“I’ve never been scared of you, you know,” she whispered. “Maybe in the swamp, right after I woke up from the drugs, but by the time we got fast food, I was more pissed than scared.”
A rough laugh rumbled up my throat. The vibration scratching the interior. “I remember. And I thought to myself there wasn’t a more beautiful sight.”
“Than my swamp ass?” she scoffed.
“Than my pissed off hellcat.”
Vivian turned, not pulling away but adjusting herself across my lap. She pulled off her shirt, and then her lips covered mine.
The kiss was hungry and hard. There was no holding back. I met her fire, letting it thaw the ice that knowing she was in danger formed around my heart.
“I’m going to lock you away in this fortress,” I growled.
“The hell you are.” Her teeth nipped at my lip.
I pulled her up, tearing at her clothes. Not bothering to turn off the water or grab towels, we exited the shower. I lifted her into my arms. Those toned legs wrapped around my waist. Carrying her to the bed, I laid her down. Vivian tugged at me, but I leaned down to kiss a path across her silky skin. Her whimper of protest sent a white-hot bolt of lust to my dick.
After the nightmare of today, I wouldn’t be rushed.
My tongue slid against her pussy, pausing only to flick at her clit. Her fingers dug into my hair.
“Luka!” she protested. “I need you .”
I smiled against her entrance. I needed that too. But I couldn’t resist teasing. “I’m here, baby.”
“No,” she growled, sounding every bit the feral beast I met in the heat of the South. “I want your mouth. On. Mine.”
Who was I to deny my wife’s request?
Pushing to my feet, I climbed over her. Looking up at me was the most beautiful woman imaginable. The past stayed quiet and allowed the present to fill the space between us.
“You’re mine.” I gripped her chin hard. “You know that, right? There’s no escaping me.” Even in death. If you go, I follow .
This time, I would keep that promise. Nothing, not my brother’s pleas or the duty to my family, could hold me to this earth. Not if Vivian left.
“Right back at you, mister.” Fire blazed in her eyes.
I drug my touch down her throat. My dick was so hard for her, it was painful. “This hand looks so good stretched around your neck. Maybe I should buy you a collar, so you remember I’m waiting to touch you again.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Try and see if it stays on.”
“A challenge?” I rubbed my thumb over her pulse. “I love a good challenge.”
With that, I nudged against her entrance and sank into her in one thrust. Our groans of pleasure filled the room. Slipping my hand around to cradle the back of her skull, my lips found hers. I didn’t break the kiss as I rocked into her, giving her every inch of me.
This wasn’t a brutal claiming or a hard fucking. Pulling back and sliding forward, I made love to my wife. The one who my soul recognized as its other part. Not a half, but a whole.
Vivian arched back, opening and giving herself to me.
Bending down, I slipped her nipple into my mouth. The hard sucking unleashed a series of whimpering. It made me ravenous. But I wasn’t going to stop the agonizingly slow pace. We needed to enjoy every second of this.
“Give me your mouth,” she demanded, tugging at the back of my head.
Chuckling, I obliged. Her mouth crushed against mine. The deep kiss sent a rush of heat to my groin. I couldn’t hold back. From the press of her fingers on my lower back, she didn’t want me to. I reached between us, pinched her breast, and was instantly rewarded by a series of convulsions. The spasms pulled the release straight from my balls. Hot ropes of liquid shot deep into her, and for a second, I imagined what would happen if I hadn’t been snipped.
The visual accompanying that idea was too much, and I knew I was going to do something about it one of these days. Just as soon as my ring was wrapped around Vivian’s finger, and the promise on her lips that she would never take it off sealed our fate.