12. Fia
FIA
Thunder booms through the atmosphere, reverberating across the forest. I glance out of the window, now fearing for my life for several reasons. I don’t stand a fighting chance if one of these trees gets struck by lightning.
I come away from the window, rain pattering on the roof. “Is it safe to be in the middle of a forest during a storm? It sounds like it’s getting close.”
“It’s perfectly safe.” Emil flashes me a reassuring smile, but everything he does turns sexual, causing my heart to start beating for a different reason.
I tuck myself into the dining table, picking up my knife and fork. Emil sits across from me, crunching on vegetables, slicing meat. My focus is on the steak. Emil slices it up, shoveling it straight in his mouth without hesitation.
All I can think about is the man he killed.
I glance at my own plate, squishing the fork into the meat, analyzing the texture. I push it to one side, deciding that from this day forward, I’m going to be a vegetarian.
“You should eat the meat,” says Emil, gesturing to it with his fork. “It’s a special cut.”
Oh, I’m sure.
“I’m not that hungry, thanks,” I say, keeping my eyes stapled to the plate.
The sky flashes white again, followed only a second later by crackling thunder. I jump, the fork leaving my hand and clanging against the ceramic plate.
Emil peers up at me. “You sure you didn’t see who hit you at the dockyard?”
“How many more times will you ask this question?”
“Until I have my answer,” says Emil, swiping his hair away from his face. He looks visibly shaken, rising from the table as soon as he’s done eating.
I watch him leave, my eyes gravitating to his ass. I’m in trouble if it’s anything like the rest of his body.
I sip water from a wine glass, smoothing a hand over my baby bump. The twins need to eat. It’s selfish of me to take my hatred on Emil out on them.
Groaning, I pick up my fork, stabbing a carrot and shoving it into my mouth, eyeing the steak. I decide to cut it up, knowing it will be good nutrients for the babies.
Watching the pink flesh tear makes me retch. I take small bites, chewing, forcefully swallowing it down. I finish the rest of my water, looking over the glass rim as Emil strides back into the room, approaching the windows.
He keeps a beady eye on the forest.
I study the back of his head. Me running away is making him tense, especially after yesterday. His shoulders are rigid, several muscles working underneath his shirt as he swipes a loose piece of hair away from his eyes, sighing that deep, guttural sound my pussy loves far too much.
I clench my thighs together, reliving last night on the staircase when he pried my thighs apart, feeling my pussy. I’m tempted to slot a finger down there now, relieve some of the attention, but Emil doesn’t miss a thing.
Except he did… yesterday. Someone has outsmarted him. The constant clenched jaw makes me wonder if the person who attacked me yesterday was an enemy or a friend…
“Good girl,” says Emil, turning around to see my plate clean. “You’re eating for three now. You can’t afford to go hungry.” He winks, collecting my plate.
His footsteps clack on the wooden floorboards as he disappears into the kitchen. I rise from the table, following him like a puppy waiting for its next order.
“What are you exactly?” I say, leaning into the countertop.
“I think you mean who,” chuckles Emil, folding his arms across his broad chest. “You may beg to differ, but I’m not a monster.”
“Then you should have no trouble telling me who you are.” I match his posture, crossing my arms over my chest. “Luka helped you get rid of a dead body. Are you business partners?”
“Yes, of a much larger operation,” says Emil, “of which I own.”
“You’re the leader? Of what? An organized crime syndicate?”
“Bratva is the term we like to use, since we’re all Russian.”
I hitch my arms higher across my chest. “So, you go around killing and scamming innocent people, paying millions of dollars to export cheap materials like timber across the world?”
Emil’s gaze deepens. “How do you know that?”
“I read some old spreadsheets.”
Emil’s face turns.
“Tell me what you’re actually transporting, because it sure doesn’t cost millions to insure a boat full of wood.”
“Bratva dealings are kept extremely private,” he says.
“So private that you can’t tell your wife? What the hell, Emil?” I snap, shaking my head. “And you wonder why I’m having trouble trusting you.”
“The more you know, the more danger you put yourself in. You’re curious by nature, and that curiosity almost killed you today.” Emil grinds his jaw, his eyes shining a lethal shade, reflecting the kitchen light. Concern appears between his brow, suggesting that he actually cares about my wellbeing.
Either that, or he’s simply afraid to lose me.
But what choice do I have? Being pregnant means I have to rely on him to an extent. He cares about the children, which means I have to listen. The concern seems to always be there, the lines deepening whenever he glances at my stomach.
I comb a piece of hair away from my face, frustrated by the situation. If outside threats really are looming, I have to stay here. Being knocked unconscious a second time could cost me one of the twins, perhaps even my own life.
Regardless of who Emil has pissed off, I’m devoted to the innocence growing inside of me. I have a duty to protect it from evil.
Lightning flashes outside, turning everything white. I watch Emil’s face, playing dot to dot with the hard lines indented across his face. The storm paints him in a threatening light, and yet I feel tempted to step in and be closer.
Thunder claps, shaking the foundations of the house, but Emil remains strong throughout it all, staring at me like I’m more powerful than the storm, like I’m the only one capable of breaking him.
And that makes me feel powerful.
I’m about to make a comment when the lights cut out, the humming refrigerator dying. Silence fills the kitchen, the space between me and Emil closing as shadows fill the gaps, prompting us closer.
A shiver runs down to the base of my spine, causing me to wrap my arms around myself. Terror sits in the deepest part of my chest. Being alone with Emil in the middle of the storm after seeing him murder a person raises goosebumps on my skin.
Terror and arousal seem to go hand-in-hand with this man.
I clench my thighs together, imagining his finger between my legs again, strumming my pussy through my pants.
Desire burns through me, the silence becoming charged. I lose stability, falling into the kitchen countertop as the fog clears in my mind to let a memory slip through.
“I never thought a spitfire like you would be afraid of the dark.”
“It depends on who’s hiding in the shadows.”
“What if you saw me?”
Emil’s hot mouth is on mine before long. He pushes me onto the bed, perched between my legs as he slides his tongue into my mouth, brushing it fervently against mine, making me fall weak.
I crash onto the bed, my pulse shuddering my entire body.
“Tell me to stop, spitfire,” he murmurs low in my ear, making it impossible for me to say no. My brain no longer understands the definition of no, or self-control for that matter. Moans fall out of my mouth, speech made impossible as I let myself fall under his spell.
“You good?”
I snap back to reality, finding Emil’s hand snaked around my lower back. Feeling his rough hand against my skin makes me shudder, the desire becoming more intense.
I shake him off, refusing to let myself surrender. I don’t care how freaking natural it feels with him.
He finds my eyes in the darkness, a wicked smile spreading across his face. “You remembered our first time, didn’t you?” The cold tone contradicts the smile.
“Why did I sleep with you?”
“Because everyone wants a bit of evil inside them, no matter how much they deny it.”
Shadows cloak around me, my concept of right and wrong altered, the more time I spend searching Emil’s eyes. I know he holds all the answers.
Perhaps he might fuck some of the truth into me.
And I lose my senses at that. I zero in on his lips, leaning in, bringing my mouth to his. We collide in heat, flames roaring around us as he sweeps his tongue into my mouth.
My body takes over, my tongue moving fluidly over his, like it knows its way around his mouth.
Shock fills my body, my eyes flaring wide as I kiss Emil, and the way it seems to wash away the uncertainty I feel.
I lean into the kiss, running away with the feeling in hopes of recovering lost memories… until I lose myself in the kiss and forget why I started.
Moans fall out of my mouth. I claw Emil’s collar, needing him closer, craving him.
I’m aware of the murder, of all the ambiguity with the dockyard and Emil’s enemies, but fear adds fuel to the fire, making the flames even harder to distinguish.
Emil breaks the kiss, pulling away, searching my eyes in the darkness. He looks torn about something, one eye full of concern, the other heavy with desire. “You’re only doing this to remember.”
“I’m doing this because I want you too,” I blurt out, hooking his collar and pulling his face back to mine.
My heart beats with anticipation, every pulse representing more time of us not being together.
Arousal smooths over the harsh ridges in my head, taking consequences and risks out of the equation. Emil is my antidote to feeling better after a very few chaotic days. Even with all the chaos, Emil remains constant, that profound look in his eye always there.
And I’ve never been wanted like this before.
“You’re fucking impossible,” he growls before slinging me over his shoulder.
I watch the stairs recede beneath me as he ascends them, my head hanging over his shoulder, my ass in the air. Darkness skirts around each step, the floor disappearing underneath me until like I’m floating.
The determined look written across his face suggests he always wins, never taking no for an answer, and while that terrifies the shit out of me, it makes me feel worth something.
Our lips collide frantically when we reach the bedroom, his tongue claiming my mouth.
We fight off each other’s clothes until we’re both completely naked. Cold air rushes straight to my pussy as I open my legs wide for him, teasing through my folds, begging for him to thrust inside.
His cock is the scaffolding keeping me up, stopping my life from completely falling apart.
I cling onto his shoulder blades, feeling the muscles work under my palms as he pays close attention to my body, sucking each of my nipples into his mouth.
Arousal bursts, sending a thousand volts worth of electricity shooting down my spine.
I grab his cock, wrapping both hands around it since it requires two.
I can see why I agreed to walk down that altar.
Any woman would be begging to slip into a white dress and say I do in front of this man.
It’s easy to overlook the crimes, the murder and secrecy when Emil has a body built from the gods, his face equally perfect.
He’s the man every woman dreams of meeting, and when you cross paths, your biology never wants to say goodbye.
White-hot desire flashes behind my eyelids as Emil works his mouth down my body. He finishes sucking my nipples and trails kisses down my torso, arriving at the top of my pussy. He kisses my bikini line before venturing between my legs, skimming my thighs, raising them high in the air.
His tongue slides once over my pussy, and I explode without warning, electricity filling every cell in my body.
“You come so easily for me, spitfire. Pleasure is waiting for you on the other side of your stubbornness when you finally learn to let go,” he mumbles into my pussy, mopping up my wetness with his tongue.
“Get the fuck inside me,” I urge, my head crashing into the pillow.
“There she is,” he chuckles. “One orgasm is never enough to sate my little spitfire. You’re relentless,” he says between tongue strokes. “And fucking impossible to please.”
That resonates.
Emil wraps his tongue around my clit, squeezing tight, adding pressure.
Sparks from the orgasm still float through me. Energy never dies. It lives inside of you always, waiting to be ignited by the right person.
Emil snakes his hands around my hips, causing arousal to collect in the pit of my stomach again, a second orgasm pending.
The mattress lifts as Emil readjusts himself between my legs. Keeping my legs raised in the air, he gets onto his knees, tapping his cock against my pussy.
I’m flying too high to feel shame and embarrassment. My body jerks as he presses his cock against my clit, pleasure igniting in foreign areas of my anatomy. My body falls so easily for him, hypersensitive to every slight touch.
I’ll be his to own by the time he’s finished fucking me, my pussy craving him like a drug, but submission tastes far too sweet right now. The weaker I fall in the face of him, the more powerful he appears, and I’m counting on his strength to fix me.
I feel grounded, and yet paradoxically, I feel like I’m levitating, the concept of time and reality lost on me.
Emil finds my eyes through the darkness, asking for silent permission, which I give him instantly, nodding my head.
Why does giving into him feel so natural?
Emil thrusts his cock inside of me, stealing all the air from my lungs as I gasp.
“Fuck, Emil,” I groan, allowing myself to part around his cock.
My walls recognize him, welcoming him home after us being apart. Relief swims through me, like I can finally rest after being at war with my own mind.
“Harder,” I find myself moaning, my fingernails scraping against the headboard as I hold on for dear life, wanting him to obliterate me.
“You were hit by a?—”
“Do I look like I give a fuck?” Fog clears from my mind, uncertainty leaving my body with each thrust.
I picture myself stumbling out of the hotel bathroom again, locking eyes with the dead concierge bleeding out on the floor. Emil oozed confidence while holding that knife in his hand, like he wanted me to know he was a murderer.
Do I make him a psychopath? Does he kill out of enjoyment, or does he ruin other people’s lives to make ours better?
My head is rushing with so many emotions, my heart beating a rhythm I’m struggling to keep up with. He could be an obsessed stalker or a man in love.
But whoever he is, our connection feels real.
Emil increases the tempo, slamming into me with everything he has. Arousal expands from the pit in my stomach regardless of my confusion, my body preparing for a second orgasm.
This one feels greater than life as it hits me. The room is dark and yet I can see everything clearly, my walls clinging around his cock, relying on him to send me to the stars.
Only he can.
Arousal bursts at the seams. I explode, feeling greater than the world and everything in it.
Clarity revisits as I come down from the high.
Emil will keep chasing me until I eventually give in, but that realization feels a little less terrifying this time around.