13. Viktor
VIKTOR
Wren didn’t say anything on the ride back to my house.
She didn’t say anything as I led her inside it, either.
That was to be expected, though. She had to grapple with a lot to process, and that couldn’t be easy on her.
I directed her to sit in the kitchen while I made us lunch. She did, staring at the wall and zoning out.
She didn’t eat much, but I wasn’t in the mood to push her about her appetite.
I was in the mood to push her on whether she could ever be flexible about her stubbornness that she was good and we were bad. If she would be able to assist us in this war against Gregori.
After we ate—or rather, after I did—I told her that I was going to my office.
She could stare at another wall. It didn’t matter where she went or what she did in my house.
But I recognized that she needed space to think, to slot away all the news about how her “side” of the law wasn’t so perfect, after all.
Eventually, when I felt like my nerves were fraying and I was rereading the same emails over and over again without actually absorbing any of what was on the screen, I gave up and sought her out.
I glanced at my watch.
A couple of hours. She’s got to be in a better frame of mind by now.
I headed up to my room, assuming she might have gone up there to nap.
I found her there, pacing back and forth slowly.
I couldn’t guess where her head was at with the news I’d had Elena show her, but I picked up on enough.
Her shoulders slumped. Her head hung. Those red tresses curtained her face, and I knew without seeing it that she was frowning, scowling, or locked in a grumpy expression.
“What do you want?” she asked without looking up. She’d detected my presence as I slowly entered the room. Pulling out the tie in my hair, I let it fall free and avoided the sting on my scalp from it being held back too tightly.
“Right now?” I caught her as she paced, not letting her retreat in another path over the carpet.
Slipping my arm around her waist, I served as a barricade.
She slumped forward and jerked her head up to glare at me.
Before she could protest or dodge me, I stepped forward and tugged her into my embrace.
Locking my arms around her, I left no gap or buffer between us.
She was flush against me, her breasts pillowing against my pecs as she craned her neck to face me directly.
“I could think of a thing or two that might entertain us.”
She pressed her lips together, and too swiftly, that lost and conflicted look returned to her eyes. That flare of a fight left her.
“Which is it? You want me to betray the agency and work for you? Or you want me to be your toy?”
“Why not both?”
Now she reacted. She slitted her eyes and wiggled to get free.
I held her closer, too turned on for my own good. “Tell me something, Red. You can assume that my asking for your help is a betrayal.”
“It is.” She tipped her chin up, dazzling me with that defiance. She’d exchanged her glasses for the contacts and I relished how nothing served as a barrier to my watching her face.
“What about the betrayal they’d done to you first?”
That shut her up. She searched my face with a dogged determination not to agree with me.
“You were sent to that stakeout where someone allegedly shot at you. You’re too fucking smart not to wonder if that was a setup. And if it was, the only ones who could have arranged that would be the superior and colleagues you want to think are right, not wrong.”
She swallowed hard, her throat flexing.
“You have been out of their reach for over a week now, and they haven’t looked for you at all. You’re too goddamn sharp not to connect the dots that they might be counting on your not showing up again.”
When she began to lower her gaze, I hugged her tighter to prompt her to look at me.
“What about that betrayal?” I asked, mesmerized by the hurt on her expressive face.
“I don’t know.” She cleared her throat. “I don’t know what to make of them betraying me or setting me up, if that’s what happened. All I know is that you are asking me to question my allegiance.”
I wouldn’t hide it. “I am.”
“All my life, I wanted to serve like my parents did. Being on the right side of the law is in my blood. It’s my passion. It’s my purpose.”
“To be shot? To be dead?”
She furrowed her brow.
“What purpose have you had working for them so far? With low rewards and barely any recognition as a rookie. Sent to be killed?” I scoffed.
“It’s not supposed to be like that. You don’t understand.”
“Then convince me. Make me understand.”
She licked her lips and frowned. “I grew up knowing I wanted to bring down criminals—”
“Then do it.”
She glowered up at me, her green eyes crystalized with ire.
“Bring down criminals like the ones paid off to do the bidding of other criminals.”
“Oh, and you’re exempt from that?”
I didn’t reply.
“You are the kind of criminal I’m supposed to want to bring in and have arrested.
You and your Bratva men. You’re the targets of all law enforcement agencies.
Yet, here I am. Told to act like your supposed guest. Expected to trick myself into thinking I’m some kind of roommate under your lock and key.
You’re asking me to betray myself, Viktor. ”
I watched her, marveling at how fierce she could be even when she was scared and caught in a position she didn’t welcome.
“You’re asking me to betray the ideals I’ve always stood by.
You’re asking me to give you my allegiance.
” She huffed lightly, like it was so ludicrous of an event that she couldn’t convince herself to get behind any of it.
“Because it’s all or nothing. I can’t offer you ideas and still call myself a member of the agency.
I can’t do a favor for you and expect to be ushered back into my life when the opportunity arises. ”
“How is that even on the table anymore?”
She pressed her lips shut tight.
“How can you think that anyone’s going to be welcoming you back to those offices after you were supposedly set up to be killed on the first night of the job?”
“I don’t know what to think anymore!” It left her as a wretched admission that she likely loathed to share with me. Or with anyone. Stubbornness and pride were mighty forces, but in this context, she was using them as a shield.
“I don’t know what to think, Viktor. Of seeing all that evidence of bribes being paid.
Of my superior and colleagues consorting with the enemy.
” She licked her lips again. I knew she wasn’t doing it to tease me but as merely an action of her speaking so heatedly and quickly.
But dammit, did the gesture get to me. I was drawn to silence her and show her that she didn’t need to think.
She could just feel instead. Feel me. Feel my mouth on hers until she was sighing with desire and I was growling with lust.
“I don’t know what to think of your teasing me and letting me think I could fit into this insanity that you call life. I don’t know what to think of your request for help when it means forfeiting my moral compass.”
I cinched the back of her shirt with my fingers, my heart revved up with a residual adrenaline rush she was making me feel as she spoke faster and more frantically.
Inches parted us, and I was too close to snapping as it was.
“I don’t know what to think of your kissing me and touching me…” She furrowed her brow as she lowered her voice. Gazing up at me like this, she bewitched me. “I don’t know what to think of how freeing it felt to let you… to let you get under my skin like this and make me wish for more.”
“Then don’t.” I lowered to kiss her. She didn’t pull back or fight. Standing still and too rigid for my liking, she kept her eyes closed as I reared back. “Don’t think, Wren.”
She heaved out a deep exhale and opened her lips. Before she could argue further, I dipped down and claimed her mouth again.
First she unfurled her fists that had been wedged between us. Then she placed her palms flat on my chest. My heart raced wildly under my ribcage, and it only made it all that much more thrilling when it sped up even more.
For her. Because of her.
Heat swamped me, weighing me down with the leaden potency of my blood rushing south. Of the excitement of having another chance to have her.
I retreated, only an inch so our breath still mingled in the limited space between us.
Staring into the molten desire swirling in her green eyes, I lowered to pick her up.
As I scooped her off the ground, I plastered my mouth to hers again.
She linked her arms around my neck, holding on tight as she parted her lips and dueled with my tongue as I plundered her and sought her sweet taste.
Her legs followed suit under my hands on her ass, prodding her to wrap those slender limbs around my waist.
Kissing her and drowning in the magic of her being so responsive, I carried her to the bed.
Not the sofa.
My bed, where she should have been all this time.
I followed her down, covering her as I began to tug at her clothes.
She wasn’t idle either, her fingers clasping at my shirt, then my pants.
There wasn’t any hesitation now. Since I’d made a move and come on to her when she was conflicted about her purpose and all that shit about needing to do the right thing, she was fully engaged and just as impatient for us to get as naked as possible as quickly as possible.
We shed our clothes without finesse. Ripped fabric and missing buttons wouldn’t slow us down. Together, we were in a race to feel every bare inch of each other. To grind together and start that addicting friction of her pussy and my cock. Her breasts and my chest.
Fumbling to stay together while we stripped, I sucked on her lips and knew that foreplay would have to come next time. And the next. And the next after that.
I leaned up, tearing my mouth off hers to gaze at her spread out on my bed. That halo of red hair splayed out on the dark blue comforter. Her flushed cheeks and puckered nipples. Her flat stomach and her slim legs parting slowly.
“Don’t think,” I told her as I positioned myself between her legs.
I swiped my fingers over her entrance, smearing her cream.
“Just feel me.” I notched my dick at her wet entrance and took hold of her thighs.
Then as I spread them apart and shifted her ass more in the air, lifted off the mattress, I slammed in all the way.
No preamble.
No warning.
One smooth, swift slide in.
Her slick walls gloved me, sucking me in. Her body trembled, holding me deep inside with my balls flush against her ass cheeks.
Holding her up and looming over her, I committed the sight of her to memory. Just like this. Open. Exposed.
Mine.
“Feel me.”
She nodded, seeming to take that as a question.
“Feel me fucking your tight cunt,” I growled as I withdrew and slammed back in.
“I do. I… Do…” She could barely breathe, let alone speak. I didn’t wait to set up a punishing pace of her taking me as far as she could. Over and over, I rammed into her. My balls were already drawing up tight. I was on the verge of exploding.
Keeping a firm grip on her legs, I kept her splayed open so I could watch my dick disappear into her. Suctioning sounds of the natural lube between us competed with the music of her panting and moaning.
I would never forget it. The sight of her taking me hard and fast like this was a vision I planned to take to the fucking grave. Of her cunt wrapped around me. Of her breasts jiggling and bouncing so fast. Of her mouth opening in a perfect O as she tensed then crashed.
She came with a cry, watching me with that turbulent storm of desire and loathing.
Now wasn’t the time to debate whether this was an accident or a mistake.
She felt too good, too perfect of a fit.
I gave up and came. My control snapped as I whipped my hips twice more and shot my cum into her. Every drop. All my seed. She took it all as she caught her breath and trembled beneath me.
On a heavy exhale, I dropped. Collapsing on top of her, I willed my heart to slow down as I covered her and closed my eyes.
I felt all over her, her inner muscles still fluttering and clenching around my dick.
I felt her.
And I couldn’t help but think about how much my need for her would likely never end.