EPILOGUE #5
“Do you—do you have a condom?” she stammers, fighting the cuffs as I run my mouth down her throat to taste every inch of her.
I adjust my stance until I feel my tip at her entrance. “No.”
Before she can respond, I let gravity work and slide inside, knocking the breath out of her as she takes me to my hilt.
Her head falls back and her jaw drops with a gasp.
I pull back and begin to roll my hips, fucking her against the pole.
Still hopelessly bound, she keeps tugging at the cuffs, opening her hips wider as I pulse against her cervix.
And that’s another thing I love about her—she only takes me deep.
“Sergei,” she moans between breaths, “you can’t—you can’t come inside me.”
“I can come wherever I please,” I rumble, my eyes boring into hers.
“Sergei,” she hisses with a flash of panic behind her eyes.
I love that look; terrifying her only to bring her back and make all her dreams come true.
“I won’t get you pregnant.” I switch to long, slow thrusts. “I promise.”
“Serg—”
“I got the vasectomy 10 days ago,” I cut her off. “I told you this is my responsibility. It’s not yours to carry anymore.”
Barrett’s eyes round with realization. It’s subtle, but the way they turn wild an instant later is enough to send me over the edge. Now it’s just me and her. Worry melts away, leaving two bodies and two souls stripped bare, with nothing but each other. It’s the most meaningful thing I can give her.
I can give her peace.
And I will die before I let anyone take it from her.
I bring one hand to the side of her face. “Who do you belong to, Printsessa?”
A smile tugs at her cheeks. “You,” she says on her breath.
“And who do I belong to?”
Her eyes turn glassy and languid the longer she looks at me.
“Who…do I…belong to?” I ask again, this time slower.
She draws in a breath. “Me.” Then she closes her eyes and presses her cheek to my hand.
“You,” I whisper back.
Gently, I move my hand across her cheek and clamp it over her mouth, effectively covering the bottom half of her face.
“Be as loud as you want,” I smirk. “Show me what a little whore my wife can be. Your sounds are only for me.”
I feel a puff of air on my fingers as she exhales through her nose, and with it a small whimper beneath my hand. Her nude patent leather heels press against my thighs as I speed up my cadence, making her pull at the cuffs. Her muscles tense, contracting around me as I push her closer to the edge.
Barrett squeezes my waist between her thighs, her eyes fluttering as I pulse against her.
Clenching my abs, I’m unable to stifle my own sounds.
Fuck, she feels too good. I grunt through each thrust, murmuring broken words of ecstasy in a mixture of Russian and English.
I’m sure she understands a few of them by now.
Suddenly, she gasps and as soon as her muscles freeze, I know she’s there.
She lets out a muted shriek and I tighten my grip on her, coming while she convulses beneath my arms.
Moaning a string of curses, I run my hand up and down Barrett’s thigh while we both come down. She rolls her head to the side, letting her hair fall over my shoulder.
“I love you…I love you…I love you…” I whisper to her, inhaling her sweet scent with each breath.
She rests her head in the curve of my neck, her bound arms hanging limp at her sides while she catches her breath.
“Mine,” she whispers back, just loud enough for me to hear. “All mine.”
I don’t move. I don’t want it to end. I want to stay inside her, in this moment forever. But my euphoria is interrupted when I catch something in my periphery. I glance to the side, at something lingering in the shadows next to the door.
Astrid Avery’s ashen face stares back at me with eyes wide, mouth ajar, and paralyzed with shock.
But I don’t feel anger or mortification.
Instead, I tighten my hold on Barrett, pulling her closer as she melts into my body.
Safe. Then I meet Astrid’s horrified eyes, holding her gaze before lobbing her a menacing smirk.
I don’t know how long she’s been standing there, but she will commit this image to memory and remember where my loyalties lie.
As if snapping out of a trance, humiliation takes hold and Astrid drops her head, eyes darting around as she grabs the door handle with a trembling hand and silently flees the office.
Barrett and I are alone once again, and I begin the intimate process of putting us both back together.
We still have a wedding shower to attend, after all.
And since I’ve always been one to face my problems, this is what I plan to do as soon as I encounter my disgraced employee.
But it seems that I won’t get the chance.
Dallas and Brett can barely hide their suspicion when we return to the party.
“What?” Barrett asks, fluffing her hair casually.
“Sergei, did you yell at her again?” Dallas asks.
“Yell at who?” I reply.
“Astrid!” she chortles.
“I have not spoken to her since we left the table.”
Because I haven’t.
“Well, she ran out of here looking like she’d seen a ghost,” Brett snickers.
“Oh?” Barrett glances up at me with a glimmer in her eye.
Suddenly, Lutz brushes past my shoulder. “Nice hair, Dreamboat,” he quips, popping his brow.
Shit.
I didn’t even realize I walked back out with my hair loose. I suppose Barrett got her wish after all.
“I went after Astrid to yell at her for being such an unprofessional bitch and embarrassing everyone,” Dallas explains.
“But when I found her, she was talking to her dad and he looked pissed. Like, at her. When she came back, she asked me where you were. I don’t know what she told Royce, but I think she was afraid you were going to scrap the contract and tell him to pound sand. ”
“Is Royce still here?” Barrera asks, switching into surveillance-mode and searching the crowd behind Dallas. “He might attempt damage control.”
“He knows better than that,” Lutz says, wrapping his arms around Brett’s midsection and running a hand over her bump. “He’ll wait you out to see what happens when you get the contract.”
It’s just as well. I have no desire to engage in any more asinine interactions on what is supposed to be a celebratory night.
Her hand clasped in mine, I lead Barrett to the bar to get a drink for each of us—as well as two tall glasses of ice water while we wait.
I lift her hand to my lips and give her a kiss, admiring the star sapphire engagement ring on her finger.
She picked it out herself, telling me that it looks just like the stars the first time she saw them from our house on the snowy mountain.
“I saw her come into your office,” Barrett says with nonchalance.
I still for a moment, then slowly lower her hand.
“You did?”
She nods, looking almost impish as she turns to the bar.
“And you didn’t say anything,” I point out.
A smile plays on her lips. “Should I have? I was busy having an orgasm. Even she could see that.”
“Hmm,” I grunt. “Maybe I’ve been a bad influence on you.”
She looks up at me knowingly. “I think it’s me that’s influenced you. Then again, you didn’t say anything to her, either.”
“No,” I reply, gazing into Barrett’s silvery eyes that take on a metallic shine in the low light.
She’s mesmerizing; the quiet storm, the gale on the mountain, the fiery avalanche that tore me apart and flooded me with a warmth I’ve never felt.
“I heard that sometimes silence is enough. Sometimes silence speaks louder than words ever can.”
THE END