9. Maksim
MAKSIM
She bit me.
She fucking bit me.
After the hasty ceremony that had been thrown together at the last minute, I took Carina’s hand and held on. Tightly.
Once I got over the shock that she’d be so defiant to me after I’d warned her, I wondered when I could have another chance to speak with her. To ask her if she was here for no other reason than to spy, and if so, what the hell Arturo was after.
Having a wife still seemed like a drag. Like another obstacle to my already busy job of helping Adrik keep the family together.
But something about her made me snap. Perhaps she had snapped.
A chance to get to know her or elaborate on who the hell this woman was, really, would have to wait. We moved through the guests, and I had to do my part in mingling and speaking with them.
She stayed with me, her hand firmly in mine.
Then we sat for lunch.
She sat right next to me.
Afterward, more meetings with the many guests who’d come here so soon after Adrik and Elena’s wedding.
Even though this was an arranged marriage and a very, very quickly thrown-together event, it was still a chance to bring people together.
As such, we spoke with the Rossis and others who were still allies.
A couple of new deals were even brokered out here on the vast entertainment space of the patio.
Dinner followed, and still, I kept a close leash on Carina.
All through the talks and mingling, she was quiet. She stayed with me and didn’t speak up. At first, I wondered if she was simply that well trained to know that she should defer to the men in the room.
After a while, though, I realized she wasn’t spying, per se.
She was merely paying attention.
Once or twice, I got the hunch that she was biting her lip and holding back from participating in a conversation. But that didn’t make sense. She couldn’t know about any of what we referenced—even in code.
All day long and into the evening, I could barely concentrate on anything related to my job or any deals.
I was stuck on the mystery of whether she was here to spy.
If she was here as a threat, I’d need to handle it.
I’d already lost faith in the Garcia Cartel, so her being here as a sign of peace was a joke.
Yet, as I endured the hours with her next to me, I was no closer to having a solid idea on whether Gregori was testing the perimeter of our empire by trying to mess with our allies like the Garcias.
When she stood to the side, working through what looked like polite small talk with Elena—under Adrik’s watchful eye as he stood close to them—I got a drink at the bar.
“She seems…” Alexei leaned his elbows against the bar.
I raised one brow at him.
“Icy,” he said at last.
“She fucking bit my lip when I warned her that she'd better not be here as a spy for her brother.”
He smirked. “Well, damn.”
Damn was right.
Watching her from afar, I saw how he and others could assume she was icy. While she wasn’t aloof and cool, she didn’t seem to be in a rush to strike up any conversations.
Again, maybe she was trained to be like that.
She did smile and cordially replied when spoken to, but her expressions weren’t genuine.
Hell, maybe she’s just not a fan of crowds like this and being in the spotlight.
Yet, she wasn’t shy or faltering to know what to do, clearly comfortable in her own skin, and that confidence was a hell of a bonus.
It’s not like this is any normal wedding, anyway. We had the ceremony in front of guests, we put up with the photographers, and we had lunch, then dinner. It was an all-day affair, but without the romantic and cheesy crap like what Adrik and Elena had with dances and music and all that.
They had a week or so to plan. Whereas I had… hours.
I set my glass down, studying her from across the room as she seemed to listen to Adrik and Elena.
I hadn’t given myself a chance to think about how I’d incorporate her into my life, into my family. However I went about it, I had to make sure that I avoided further problems like her spying. So far, she seemed like nothing but an unenthusiastic participant in all of this.
But I’m not sure that you’re as uninterested as you want me to believe.
The kiss stoked too much desire in me.
And her having the guts to bite me threatened to make me wild for her.
She was strong. Not weak.
She was confident and sharp and observant. Not a mindless fool.
She was…
I exhaled slowly, eyeing her in that dress and wondering if all her curves were as soft as they seemed along the contours of that white fabric.
She’s fucking exquisite.
Pushing off the bar, I headed back toward her. Originally, I’d planned to keep my distance. To treat her with indifference until I could know what she was here for. Laying down boundaries seemed imperative, and I would damn well make sure she understood that trust had to be earned.
As I reached her and she subtly gave me a quick side-eye, I realized that she was likely trying to assert her own boundaries too. That was what that nip on my lip was about.
I set my hand on the small of her back, a possessive move, just to test how she’d react.
She backed up slightly and turned to face my brother, removing my hand from her.
Trying to avoid me, too?
She wouldn’t succeed. There wasn’t a chance in hell I was taking my eyes off her. Instead of being peeved by her independence and iciness, I could only admire how confident she was. How sure she could be of herself.
The night wound down, and we were driven back to my house at last. Still, in the car, she maintained an aloofness. Tipping her chin up and looking out the window while she avoided eye contact, she gave no impression of caring that I existed.
But I saw through her.
I felt the quick peeks she attempted of me.
I noticed how she glanced at me in the reflection of the window.
Keeping my eyes on her was a security matter.
Back at my house, as I guided her upstairs toward the bedrooms, though, I knew my bigger problem would be in keeping my hands to myself.
At the door to the guest room, she faced me. Lips pressed tightly, eyes clear and wide open with seriousness and no hint of emotion, she cleared her throat. “You can leave now.”
I stared at her, keeping my hands in my pockets. A long stare-down didn’t weaken her, and I hated how impressed I was.
“Are you dismissing me?” I asked.
“Am I dismissing you?” She laughed once, almost incredulously, and I struggled for a moment to know whether she was mocking me or the question I’d asked. “Is that ‘allowed’?”
Air quotes and all.
Fuck me, this icy princess was going to be the death of me.
I stepped closer, pleased when she retreated into the room to avoid my bumping into her.
“Allowed? I thought you weren’t a fan of instructions and orders.”
She furrowed her brow as she watched me. “I’m not.”
“Then why would you order me to leave now?”
Backing up more, she shook her head. Not once did she lose eye contact with me, almost as if she knew that if she lowered her gaze, it would be defeat in and of itself. “I didn’t order you to leave me for the night. I was only suggesting that you do so.”
I laughed once, lightly, at her throwing my words back to me. We could analyze and argue about the semantics of how to ask or command, but talking was overrated. At least it was now as I reached out and slid my arm around her back.
“I’m not a fan of your suggestion.” I didn’t wait. I didn’t ask. Dipping my head down, I kissed her with all the lazy greed I wanted to vent tonight. She gasped but didn’t bite me. “Last night, it made sense to stay apart.”
Gripping the back of her head, I kissed her again with all this wildly growing need for her that I couldn’t slow down.
“Tonight, it makes more sense for us to be a husband and wife.”
She licked her lips, and fuck me if that didn’t make my cock harder. “This is just an arrangement.”
We’d reached the bed in this slow backpedal I’d started her on. The backs of her knees hit the edge, and I took her slight shift as the chance to lower her fully. She lay back, reclining and scooting to sit up.
“We were arranged to marry,” I agreed, shrugging out of my jacket and then unbuttoning my shirt. “But we are married.”
She sat there, eyes full of lust as I shed my shirt. Witnessing her rapt attention on my chest, following the lines of my tattoos, was a shot of pure desire to my system.
“I know that,” she replied, breathing a little harder. “But that doesn’t mean…”
I shook my head and let my shirt drop to the floor before I undid my pants. “No. That’s not how this is going to work between us. We’ll figure out how to put up with each other?—”
“Fuck.” It slipped past her lips as a whispered curse of shock. Her eyes opened a little wider at the sight of my erection springing free. A drop of pre-cum glistened at the tip as it pointed at her, and I couldn’t deny the swell of pride at rendering her speechless.
“What?” I let my clothes fall to join the others. Kneeling on the bed, I watched her blink and fail to rip her stare away from my dick bobbing in the air as I approached her.
“You’re talking about figuring out how to put up with each other and I’m wondering how we’ll figure out how to make… things… fit.”
I grinned, lowering over her and unable to wait much longer.
“Are you a virgin?” I asked.
She scowled. “That’s none of your?—”
I kissed her again but reared back before she could bite me again. This feistiness was going to make me come too soon. She kept her hand on the back of my head, her fingers threaded through my hair as she panted and glanced at my mouth again.
“Yes. Yes, it is. You are my business now. Are you a virgin?”
She tipped her chin up and refused to speak.
I turned her head toward mine and kissed her again. Drugging her with long licks and tender sucks, I devoured her. She was moaning. I was growling. I stole her breath and she robbed me of thoughts. All that existed was this heat, this sizzling spark to keep this tether of desire between us.
“Carina,” I warned as I gathered her dress up and slid it higher until I could reach between her legs. “Are you a virgin?”
Her mouth fell open as I ripped her panties. Then I stroked my fingers through her arousal and seriously had to wonder.
She couldn’t be that na?ve, only eight years younger than me. Yet as I inserted my finger into her tight, slick entrance and was rewarded with a sexy whimper of need, I prayed that she was untouched.
The thought of owning her, of being the only man to do this to her sweet cunt, was too much of a thrill.
“Are you?—”
“Not for long!” She frowned as I removed my hand from her needy pussy.
“Are you fond of this dress?” I asked, kissing along her jaw, addicted to the sweetness of her flesh. The neediness in her sassy voice drove me wild.
She could act like an ice princess, but she was red-hot and raving mad for me to touch her.
“No! Just— Hey! Wait!”
I crawled up higher, kneeling between her legs instead of lying against her. With both hands on the hem of her dress, I teased myself with a brush of my knuckles on her breasts.
There was no time to slow down tonight, no chance I could hold out to taste them and mark them, to savor all of her, all this sweetness no one had ever touched before me.
Right now, all I could manage was to grip the fabric and yank hard until I shredded the dress in two halves.
She lay there, her smooth skin sunkissed and golden, cutting a sharp contrast to the pure white of her gown splayed out from her.
“This is just an arrangement,” I reminded her, pleased with how she could barely catch her breath, parting her legs and giving me a torturous look of need.
“Yeah. It means nothing,” she said wryly on a helpless exhale.
I kneeled close, rammed my thighs against hers to spread her more open, and lined up my dripping cockhead to her body. Then I slammed in. All the way. I was in deep, and the glorious squeeze nearly made me come then and there.
“Ah!” She cried out, arching up as she winced in pain.
I grunted, my breath knocked out of me. She was strangling me. So tight. So soaked and slippery and slick. But so fucking tight.
Lowering while I stayed wedged in to the hilt, I gathered her in my arms. She tensed, but as I closed my mouth around her tit and sucked on her beaded nipple, she slowly brought her arms around my neck. And held on.
Fuck. Me.
Ice?
This woman was pure fire. She branded me with the grip of her hand. She seared me with her pussy swallowing my dick. And she lit a fire of potent and explosive lust that charged through my blood like a wicked drug.
Alternating between kissing and sucking on one breast, then the other, I pulled out then thrust right back in again.
Over and over.
I was already on the edge. I was already too close.
She clawed at my back with one hand while she used the other to press my head to her breasts. Making myself dizzy with the urgency to come, I fucked her harder and faster until the first waves of her orgasm approached.
She panted. She squirmed. She clenched on my dick until I could barely move.
“Oh, God!” she cried as it hit her. Feeling her inner walls spasm and grip me was all it took for me to lose control.
She came, trembling and quivering with her legs wrapped around my waist. And I followed right after her, roaring against her chest, my mouth pillowed by her tits as I shot my cum deep inside her tight pussy.
Moments later, after I collapsed on her and we caught our breath, I squeezed my eyes shut and damned myself.
Keep your distance, huh?
Famous last words.