Chapter Eleven
Valentina
I heard Dmitri come home before I saw him.
The penthouse door shut harder than usual, followed by the uneven weight of his footsteps moving through the entryway. I sensed none of his teasing energy, none of that careless stride of his. It was exhaustion being controlled by sheer will.
When I found him in the hallway, the sight of him stopped me cold.
There was a shallow wound along his side that had darkened that part of his shirt, blood gone tacky at the edges where it had started to dry. Bruising bloomed along his jaw, already deepening toward purple. Whatever had happened at that club tonight, it hadn’t gone smoothly.
“Don’t look at me like that, I’m fine,” he said, the smirk appearing on his face despite the evidence suggesting otherwise.
I didn’t hesitate. I took his arm and guided him toward the bathroom before he could argue.
A practical part of me took over while the rest of me screamed in my head.
I’d learned where the medical supplies lived in that cabinet over the last few days, which was a fact that would have terrified me a month ago and now simply felt like one more piece of the life I’d married into.
I pulled out gauze, antiseptic, the small suture kit I’d playfully asked Nadia to demonstrate.
Dmitri sat on the edge of the tub and let me work. Unusually quiet, he was watching me with an expression I wasn’t used to from him. It was something closer to surrender, like he was simply too tired to be composed and had decided to let me see exactly how he felt.
“You’re better at this than I expected,” he said eventually, watching my hands move over the gauze with a steadiness I didn’t entirely feel, my fingers working faster than my racing thoughts would have suggested was possible.
“I’m aware.” I tied off the bandage a little tighter than necessary, some of my frustration bleeding into my hands. “Doesn’t make it less terrifying, watching you walk through the door like this.”
My hands shook slightly as I cleaned the wound along his side, the antiseptic stinging enough that he hissed through his teeth once, quiet and controlled.
“What happened?”
“Raid attempt at one of the clubs. We got there before it went fully sideways.” He said it evenly, watching the ceiling rather than me. “Fast response. Controlled damage.”
“That’s not an answer, that’s a summary.”
“It’s the summary you need.”
I set the gauze down harder than necessary, my frustration rising faster than I expected. “I’ve learned enough about you to know when you’re simplifying something so I don’t have to actually think about how bad it was.”
He didn’t deny it, which told me everything the careful phrasing hadn’t.
I finished wrapping the wound in silence, my jaw tight. Once I’d taped the last edge down, I sat back on my heels and looked at him properly, all the fear I’d been holding back finally breaking loose in my voice, sharper and more raw than I’d intended to let it become.
“This isn’t nothing, Dmitri. You can’t keep coming back like this.
Bleeding, bruised, giving me two sentences and expecting that to be enough.
I need you to actually come home in one piece.
I don’t think I can keep doing this if every night ends with me wondering whether you’re going to walk through that door at all.
It’s… I don’t know, I just don’t want it! ”
My voice cracked on the last part, more emotional than I’d meant to let it get, but I didn’t take any of it back.
Dmitri stared at me like my frustration had grounded him more thoroughly than anything else that entire night. He reached up slowly and touched my face, his thumb brushing tentatively against my cheek, like he expected me to pull away.
I didn’t.
Then he rose to his feet. Something in his expression softened in a way I still wasn’t used to seeing on him. The space between us collapsed slowly. And then we were kissing.
The kiss was not playful or rushed. It carried exhaustion, relief, and something deeper.
I felt the emotional weight of it before I felt anything physical at all.
The thought of how easily I responded to him despite everything I knew about the life he actually lived and the violence that had put that wound in his side in the first place scared me a bit. But it didn’t stop me.
We moved toward the bedroom without breaking apart, his arm wrapped around me, mine careful of his injured side. The two of us moved together in the practiced way I assumed couples learn without ever discussing.
“Dmitri, you shouldn’t,” I started, breaking off the kiss as he lifted me toward the center of our bed. “You’re wounded. And I have legs.”
He took off his trousers like he didn’t actually hear me.
“I’m fine,” he answered, already kneeling over me and pulling my dress up.
“Wait, wait,” I called, my voice urgent enough to make him sit back.
I sat up, too, facing him.
“You have a wound, and it’s on your side. We shouldn’t,” I said, gesturing between us.
“I’m fine, Val. But I understand your worry, and I promised to never force you, so,” he said, and I caught his eyes flicking towards his rigid length that was hard enough that I could see its outline through his boxers, “we’ll wait until the wound heals.”
“Well, I didn’t say that,” I started, my boldness renewed as I saw his eyes follow mine and watched them glow with hunger.
“What are you saying, Val?” he asked, his eyes now on my black lace bra and panties.
“Lie back,” I told him, motioning towards the space beside me.
“Val?” he asked, doing as I said anyway.
I crossed my body over his, kneeling over his knees.
“You don’t have to—”
“I know. I want to,” I interrupted. “Besides,” I added, pulling his boxers down once, freeing his cock, “this needs to be taken care of.”
I sighed slowly, the sight of his veined, thick length up close hitting me for the first time.
He opened his mouth to voice another point when I wrapped my right hand around him, stroking up in one move. His mouth released a low groan instead. Then I went up and down, my confidence increasing with every stroke.
“Oh, fuck!” he whispered when I bent forward and wrapped my lips around the tip of his dick, swallowing the precum.
His fingers threaded through my hair, guiding my movements as I picked up pace.
“Damn… keep going, just like that, baby,” he praised, lifting his hips in concert with my movements.
I took him to the depth of my throat, and the shortage of air made me gag, my whole face going hot. I didn’t need to look up to see how much he liked that; his hips falling to the bed for a second as he lost control told me enough. So, I did it again.
“Fuck, I’m going to come,” he warned, his hand leaving my hair like he was releasing me.
But I kept sucking and pumping his dick.
“Val—”
“Come,” I told him.
And then he did. He let go with a groan that sounded raw. He came in my mouth, and I took it all.
“I actually wasn’t so sure I’d be able to—” I started, my chest still heaving as I sat up. He pulled me into him, kissing the rest of the sentence off my lips.
Still kissing me fervently, he sat up, making me straddle him as his hands kneaded my butt. He began kissing my neck as his hands came to my lap and then towards my throbbing core.
I placed my hand over his. “No, Dmitri. I don’t need you to repay.”
His eyes stayed on mine, and he blinked like he was trying to understand what I just said. Then he sighed deeply and brought his sweaty forehead to mine.
“I don’t…” he started and trailed off, sighing again as he held me tightly against his chest.
“Don’t say anything,” I said, chuckling despite the depth I could feel our intimacy reaching.
He laid back, bringing me with him. For the first time since any of this started, I didn’t feel like I was being pulled deeper into his world. I felt like he was trying to meet me inside mine.
I traced the edge of the bandage along his side gently, careful not to disturb it.
“You scared me tonight,” I admitted quietly, into the dark.
“I know.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been that scared, and that’s saying something considering the past few weeks.”
He was quiet for a moment, his hand finding mine where it rested against his chest. “Why do you think that is?”
“During the raid, I didn’t understand what I stood to lose. Tonight I did.”
Something in his chest moved beneath my cheek, a slow exhale that sounded almost like relief. “I came back.”
“You did. This time.”
“I intend to keep doing that.”
Then, he went on, “Federal agents moved in faster than we expected. We got most of the sensitive material out before they cleared the building, but one of the men working the floor panicked, tried to run instead of following protocol, and drew attention we didn’t need.
Two of my men engaged before I could stop it.
I got clipped pulling one of them clear. ”
“Thank you.” I turned slightly, kissing his jaw.
“You’re worth it.”
Then an understanding crept up on me: that survival might not be the only thing waiting for me in this strange, dangerous life I’d married into.