15. Killian #2
If it’s too much, she still wants more. She wraps her legs around mine, and the points of her stilettos dig into my calves as I drive into her again. My head hovers over hers and we hold each other’s gaze, tethering us while an animalistic lust takes over our bodies.
I thrust into her, over and over again, fucking her hard and fast. It’s sheer determination that has me holding back my release. I won’t go anywhere without my Russian princess, so I tense my body and slow my movements, pulling myself back from the edge.
“Don’t stop,” Katarina pleads, her hips rising to meet every slam of my body against her. “Use me. Punish me.”
I don’t want to know why she thinks she needs to be punished. “Then come for me, Kitty. Don’t let me down.”
Rolling my hips in a figure of eight, I grind against her clit. I can feel her pussy quivering. Going bare, I feel everything and I savor how we fit together.
Katarina starts to pant, her heels digging deeper into my flesh as her back arches.
“Killian… You fucking bastard… I’m going to…”
“Yes, you are,” I reply, watching in awe as her eyes glaze over, her cheeks pink and finally, she lets go. Her head tips back as she lets out a cry that might just be a sob. She tries to free her arms, but I keep her pinned to the bed.
“There’s my girl,” I hiss as I drive into her at a frenetic pace. “My good girl.”
My core is on fire and with a rush I give her everything I have and empty inside her. I see stars and maybe I see heaven too. It’s glorious. It’s beautiful. Our bodies undulate with the lasting ripples of our release. I fill her and she completes me.
My sweat-slick skin sticks to hers as I kiss my way from the valley of her breasts, to her collarbone, her neck, her jaw.
When I kiss her cheeks, her skin isn’t just damp.
It’s wet. I release her hands and sweep her hair from her face, pulling her gaze to mine. Tears pool in the corners of her eyes.
“Why are you crying, my love?”
I roll onto my back, my heart still beating like crazy after fucking her, but I’m numb.
Katarina has set the date.
She’s leaving me.
“We still have a month,” she says, staring up at the ceiling, but managing to find my hand. Our fingers entwine, holding on to each other by the smallest of margins.
“You’ll be too busy picking out a wedding dress and shit to worry about me.”
“Which do you think I would choose, Shorty? You or a dress?”
I won’t be appeased. “But you’re going to have to make it look like you’re invested in the wedding to pull off your escape on the same day,” I say, because as much as I don’t want her to go, I want her to be free.
“And I’m not sure it’s such a good idea to insist the Moncriefs throw a huge birthday party for you the night before. ”
“Why not?”
“Because I won’t be there.” We would already have said our goodbyes by then.
She squeezes my hand. “I wish I could invite you.”
“Twenty-one,” I say, reminding myself how much life Katarina has ahead of her. She deserves her freedom. And she can do better than me. I have to let her go.
“Technically, I won’t be twenty-one until the week after, by which time…”
“You’ll be building a new life without me.”
We continue to stare up at the ceiling. I can only endure the pain if I don’t look at hers.
“I haven’t gone yet,” Katarina tries. “I promise, I will make time for you. Assuming you can stay in Chicago.”
“There’s no question of me leaving you now,” I say gruffly. “Haven’t you heard? Ignacio Valera was behind another drug shipment currently being sold on the streets of Chicago.”
“There’s only so long you can make up stories like that,” she warns. “Your Dad’s going to catch you out eventually.”
It’s not Dad I’m spinning stories for, it’s Katarina. She’d kill me if she knew I’m following my father’s orders, mostly, but I ignore my twinge of guilt. Or I would if Katarina would only drop the subject.
“The longer you’re here, the more likely it is the Valeras will show up somewhere else. And then what? There are enough people working against us without adding your family too.”
She’s not wrong. “I’ll worry about it when it happens.” My gut hollows out. I’m not ready for this to end. “As much as I love Ash Griffin, I hate his guts right now for taking you from me. Do you know where you’ll go?” I ask. It’s worth a try.
“I’ve said they can choose. I don’t care as long as Vasili can never find me. Can you imagine what he’d do if he knew what we’d been up to?”
I can imagine. I have to. It’s the only way I’m going to be able to let her go. My swallow is painful and loud as I turn my head to meet her gaze. “As long as you’re safe.”
Her eyes are glassy. “And miserable.”
My jaw locks as anger finally breaks through the numbness of my initial shock.
“Fucking Duke.” He’s the reason any chances of prolonging the engagement indefinitely have gone up in flames.
“Maybe we can’t exactly blame him for fooling around when we’re guilty of the same, but taking another woman on a business trip?
What was he thinking?” He was thinking of spending a whole fucking night with the woman of his dreams. I’m not just pissed, I’m jealous.
The Moncriefs aren’t the only ones who can flit around on a private jet.
I would have whisked Katarina around the world twice already. If I could.
Katarina strokes a thumb over my palm. “She’s an interior designer who’s just started working with him and he didn’t think anyone would notice, or care if anyone did.
It’s a well-known fact the Barkov men don’t rate fidelity highly.
” Barkov men. Not women. She’s making a point.
“But until my uncle sees a wedding band on my finger, he’s not going to want another woman interfering with his plans. ”
“Thank fuck you put a stop to it before he found out.”
Vasili is unpredictable at the best of times, and the only risks we should be accepting are the ones we’re taking. Risks like me fucking his niece while her bodyguards are a floor below us.
“Can you be sure Duke won’t take more stupid risks?”
“Oh, don’t worry. I’ve sent a message loud and clear to Grace Hamel. She can find herself another job or another Moncrief.”
I haven’t had a chance to tell Katarina about my meeting with Ash and Rory, and I suspect it would freak her out even more if she knew Grace, the legend isn’t some meaningless dalliance. If she knew, she might come to the conclusion that delaying by another month is too long.
It’s not.
It’s too fucking short.
I turn onto my side and smooth back her hair before tracing the delicate lines of Katarina’s tensed jaw. Warmth floods that dark cavity deep inside my chest. “You’re alright, you know,” I say softly.
Instead of making some cutting remark to shake me from my stupor, Katarina rests her cheek against my hand. “If that’s sweet talk, you need to work on your technique.”
Personally, I think I’ve said more than I should, but when did that ever stop me from shooting my mouth off? “This could have been the start of something.”
“It was something,” she corrects, emotions catching in her throat.
“And it’s not over yet.” I lift her hand to my lips and kiss her fingers. She isn’t wearing her engagement ring. For this brief time, I can pretend she’s truly mine. “We just need to make sure Duke keeps his dick in his pants for the next few weeks.”
Two lines form between her brows. “I had hoped my uncle’s threats would be enough to keep in him line, but…”
I’m about to ask what threats, when I notice how Katarina won’t meet my eye. “What did you do, Kitty?”
She traces a wickedly long fingernail over my lower lip. “I might have suggested I’d tell my uncle about Grace.”
“You do realize Vasili would probably eliminate her as a potential threat?”
“Why do you think I said it?” she sniffs. When I continue to stare, she rolls her eyes. “I’m a mad psycho bitch. Didn’t you know?”
“Oh, I know. But I also know what’s behind that mask you wear,” I point out.
She puts on an act of being cruel and indifferent, and that’s all most people see.
But I’m not most people. “You’d never let innocent people get hurt, especially ones connected to the very people who were trying to help you. ”
“Never underestimate me, Shorty.”
“I’d be a fool to,” I agree, pulling her closer. “Now, are you going to tell me how the hell you sneaked me in here without raising the alarm? I’m impressed. Assuming I get out alive.”
“You will,” she promises. “But there’s a fee.”
“Another orgasm?”
Katarina slides her hand lower and my already thickening cock twitches at her touch. “You know me so well.”
“Well enough to know you’re distracting me so I’ll forget you haven’t answered my question,” I say. When she leans in, I allow her one brief kiss. “How did you get me in?”
“I didn’t.”
I lift her leg so it rests on my hip before sliding my fingers through her slit.
She’s leaking my cum and I push my seed back into her while fighting the growing need to fill her again.
“You didn’t, but someone did, which is some feat.
Mace Griffin is one of the best hackers there is and he’s never been able to break through Vasili’s firewalls. How did your accomplice do it?”
Katarina writhes under the pressure of my thumb against her clit. “She didn’t.”
She. Good to know her accomplice isn’t a man.
Katarina evokes a wild possessiveness I’ve never felt before, the kind that could lead me to make questionable decisions.
But for now at least, my head is clear. “If she didn’t have to break in, it must mean she’s already inside.
” I think on it for a moment. “Your sestras, the ones that survived the training camp. Was one of them good with tech?”
“Killian,” Katarina says as a stiletto heel stabs into my calf muscle. “You talk too much.”