Chapter 24 Ivy
IVY
“Let her go!” Moira has absolutely no effect on Ruslan’s grip on my arm as he hauls me away from the table, but the moment I dig my heels in, he pauses.
“You’re hurting me, Ruslan! What the hell?”
“What the hell?” His head whips around and furious, dark eyes lock onto mine.
“Are you insane? Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in?
I told you to stay and you didn’t listen!
Do you think you stand a chance without me, huh?
Are you so stupid that you’re just throwing yourself into the arms of people who want to kill you?
I’m not protecting you for my sake, remember.
Everything I’m doing is for you, and you’re throwing it all back in my face! ”
I want to argue back. It rises like vomit in my chest but as he yells at me, something in my mind clicks.
I’d stumbled out of that tailor shop in a daze, unable to breathe and unable to think.
Running into Moira ended with her begging for five minutes to truly explain herself, and I agreed because I miss my best friend.
I miss an anchor to my old life, and I was hoping there would be something she could tell me, something she could say that would bring that all back for me.
She had nothing new to tell me, but listening to her did calm me down, and Ruslan is right. I didn’t think.
“Let her go! You don’t get to come in here and drag her out like she’s a piece of meat!” Moira yells, surging past me and colliding with Ruslan. “Let her go!”
“Hey!” A man rises up from a neighboring table and the situation very quickly spirals out of control. “You wanna unhand the lady?”
“Yeah, let her go! She clearly doesn’t want to go with you,” calls another voice from deeper inside the cafe.
“I’m calling the cops!” yells one of the staff from behind the counter.
None of this fazes Ruslan. Why would it? He’s got more power and protection than anyone else in here. His grip becomes like iron and on the next jerk of his hand, I don’t fight it.
He’s angry. Furious. But he’s worried. I can see it, and it becomes clearer when we stumble outside and he shoves me toward the waiting car.
“Do you even think these things through, Ivy? Do you even understand what could happen to you without me by your side? You’re like a baby deer wandering right into the path of a fucking hunter.
All it takes is a second, do you hear me?
One second without me and you’re dead in the gutter, is that what you want? ”
“No!” I yell back, rubbing where my arm throbs from his grip.
“Don’t talk to her like that!” Moira yells, rushing out of the café, but she doesn’t make it past Ruslan because he turns, hooks his arm around her waist when she tries to pass, and shoves her back toward the cafe.
“This has nothing to do with you!”
“This has everything to do with me. She’s my best friend, and I’m not going to let some asshole drag her somewhere she doesn’t want to be!”
“Moira, it’s fine,” I call, stumbling back up from the car. “Ruslan, please, I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” He whirls to face me and points angrily. “Get in the car, Ivy.”
“Ruslan—”
“Get in the damn car!” He yells so loud that several people on the street jump and gasp. The car door is opened by one of the security team, and I try to catch Moira’s eye. She’s too busy trying to shove Ruslan.
“You’re fucking crazy,” Ruslan snaps, ducking one of her slaps and quickly switching himself out for one of the security team.
The last I see of Moira is her attacking one of the guards with her handbag as Ruslan slides into the car next to me and we race away with a squeal of tires.
My heart beats furiously but warmth coils deep in my gut.
The way Ruslan hauled me out of that chair was rather sexy, despite his anger.
I try to squash that feeling as Ruslan glares at me.
“Have you seriously learned nothing? Not from the kidnapping, not from what happened at your house?”
“It’s not… It’s not like that,” I say as anger warms in my stomach.
“I wasn’t thinking clearly, okay? Everything that woman said was…
I couldn’t breathe. I was too hot. I had to get away, and then I just happened to bump into Moira.
She wanted to talk and I just needed to get away so I said yes, and that man came with me! ”
“Tony,” Ruslan grunts out.
“Yes, so what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that I told you not to leave. I told you that I had to stay by your side, do you understand? Me. Not Tony. Not Moira. Me. I’m the one who’s responsible for you.”
“And yet it’s clearly such a hassle,” I snap.
“Of course it’s a hassle because apparently, you can’t listen to a simple instruction!
Anything could have happened to you, Ivy, and then I would be looking for your body.
Did that not cross your mind at all? I came outside and you were gone and—” Something catches in Ruslan’s throat and he cuts himself off suddenly, running one hand back and forth on his thigh.
The pained expression on his face, as brief as it appears, hits me like a slap in the face.
He was worried. Not might lose his job worried. Honest to God worried about me.
Me.
“I’m okay,” I say after taking a deep, calming breath. “I’m okay.”
“This time,” he snaps. “You can’t take risks like that, do you understand? It’s not worth it. You have no idea how quickly someone can kill you if they get the chance.”
“I do. I do understand. I just…” My chest tightens like something’s wrapping around my heart and my voice quavers.
“I feel like I’m falling apart. Learning all this stuff about my father is destroying everything I thought I knew about him.
I just… seeing Moira was like this sudden chance that I could reclaim something.
Yeah, she lied to me and I’m pissed, but she’s all I have.
All my friends from the plane died, my mom’s in a coma, my dad is dead.
I saw my best friend and I just…” My hands tremble, so I clutch them together in my lap.
“You’re right. I wasn’t thinking clearly. ”
Ruslan sighs suddenly, a deep sound like he’s been holding his breath ever since I left the tailor shop. “I want to keep you alive, Ivy. But you have to work with me.”
“Careful.” I snort. “You might make me think you care.”
Anger bleeds out of eyes within a couple of blinks. “Of course I care.”
I roll my eyes and glance out the window. “Sure.”
“Ivy… you think I don’t care?”
“Why would you? You have your work, right? The only reason I’m alive is because of your super-secret group’s efforts to keep everything peaceful. I’m the key to some disaster between two families and that’s it.”
I don’t dare look at him. I don’t want to see the truth on his face.
And part of me doesn’t want to look in case I see what I want to see on his face, a glimmer that he likes me for more than a quick fuck. If I saw that, I’d have no idea what to do with it, just like I don’t know what to do with the excitement that patters in my heart each time I’m close to him.
Valentina told me to be careful because he’s dangerous. Sex is sex and he’s made that clear. There’s nothing to suggest there are feelings involved, but he speaks like he was genuinely worried about me, and I can’t hear that.
It’ll make me think I have a chance.
“Ivy.” Ruslan’s voice is level now, back to the deep, almost calm timbre from before. “Of course I care. Do you think I’d tear down city blocks looking for anyone? That I’d give anyone else this much freedom? The rules and protocols I’ve broken for you are…” He whistles softly. “I care.”
“Why?” I whip my head around, glaring at him. “What is there to care about?”
“If feelings had a clear reason, we’d be living in an emotionally healthy world and we’re not, are we? I don’t want to see you hurt. I want to help you and I care about you. Why do I need some explicit reason?”
I hate how right he is because if I tried to explain to anyone why I care about the man who drugged me and kidnapped me from the hospital, then locked me up, most people would think I’m insane.
Maybe I am.
I puff out my cheeks, holding my breath and listening to the frantic pounding of my heart as it begins to slow. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking clearly and I just left.”
Ruslan nods once. “Sorry I yelled.”
I shrug, settling back into the seat as the car weaves through the city like a droplet running down a window pane. “It was kind of hot, if I’m honest.”
“My yelling?”
“No, that was scary. But the way you grabbed me?” I shake my head. “Anyway, I’m sorry I wasn’t thinking. Not really a good excuse, considering everything.”
“We’re imperfect people,” Ruslan murmurs.
“Sure. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
“How?”
I glance across at him and as soon as our eyes lock, I’m held in place. “How?”
“How will you make it up to me?”
“I…” I was about to say something like being more aware of my surroundings or listening more clearly, but the way his eyelids dip slightly makes me think he’s insinuating something else. “What would be suitable?”
Ruslan’s head tilts to the side. “You need to learn to trust me.”
“Do you trust me?” Ruslan hovers over me with a slight smirk gracing his lips.
My heart pounds.
When he told me he was going to teach me to trust him, I never could have imagined something like this.
He made me eat, then shower, then he stripped me of all my clothes and tied me spread-eagled to his bed with soft rope that kisses my wrists and ankles each time I try to move. The knot around my bad ankle is higher up my calf to protect it because Ruslan thinks of everything, apparently.
Now, fully clothed, he hovers over me and holds my gaze.
“I do,” I reply breathlessly. “But you don’t believe me.”
“No, I don’t. But I’ll teach you to trust me.” He lifts his hand and I glimpse a pink silk tie. “One more thing… trust goes both ways.”
“It does.”
“Pick a word.”
“A safe word?” I smirk up at him. “This isn’t my first rodeo.”
“It’s your first with me,” Ruslan replies. “I don’t care about your sexual history. I care that we trust each other. So pick a word. Tell me that word. And the moment you say that word, this all ends.”
“Anchovies.”
Ruslan’s brow shoots up to the wisps of hair caressing his forehead. “Anchovies?”
“Mmhmm. I hate them. And a safe word is supposed to bring you out of the moment, right?”
His smirk warms into a real smile and he nods. “Anchovies it is.” He’s still chuckling as he seals the tie over my eyes and lightly knots it behind my head. Then he lowers my head and leans so close that his breath ghosts over my cheek.
“Comfortable?”
“Mmm. Yes.”
“Good. Now, trust me.”
My naked body twitches and quivers in anticipation with light shivers grazing my arms and legs. I track Ruslan’s movements beside me by the sound of his footsteps and then the creak of a chair. I wet my lips with a dart of my tongue and curl my hands into light fists.
I wait.
And nothing comes.
Not a touch. Not a kiss. Not a single caress.
There’s nothing.
The seconds drag by and I strain my ears, trying to detect Ruslan and what he’s doing by sound alone, but he’s not making any noise.
A shiver darts through my body once more and my breath catches in my throat.
Trust him, he said.
So I do.
It’s unclear how long I lie there for, bound and silent, waiting for Ruslan to do something.
My mind runs like a hamster on a wheel, torn between trusting him and being desperate for his touch and fearing this is some kind of punishment.
To some degree, it is. I didn’t listen, I threw myself carelessly into danger, and Ruslan had to come and save me.
There was no direct threat, but that changes nothing.
As I mull it over, something clicks to my right and a soft buzzing begins. It’s constant and soft, like the hum of an electronic mixer. My heart starts to race. The buzzing grows louder after the chair creaks once more and footsteps move closer to me and the bed.
My lips part, but just as I find my voice to speak, the buzzing dives south and something slick and hard presses against my pussy, directly against my clit.
Pleasure surges through me and my words turn into a cry.
I pull hard at my restraints, arch my body off the bed, and whimper as pleasure surges through me.
Oh, I trust him, alright.
I trust him with my life.
The toy doesn’t move. It remains steadfast between my legs while Ruslan’s warm, tough palm caresses my thigh as if he’s soothing me.
Back and forth he strokes as pleasure coils hot and low in my gut.
I rock my hips back and forth, grinding against the head of the toy while moaning, and my orgasm crests.
Then, suddenly, the toy is gone.
Its absence leaves a sudden hollow sensation in my gut and I whine, frustrated as that warm orgasm fades from my mind at the abrupt end to my stimulation.
“Ruslan!”
The toy returns, and the game begins. He reads my body like a book and plays me like an instrument.
Every single time my orgasm gets close, he removes the toy and leaves me writhing on the bed, thrusting my hips against the air in desperation for a touch of contact.
To make matters worse, he slathers something across my nipples.
A gel of some kind that’s cool to the touch but the longer it rests on my skin, the warmer it gets.
Soon, it’s so warm that my nipples are tingling with an overwhelming sensation, craving a touch to soothe that tingling but I can’t reach. Back and forth I toss my head, straining against my restraints as my nipples cry out for just a touch, a swipe of contact to soothe the ache.
Nothing comes.
Just like I don’t.
Ruslan doesn’t stop with the toy and I lose track of how many times he brings me close to orgasm only to ruin it by removing the toy or turning the vibrations down so low that there’s barely anything there.
The longer this goes on for, the more my frustration builds until my own mind gets in the way of my pleasure.
Ruslan is torturing me.
But that safe word doesn’t leave my lips. I trust him and I’m determined to beat him.
“Two hours,” Ruslan says suddenly and his voice thrills me, pulling a smile from me. “Two hours we’ve played this game.”
“Two hours is nothing,” I gasp as the toy returns to my clit. “Ahh— easy.”
“Easy?” Ruslan chuckles softly, his voice low. “We’ll see about that.”
Something soft loops around my thigh and tightens, then Ruslan’s hand vanishes but the toy remains pressed between my lips and against my clit. Just as hope rises in my chest, he turns the toy to the lowest setting and a pit of disappointment opens in my gut.
Something clips and then two dollops of the gel he applied earlier lands on my nipples, then his breath tickles my cheek as he leans in close.
“I’ll be back in one hour,” he murmurs. “If by some miracle, you’ve come by then, I’ll spank you so raw, you won’t be able to walk. Now be a good girl and stay there for me.”