Chapter 17 Sera #2
Liev covers my mouth, drowning my cries, as sensation washes over me again and again. I’m still shivering and shaking when his hands grip my hips, and he pulls me down roughly, his body bucking against me in frantic thrusts until he shudders and his powerful arms lock around my back.
I slump against him, shaking and breathless, panting into the side of his neck.
Holy Shit! I had an orgasm. With another person.
I’d forgotten how fucking amazing that felt.
His hand lifts to cup the back of my head, holding me close when I move to pull back. “Not yet.”
He’ll get no argument from me.
Resting my cheek against his shoulder, I lazily open my eyes. “What does this mean?” I ask, tracing a fingertip over the crown inked onto his neck.
He shivers at my touch. “My rank.”
“So… scary gangster royalty?”
His chest vibrates under me. “No, brat. It just means I’m high-ranking.”
“Should I curtsy?”
He pulls back then to look in my face with a bemused expression. “So, it just takes an orgasm to make you silly?”
“Pfft.” But I feel the blush rise on my cheeks.
A loud banging hits the adjoining door, and I scramble off his lap.
“Sorry,” I say when he grunts. “The door!”
“I locked it,” he says, standing.
My eyebrows shoot up.
“You thought I’d risk someone seeing you like that?” He walks toward me and bends to press a quick kiss to my lips before continuing on to the bathroom door. “I’m not sharing your sounds with anyone.”
Keke bangs again. “I thought you said the door would be unlocked?”
“I need to take a shower and change. Can you handle Her Highness?”
“Yeah.”
Wait. Did he?
“The answer to the question written all over your face is… for the first time since I was a teenager… yes.”
After figuring out what Keke’s problem is with her massage therapist and getting her settled with the food delivery she decided was more important than her sore muscles, I stare at Liev sitting on one of the beds, propped against the headboard, hair still damp from the shower.
He’s changed into black sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt, the fabric outlining every hard line of his torso.
“She plans on knocking herself out with a sleeping pill after dinner,” I tell him. “So, we’re clear unless something goes very wrong.”
“Good.” His gaze lifts to mine.
I clear my throat feeling suddenly awkward. “I think I’ll take a shower, too.”
“I’ll order dinner while you’re in there.”
I pick up the room service menu and flip it open, but the words blur together. My mind keeps circling the same questions I don’t know the answers to.
Does he expect more tonight? Do I? Am I ready for more? Was I okay because my clothes were still on?
“Stop overthinking, Seraphina.”
I glance up, scowling. “Why do you insist on calling me that?”
“Because it’s a beautiful name,” he says simply. “And it fits you.” His mouth quirks. “Did you know it means burning one?”
“That’s not what my mother said,” I scoff. “She said it meant angel.”
“It does,” he agrees. “I looked it up. Seraphim are angels of fire.”
He looked up the meaning of my name?
I fidget, suddenly unsure of how that makes me feel.
“Just get me the chicken sandwich,” I mutter, grabbing my pajamas and retreating to the bathroom.
My phone buzzes from where I’ve left it on charge, as I wait for the water to warm.
Hannah: Saw a pic of you from last night on one of the celeb sites. You looked hot in a bad ass kind of way.
My lips quirk.
Me: Thanks. Not sure how bad ass a blazer is though.
Hannah: You totally made it work lol
Hannah: There’s a good pic of that guy you’re with too. Pepper emoji. I am now even more in favor of operation drop the towel.
I chew my lip for a second. Liev did look hot in his suit. Swallowing my embarrassment, I type out,
Me: Which site was it on?
The dots appear like she’s typing but then disappear again.
The mirror is beginning to fog, so I climb in the shower not waiting for her reply.
Though I take longer than normal in the shower, it’s not long enough to explain the obvious mood shift when I step back into the hotel room.
Liev is standing near the bed, phone pressed to his ear, his body angled slightly away from me. Even from behind, I can see the tension in him, the rigid set of his shoulders, the way his jaw works as if he’s grinding his teeth.
“No,” he growls. “You don’t get to demand anything.”
There’s a pause. He listens, pivoting back toward me. I see his eyes narrow, and his free hand curling slowly into a fist at his side.
“I don’t give a fuck about that. If something is wrong, you need to tell me.”
An icy premonition washes over me.
His posture changes, the aggression draining out of him all at once, and I realize he sees me.
“She just walked in.” He catches my eye. “It’s Brady.”
He holds the phone out to me but doesn’t move away. Instead, he stays close, angled so I can see the tight line of his mouth, the crease between his brows.
Whatever Brady said, Liev isn’t happy about it.
Something’s happened.
“What’s going on?” My heart is in my throat when I take the phone.
“I’ve been calling you for thirty minutes,” Brady grouses. “You didn’t answer, so I had to call him.”
“I was in the shower. What’s the problem?” Because I can tell by his tone there is one.
Silence. Then a heavy sigh.
“Sera.” My stomach tightens. “Aaron’s family got a ruling on their petition to have him declared presumptively deceased.”
“What? I didn’t even know they were doing that. What about the emails? The postcards he sent them?”
Another pause. Longer this time. “The court doesn’t consider that proof of life.”
My grip tightens on the phone. I know what’s coming. Turning slightly, to give Liev my back, I wrap an arm around my middle as if it can protect me from the dread forming a pit in my stomach.
“I was served today. They’ve filed a wrongful death suit against you and me.”
For a few seconds, I can’t speak. It feels like the air has been sucked out of my lungs.
I’m never going to be able to move on.
“Okay,” I say finally, surprised by how even my voice sounds.
“Elizabeth thinks they’ll serve you once you’re back in town. There’s nothing really new in the paperwork. Just the allegations they’ve always made, except for one thing.”
“What?”
“They are demanding the return of any items Aaron left in your possession before the end of your relationship.”
My eyebrows pinch together. “I don’t have anything of his.”
“I know,” he acknowledges grimly. “I threw out everything that even looked remotely like it might be his when I emptied your condo. Elizabeth had a friend of hers look at the paperwork, and she says it’s unusual to have that clause included.
She thinks they’re looking for something specific, and that if you return it, they might be appeased. ”
“Why wouldn’t they just say that? If I have whatever it is they want, I’d give it to them.”
My throat tightens.
Something about this feels wrong. Very, very wrong.
“I know,” Brady says in my ear. “I don’t want you to worry too much about this. You didn’t do anything to him. They don’t have a case.”
I close my eyes briefly. “Right.”
As if that’s what matters. They’ll tie me up in court for years, and I’ll never be free.
“Anything else?”
Another long pause.
“How’s the assignment going?”
“It’s fine,” I say, swallowing. “But I should go. Dinner’s here.”
There is no way I’ll be able to eat now.
“Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Handing the phone back to Liev, I keep my expression deliberately composed. He takes it without comment, his eyes searching my face.
I hold his gaze and say nothing, knowing that if I speak, something important might slip out.
My childhood. My father. Aaron. Sergei.
My entire life has been about keeping secrets,
I can feel them piling up in my throat, waiting for the moment I finally break.