Chapter Seven
Jarek
T he master bedroom at the penthouse...
Jarek’s room was a sanctuary of elegance and intimacy, a perfect backdrop for the passionate dance he intended. It was bathed in the soft, silvery glow of the moonlight streaming through the windows. The walls were a soothing shade of dove gray, punctuated by tasteful artwork that depicted abstract landscapes in muted tones, adding a sense of tranquility to the atmosphere.
The centerpiece of the room was a massive king-sized bed, creating a nest of comfort and allure. The bed was piled high with plush pillows and a soft, inviting duvet that promised a night of indulgent rest—or passionate abandon. The headboard was intricately carved from dark, rich mahogany, echoing the classic elegance of the room.
The moment they entered his bedroom, Tatiana wrenched her hand free and backed away, putting the massive bed between them. Her eyes blazed with fury and something else—fear, perhaps, not of him but of her own response to him.
“Whatever game you’re playing, Jarek, I’m not interested.” Her voice carried a sharp edge, but he caught the slight tremor beneath.
He studied her for a moment, noting how the moonlight streaming through the windows cast shadows across her face. She looked dangerous and vulnerable all at once, like a wounded tigress backed into a corner.
“No games.” He reached into his pocket, withdrawing a small velvet box. “Just a gift.”
“I told you, I can’t be bought.” But her eyes fixed on the box, a flicker of curiosity betraying her.
“Then consider it a peace offering.” He placed it on the bed between them. “Open it.”
Her hesitation was palpable. Finally, with visible reluctance, she reached for the box. The moment she saw the sapphire pendant, her carefully constructed mask cracked. Her fingers trembled as she lifted them.
“This... this looks exactly like...” She couldn’t finish the sentence.
“The one your mother gave you at birth. The one that disappeared when you were ten years old.” He moved around the bed slowly, like approaching a skittish animal. “You described it once, before all this. I had it recreated.”
“Why?” Her voice was barely a whisper. “Why would you do this?”
Instead of answering, he took the necklace from her trembling hands. She flinched when he stepped behind her but didn’t move away. As he brushed her hair aside, his fingers grazed her neck, feeling her pulse jump beneath her skin.
“You don’t get to do this,” she said, but the usual venom was missing from her voice. “You don’t get to act like you care after everything...”
His lips found the sensitive spot behind her ear. “I never said I didn’t care.”
“Stop it!” She spun to face him. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears and anger. “Stop trying to confuse me. This doesn’t change anything.”
But when he cupped her face, she didn’t pull away. His thumb traced her lower lip, feeling her quick, shallow breaths.
“Nothing has to change,” he murmured. “Just let me show you...”
Her resistance became a challenge. Knowing she expected a forceful attack, he kissed her—gentle at first, a mere brush of lips that made her gasp. She stiffened but didn’t push him away, so he deepened the kiss, tasting her uncertainty, her reluctance, and underneath it all, her growing hunger.
Her lips remained stiff against his for several heartbeats before she surrendered with a soft, intoxicating moan. Her fingers curled into his shirt as she seemed to waver between resistance and desire. He took advantage of her indecision, threading his fingers through her hair to angle her head, deepening the kiss.
The first touch of his tongue against hers sparked a fire that threatened to consume them both. She surprised him by kissing him back with a hunger that matched his own. Her response held a primal intensity, as if her body remembered what her mind fought to forget. Her breath hitched as he explored her mouth with a slow, deliberate rhythm designed to ignite her senses. Her resistance crumbled as she unconsciously pressed her body closer to his.
With a carnal growl, he deepened the kiss as the heat between them grew with each passionate stroke of his tongue. Every fiber of his being was alive with desire, urging him to take more, to lose himself in the intoxicating taste and feel of her. His careful control began to slip.
“I hate you,” she gasped against his mouth. “I hate what you’ve done to me.”
“Hate me tomorrow,” he growled, trailing kisses down her throat. “Tonight, just feel.”
His hands slid beneath the bulky sweatshirt, finding the silky-soft skin he remembered. She arched into his touch despite herself. The betrayal drew a frustrated sound from her throat. Every caress was a battle as her body responded while her mind rebelled.
He took his time, rediscovering each sensitive spot that made her squirm and catching her breath. Her skin felt like heated silk beneath his palms, responsive to his lightest touch.
Inside, darkness clawed at him. The urge to possess, to mark her as his, to prove his dominance rose like a tide, but something stronger held it at bay. The way she trembled beneath his hands wasn’t from fear but from fighting her own desire. Her vulnerability awakened an unfamiliar protective instinct.
“Let go,” he whispered against her skin. “Just for tonight, let go of the anger.”
“I can’t,” she breathed, even as her fingers tangled in his hair. “If I let go, you’ll destroy me.”
The raw honesty in her voice struck a chord deep within him. He raised his head to look at her, really look at her. Moonlight painted her skin silver, and her eyes were dark pools of desire and despair. Something shifted in his chest, an ache he couldn’t name.
With his eyes burning in the dimness of the room, he cupped her cheek and gently traced her lower lip.
“Jarek... I don’t want...” She shivered at his touch as her breath hitched slightly.
“We are only human, Tatiana. No matter how much we try to deny it... we all want something. For tonight, let’s aim for desiring the same thing.”
“We’re too far beyond ever wanting the same thing,” she whispered as he brushed his lips against hers in a soft, exploratory kiss.
“You’re a highly resourceful woman, my dear wife... just try. That’s all I ask.”
“I’m not—”
“Enough,” he cut her short. His voice darkened to his Dom tone. If she refused to respond by herself, he had no compulsion reaching out to the submissive inside her. It worked, like he knew it would as she responded tentatively at first, then with a growing hunger. Deepening the kiss, his tongue teased her lips apart to explore her mouth with a slow, sensuous rhythm.
“Hmm,” she moaned softly as her body pressed against his, and she tangled her hands in his long hair.
His hands slid down her body, tracing the curve of her waist and the flare of her hips, hidden beneath the bulkiness of her clothes. His fingers made their way under the band of her sweats. Ignoring her protest, he traced the gentle curve of her stomach while trailing his mouth down her neck, ending in a gentle nip at the vein rapidly pulsing there.
“Jarek, this is not—”
“I don’t want to hear another not, no, or don’t, Tatiana. For tonight, at this moment, just allow yourself to feel.” Following the inviting heat, his breath caught as he found her naked mons. “Ah, my wife likes to go commando, I see.”
“Believe me, it wasn’t for your benefit.” He had a suspicion that she intended the response to be more heated.
“Even so, I definitely approve.” Turning her around, he slowly pulled up the bulky sweatshirt while he traced the path of bared skin until he pulled it off over her head, his lips slowly tracing her collarbone. A shiver shook her body as he kissed every inch of her exposed skin.
“I... this is...” Her breaths came in quick gasps as he stepped back and took in every detail of her body.
“You truly are an exquisitely beautiful woman, love,” he murmured as he feathered his palm over her skin, now flushed with desire. Her eyes shone bright with need. With gentleness, he cupped her breasts. “Hmm, so deliciously responsive,” he murmured, pleased to notice her nipples turning hard as she eagerly pressed them against him.
“Ohh.” A soft moan drifted from her lips as she arched into his touch.
He continued to tease and pinch her nipples until she panted and her body writhed against his.
“I’ve been dreaming of doing this again,” he admitted as he knelt before her, sliding his hands over her thighs as he looked up at her, holding her gaze as he leaned in to flick his tongue against her clit.
“God,” she groaned as his lips curled around the delicate nub before he started licking and sucking the morsel into his mouth. “That feels so good,” she cried out as her hands gripped his shoulders for support.
He explored her with his tongue and his fingers, remembering her secrets, her desires. He felt her tension building as her body quivered on the edge of release. He spread her labia and gently teased her, waiting and smiling when she moaned again, pushing her hips forward in a silent demand as she indulged in the pleasure of his tactile caress.
“Don’t come, love. It’s way too soon,” he ordered as he thrust two fingers deep inside her pussy, growling as he found her hot and wet. He deliberately kept his strokes light to awaken her ardor. Satisfaction surged through him as she arched, and her body shuddered in response to the ecstasy that threatened to overwhelm her. “Yes, little dove... just feel,” he purred.
“I can’t begin to tell you how much I hate how you make me feel and want this right at this moment,” she rasped in a husky voice.
“If this is your response to hate, I’m a very humble recipient.” Jarek’s desire spiked as she released a low, carnal growl. With deliberate intent, he flicked his stiff tongue over her taut clitoris, then thrust it deep inside her hot pussy.
“Oh my God,” Tatiana cried but was helpless against the onslaught. “What are you doing!?”
“Making the best of the moment, love,” he murmured as he pressed his face against her and indulged in smearing his face with her sticky essence as his sexual hunger drove him to become a wild beast. He was sexually starved. He hadn’t lied. She was the only woman he had sex with since the day they got engaged. The weeks of celibacy had been trying on his sexual demands. He stroked her swollen folds, lapping and sucking until she writhed in desperation.
Straightening, Tatiana stepped back. “You’re overdressed, husband,” she said as she unbuttoned and removed his shirt with trembling hands. Jarek kicked off his pants and jockeys as she urgently explored his chest. Scooping her up, he carried her to bed and immediately buried his face between her legs to continue feasting on her spicy essence.
“Easy, love.” He gentled her undulating body with a firm hand on her stomach. “We’re not chasing a rabbit.”
“Maybe you’re not,” she said in a snippy voice that invited a deep chuckle to crawl from his chest. “No more foreplay, Jarek. I’ve had enough of your Valentine’s courtship. Fuck me, now.”
“Hm, such eloquence,” he chuckled as he reluctantly pulled his face away and crawled up her body. “Is this what you want, little dove?” he purred as he obliged her request with a gentle nudge as he leaned forward to enter her eager body with his swollen knob. Tatiana moaned and arched eagerly back against him.
“Yes. Deeper!” she cried as she undulated against him.
“Not so fast, dear wife.” Jared flexed his hardness just inside her slit. “Nothing in life comes for free... so, if you want my cock deeper, beg me for it,” he growled in a dark voice as he pushed in another inch before twitching his shaft again. “Hmm, seems I was mistaken. Shall I pull out and leave you dry?”
“You are such a fucking bastard.”
“That I am,” he readily agreed. “Still not hearing you beg, though.”
“Fuck me, Jared. Please, I’m begging you.”
“That’s more like it... just like a dutiful wife should.” With wild abandonment, he fisted his hand in her hair, yanked her head back, and quickly checked himself to first enter her slowly. His gaze locked with hers as the intimacy of the moment threatened to steal his breath. He began to move, their bodies finding a rhythm that was theirs alone. Each thrust, each retreat, was a dance of give and take, a conversation of bodies that went beyond words.
“More. I need more,” Tatiana hissed as she sucked in jagged gasps of air.
Jarek didn’t need a second invitation and powered into her. The master bedroom resonated with the sound of slapping flesh as Jarek roughly pillaged her, slowly forcing her closer to the edge.
“You feel so fucking good, wife.” With a groan, he pressed his face into the nape of her neck. Grinding his hips against her, he pumped in and out with long strokes. “I’ll never get tired of this feeling,” he moaned as he felt his steely length slide against her silky walls. Tatiana pushed back, submerged in waves of euphoria that rocked her into surrender.
Tatiana clung to him. He winced as her nails scored his back while she wrapped her legs around his waist, forcing him deeper. He built the rhythm slowly in a dance of give and take. Each time she arched beneath him, each whimper and sigh stripped away another layer of his defenses. The darkness inside him transformed into a desperate need not just to possess her body but to claim something deeper.
Holding on to his control, he kept her dangling on the edge until he felt the silky walls tightening around him. Reaching between them, his fingers curled around her clit, toggling the swollen nub ruthlessly until she cried out.
“Come! I’m coming!”
“Then come for me, little dove,” he purred in her ear as he pounded her mercilessly while pinching her clit, pushing her over the edge.
“Jarek!” she cried his name softly, almost reverently.
For the first time in twenty years, a woman’s response threatened to undo him completely. The moonlight caught tears on her lashes, and he kissed them away, tasting their salt. Whether they were tears of pleasure or something deeper, he didn’t know. He didn’t want to know. This vulnerability between them was dangerous enough.
“Oh, sweet fuck,” she wailed as her body convulsed around him, spasming so hard that she dragged him along, and his own release crashed over him like a tidal wave. For a moment, the world condensed to just this—her body trembling against his with her breath hot against his neck and their hearts thundering in sync.
Afterward, she curled into his side with her usual sharp edges softened by satisfaction. Tracing lazy patterns on her back, he felt the slight tremors that still ran through her body. The silence between them felt different. It was charged with unspoken truths neither was ready to face.
“This changes nothing,” she murmured, but the words lacked conviction.
He tightened his arms around her. “Of course not.”
But as her breathing evened out in sleep, Jarek confronted an uncomfortable reality. Something had changed—not in their circumstances but in him. The woman in his arms was supposed to be a means to an end, a calculated move in a larger game. Instead, she was becoming... essential.
Watching her sleep, Jarek memorized the peaceful expression that replaced her usual guarded look. The sapphire pendant still gleamed at her throat as a reminder of the moment her walls had first cracked. His fingers ghosted over it. He froze as she shifted slightly.
An unfamiliar darkness stirred inside him. The urge to control, to dominate, and to never let her go. But entangled with it was a foreign and frightening realization—of a man with the desire to protect and to cherish. More than that, to be deserving of the trust she had shown him tonight.
He wasn’t fooled. Dawn would bring back her anger, her resistance, and definitely hatred. She would rebuild her walls, perhaps higher than before. But for now, he allowed himself this moment of peace, this dangerous softening of his own carefully constructed barriers.
He pressed a kiss to her temple, breathing in her scent. Five years suddenly seemed both too long and not long enough. Too long to maintain the distance he needed, not long enough to unravel the complex woman in his arms.
As sleep finally claimed him, one thought lingered. In trying to trap her, he might have ensnared himself instead.