Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Dmitri
The apartment building looms ahead, its lights glowing softly against the dark sky.
It’s been three weeks since I got this apartment for us. When Mackenzie and I are here, it’s like we’re living in our own alternate universe where no one exists but us.
I speed up on my motorcycle thinking only of her and getting to her as quickly as I can.
She’s inside waiting for me. Waiting to start our weekend together.
It’s been days since I last saw her—days that felt like years. Days that had me wondering how I could have lived my life without her.
I had Knights business that took me on a mission to South America with the guys for a few days. Jesus, I missed her so damn much.
The guys rely on Alek and me to make sure they have all the intel they need to stay alive, so whenever I’m on a mission, I try to be a hundred percent focused. Slipping up could be the difference between life or death. But I couldn’t stop thinking about her.
I’m back now, and this place feels like our home.
I park up five minutes later and take the elevator to our floor. It’s late, so the place has that quietness I like. It makes me feel less conflicted.
I’m always eager to get here, but I know I take a risk each time I see Mackenzie.
My father seems to be appeased for the moment. I dealt my cards and positioned myself in a way that threw him off my plans.
At least that’s what it seems like. Mackenzie and I have been seeing each other for almost six weeks. I feel like I’ve managed to pull this off. Although I know there will come a time when I have to face the consequences.
Especially because I know I want to be with her. I know I don’t want to be with anyone else. And just like I thought, I was never going to get enough of her. We have four and a half months left on that contract, but this stopped being about the contract eons ago.
I want her to be mine forever.
I don’t know how that will work.
We haven’t even spoken about the past. Not once—well, maybe except for when I maneuvered my way into finding out who took her virginity.
She knew it was a clever ruse to find out if it was Tommy.
I felt like a bastard for being relieved that it wasn’t him, that he didn’t have her first.
Then there’s the matter of her father, whom we haven’t spoken about at all.
These are things we need to talk about.
Finally, I reach the apartment. I go inside and find her out on the terrace bathed in the soft glow of the moonlight.
She’s got her hair up in a ponytail and is wearing a pair of shorts and a little camisole top. I can tell she doesn’t have a bra on underneath. Her breasts are puckered and hard beneath the fabric from the cool night air.
The sight of her steals my breath away, clearing my mind of my worries.
Staring at her lulls me back into the alternate universe where I’m allowed to be with her whenever I want.
Regardless of that, the thought strikes me with undeniable clarity that this could be my life.
Coming home to her, sharing these simple, profound moments, would make my existence complete. My cold, black heart wouldn’t feel so fucking tormented and dead.
With her, I’m home.
Mackenzie turns at the sound of my approach, her eyes lighting up with a warmth that melts the cold edges of my soul.
Before she can say anything, I scoop her into my arms, lifting her off the ground and spinning her lithe, little body around.
“You’re back.” Her sweet laughter sinks into me, making me want to devour her.
“Missed me?”
“You know I did.” She caresses my face with long elegant fingers.
“Show me how much.”
She kisses me. It’s a fervent kiss that feels like her. It’s filled with beauty and hope. All the things I’m not. So, when I kiss her back, I taint the kiss with my darkness.
She responds with equal passion, her fingers tangling in my hair, pulling me closer as if afraid I might slip away.
I feel like that, too. Every fucking day, I wonder if it will be my last with her.
I break the kiss and rest my forehead against hers as I gaze into her eyes. “My body missed yours, Spider. I need to fuck you right now.”
“Then what’s stopping you, Scorpion?” Her smile is sexy-siren seductive. I like it.
“Not a goddamn thing.” I smile back, flicking the strap of her top down her shoulder.
It exposes her breast, so I lower mu mouth to suck on it.
The best thing about this place is we’re at the back of the complex with the river beneath us. No one can see us when I fuck her out here.
She allows me to take off her clothes and feast on her pussy while she leans against the rails looking like a goddess in the moonlight.
When her delicious nectar flows into my mouth, I shrug out of my clothes, unleashing my aching cock.
Seconds later, I’m buried deep, deep inside her. My chest pounds with hot blood as I fuck her tight pussy recklessly and raw. I slam into her like I want to brand her from the inside out, and even when I’m as dep as I can be, I still want more.
Our moans and groans fill the air, sounding like we’re on the set of a porn.
And this is just the beginning.
I take her all night, and we stay in bed all of Saturday making up for the time we spent apart.
When Sunday arrives, I decide to make us breakfast, but as we eat in the kitchen, I set her on the breakfast table and cover her in fruit so I can eat it off her. Then I’m inside her again.
She tries to get her clothes back on once we’re done, but I stop her wanting, to look at her naked body a little longer.
“Dmitri, I need to put my clothes on.” She chuckles, kissing me on my nose.
“Not yet.” I tuck my cock back into my shorts and pull her to sit in my lap.
She runs her hands over my bare chest while I tweak her nipples.
“My parents are in town this week,” she says carefully.
“I know. I want you to see them.”
“I just have another fundraiser they want me to go to, then I’ll come back here as soon as I’m done.”
I stroke the side of her face. “I’ll be here whenever you want me to be.”
The sound of the front door opening has me whipping my head around. The only people who are supposed to have keys to this place are us. So, who the fuck could that be?
I get my answer the moment heavy boots sound on the floor, then my father appears at the kitchen door with the building’s super standing behind him.
My stomach drops at the sight of him, and the icy grip of dread coils around my insides as my brain processes that he’s really here.
Mackenzie scrambles off my lap, grabbing the old football jersey I was wearing to cover herself. I just about manage to snap my mind back into focus and get up to shield her before my father walks right in.
The super leaves, and I stare wide eyed at my father, wondering how the fuck he knew where to find us. Neither Kade nor Isabelle would have told him. And why now?
Why today?
Something else happened.
“I knew it.” His voice is low and cutting. Then he glares at Mackenzie as if she’s filth as she pulls on my jersey and her shorts.
“Father—”
A fist slams into my face. Mackenzie screams and grabs my arm.
Father gets ready to punch me again, but I block him, catching his fist.
I think I have the upper hand until he pulls his gun on me and holds it to my head with an evil smile dancing on his lips.
“Not this time, boy.” His eyes flicks between Mackenzie and me, narrowing like a predator locking onto its prey.
Mackenzie is pressed against the wall, shocked and terrified. She doesn’t know this side of my father. I’m not even sure I do.
I’ve been trained for this sort of situation so I could get out of it, but one of two things I don’t want could happen if I get it wrong.
She could get hurt. Or I could kill him.
This is a situation in which you kill the man who’s threatening you. Because the only reason he’s holding a gun to your head is because he wants you dead.
Father pulls a sheet of paper from his pocket and holds it up in my face. It’s a copy of the fucking Valkyrie contract.
“Where did you get that?” I spit, wondering if Kyle sold us out. People like him do shit like that. After all, I got him to hand over the contract the same way when I found out he was stealing money from his internship program and using it to gamble with people he shouldn’t even know.
“Consider this fucking shit terminated under the orders of Aleksander Ivanov.”
Fuck. Someone got the blood oath dissolved.
Father looks at Mackenzie and holds the contract up to her, too. “Shit like this doesn’t surprise me about you.”
“Don’t fucking talk to her like that,” I hiss at him. “This is on me.”
Father looks back at me with a scathing sneer. “Oh, I know that, but she entered an auction , selling her body like the little slut she is.”
That does it. I growl and step forward, my body taut with fury, and throw a fist smack in the center of his face. He staggers backward but doesn’t lose his footing, nor his hold on the gun.
Instead of simply aiming it, he cocks the hammer.
“Get out of here,” he barks at Mackenzie, shifting his callous gaze to her. “Get the fuck out of here, or I’ll make you and our family pay.”
Tears steam down Mackenzie’s cheeks, and I want to unleash the beast inside me to rip him apart. But not while he has a gun. The bastard would probably shoot her to teach me a lesson.
He steps forward, getting closer to her, too close. “Go to your parents’ cottage. They will talk to you about this .” He shoves the contract in her hands and backs away. “Your father had it dissolved.”
The moment he says that, I realize how he found out about it. Aleksander would have told him. Had I been anyone else, he may not have said anything, but he knows our families are at war.
Knowing my father, he probably tracked me down after that with his above-board military surveillance.
Damn it. This is a fucking mess I never saw coming.
Trembling, Mackenzie risks a glance at me, then she walks away.
I want to stop her. I want to tell her that I’m not giving up on us and that I’ll deal with my father, but getting her out of here safely is the most important thing right now.
I don’t trust my father not to use that gun.
Mackenzie leaves, taking my soul with her.
Father lowers the gun and faces me. “You. You’ve defied me before. But this…?” His gaze rakes over the apartment, disgust twisting his features. “How could you? After what her father did to Tommy?”
“It had nothing to do with her!” I shout the words I’ve wanted to say all these years. “You fucking act like she killed him.”
“Fuck you. You’re a fucking disgrace to me,” he snarls. “It doesn’t matter what she did. Her fucking father killed my son. Your brother.”
I want to say that we don’t know that, but that would sound like I’m pussywhipped or like I’ve lost my fucking mind.
The truth is, we don’t know anything one way or the other. Only what we saw that day—Adrian Domachenkov standing over Tommy’s body.
If I say anything that sounds like I was supporting Adrian, my father would shoot me dead right here.
“Does that fucking matter to you?” He gets up in my face.
“Of course, it does. But you’re blaming her, and I don’t fucking know why.”
“That girl is the cause of all this shit. Mark my word, I’ll make sure you never see her again.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means whatever it needs to mean.”
“If you hurt her, so help me God…”
“I’m still holding the gun, Dmitri.”
I give him a wild smirk. “You’re holding that gun because I’m letting you. You and I both know I could take it from you before you got the chance to aim it at me again.”
“You bastard.” The words hit harder than I expect, but I don’t let it show.
“Yeah. I’m a bastard. I’m also part of the elite. Fight me, and you’ll see what I’m made off.”
He shakes his head at me, his face hardening, his jaw tightening. “I don’t know you anymore. Maybe I never did.”
“Maybe so.”
“You are not to see that girl again. Defy me, and you’ll see what I’m made of.” He puts his gun away and walks out, leaving me with the echo of his threat.
The difference between mine and his is that I have brute strength while he has active power that can destroy people. He’s the Lord Chancellor at Raventhorn and one of the judges on the council.
Meaning he can fuck me over with the same stinging blow as the leader of the Knights.
Fuck.
I slam a fist into the wall. Everything’s gone to hell.
Everything. And I don’t know how to fix it.
Or even if I can.
Fuck . I can’t lose Mackenzie again. I can’t.