17. Adrik
ADRIK
E lena arched her back as she let out one last deep exhale. Her breasts jiggled as she shivered, still coming down from the high of her orgasm.
She was so tight, I swore she could’ve been a virgin.
Even if she wasn’t, that was the hottest attempt of christening this desk I ever could have imagined.
Sprawled out, her arms now flat on the desk instead of up with her hands gripping my forearms, she looked spent. Limp. Lax and so thoroughly fucked that a bomb could go off and she wouldn’t react to the earth shaking beneath her.
Her light hair formed a messy halo around her head, and the contrast between the wheat gold against the dark wood of the furniture gave her a more delicate look. It rendered her a more ethereal appearance, like she was a true treasure I could spend the rest of my life worshiping.
If I thought she was gorgeous before…
She was exquisite now.
Her flesh, so silky and soft, sweet to the touch.
Her breasts, so full and partly confined by her bra.
Her pussy, bare to me with her skirt flipped up.
I’d shoved it out of the way when I pounded into her, making her ass cheeks skid back and forth on the slick surface.
I stared for a greedy second at how snugly I locked into her.
My cock disappeared into her pussy. Glistening cream circled the area where we’d come together.
And damn it all if it didn’t make me want her again.
No.
No more.
Are you fucking insane?
I realized I had to be. Certifiably crazy. Because that was the only answer for why and how I’d caved. Regret crashed into me as I stole one more lasting look of her like this. A conquest. My property. The woman under my captivity and order because her father hadn’t realized what an asset she was.
No fucking more.
That had to be the first and last time I lost my control with her. I was calmer now, venting my fury with hard, hot, fast sex. Now that I could think straighter, I had to double down on my duty, not getting some in the heat of the moment.
My brothers would be here any second. My cousins were on their way after my urgent summons.
“You should get up,” I said. My voice came out gruffer than I intended it to, but there was no helping that now.
She blinked, opening her eyes and immediately furrowing her brow. Reality hit her swiftly, erasing the euphoria on her blissed-out face. As I pulled out of her and regretted the tight fit, she avoided making eye contact as she scooted to sit.
I wiped myself off with the tail of my shirt before hastily shoving my dick back under my pants. She hurried to clean up too, awkwardly hopping off the desk and using her skirt to clumsily clean up the slickness.
Words stayed tangled on my tongue. Nothing came to mind.
I didn’t have anything to tell her, no thanks, no platitudes, no excuses.
Not a single thing. My mind was blank. The dread that my uncle could still be alive and scheming against me was starting to creep back in.
And the urgency of getting Elena out of here before the others showed up took precedence.
“I—” I cut myself off as she stumbled. She was practically running, tripping over her own feet.
I reached out to grab her upper arm and prevent her from face-planting.
As soon as she was upright again, she resumed clutching the remnants of her blouse.
Hugging it closed the best she could, she escaped without a word.
Without letting me fumble over something else to say.
I was alone again. Whooshing out a deep breath, I raised my brows and stared at the desk.
No slick spots showed. There was no evidence at all of what had just happened.
It was over so quickly that it was a shame, but as I zoned out, I could clearly revisit it all.
How she’d moaned and trembled. How she’d cried out and milked me dry.
“Fuck.” It left me as a breathless admission.
I hated that I caved.
But more than that, I hated how much I wanted to cave again and again.
I’d never forget the blush on her cheeks. That damnable embarrassment she’d have around me. Her modesty, her innocence, and her blatant lack of experience served to make me want her even more.
Despite just coming moments ago, I lusted for her all over again.
Fuck. Fuck this.
I had to get my head into gear. The sounds of my brothers on the stairs was the trigger to shove that gorgeous, smart blonde far out of my thoughts.
I turned, staring out a window. Viktor was on the phone as he entered, but we acknowledged each other with a nod. Lev and Nikolai entered too, right after him, and they were too engrossed in a conversation about the dates of a handoff that they didn’t pay me much attention.
The second Alexei came in, he zeroed in on me with that smirk he saved just for me. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Fuck off.” Nothing was wrong with me. Just the regret of caving for a woman when I knew I shouldn’t have. I was fucking fine, shooting my load into Elena. The endorphin rush was gone, though, replaced with the reality of what faced our family.
“You seem distracted.”
That’s putting it mildly.
“Are you all right? Or are you buckling under the pressure of the role you need to take?”
Maksim arrived, shooting him a dirty look. “Leave him alone. He doesn’t buckle.”
Elena’s legs did when she stood up after I fucked her on this desk, though.
“I’m as fine as I can be, given the circumstances,” I said dryly.
Alexei had never wanted to lead. We’d all known for our whole lives that I was next in the dynastic succession. Yet, Alexei had always given me shit more than the others—about anything—just because he was slightly older than me.
“The circumstances?” Lev asked, facing me now. “What circumstances?”
The circumstances of fucking the one woman I shouldn’t have.
“The circumstances of the one and only Dmitri Volkov dying,” Viktor stated bluntly, as though it should’ve been obvious.
“Not only that.” I cleared my throat, feeling like I was about to walk off the edge of a cliff with what I’d say next. I banished Elena from my mind and knew that the words that would follow would be the beginning of investigating where internal loyalties would lie.
We were a team. A family. A cohesive, strong, and united front of brothers and cousins.
But this?
What Elena had discovered could very well stir up and trigger conflict among us.
“Elena has investigated unclaimed and unknown shell companies that seemed to be connected to the mistakes that had been happening with our accounts through her father’s firm.”
They all paid me full attention.
“They lead to a single entity. A network. And the name of the individual behind it is Gregori Fyodorov V.”
Silence met me.
They all stared at me.
I’d shocked them with that line.
Maksim, ever the problem solver, was the first to react. He scoffed and shook his head. “You can’t be suggesting what I think you are. Gregori? As in…”
“Gregori Fyodorov,” Viktor said, usually quick to cut through bullshit. “Fyodorov, as in the son of?—”
“Our grandfather ?” Lev exclaimed, horrified.
“Hold on. No.” Maksim shook his head again and held up his hand. “That’s not an uncommon name.”
“It could be any Gregori,” Nikolai said, furrowing his brow as if he wasn’t convinced.
“The name listed was Gregori Fyodorov V .,” I said, reminding them of the last part. The most damnable clue. That V could very well be an initial for Volkov .”
“She’s making this up.” Lev shot to his feet and paced, physically disturbed, in denial. “She doesn’t know what the fuck she’s talking about.”
“You’re right.”
They all looked at me.
“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” I confirmed.
“She has no clue what that name means. She has no idea that she presented me with a report that would suggest our supposed dead relative is behind a network to attack us.” I set my hands on the desk and leaned over, stern about defending her.
“She has no idea what that name means to us.”
“She could still be a trap,” Alexei warned, speaking up for the first time. “She’s had access to our accounts for years. She’s been able to see those company accounts.”
He, too, was skeptical, but that didn’t say much. He didn’t trust anyone .
“She’s never been asked to investigate any connections,” I said.
“What, you’re fucking her now?” Viktor said. “Letting her get into your head and fuck you up? She’s telling you some tall tales and bullshit that Uncle Gregori?—”
I cut him off by rounding the desk and picking him up by fisting the front of his shirt. “Do not disrespect me.”
He stared me down, still annoyed.
“Do not suggest I’m weakened by her or anyone else,” I warned.
It killed me inside because I just had. I just had fucked her. I had only moments ago succumbed to needing her, and I’d fucked her hard and fast on the desk right here in this room.
But she wasn’t weakening me. She was supporting me. Soothing me. Giving me a grounding sense of sanity. Maybe it was twisted of me to think that she’d “helped” me in such a passive way to let me fuck her and vent out my anger. It was more than that, though. She… completed me.
“Easy,” Maksim said. “Easy.” He stepped forward to mediate.
“Yeah. This isn’t about Elena,” Nikolai said. “Who he’s fucking isn’t the point. It’s not even about her at all. She found evidence, and we all fucking know how scared she is to do a good job. She’s not going to lie about this.”
I released Viktor and stepped back.
Alexei nodded, still looking livid but calm with it.
“This isn’t about Elena at all,” Nikolai said. “It’s about the fact that Gregori’s name is even coming up at all. Now, after all this time.”
Lev flung his hand out and cringed. “He’s supposed to be dead! He’s supposed to be dead !”
Alexei frowned at his younger brother. “If there is evidence that suggests otherwise, we’ll need to keep an open mind about it.”
Lev gritted his teeth. “There’s no fucking way. There’s no fucking way he’s…”
For a control freak like him, he had to be spiraling in the worst way possible. He’d been so close with my father in the aftermath of what Gregori had done. This had to feel personal to him, more than the rest of us.
I held up my hand to try to reclaim order in the room. “One way or another, we have to investigate this.”
They all agreed.
“If Gregori is alive, we will make sure that doesn’t stay accurate for long,” I added. “And if he is dead, but someone is using his name or impersonating him, or any other fucking possibility, we will address that as well.”
“But if he’s alive,” Viktor said, “and he’s building a shadow network to work against us?”
I let the anger cruising through my veins add to the confidence in my reply. “Then we’ll make him wish he were dead.”