Chapter 21
LEV
The spring storm rolls across the fields, lightning flickering on the horizon like distant artillery fire.
I stand on the farmhouse porch with a cigarette between my fingers, watching the sky crack open while Vivika sleeps in the house behind me.
The wee hours of the morning have always been my thinking time, the quiet space between midnight and dawn when the world feels suspended and anything seems possible.
We stayed up late working on her act, running through scenarios and body language until she could barely keep her eyes open.
If she's going to convince Luka Kolar that she's Ana Veche, she has to be more like Ana than ever before—more confident, more commanding, more like a woman who was born to lead a criminal empire.
And right now, despite all the progress she's made, Vivika still seems too meek and passive for the role she's about to play.
I take a long drag of my cigarette and let the smoke curl from my lips.
The problem isn't her intelligence or her ability to recite the facts of Ana's life.
The problem is something deeper, something fundamental to who Vivika is as a person.
She's spent her life being small and quiet and careful, and that's the opposite of everything Ana Veche represented.
The screen door creaks behind me and I turn to see Vivika stepping onto the porch, wrapped in one of the blankets from the bed and barefoot. Her hair is tousled from sleep and her eyes are still heavy-lidded, but she moves toward me with uncertain steps and a weary gaze.
"Couldn't sleep?" I ask.
"The bed was cold without you." She stops beside me and leans against the porch railing. "What are you doing out here?"
"Thinking." I offer her the cigarette and she takes it, bringing it to her lips and inhaling deeply. It's a bit surprising considering I've never seen her smoke before. "I didn't know you indulged."
"I used to. Before…" She exhales a thin stream of smoke and hands the cigarette back. "Before all of this, I mean. I quit years ago." When her head hangs, I realize I'm a dead weight sucking her back to a bad habit she wants to leave behind.
I drop the cigarette and stamp it out and rub a hand over my eyes.
There's been a gnawing sense of dread that I've carried for a few days now.
Vivika wants normal. It's what she craves.
But even in the simplest things, I can't give her normal.
I'm the antithesis of everything she wants, right down to a bad habit she's quit that I'm dragging her back into.
"I'm sorry," I say softly, and it may well be one of the first sincere apologies I've ever issued.
"For?" Vivika steps closer until her body stretches along the length of mine and her head rests on my shoulder.
"You're not like me, and I just…" I can't even finish. The words I have are inadequate and useless. She deserves more than words, but I can't give her what she deserves.
"Kiss me?" she says softly, and at first I'm not sure what she's trying to say. But I press a kiss to her forehead and she straightens. "No, really kiss me, Lev."
I reach up, curling my fingers around her neck and pulling her down for a kiss.
Her hands slide under my shirt, her fingers trailing across the muscles of my stomach and up to my chest, and I feel my body responding to her touch the way it always does.
But something makes me pull back to catch her wrists and hold her at arm's length even though every instinct is screaming at me to take what she's offering.
"Wait," I growl. This is a learning experience, and though I hate myself for thinking this way, I have to take advantage of it.
Confusion flickers across her face. "What's wrong? I thought you wanted—"
"I do want you." I release her wrists and cup her face in my hands, forcing her to meet my eyes. "But I won't have you like this."
"I don't understand."
"You're going to meet Luka Kolar in two days.
" I stroke my thumb across her cheekbone, watching her eyes dart back and forth between mine.
"You're going to sit across from one of the most dangerous men in Eastern Europe and convince him that you're Ana Veche, and right now, you're still approaching everything—including me—like a woman who's afraid to ask for what she wants. "
She pulls back slightly, her brow furrowing. "Are you rejecting me?" There's fear in her eyes, of my rejecting her, but maybe also because she knows what I'm about to ask.
"No, Vivika. I'm not."
"So… what, you want me to be aggressive or something?" Her bottom lip pouts out. I know she wants softness and connection, and I want to give it to her. But right now, I want her to take charge of her power and use it. And I want her to learn.
"I want you to be a Donna." I let my hands fall from her face and cross my arms over my chest, leaning back against the porch railing. "Ana Veche didn't ask for things. She took them."
"I don't know how to do that."
"Then learn." I hold her gaze, letting the challenge stand. "Show me what Ana would do if she wanted a man. Show me how a Mafia Donna takes what belongs to her."
Vivika stares at me blankly, but she squares her shoulders and steps toward me, and I can see her trying to channel something stronger than herself.
"Come here," she says, and her voice is firmer than before but still lacks the commanding edge I'm looking for.
So I don't move. "A Donna doesn't ask. She commands. And when she commands, there's no question in her voice—only expectation."
She bites her lip, frustration flickering across her features, and tries again. "Come. Here." This time, she points at the ground in front of her, lifting her chin in what she probably thinks is an imperious gesture.
But I stay where I am. "Better, but you're still asking. You're still waiting to see if I'll obey instead of expecting it as your due."
"This is too hard," she mutters.
"Everything worth doing is hard." I push off from the railing and close the distance between us, stopping just inches from her body.
"Think about it, Vivika. How does it feel when I tell you what to do?
That certainty, that absolute confidence that you'll follow where I lead—that's what you need to project. "
Her eyes search my face, and I can see the wheels turning behind them. Then something shifts in her expression, and when she speaks again, her voice has dropped to a register I've never heard from her before.
"On your knees."
The words are electrifying. I don't move immediately, testing her, and her eyes narrow on me, growing darker and filled with lust.
"I said on your knees, Lev." She steps closer and grips my jaw, pursing her lips before continuing. "I'm tired of waiting for you to decide what I'm allowed to have."
I sink to my knees on the worn porch boards, looking up at her through the mist of rain drifting under the eaves. This is what I've been waiting for. This is the woman who can convince Luka Kolar that she was born to rule.
"That's it," I murmur. "That's exactly it."
"Did I say you could speak?" She threads her fingers through my hair and tugs, tilting my head back.
"You've spent weeks telling me what to do, how to walk, how to talk, how to be someone else entirely.
This morning, you're going to listen to me and do exactly what I tell you to do.
And you're going to thank me for the privilege. "
The dominance in her voice sends a shiver down my spine. I've created something dangerous here, awakened something in her that I suspect has been dormant her entire life. And I couldn't be more pleased.
"Yes, ma'am," I say. "Whatever you want."
"Stand up." She releases my hair and steps back, her eyes raking over my body with a hunger that makes my blood run hot. "Now follow me…"
Vivika turns and walks back into the house where I see she stoked the fire before coming out. I shut the door behind us, and she leads me right to the fire where she turns on her heel and looks down her nose at me. "Strip."
I pull my shirt over my head, letting it fall to the floor, and test her by crossing my arms over my chest. She's nailed it perfectly. The voice, the tone she's taking… Vivika is making me hard as a rock.
"The rest," she commands when I hesitate with my hands at my waistband. "All of it. I want to see what's mine."
What's mine… Her words couldn’t be more fitting. I am hers. I've been hers since the moment I saw her face on that street corner and decided to take her and keep her and make her into something extraordinary.
I finish undressing and stand in front of her naked and wanting. She circles me slowly, trailing her fingers across my shoulders and down my spine, and I hold perfectly still under her inspection like a soldier awaiting orders from his commanding officer, and my dick stands proudly at attention.
"You've been so patient with me," she says against my ear as she stops behind me.
Her hand slides around my hip and lower, and my breath catches in my throat.
"Tonight, I don't want your patience. I don't want your control.
I want the man underneath all of that, the one who takes what he wants without apology. "
"Vivika—"
"Ana," she corrects me with a sharpness that makes my pulse spike. "Tonight, I'm Ana. And Ana doesn't beg, doesn't wait, doesn't ask permission." She presses her body against my back, her lips brushing the shell of my ear. "Ana takes."
Her words ignite something primal inside me, a mix of pride and arousal that has my dick throbbing as I stand there naked.
She embodies Ana now, commanding the space with an authority that transforms her from captive to queen, and I revel in it even as the urge to reclaim control simmers beneath my skin.