Chapter 11
Dominik
When we step into the penthouse, I dismiss Viktor with a nod and send Petrov to make a fifteen-minute sweep. “Roof rotation holds. No interruptions unless someone stops breathing.”
They both leave silently, soldiers who know my expectations without needing any clarification.
Alina moves toward the wall of windows as if compelled. Her hands rest on the back of the sofa, eyes on the city, so damn beautiful. I’m already addicted to the stubborn tilt of her jaw.
“You handled yourself well tonight,” I tell her.
She lets out a soft laugh. “By not making a scene like you did?”
“By understanding when scenes get people killed,” I reply. “Don’t challenge Gavriil again. Insulting him is an invitation to die slowly.”
“He would really get angry enough to kill me just for insulting him?” she questions me.
“Worse. He’ll want to make you his toy,” I say, tension building in my chest.
“You prefer obedience,” she accuses.
“I want you alive. And nowhere near him.”
Something flickers behind her intelligent green eyes—wary curiosity, not trust. It’s enough for me for now. I want to ask to see her again, after tomorrow, even if it’s a longshot. I want to ask her for a million things but can’t find the words.
So, I reach up and unhook the silver chain from my neck, the one that matches Gavriil’s.
Every Bratva member receives a crest, but only two necklaces were ever made with rubies.
Our father split his single Pakhan stone into two teardrops.
Reminders for Gavriil to rule without hesitation, and me to obey without question.
They’re two halves of his legacy our father wanted us to share.
Alina turns around when I approach her, her eyes lowering to my hand. “What’s that?”
“Insurance,” I say. The only word honest enough to use.
I step close without touching her and hold it out.
After tomorrow, when she walks out of this house, I want her to take a piece of me with her.
“You can wear it when you’re here or after you leave the house.
In case anyone needs to know who has offered you protection when I’m not beside you. ”
Her gaze flicks from the stone to my face. “Another claim.”
“A little bit of armor,” I amend. “If you want it.”
She doesn’t take it. She doesn’t refuse it either.
“Think about it,” I say. I set the chain on the kitchen island instead of hanging it around her throat, because forcing a symbol just poisons it.
“In the meantime, new precautions. If you need something, you ask Viktor, Petrov, or me. No one else. One of us will always be nearby. And if anyone tries to put his hand on you, or even looks at you wrong, you say my name.”
Her mouth parts. “Why would—”
“Every man in this organization knows what happens when they hear my name said like a warning.” I step closer to her again, drawn to her. Close enough to count the gold flecks in her eyes. “Say it for me, dikaya koshka.”
Alina stares at me. The refusal builds, but then the practical woman eventually wins out. “Dominik.”
The sound of her saying my name is like lightning striking down my spine.
“Louder,” I demand because I’m a selfish bastard.
“Dominik.” She says it stronger this time. The shape of it on her lips is nearly obscene.
“Good girl,” I tell her, and step back because I should, not because I want to.
She swallows hard enough for me to see her throat move. “And if you’re not around after tomorrow?”
“I’ll give you my number. And if you call me, I’ll be there, anytime, anyplace.”
Alina lifts a single dubious eyebrow. “You can’t be everywhere.”
“Watch me.”
A near smile and something like exasperated relief passes over her face. She shakes her head and turns to the window again, because distance is the only thing in this room she can choose for herself.
The rest of the world goes quiet. It’s just us in my apartment. I should open my laptop, make calls, wring the next step out of men who owe me. Instead, I study the shape of the woman standing in my home and admit that tonight I liked saying no on her behalf more than is reasonable.
“You confuse me,” she says quietly. “I’m supposed to just be a hostage. Why act like someone worth protecting?”
I step up to her side, drawing her eyes to mine. I can’t help but touch the middle of her back, my fingertips slowly tracing her spine. “No one else is left to protect you,” I say. “Not your parents. Not your brother.”
“I don’t want your pity,” Alina warns me.
“I’m not giving any to you,” I reply, even if I do feel sympathy toward her. “I’m doing what feels right in a fucked-up situation. Protecting the innocent as much as I can.”
“That doesn’t make you the good guy,” she says.
“I didn’t say that.” Regrets eat away at my soul every single day. “Why are you so resistant to someone trying to help you out?”
Alina’s firm expression wavers. “Because Archer was the only one who ever tried.”
My fingers slide from her shoulder to her chin, tilting it just enough for her breath to hitch. “Until now.”
Alina’s eyes briefly flicker to my lips, and all I want to do in that moment is kiss her and whisper insane promises against her lips.
But she lowers her eyes and looks away, making my hand slip from her chin.
Maybe that’s for the best. How can she be safe in my world? It would be cruel of me to try and keep her here.
“Tomorrow,” I say, “you’ll stay here with Viktor and a few other men while I go to the meetup with Archer.”
“No,” she says with a scowl.
“Yes,” I answer.
Shaking her head, she says, “If Archer brings the money—”
“He won’t bring all of it. We both know that, dikaya koshka,” I say. “He’ll bring what he can, and a story to cover the rest.”
“And then what happens? What will you do?” Her voice is even. Brave. I’ve met seasoned soldiers with less courage.
“Then I’ll do what I have to,” I say, because that has always been the right answer and the wrong one. “But not in front of you.”
It’s not a promise. It is honest, though, and Alina can hear the difference. I can tell by the way her shoulders ease a fraction.
“Time for bed,” I say before she can try to convince me to let the traitor live and I have to disappoint her. At the wave of my hand, she comes without hesitation. I walk her to the guestroom door, certain that there’s not a damn thing she can say to make me change my mind about Archer.
But when I turn around to say goodnight, it’s not her words that she plans to use against me.
She grabs a fistful of my shirt, rises onto her toes, and kisses me—soft, sweet, soaked in wine and pure manipulation.
Fuck, she’s not fighting fair.
Her teeth nip at my bottom lip as she starts to pull away. I grasp her waist to stop her, but it’s too late. That’s all she plans to give me tonight. Just a taste, knowing it will leave me with a craving for more.
“Convince Gavriil to let Archer go free tomorrow, and I’ll stay with you tomorrow night,” she offers, her words soft, breathy like they would be if she were in my bed and underneath me. “If anyone can change his mind, it’s you, right?”
The offer tastes like surrender, but it’s mine. For once in my life, I’m the one naming the price instead of being sold.
One night for a traitor’s life? I’ve already decided Archer walks away if he plays his part. The only thing I’m really trading for her is the right to be the one who saves them both.
I’m an asshole for not telling her that I’ve already made an agreement with Gavriil to let Archer live in return for the money and guns.
Instead of giving her that truth, I make her a counteroffer instead. One decent thing my father taught me was that you don’t get answers to questions you never ask.
“I want you in my bed for two weeks.”
“One week.”
Exactly what I wanted. She thinks she won ground, and I let her believe it.
“One week,” I agree.
“And I get to come with you tomorrow,” Alina adds.
Fuck. Of course, she would insist on being there to ensure I keep my word.
“Your brother needs a lesson he won’t forget. Gavriil will insist on that much,” I warn her. While her presence could be used as motivation for Archer to do the right thing if nothing else, if I had my choice, I’d rather keep her away, safe.
She nods and swallows. “I understand that. As long as it’s not a fatal lesson. Do you think your brother can be convinced?”
“Yes,” I say, hating how easily she bends me without even trying. This woman may be delicate, and think she’s powerless, but she doesn’t need to be big and strong if she has me wrapped around her finger like I’m her own private warrior.
“Okay.”
“I’ll draw up a contract for you to sign in the morning,” I tell her. One I’ll likely spend way too long drafting tonight, ensuring every word is perfect.
“A contract?” she repeats with her brow furrowing. “Because you think I’ll change my mind after you beat the shit out of Archer?”
“Yes. And I want to make sure the terms of this arrangement are clear to both of us.”
“Then the terms are simple,” she says. “Archer lives, walks away, and is never hunted again, so long as he never betrays you again. In exchange…I’m yours in your bed for one week.”
“I need you to be more specific than ‘in my bed for one week,’” I tell her while a million specifics of what I want to do to her race through my filthy mind.
“I’ll let you fuck me every night that I sleep in your bed,” Alina clarifies.
She offers one sentence that nearly brings me to my knees.
“That’s better,” I reply with an eager grin. “Still, you make it sound like you plan to lie there and wait until it’s over while I fuck you. I want you to be an active participant. I need you to be an enthusiastic participant or I’ll refuse.”
“You wouldn’t,” she declares confidently. “But I wouldn’t have offered if I planned to simply grin and bear it.”
“Is that right?”
Hearing her admit that she wants me is everything.
The urge to throw her over my shoulder and start the seven nights right now is strong.
So strong I have to tuck my fisted hands into my pockets.
“How enthusiastic are we talking? Will you climb on top and ride me at least…twice during those seven nights?”
“T-twice is acceptable,” she stammers, her green eyes glazing over as if she’s thinking about it too now, in great detail. Seeing the blatant lust on her face has my cock so hard it’s weeping.
“I also want to pleasure you each night,” I declare. “Oral sex, in case that was unclear.”
An exhale of breath leaves her parted lips. “As long as you don’t expect me to reciprocate.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I lie. I do dream of it, a hundred or more times a day, likely again when I force myself to tell her goodnight and lock myself in my room to shower.
But first…I decide to push my luck. I don’t want to leave her turned on and aching tonight. I also need to know that she’s serious about her offer.
Cupping Alina’s jaw, I rub my thumb over her bottom lip and tell her, “Let me have a taste of you right now, and I’ll let you come tomorrow.” It’s risky, stupid even, but I can’t resist. Especially after her lips part and she lets me swipe the pad of my thumb over her hot tongue.
She doesn’t answer, but she doesn’t refuse either when I grasp her hip in my free hand and back her up against the wall. Pulling my thumb free, I replace it with two fingers instead, shoving them deep enough that she has to open wider. Her fingers wrap around my wrist.
“Suck them,” I demand.
Alina complies, making me groan as I work the digits in and out of her pretty mouth with her hand gripping mine. At the same time, I hike up the bottom of her dress until it bunches around her stomach.
Glancing down, I curse when I see her sexy black string thong.
Unable to wait another second, I remove my fingers from her mouth to claim it with my own.
Wrapping my fingers around her throat, I shove my tongue deep against hers.
Alina grabs onto the back of my neck while my wet fingers slip down her stomach, sliding inside the front of her panties.
Alina whimpers when my fingertips graze her slit for the first time.
“Fuck,” I groan. She’s soaking wet, allowing me to easily bury my fingers inside her tight heat.
After that, our kiss turns feral. Alina hikes one of her legs up on my hip, spreading herself wider for me. The heel of my hand presses against her clit as she begins to ride my hand. Her fingers grab onto the back of my jacket like she wants to rip it off.
When her slick walls clench around my pumping fingers, I reluctantly tear my lips from hers to watch her face. She throws her head back against the wall where my hand on her throat has her pinned.
I press down harder on her clit, and she erupts. “Dom!”
Eyes slamming shut, she gasps my name again as her entire body begins to quake from the pleasure.
Hearing her scream the shortened version of my name while she comes on my fingers nearly sets me off. But I hold off, making tonight about her alone.
“That’s it. Soak my fingers so I can taste your sweetness,” I whisper against her lips as I steal kiss after kiss between her moans.
“Yes! Oh! Oh god!”
Her leg on my hip and arms around my neck cling to me tighter through the last of the tremors.
When her body goes completely limp, I remove my fingers from her and shove them into my mouth.
“Mmm,” I moan around them, closing my eyes as I savor her pleasure.
When my eyes open again, Alina is watching me suck my fingers clean, her cheeks rosy red with arousal.
While I know that she’s only making this offer for her brother, I’m going to selfishly take her up on it. “We have a deal, dikaya koshka.”
She gives me a shaky nod, like she’s surprised herself and me too. Then, she lets me go to tug down her dress and slips into her room, shutting and locking the door behind her.
I strip off my clothes on the way to my room and don’t even bother with lights before getting into the shower.
And under the hot spray of water, with my erection in my hand, I let myself picture Alina on her knees, her lips eagerly, urgently stretching around my shaft like she can’t wait to taste me a second longer, her cheeks hollowed out, determined to suck my fucking soul from my body.
I tell myself I’m just working off tension for the job ahead, but even in the dark I know the truth.
I’m already planning for nights with Alina that our contract doesn’t cover.