Chapter 20 #2
He brought my pussy down, hard, until there was no space between my core and his lips.
Devouring me with a singular focus, he loosened his grip, sliding one hand up my back until he could guide my head down to his cock, reminding me that he had yet to come and there was still work to be done.
Pausing his ministrations, he gave one final command.
“Now suck, Printsessa. Choke on my cock until my cum drips from your lips and down your chin.”
I pressed my lips over his shaft, taking him to the back of my throat as his tongue licked into me once more, his grip bruising even as my body demanded more, more, more. I began bobbing my head in earnest then, my hands helping to steady me as I suctioned my lips around his shaft.
The throb of his thick erection turned me on so much my thighs quaked, searching for friction as my orgasm threatened to detonate too soon.
Tracing a finger around the rim of my arsehole, Aleks inserted one finger past the tight ring of muscle, right as he bit down hard on my clit.
My release overpowered me, a long moan exploding around his cock still buried deep in my throat.
Tensing, his legs locked up, and his hips began to stutter, thrusting in an uncontrolled rhythm as he began to come.
Salty ropes of cum filled my throat, gagging me as I tried to swallow every drop.
A slight grin formed on my lips when I noticed that his cum did, in fact, end up dribbling down my chin and onto his black silk sheets.
“What’d I do to deserve such a thoughtful wake-up, Lenochka?
” he asked, his voice laced with male satisfaction even while still tinged with sleep.
I slid off him, preparing to get off the bed when his arm came around me and dragged me back to him.
Aleks positioned me across his chest, his fingers absently beginning to trace the lines of the one tattoo he had given me.
“Were you feeling a little needy tonight, Printsessa?”
Looking into his eyes, I noted fatigue that wasn’t there the last time I saw him.
Seeing the signs of stress showed me how tense the past few days had been for him.
Snuggling into his heat, I released a sigh, my body relaxing into him, savouring the feeling of being able to finally let my shields down, if only for a minute.
“I wanted to check on you after those skeletons were released. I know it couldn’t have been easy for you…having to face some of those truths…” I’m sorry, King. I hated outing you this way…
“It’s okay, Printsessa. You act like I can’t predict by now the way your mind works.
The way you plan things the way you do.” His rough timber interrupted what I had been trying to convey.
“The Guilda had me called in for questioning.
They wanted to know about you and me. They also voiced a concern with the loyalty I have for my own blood since the line of succession for the Volkovitch line ends with me…
and there's been whispers of possible alliances they wish to make within the Russian mafia if I'm still unwed by my next birthday.”
His tone was calm as he slid his palm down my spine in an attempt to console me, urging me to read between the lines, begging me to understand the webs we were tangling by refusing to end the pull between us and asking me to choose him for once.
For me, for him. For us. To protect all the lies we have had to spin just to get echoes of peace.
“The damage I was afraid it had caused…the leeches will come out in spades. Especially when they catch on to the torridness of us,” I quietly replied, tracing the lines of tattoos and scars that mapped his chest. My fingers paused over the beginnings of one that depicted The Shadows of a forest, only broken by a little girl standing alight by the moon.
“I’m not afraid for me, but for the way the Ellsworth name will be dragged through the press again, digging up nightmares and traumas that I hoped I would never have splashed across society rags again. ”
His arms curled around my back, pressing me closer into his chest. “Da,” he breathed into my hair, “but you will not be alone this time, Lenochka. This time you have me, Cam…” His voice muffled in my hair as he finished his thought almost reluctantly, “And Alistair.”
“What are we going to do if a new head is inducted? There are only so many families that they could choose from. I was hoping the release of secrets may cause some disruption within the ranks, but…”
“Lenochka, The Guilda has already selected its next Gamemaster. The news was announced within their Sanctum a few nights ago. An old name has risen from a ghost the Ellsworth line left forgotten.”
Aleks’ words were like gunshots, shattering the silent calm within the room and fracturing the thin layer of sanity I had shrouded myself in.
An old name the Ellsworth line had forgotten.
The truth flashed across my mind, a rapid succession of memories, snippets in time my mind had shoved into a box as I became entrenched in life in the Cove.
Memories of a young honey-eyed child filled my mind.
A young boy, surrounded by shadows and scars, grasping a collar filled with rubies and onyx.
Shadows of a time when the Ellsworth family was whole, and tragedy had not yet struck.
Dark golden orbs, silently shaking his head, as if to tell me to wait—to hold on.
Echoes of a boy who was once like a brother, refusing to let me fall into harm and always there to lend a match to my flames. Alistair.
My mind spun as images crystalised, that of a child not much older than me who had been hidden away to ensure his protection within an estate on the outskirts of London by the family that founded the original chapter of The Guilda Sanguis Venenati. A family that was mine.
“Da…” His harsh whisper was haunting but carried nothing to the weight in his next words.
“The Guilda’s hounds went hunting and returned with whispers about a name thought to be lost to tragedy over a decade ago, one that had tied two of London’s founding family lines together.
A new Hound of Hell—a new Gamemaster—has officially been put into play…
” His words held a warning that had me burying my face in his chest as gooseflesh peppered my skin.
“There will be no secrets left safe. No skeletons left buried. And no—”
I cut him off, knowing where he was about to go. “No betrayer left unburned.”
“Each move you make…” His words were interrupted by the banging of a door downstairs, followed by an agitated growl I had only known Cameron to make.
Smirking, Aleks shook his head as he slid his hand down me, stopping to cup my arse and press me down into him.
“You must think a hundred steps ahead from now on. Prepare yourself for the eventuality that the worst will happen and accept the fact that The Guilda will likely try to pit me against you.”
Cameron stomped down the hall as he loudly made his way to his room, only stopping to pound a fist on Aleks' door. “Don’t you ever give Little Queen’s pussy a rest, arsehole,” he yelled before quickly continuing on his way.
The slamming of his door boomed as he locked himself in for the night.
Catching a mischievous sparkle in Aleks’ eyes, I grinned back, bringing my mouth to his.
I laid a kiss to his lips, and my hands enveloped his, stopping them as he tried to slide in between my legs again.
“No, I need to get dressed.” Disappointment overtook his features, making him appear younger and more like a twenty-four-year-old man who wasn’t getting his way. Glaring at him, I released his hands, reaching over to his nightstand in search of a shirt.
I smirked when I saw where my G-string had landed.
Taking the muscle tank I had found from my hands, he sat me up as he slid it over my head.
Heat filled his gaze when he saw the hard points of my nipples through the fabric, his cock thickening between my legs as he bucked up, his shaft rubbing against my core as my pussy clenched, wanting more.
“No. Aleks, we need to plan.”
“Bu—” he began, as I slid off the bed, in search of his phone.
“No. I didn’t just come here tonight for sex.” I rolled my eyes, my face heating as I recalled all the deliciously wicked things he could make my body scream for.
“But Printsessa, fucking is so much more fun.”
“Aleks, no.” Batting his hands away, I shoved his phone under his face, trying to unlock it so I could see what I wanted. “I came to see Mishka. Make sure he’s still safe.”
A soft look entered his eyes as he pulled himself up until he was sitting against his headboard. Dragging me along with him until I was sitting on his lap, his still fully erect cock now firmly pressed against my arse.
“Da, the boy’s protected.” Unlocking his phone, he opened his photos and brought up the ones I wanted to see.
“He’s already fascinated with Cameron’s tattoos.
” Smiling, I took his phone, scrolling through the pictures, moments, and memories that being a participant in The Ludi had prevented me from seeing—from being a part of this summer.
“He looks so happy…” I trailed off, looking at Aleks again, gathering strength to voice a fear this news he had given me about The Guilda had raised. “How long do you think all of us will be able to keep him this safe?”
“Printsessa…” His solemn eyes broke something within me as the weight of the world we lived in crashed onto my shoulders—the truth I had been in denial over since the first time my eyes landed on Mikhail.
“You know that’s impossible to answer. This world, our names.
The dues that our roles within the mafia will demand each of us pay…
we can only hope that between the six of us that his innocence will be taken many years from now. ”
“I know.” My reply was near silent, but my understanding was resolute.
“We will each do what needs to be done.” As I looked down at the photos once more, a small grin crept across my face.
I locked his phone as I passed it back to him.
“Cameron will no doubt be up again soon, you should get some rest before he makes his presence known.”
“Da.” Arms crushed me to his chest as he turned us over and reached to tuck the covers back up from where he had thrown them on the floor.
“Stay.” His words were mumbled as he drifted into sleep.
“Stay in my bed. In my arms. Here.” A final whispered plea floated through the air, from a man who never allowed himself to bend or beg on his knees.
“Stay here, tonight. With me.”
With a final kiss, I rested my head on his chest. Tucking my head under his chin, I let my eyes drift closed.
I accepted the truth of our situation then, that this man lying next to me would either be my greatest strength or my undoing.
I had known my decision to come here tonight would be the first domino to fall in a series of choices I would have to make and that my desire to stay would make it harder to leave when the time came…
but still I found myself unable to refuse his last gentle plea.
I let myself relax then, drifting off to sleep as his last whispered truth made it to me.
“You’re my home, Lenochka, my dream. Just please, promise you’ll always come back to me.”