Chapter 15 – Dimitri #2
“Don’t tell me to relax.”
“I’m not your enemy,” he snaps back. “None of us are. Our wives mean the world to us, so we understand the need to protect your woman. But we need the facts. All of them.” His eyes narrow. “Why did you marry Vivian in the first place? What is your revenge for?”
The room goes silent. Everyone watches me. Waiting. Judging. Planning their next steps based on what I say next.
Fine.
If they want the story, I’ll give them the story. I straighten, every muscle locked like steel cable. My voice comes out low, controlled, but threaded with a rage I’ve carried for years.
I tell them everything—how the Laurent Bank scandal wasn’t just fraud or corruption, but a chain reaction that got hundreds of innocent people killed, including a close friend.
By the time I’m done, the room is dead silent.
No one challenges me now. No one even blinks.
Lukin is the first to speak. He exhales heavily, rubbing the scar on his jaw. “Okay. We understand,” he says. “But from this point forward, we move as a family. No one acts alone. No retaliation, no attacks, no preemptive strikes unless I approve them.”
The others nod in agreement, watching me carefully, waiting.
I meet Lukin’s stare. “Fine,” I say. “I can work with that.”
His brows lift, surprised I agreed so easily.
I shrug, though my blood still simmers. “As long as we get the bastard funding Koval,” I add, “I’ll play by your rules.”
For now.
***
Later that night, the elevator dings open, and I step into the penthouse. Vivian is there, waiting in the living room, arms folded, her silk nightdress catching the dim light. She’s a vision of calm fury, but I can feel the storm radiating off her like heat from a furnace.
“Why are you distant again?” she demands, voice sharp, eyes blazing. Way to hit the nail on the head.
I freeze for a fraction of a second. She’s fearless. Bold. And somehow, that makes my chest tighten. “I’m not distant,” I growl, though I know it sounds hollow.
“You are!” she snaps. “All day, you’ve shut me out. After everything, you still act like I’m a problem.”
Her words hit me, and for a second I want to close the distance between us and pull her into my arms, but the memory of the meeting, the Kovals, the blood, the risk—it claws at me. I can’t let myself soften. Not yet.
“I have work to do,” I say, voice clipped. “Threats, enemies, your family’s involvement. You think I can just switch that off?”
She steps closer, the anger in her eyes softening into something fiercer, more personal. “I don’t care about your threats! I care about you shutting me out. I care about you acting like I’m…expendable.”
Her words sting like fire on raw skin. I swallow, trying to regain control, but guilt gnaws at me. “You’re not expendable,” I mutter. “You’re—” I cut myself off, the words too much, too close.
“Your words mean nothing when your actions say otherwise,” she spits, eyes bright with hurt. Then she turns, like she’s done with me. Done?
No.
I catch her arm before she takes a full step, and in the next breath I’m pinning her back against the wall. The silk of her nightdress rustles, her breath stutters, and everything inside me snaps.
“You’re not walking away from me,” I growl.
She opens her mouth—maybe to fight, maybe to scream—but I don’t let her.
I cup her jaw and crush my mouth to hers, kissing her like I’m trying to erase every accusation, every wound, every mile that’s formed between us.
It’s not gentle. It’s not careful. It’s a wildfire trying to burn through the ice I put between us.
She pushes at my chest once—anger, frustration, pain—but the second my tongue brushes hers, her hands curl into my shirt, pulling me closer, like she wants to drown in me just as much as I want to bury myself in her.
She pushes at my chest once—anger, frustration, pain—but the second my tongue brushes hers, her hands curl into my shirt, pulling me closer, like she wants to drown in me just as much as I want to bury myself in her.
As I kiss her, I push her dress up her thighs, burying my hand in her heat.
My fingers sink inside her, thrusting in and out of her until she’s moaning into my mouth.
Impatiently, I flip her, pressing her front against the wall and arching her back, while the other hand unzips my pants and takes out my painful erection.
I want her so badly, I’ll go insane if I don’t bury myself inside her in seconds.
She pushes back against me, and that does it.
I bury myself inside her in one thrust, and she screams, planting her hands on the wall to steady herself as I pound her from behind.
I know I’m not going to last long this time, not when her ass jiggles and recoils anytime I slam into her. But we have all night.
I reach around her body to twist her nipples, and she explodes, whimpering and trembling in my arms as the orgasm pushes her over the edge. I surrender to mine, holding her against me and pressing my lips against her shoulder as I whisper her name like a prayer.
“Dimitri…” she whispers, turning in my arms to wrap hers around my neck.
I trail kisses down her neck as my dick rages into another erection.
“We’re not done yet, krasavitsa. I want to make love to you all night. Surrender yourself to me.”
She smiles up at me and leans up to whisper into my ear. “I surrender.”