Chapter 19
LEKS
Ashopping trip should not be my number one problem right now. But somehow, Natalia going shopping is the low point of a week involving two drug busts and millions of dollars of product lost.
Yuri radios me urgently to notify me that my wife has returned from a shopping trip — a hobby that I encouraged her into, to get her out of the house — needing help with all the bags.
And being Natalia Bryusova, who is now known as “darlin’” by every asshole who’s been within a mile of the port in the past month, the crowd that has manifested to take time away from their work and generously help her with her bags is not insubstantial.
On my estimate, it numbers around one hundred men, all clamoring to carry a pile of tissue-paper and designer clothing filled bags that are probably scented with jasmine and patchouli and a thousand other perfumes that don’t belong at the port.
I pinch the bridge of my nose as I watch the crowd gather around Vera’s sparkly gold Bugatti sports car from my window.
When Natalia steps out of the car, arms laden with bags, men rush to help her. Vera sits in the driver’s seat with a satisfied smirk on her face. She’s doing this just to fuck with me, I just know it. My wife might be blissfully ignorant, but Vera knows exactly the effect that Natalia has on men.
As Natalia stands up from the passenger seat, taking the hand of the man nearest to her, my mind goes blank of all other thoughts.
I’ve never seen Natalia dress in clothing like this.
If it can be described as clothing.
The pale blue babydoll dress is floaty and gauzy.
The hem brushes the tops of her thighs, leaving her smooth legs on display.
The white stilettos she’s wearing make her legs go on for miles.
Her pearl choker and dainty silver bracelets normally strike me as old-fashioned.
With this dress, they’re alluring and sexual.
The worst part? The layers of ice-blue fabric are tantalizingly see-through.
Her breasts make my brain short-circuit. Because I don’t think Natalia is wearing a bra. The pale blue fabric covers her nipples, but only barely.
She looks mouth-watering.
And I’m not the only one who’s noticed. The men on the dock cannot get enough, swarming around her like bees to honey.
“Leks?” comes the voice on the other end of the line.
Kirill. The business deal. I’d forgotten I was talking to him.
I end the call without a word and hurry downstairs, only faintly aware of my own actions.
There does seem to be some awareness of what happened to the last bastard who touched my wife, because the second I appear the crowd thins. They know that I’m unpredictable where Natalia is concerned, and I’m not unhappy with that state of affairs.
“Putting on a show, princess?”
Why is this the second time that I’m rescuing my wife from a crowd of salivating men? If I thought there was any intention behind it, I would be furious.
“We’re just trying to get all this shopping inside. I might have gone a bit overboard.” She gives me a sweet smile.
She truly has no idea what kind of effect she has on men. She thinks they’re genuinely trying to help her.
“Get the shopping bags into the foyer then leave us,” I growl at the group.
I have more important things to deal with. Like making sure Natalia learns what the dress code is at the port.
“You’re gonna love some of our purchases,” Vera tells me, her delight evident at the pissed-off expression I’m wearing.
I keep hold of Natalia as Vera directs men upstairs as if she’s a choreographer.
“Had enough fun?” I ask her when the last bag is inside.
Vera jingles her keys at me and makes a quick exit after she sees the darkening expression on my face. Then I swing Natalia into my arms.
“Leks!” She squeals in a tone that makes my cock stir as I carry her upstairs.
Good. I hope they hear her scream my name and know that she’s mine.
I think she’s trying to wriggle out of my grip, but the movement only makes it more obvious how paper thin the fabric of this little dress is. I can feel every curve, every flex of her lithe muscles until she finally relents and lets me carry her home.
I set her down in the living room.
“What was that for?” Natalia huffs, tilting her head at me in that way she always does when she’s confused at something I’ve done. “Did I do something wrong? Are you mad about the shopping trip?”
I let out a hard breath.
“Spend my money however you want, Natalia. It’s not about the shopping trip.”
She flops into an armchair, the movement pressing her sweet breasts even tighter against that thin fabric.
I can see her nipples perfectly now and the sight has me undressing her in my mind.
I drag my eyes back to her face.
“You think I’m a spoiled brat. That’s what you said.”
I did say that. When we first married, I wanted to bring Natalia down to my level. I wanted to show her the real world. Now I want nothing more than to shield her from it.
“You are a spoiled brat. But you’re my wife. And you do not get to show every man who works for me exactly what he’s missing out on.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You really haven’t spent much time around men, have you princess?”
I step close to her.
“Well… No. Since my brothers died, my parents have been protective of me.”
“And your virtue.” It feels strange on my tongue but it’s the way she always phrases it, very old-fashioned. Like something out of one of those old books she’s always reading.
“That’s why.”
She looks at me like this is totally normal. I guess, on the old money side of the Bratva, it is.
“They wanted to make sure I could make an appropriate match, and to do that I need to be pure.”
I huff out a laugh.
She’s pure, alright.
Pure fucking heroin for a man like me who craves innocence and light.
“I think you need to understand some things, princess. When you walk around a place like this, in an outfit like that… It drives men crazy.”
“This was at fashion week this year. It’s on trend. I saw it in the latest Vogue.”
“And I’m glad it makes you happy… but Natalia, your body and that dress.
” I swallow, my mouth suddenly dry. “It’s distracting our men from their work.
We don’t exactly hire for good character in our operations here.
These are hot-blooded men who take what they want and think about the consequences later.
This kind of clothing is like a drop of blood in a pool of sharks. ”
She’s quiet and thoughtful as she considers this. “Does it drive you crazy, too?”
I don’t dignify that with an answer. Isn’t it obvious that it does?
“I thought… You don’t find me attractive.”
This girl.
How could I not find her attractive?
She’s in my fucking apartment wearing a mini-dress so tiny that there’s more skin on display than is covered. I can see the delicious curve of her breasts, the sweep of her waist, and that golden hair streams down her back in alluring curls.
“What the fuck gave you that impression, Natalia?”
“You said… that this was a marriage in name only. That I shouldn’t forget that.” She repeats my words back to me.
The meaning of those words is foreign to me now. Even more strange is the idea that Natalia could believe them.
I shake my head slowly and deliberately. Those green eyes flicker in confusion as I wrap a hand around her wrist and pull her to her feet.
Those wide, innocent eyes stare back at me in shock.
We’re standing face to face now, her breasts whispering against my chest as I pull her closer. My lips brush the hollow of her neck as I whisper in her ear.
“I said that, Natalia, because I needed to get the hell out of the same room as you. Because if you had looked at me for one more millisecond with that innocent expression, I was going to do something not very innocent at all. And I had just watched you swear on your babushka’s grave that you wouldn’t let me touch you. ”
Past me had more self-restraint than I do right now, that’s for sure.
Because it’s no less than a certainty in my mind Natalia’s babushka is going to be cursed to oblivion by our actions.
Natalia’s mouth drops open. “Is that why—”
“Why I paid Vera’s friend a visit that evening? Yes. It is, princess.”
Natalia’s expression of surprise is so fucking enticing that I thumb her bottom lip, swiping that delicious moisture away. I tilt her chin up so she meets my eyes, looking up at me and absorbing what I’m saying to her.
“I might wish I didn’t find you attractive, Natalia. But truth is, no one has been driven more crazy than me.”
Natalia lifts her chin to meet my gaze.
This is stupid. Especially after kissing her two days ago.
I don’t want to give her ideas. To set an expectation that any kind of physical affection is a part of this relationship.
Something takes over, and I need that pretty mouth around me.
“Get on your knees.”
She drops to the floor, so obedient for me. So eager, with those shining green eyes, her sunshine hair.
Moya zolotse.
Well, Mr Bryusov, look at how your daughter whores herself out for me. Her husband, and they still don’t think I’m fit to touch this princess. Even if she’s begging me for it.
It gives me a kind of satisfaction, the way that they’re so obsessed with her virginity. Every phone call, they check in about it and she tells them no. Natalia doesn’t seem like the type to lie — I don’t think she’d be very good at it.
“Open up.”
After hesitating for a second, Natalia opens her glossy pink lips and lets me slide a finger inside. Her mouth closes around it, hot and wet, and my cock stirs to attention.
Honestly, it doesn’t take much, where she’s concerned.
“Fuck, princess.”
She blinks up at me from under her lashes, still sucking at my finger. As though she’s desperate to show me what a good cocksucker she’s going to be.
“You ready for something bigger?”
She nods, her mouth still wrapped around my finger. I pull it from her mouth with a pop.
She looks up at me, leaning forward, and presses her cheek against the bulge of my cock.