Chapter 16
VIKTOR
Tati’s coming apart at the seams every second it takes to get her home. She sits in the passenger’s side of the car, tears rolling down her cheeks and holding clenched fists in her lap. She won’t talk. She can’t talk. She’s breaking down.
The moment I park the car, she’s out and rushing up the stairs to the house. My obligation to her ends here. I don’t have to follow her.
But she’s coming apart. I can’t leave her now.
I get out of the car and follow her. She leaves the door half open and when I walk through it, into the foyer, I hear her sobs echoing through the house from upstairs. “Tatiana?” I call after her.
“Go away!” The desperate sound of her voice spouts the command as if she’s on the edge of a scream. It’s punctuated by the slamming of a door.
I follow, moving quickly as my heart pounds in my chest. She shouldn’t be alone. She can’t be alone. I can’t leave her this way.
I go to open her bedroom door but it’s locked. “Open the door, Tatiana.”
I hear her crying on the other side and my heart feels like it’s going to burst. I pound on the door. “Tati! Open this door!”
“Leave me alone!” she screams.
“I’m not going anywhere. Not with you like this. Open the door or I’m breaking it down.”
More crying, but no response otherwise.
“Tatiana!” She’d better open this fucking door. I’m already looking around at it, judging how sturdy it is. I could kick it down easily—
I hear the lock disengage and the door swings open. She’s standing before me, her face wet with tears and her fists balled up at her sides.
“What the fuck do you want from me?” she cries. “Why can’t you just leave me alone, Viktor? Why can’t you just fucking leave?”
She attacks me, driving her fists into my chest, hitting me in the face. “You’re just like the rest of them! You’re a fucking monster like all of them!”
I let her go on pummeling me, her tiny hands like little bee stings as they connect with my face, my chest, scratching at me… Finally, I grab her by the wrists and pin her hands behind her back.
“That’s enough,” I say to her. She looks up at me, tears still falling, her chest heaving against me.
“It hurts so much, Viktor,” she weeps. Her big, brown eyes search mine. “Please make it better.”
The soft, begging tone strikes something inside me like a bell. Her breath brushes my face as I lean into her.
“You… you said you could be my father figure if I wanted it. I need you to be that for me.” Her damp cheeks flush, watery brown eyes beckon me. “Make it better, Daddy,” she whispers. “Please.”
“Where does it hurt you?”
“Everywhere.”
She presses herself against me and stands up on her toes to kiss me. Her lips are warm, sweet, and inviting as she sucks my bottom lip gently. I respond, releasing her arms and wrapping mine around her waist to hold her to me as we kiss.
Drowning… I’m drowning. Just like that, the control is lost. She has but to ask and I fall under her spell.
We both move into the bedroom as her hands push against my chest, up my shoulders and under my jacket to get it off. I help her, taking off my jacket and tossing it aside. “Take off your clothes,” I tell her, “and get on the bed.”
She steps back from me and unzips her dress, her eyes on mine.
The little black dress she chose, long sleeved, high collar, hem two inches below the knee.
With the exception of her bright pink curls, which at the moment are all tied up into a bun, she’s the very picture of the good little girl that her father wants her to be.
The dress melts off her shoulders and falls to the floor. She’s wearing nothing now except her shoes. Still no underwear after all this time.
“You poor, neglected thing,” I say as I start taking off my shirt. “It’s criminal how he treats you.”
She nods, her eyes still heavy with sorrow but shining as she looks up at me. They drift down to my chest and silently read all my tattoos, then she goes to her bed and sits down.
“Show me,” I say softly, “where you hurt.”
She touches her lips with one finger, dragging it down her chin and her neck, down the center of her chest, between her full breasts.
I walk over and take her head in my hands, kissing her as I lean in and press her into the bed.
My kisses follow the trail left by her finger, kissing her chin, the hollow of her throat, running my tongue down the center of her chest.
I take a breast in one hand and squeeze, flicking my finger over one nipple as I go to the other and circle over her taut, pink nipple with my tongue.
She gasps softly, a shuddery little moan escaping her. I lick and suck her breasts, switching from one nipple to the other.
And then I hear her breath hitch and her chest quiver. I look up to see her hand over her mouth, eyes filling with tears again.
“I don’t deserve…” she whispers. “Viktor, I haven’t been good to you.”
I wipe away the tears on her cheeks. “Be a good girl now,” I say, “and show me where it hurts, baby.”
She nods and her fingers lead me down her soft, flat tummy, down between her legs.
I pepper her stomach with kisses, pressing my lips with intention with ever spot. When I reach her navel, I dive in with my tongue. She flinches with surprise, then settles in as I give it attention.
I kiss her thighs and take her hand, placing it over her soaking wet pussy. “Play with yourself,” I tell her. “I want to see your fingers inside you.”
She slides her fingers between the folds of her flower, then slips two of them inside. She bites her bottom lip as she finger fucks herself, moving her hips up and down in rhythm with her fingers.
“That’s it, Tanechka. Keep going.”
She does and before long, her back is arching and she’s moaning with soft desperation. Her creamy juices cover her fingers as she gets herself close. I take her wrist, urging her to slow down.
“Not yet, baby,” I say, meeting her eyes.
She nods quickly, slowing her fingers down. “I’m on fire, Daddy.”
“You are, aren’t you?” I give her an approving smile as I pull her hand free from her pussy, and suck the juice from her finger tips. Her eyes widen with surprise as I enjoy her taste.
“So sweet,” I say. “How can you ever think you aren’t good enough?” I lean in kissing her thighs, moving my mouth down until my tongue meets her quivering lips. I lick her up and down, teasing her by barely touching her swollen clit.
“You want me to kiss it better, baby?” I say, and she nods quickly. “Beg for it.”
“Please, Daddy,” she says. “Please make it better. Make… make me better.”
I wrap my arms around her thighs and dive in, sucking her swollen clit with vigor. The muscles of her thighs clench, but I hold her firm as I press my tongue against her, rolling her clit around in my mouth. Honey sweet and warm in my mouth, I’m ravenous.
And her legs fall open a little wider as she presses her hips against my face. I can feel her heat rising with every moment, every second. Her moans reach a peak and she grabs my head as she comes against me, nonsensical words spilling from her mouth as her sweet, sweet juices fill my senses.
I let her come until her body starts to relax. When I release her, she looks spent, her hair wild and undone and splayed out on the pillow in a million curls. She looks up at me, her chest heaving.
“You are so beautiful when you come for me,” I tell her, “but we aren’t done.”
I get off the bed to take my pants off. When I turn back to her, she’s sitting up on her elbows, her eyes wide as she looks down at my dick, marveling at the size.
I grab her by the ankle and pull her toward me. Then I lean into her and kiss her. Her tongue explores mine and we share her sweet taste together. Honey and sex mixes on our tongues.
I enter her and she stiffens, her nails dig into my arms. “Fuck,” she says against my lips.
I take her hands and pin them over her head, then I thrust myself inside her, hard and deep. She lifts her legs, opening them more, allowing me deeper and deeper.
I feel her tightening around my cock as her back arches. I have to pause, keeping her hands pinned with one hand, I use the other to lift her thigh up, letting me in a little more.
As I fuck her, my cock thrusting so deep into her hot, wet pussy, she whimpers, her legs shaking. She can barely stand it.
“I’ve got you, baby,” I croon, looking into her eyes. “You’re taking me so good. All of me. Every fucking inch.”
“It’s so much,” she moans. “Viktor, I can’t… oh, fuck…”
“You can, my darling. I’m so deep inside you right now. You feel so fucking good wrapped around my cock.”
“I can’t hold it,” she says in hoarse whisper.
“Then don’t.” I kiss her deep, my tongue mixing with hers as her lips tremble against mine. “Let go. Break apart for me, baby. I’ll hold you together.”
The encouragement sends her over and her eyes roll up. She cries out my name as she comes again, her body shaking underneath me.
I release her arms as I slow down, kissing her as she wraps her legs around my waist, the heels of her shoes digging into my back.
“Make me better, Daddy,” she whimpers against my mouth. “Make it all better.”
I bite her lip and thrust deep inside her. She’s so tight and wet, I could live here forever. I finally come, filling her up with my passion.
She squeezes herself around my cock and moves her hips with mine, taking in every drop of me.
Her tears are dry and her weeping has been replaced with soft kisses. She’s better. I made her better.
“He’ll be gone all night,” she says as she dozes in my arms. We’ve been up in her room so long that the sun has set. It’s only now occurring to me that I should have left hours ago. If her father catches me here…
“How do you know?” I ask.
She nuzzles her face into my chest, her legs wrapped up with mine. “He likes to drink after funerals,” she says. “A lot. He won’t be back until very, very late.”
I don’t respond. Having her in my arms after the last time I came felt right. But now it feels dangerous. Her fingers move over my chest, tracing the line of one of my many tattoos.
Here we lie, the sunset outside the window fills the room with a warm amber glow. It’s hard not to think about the consequences of what’s just happened. I know when I do get up, it’ll all come crashing back to me the way it did the first time. All I want to do is stay in this moment.
I know I can’t. There’s a lot happening that I should be focusing on and now… now, I need to think of Tati. If I’m not careful, she’ll be caught in the crossfire.
“Viktor?”
“Yes?”
She pauses, then lifts her head to look at me. “If I tell you something, will you promise just to listen without judging?”
I brush an errant rosy curl out of her face and say, “You know I can’t make a promise like that. I don’t know what you’re going to tell me.”
She purses her lips to one side. “I guess that’s fair.
” She goes quiet for a second, her fingers moving over to one of my many scars, hidden under a blanket of tattoos.
Some of them are from work. The deepest of them are from the accident.
She traces the one over my heart gently with her fingertips.
“Tell me, Tanechka.”
She sighs. “It’s about Marla… something I’ve been thinking about. You know, she’s never believed that Nicki’s death was an accident.”
“I’ve heard that she’s always been suspicious, yes.”
She nods. “The thing is… she had been looking into it. Months ago, she showed me a bunch of things that she thought pointed to Nicki’s death being planned.”
I frown a little. “Like what things?”
“A police report, for one. It said that Nicki was drunk when he crashed that car.”
“That’s not news, Tati. Everyone knows that.”
“Yeah, except she also had a copy of the autopsy. He wasn’t drunk, Viktor.”
I sit up a little as I look at her, remembering that last big argument we had at the old Mercer building. “So, that’s why you wanted to know if I was sober the night he died.”
She nods, then rests her head on my chest. “It was more than just that, though. She found out things about the car he was driving and the brake system, that sort of thing. She was really sure that his death wasn’t an accident. So sure that she was talking about going to the authorities.”
My blood runs ice cold. Shit. That’s enough to get a person killed… and I don’t really want to believe the one holding the gun was the same person who handed it to me to do the job.
“I brushed her off,” Tati continues. “But… but something happened today that makes me think that maybe she was onto something.”
“Something? Like what?”
She pauses, then, “I overheard my father talking about her. Talking to someone about how he was glad the problem of her was handled. I think he knew, Viktor. Somehow, he found out.”
I sigh. I can’t tell her what happened the day she died. I can’t tell her she was my target, at least not yet. There’s more pieces to this puzzle that need to be solved first. “Are you sure he was talking about Marla?”
“Very,” she says. “I want to look into it. Find out what she found. Maybe pick up where she left off.” She bites her lip thoughtfully. “Will you help me?”
“You should stay out of it, Tanechka.”
She lifts her head up, hurt in her eyes. “You don’t believe me.”
“I didn’t say that.” I sigh and add, “Whoever is responsible for Nicki’s death, they probably will do anything to keep it secret. Including hurt you. If they had no problem taking out the son of a Pakhan, you’d be easy prey.”
She’s reading my face, her eyes darting over it carefully. “Even if that person is my father?”
“Maybe especially. We don’t know for sure that he’s behind Nicki’s death, or even Marla’s.”
“Viktor, you should have heard him talking—”
“I’m not denying what you’re saying, love. I just want you to understand that it’s safer for me to look into it. You get that, don’t you?”
She pouts for a moment, then rolls her eyes and rests her head back on my chest. “So, what, then? We do nothing?”
“Just let me handle it. I’m in Nikolai’s inner circle. I can find out more than you can. And no one’s going to come after me for it.”
I feel her smile against my chest briefly. Then, “I want to be in the loop, though.”
“Of course.” I kiss the top of her forehead. “Of course.”