Chapter Twenty-One
Sarah
My lips parted, allowing Dmitri’s tongue to slip into my mouth, deepening the kiss. My hands slipped around his neck, pulling him closer.
This time, I wasn’t going to pull away. This time, I was going to let myself seize the pleasure of the moment.
After what happened at the gym, I needed this. I was more emotionally raw than I’d been since I was pregnant and my hormones were out of control. But what I was going through today wasn’t anything like the time I cried over a broken bottle of nail polish.
I was scared after someone tried to kidnap Alexis.
I needed comfort, but even more than that, I needed assurance that he would continue to keep us safe.
I thought he was being overprotective when he insisted that Nikolay accompany us, but now I knew he was right to arrange protection.
I’d never been more thankful for anything in my entire life.
I was starting to see that this man reappearing in my life when he did was nothing short of a miracle. How could I keep fighting my growing feelings for him in the face of that?
Giving in was so much easier than trying to keep distance between us.
His hand slid up my thigh and traced the curve of my side. When he reached my breasts, he pinched my hardened nipple through my shirt and bra, making me moan into his mouth as I arched my back. Our tongues tangled, and he shifted me on his lap until I was straddling him.
The bulge of his erection pressed between my legs, and the new position allowed him to use both hands to fondle me. He pushed up my shirt and sports bra to expose my breasts, breaking our kiss to latch onto my nipple.
Heat pumped through my veins, and my eyes fluttered closed. I ground myself against him, electric shocks of pleasure coursing through me as his jeans caused friction against my clit through my leggings.
“That’s right, baby,” he said in a guttural voice. “Use me to get yourself off. Take what you need from me.”
There was an unexpected submission to his statement that caused warmth to spread through me and increased my lust in a way that scrambled my thoughts in the best way.
My concerns and fears melted away to nothing.
The trauma of finding my boss’s body and being threatened in the parking lot.
The confusion that came from being around Dmitri again and not fully trusting him.
The shock and horror of the attempted kidnaping and worry about the future.
None of it weighed me down as I lost myself in the building pleasure.
“Dmitri,” I moaned, tossing my head back. I barely had the wherewithal to think about being quiet, but I managed to keep my voice low enough that it wouldn’t be heard in the kitchen on the other side of the door. “It feels so good.”
His hands moved to my hips, guiding my movements to that I was riding the bulge in his jeans faster and rougher. My breasts bounced around, making it impossible for him to keep using his mouth on my nipples, so he tilted his head to look up into my face instead, his eyes dark with desire.
“I’ve thought about this tight body so many times over the years,” he said. “The way you felt when I sank inside you that night. The way you squeezed me when you came on my cock. Fuck.”
His dirty words make a tidal wave crash over me, my orgasm hitting hard enough to make me gasp and shudder as I moaned.
My core clenched hard on nothing, and I wished he was buried deep inside me.
That would be the only thing that could make this better.
Dmitri’s hands tightened on my hips, and he stared at my face as I fell apart, his entire focus on me, as if he couldn’t look away.
As my orgasm passed, I kissed him again. He quickly took control, and his hunger for me was overwhelming. It didn’t matter that I’d just dry humped him like a horny teenager. I already wanted more.
My hands went to his belt, but before I even started unbuckling it, there was a knock on the office door. We froze.
“Guys?” Alina called through the closed door. “Alexis is asking for Sarah.”
I scrambled off of Dmitri’s lap, pulling down my bra and shirt as reality came crashing over me.
What the hell am I doing?
It was easy to get caught up in the need for comfort and the passion that this man ignited inside me so easily, but this wasn’t a good idea.
Dmitri might have been proving himself to be a good man over the past few days, despite his profession, but that didn’t make this situation any less complicated.
The court case would resume tomorrow, and I was still a key witness.
We’d both be at the courthouse tomorrow, and I still didn’t know exactly what I was going to say on the stand.
Since I was forced to testify, I would prefer to tell the truth, that I saw a group of men threaten Mr. Moss three days before I discovered his body, but they didn’t physically harm him at all.
That might not look good for Dmitri if the DA could provide compelling evidence that he was connected to those men, but I hoped his lawyer could give a good enough defense to create reasonable doubt.
Surely, that was why the men in the parking lot threatened me.
They must have decided that the truth wasn’t damning enough to ensure a conviction, so they wanted me to lie.
If I told the jury I actually saw Dmitri kill my boss, I was sure there was a much better chance he’d be found guilty.
But the thought of doing that made my stomach turn.
I didn’t think I could do it. I didn’t want to do it.
Not just because it was morally wrong, but if I got caught in the lie…
No judge would believe I was forced into it.
I’d end up in jail myself and my daughter…
But could I risk my life and my daughter’s life and not do what they wanted?
Dmitri was keeping us safe now, but what if I was wrong? What if I told the truth, and he was still found guilty? He’d go to prison, and I would be unprotected from men who would likely follow through on their threats because I didn’t do as they asked.
I had to decide what I would do when I took the stand tomorrow, and getting physical with Dmitri now just made the decision harder to make. Dread settled low in my stomach.
Dmitri stood, understanding in his eyes despite the bulge in his pants. “Go to her. We can pick this up later.”
Damn it. His easy willingness to put Alexis first just presented another complication. He was her father, and I had tell him. Especially before things got complicated.
As if they weren’t complicated enough.
But that would change everything. Even if I decided to trust him not to try to take her away from me, I was sure he’d want to be involved in her life.
The moment I told him to truth, he’d go from being a man who knocked me up to a father.
He’d be in our lives forever, no matter how things turned out with the case or the men who threatened me.
And what about his lifestyle? Would being associated with him continue to put me and my daughter at risk?
He had enemies. Enemies who would love to learn he had a child.
What was I to do?
Smoothing the wrinkles out of my shirt, I opened the door to see Alina and Alexis standing there. There was cinnamon sugar on my daughter’s cheek, and she smiled up at me. All signs of distress from what happened at the gym were gone, and I let out a long breath of relief.
I crouched in front of her. “You feel better, lovebug?”
Alexis nodded, and I picked her up.
“You must be hungry,” Alina said. “How about the two of you go back to the private room, and I’ll bring you some lunch?”
At that suggestion, my stomach growled loudly enough to be heard even over the hum of the exhaust fans running in the kitchen. Dmitri chuckled from behind me.
“Oh, I was planning to return home,” I said. “I’m sure I can eat something there.”
Realizing I’d just referred to Dmitri’s house as home, I opened my mouth to correct myself, but he cut me off.
“I want you to stay here for now. After what happened, let’s just say I’d feel better if you were with me for the time being.”
“I’m hungry,” Alexis said, and that cut off any argument I could have made.
I allowed Dmitri to guide me back into the private room of the restaurant with a hand on the small of my back again.
When he did it before, I was still too rattled by the near kidnapping to think much of the contact, but this time, it made me feel warm and taken care of in a way that made my heart swell.
What was this guy doing to me?
When we reached the private dining room again, Dmitri led me to an unoccupied table in the corner. We passed Nikolay, sitting with a woman with a spray tan and too much blue eyeshadow. There were five other people in the room, all men, and they all seemed to be watching us with open curiosity.
I sat with Alexis on my lap and we’d barely settled into a chair when Alina brought out two plates of food. It seemed to be some kind of stew for me and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for Alexis. She let out a happy squeal and dug into her meal, making me chuckle.
Dmitri pulled out a chair beside me, gesturing for Nikolay to join us. The woman with him tagged along. Her eyes ran over me quickly and she sneered.
I guess she’s not impressed.
She didn’t bother to say anything as she took her seat and scooted her chair closer to Nikolay. She was obviously marking her territory, and I didn’t bother to hide my eye roll. I didn’t even know this woman, but I disliked her.
Dmitri introduced her as Gina in a dismissive way that told me she didn’t matter to him. I took a little too much satisfaction from that for a woman who was still unsure of her own feelings.
Nikolay had a laptop with him. As I ate my stew, I learned that my bodyguard was also a computer whiz. My jaw dropped as Dmitri ordered him to hack into the computer network of Moss Logistics.
All aspects of the business were essentially frozen while the police investigated, so that meant the computer network still existed.
Still, I was sure it wasn’t easy to access Mr. Moss’s system.
I didn’t know much about hacking, but I could see the intense focus Nikolay had and the way his fingers flew across the keyboard. I had a feeling he was beyond skilled.
However, to make the job easier I told him what I knew. “The password is pastrami on rye 2, all one word”
“What?” Nikolay said.
“Mr. Moss could never remember anything, I figured his favorite lunch order would stick. But he even forgot that once.”
Nikolay laughed and entered the information.
Within seconds, all of my boss’s folders were on the screen and he found the documents needed to blackmail Jeremy Kyle before I’d even finished my meal.
I didn’t feel bad about telling Dmitri about the forged shipping documents because I knew enough about Jeremy to be sure he wasn’t a good man.
The few interactions I’d had with him in the past revealed him to be a sexist asshole.
“We got it,” Nikolay said, turning the computer so that Dmitri could see the screen. “The forged shipping manifesto and proof of what was really shipped.”
Dmitri turned to me with a smile. “You have no idea how much you’ve helped me, baby.”
At the term of endearment, Gina glanced up from her phone, which she’d been staring at the whole time. I could see the shock on her face, and it made me smile. Maybe I should’ve told him not to call me that, but I felt an unexpected rush of pleasure at hearing it.
Instead, I smiled at him. “Happy to help.”
And to my own surprise, I actually meant it.