Vadim
“That’s right, wife. All fucking mine. No man will ever see you this way again.
Only me. Only I get to drive my cock into you,” I growl, releasing her hands as the fury I feel over even the thought of her with another man’s cock near her drives me to distraction.
I slam into her harder, like I can fuck the thought of anyone else touching her right out of existence.
Her nails rake down my back, the pain sharp and perfect.
It grounds me. It reminds me she’s real. She’s here. She’s mine.
“Say it again,” I demand, my voice rough against her ear. “Tell me who owns this tight little cunt.”
She gasps, her body trembling beneath me. “You do. Only you.”
The words send a jolt straight to my cock. I bury my face in her neck, biting down just hard enough to make her whimper. Her pussy clenches around me, milking my cock like she’s trying to drain me dry. I don’t relent. I can’t. Not when she’s this close, not when her body is begging for more.
“Fuck, Tai,” I groan, pulling back just enough to watch her face. Her eyes are glazed, her lips parted as she pants. “You take my cock like you were made for me.”
She arches into me, her back lifting off the bed. “Vadim—”
I cut her off with another brutal thrust.
Her breath hits her in a sharp gasp as I bury myself balls deep.
“Come for me,” I growl, my voice raw. “I want to feel you squeeze my cock again.”
She whimpers. Her body obeys before her mind can catch up, her back arching as another orgasm rips through her. Her cunt clamps down on me, and the sensation is too much. I groan, my own climax building fast, the pressure coiling tight at the base of my spine.
“Fuck, Tai,” I grit out, my thrusts turning erratic. “You’re going to make me come so fucking hard.”
She clings to me as she rides out her pleasure. I don’t stop. I can’t. I chase my orgasm down, driving into her with everything I have. Her thighs lock around me. Her heels dig in, urging me deeper, and that finishes me.
I come with a curse that tears out of my throat, driving in hard and staying there while my release punches through me. My hands fist in the sheets beside her head. I keep my weight off her, barely, while my balls empty into her in hot, violent pulses.
Tai’s eyes flutter closed. Her chest rises and falls beneath mine. She is flushed, wrecked, damp from the bath and from me, her hair spread across my pillow.
My wife.
The word settles inside my chest with terrifying permanence.
I lower myself carefully, still inside her, and kiss her mouth.
She makes a tired sound. “Every day? Just like that?”
I laugh before I can stop myself. “You’ll get used to it.”
“That sounded threatening.”
“It was a promise.”
Her eyes open, grey-green and dazed. “You’re very pleased with yourself.”
“I put my ring on your finger, fucked you in a bath, fucked you in my bed, and heard you call yourself my wife. Pleased doesn’t cover it.”
“Our bed,” she murmurs.
“Yes, our bed.”
“And that’s your phone,” she complains as it buzzes loudly against the bathroom floor.
“Leave it. It can wait.”
She nods and curls up under the covers. I join her and gather her close, cupping my hand over her pussy. “Keep that in there, wife.”
She looks back at me over her shoulder. “Eww. Is that some sort of territorial Bratva thing?”
I snort. “No, it’s some sort of I want you knocked up with my baby, and that isn’t going to happen if all my cum slides out of you.”
“Not how it works,” she snickers, but then sobers quickly. “You’re serious.”
“I’m serious about everything that concerns you.”
Tai goes very still against me. “Vadim. That is not a small thing.”
“I know.”
“Do you? Because you just said it like you were ordering lunch.”
“I don’t order lunch. Ivan decides what I’m eating and then acts offended if I question it.”
“Do not make jokes at me right now.”
I press my mouth to the back of her neck and hold her tighter when she tries to shift away. Not enough to trap her. Enough to make sure she understands I’m here.
“I want children,” I say. “With you.”
Her breathing changes. “We’ve known each other for a few days.”
“Long enough.”
“You can’t possibly think this is sensible.”
“Sensible has never protected anyone I care about.”
My phone buzzes again from the bathroom floor. I ignore it.
“Answer it,” she says. “This conversation is shelved.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know,” she huffs. “Long enough to at least get married. Legally.”
“I have a man at City Hall who owes me a favour. We can be married tomorrow.”
“Don’t be absurd.”
I remain silent. Her mouth drops open. “You’re serious?”
“Completely.”
She twists onto her back. I keep my hand over her pussy, moving my fingers slowly over her still-sensitive clit.
“Don’t,” she warns.
“Don’t what? Touch you?”
Her legs part and her eyes close. “Answer your phone, Vadim. Conversation over.”
I withdraw my hand with more regret than the situation deserves and climb out of bed.
Tai makes a satisfied noise, like she’s won a battle. She has. For now.
I pick up the phone from the bathroom floor. Bogdan.
“Yeah.”
“Arseny Kaverin is moving.”
My mood drops clean through the floor.
Tai notices. She pushes herself higher against the pillows and tucks the duvet under her arms.
“Where?” I ask.
“Leaving East End. Two cars. Heading west.”
“To me?”
“Who knows?”
“Tarasov?”
“No movement at his house. But one of his men met with a Kaverin lieutenant an hour ago.”
“Keep me informed.”
I hang up and stand there for one moment while the London Bratva rearranges itself around the woman in my bed.
Tai watches me from beneath the duvet.
“What?” she asks.
“Arseny Kaverin is on the move.”
Her face goes blank first. Then the fear arrives, quick and sharp. “Here?”
“Maybe.”
“Has this got to do with my dad?”
“Maybe.”
“You aren’t being very helpful.”
“You are asking questions I don’t have answers for,” I say, flicking on the shower. “I’m not a mind-reader.”
“Then start reading minds,” she snaps, but her voice shakes.
I turn back to her. She sits naked in my bed with fear on her face. My first instinct is to dress her, lock her in the reinforced safe room, and meet Arseny Kaverin at the gate with Bogdan and enough weapons to settle three generations of bad blood.
“Get in the shower,” I say. “We have a decision to make.”
Her eyes narrow. “We?”
“Yes, we. Don’t look so suspicious. It annoys me.”
“You exist to annoy me.”
“Mutual.”
She throws the duvet back and climbs off the bed. Her legs are unsteady, which reminds us both of the fucking. She walks past me into the shower, and I follow.
Tai tips her face into it, eyes closed as I loom over her back, protecting her even now.
“Was Mikhail my dad?” she asks.
“You’re doing it again.”
“I’m thinking out loud. You are here, so get used to it, or I’ll go and speak with Ivan about it.”
I slam my hand to the tile, pressing my chest against her back. “Don’t.”
She freezes for a moment and then turns to face me, her hand dropping lower to grip my cock. “Don’t what?”
I stare down into her eyes. “Don’t talk about other men in my shower.”
Her fingers tighten around me, and the threat leaves my body through a slow breath.
“Ivan is Ivan.”
“Ivan is a man,” I repeat.
“He’s also about seventy.”
“He is sixty-three and vain about it.”
Her lips part, and for a second, she almost laughs. I need that sound more than I want to admit. Then the fear returns, and her hand slips away from my cock.
“Vadim.”
“I know.”
“What do you intend to do?”
“About Ivan?”
She blows out an exasperated breath. “No, you idiot. About this Kaverin boss who may or may not be coming here.”
I turn the water hotter and reach for the shampoo. “We clean up. We dress. Then you choose.”
“Choose what?”
“Whether you want to be present if he comes to my gate.”
She blinks water from her lashes. “You’d let me decide that?”
“Yes.”
Suspicion settles over her face again. “Why?”
“If you are going to question me every time I give you a choice, this is going to be a long life.”
She smiles and turns around, tilting her head back. “Agreed. I’ll try to stop and take it at face value.”
“Please do,” I say, squirting shampoo onto her hair. I work it through her hair with my fingers, slower than necessary. She goes quiet under my hands, but doesn’t relax. She merely pauses between one panic and the next.
“You’re good at this,” she says.
“At washing hair?”
“At pretending the world isn’t on fire.”
“The world is always on fire.”
She turns her head enough to look at me. “Do you ever get tired of being accurate?”
“No.” I rinse the shampoo from her hair and ignore the fact that she has started calling me on every piece of bullshit I offer her.
She gives me a look over her shoulder. “You’re in a good mood for a man who just found out a Kaverin convoy might be coming to his doorstep.”
“Means nothing. They can’t start anything except an argument. It’s broad daylight.”
“And that stops the Bratva, does it?”
“Almost always, or we’d be all locked up.”
“Okay, I see your point. So he wants a chat. What then?”
“Then we find out if he is connected to Tarasov and what he wants.”
“And if I’m related to any of them?”
“Then we deal with that, too.”
She turns again, water running over her face and down her chest. “You say that like it won’t change anything.”
“It won’t change us.”
“There is no us if my father walks in and decides I belong to him instead.”
My eyes narrow. “No one decides that.”
“You did.”
I stare at her.
She stares back, chin lifted, eyes scared but steady.
Fine. She can have that one.
“I did,” I say. “And now I’m asking what you want.”
Her expression flickers. The honesty disarms her more than anger would. “I don’t know what I want from a man who may or may not be my father.”
“Then decide what you don’t want.”
Her gaze softens. “I don’t want to leave you.”
“That was honest.”
“I don’t want to lie to you.” Her throat works, but her eyes stay on mine. “If I find out something and it scares me, my first instinct will be to run.”
“I won’t let you.”
She nods and picks up the soap, handing it to me. I take it and spend the next few minutes cleaning us both, taking my time because if Arseny is coming to my door, he can wait.