Chapter 5
GABE
“Someone fucking talked.” I drink coffee and spear a sausage. Grease drips to the plate. Daniel sits across from me, his arm bandaged, his eye black and blue. “You’re going to find out who.”
He doesn’t seem surprised or bothered by the order. That’s why he’s one of my best soldiers.
That and the fact that his family owes a very bloody and violent cartel a lot of money and I’m the only person keeping them from getting killed.
Loyalty is overrated.
Motivation is much better.
“Should I start now?” he asks.
“No, you know what, get to it in a few weeks. It’s no problem if there’s a traitor in our organization.”
He laughs pleasantly. He’s so easygoing that it’s easy to forget how dangerous he is. I have to always remind myself that the leash is tight, but the leash also chafes. “You get sarcastic when you don’t sleep enough.”
“Thanks for that.” I shove my plate away. It’s six in the morning and the light’s streaming in through the windows. “Get to work. Tell me what you find.”
Daniel pushes to his feet. “By the way, how’s the wife doing?”
“Scared but she’s holding it together.” I cut a look at the bedroom door. “It was impressive, actually.”
“Maybe you married a good one.”
“Doesn’t matter either way.”
He waves a hand. “That’s what I like about you. I always know where people stand.” He leaves the room and silence falls again.
I keep watching the door, thinking.
This isn’t how tonight was supposed to go.
My enemies are much too close. There’s no way in hell they should’ve been able to track my movements last night. I had my people running screens and digital protections, but the Turks and the Russians still managed to pinpoint my location. There’s only one explanation, and I don’t like it.
But at least I got what I wanted.
A new wife. A young, beautiful wife…
She’s not what I expected at all.
Yelena told me about her before I shipped over to the States, except her description was lacking in what really matters.
Nika’s got backbone. It’s hidden underneath that soft, princess facade, but her spine’s like an iron rod. Only a woman with some serious self-confidence and strength would have the balls to negotiate in her position.
I was so taken off guard that I accepted the deal when I really didn’t have to. Keeping her alive is enough of a payment.
But to be fair, she doesn’t know the whole story…
Only the pieces I wanted her to hear.
I get to my feet. I’m stiff from sleeping on the couch all night.
I wanted to slip into the bed beside my wife, but she was so shocked and messed up that I thought it was better to give her some privacy.
Now I creep into the dark room, the heavy blinds pulled over the large window, and I stand in the inky black beside her bed.
She’s a shape under the covers. A curvy, beautiful, soft shape. Auburn hair spills down to her shoulders in soft waves. Plump lips are parted as she breathes. I knew she was attractive from the photos I found online, but seeing her in person is entirely different.
I made a lot of fucking mistakes last night.
My hands curl into fists.
I’ve made even more mistakes these last few years…
But I learned from all that pain and suffering. I figured out that relationships are overrated without clearly defined roles and boundaries. Friendships are fine so long as they have a point. Romance is dust under my boots. I have employees, not partners.
That keeps everyone safe.
Daniel’s right: my people know exactly where they stand with me.
The problem is, Nika doesn’t fit nicely into any of my categories.
I went into last night assuming she’d marry me out of sheer fear for her life. I was going to present her with evidence, convince her that I’m her only hope, and rush her down the aisle.
In some ways, Aslan’s drone strike helped my case.
But then I kissed her.
That was my biggest error of the night. I don’t know what I was thinking.
The second our lips touched, I felt something stir in my heart, a feeling I’ve been running from for years.
Desire, pure and simple desire, but that’s dangerous.
You can’t hurt a man who doesn’t care about people. You can’t use them against him.
If that part of me starts to wake back up before I’ve become a Dragon…
I slip around the bed and crawl under the covers. Nika stirs beside me. She’s warm and small, and she mutters in her sleep as she turns onto her side. She curls against me, snuggling in tight, and I go still, heart racing. Her touch sends a chill down my spine.
“Please, Gabe…”
My mouth drops open.
Did she seriously say my name?
Is she awake?
But no, her eyes are still closed and moving rapidly behind her lids. She’s dreaming right now.
But why’s she dreaming about me?
I should get out of here. It was stupid climbing into bed next to her. I wanted to get an hour of decent rest after suffering through that back-breaking couch, but this was a mistake. I shift away, until she makes another sound.
It’s my name again.
Followed by a low, sexual whimper.
“Gabe, keep going…”
Holy fuck.
My heart hammers. This can’t be happening. But she makes another moan, mouth hanging open, face flushed.
She’s having a sex dream about me.
I slide closer, listening carefully, afraid I’m going to wake her up. Maybe I should jostle her and pretend I’m not hearing this. But she is my wife. There’s nothing wrong with a man wanting to be intimate with the woman he married. Even if their marriage is barely more than ink on a contract.
“Oh god, Gabe…” Her moans are erotic. Her breath is coming fast, her chest rising and falling.
She’s in a tight white t-shirt and her nipples are stiff, pressing against the thin fabric.
I’m so hard I can barely breathe. I’ve never been this aroused in my entire life.
It’s wrong, staying here and listening, so fucking wrong, and I don’t care.
I reach down between my legs and start to stroke myself.
“Fuck me, Gabe… oh god, Gabe…”
She whimpers and rolls onto her back. One hand presses against her chest, the other splayed out above her head. I watch her, stroking my cock up and down, gritting my teeth—
Before reaching out with my right hand and slipping it down beneath her panties.
Fuck, this is wrong. This is so fucking wrong. I stroke my shaft with my left and reach toward her pussy with my right. I’m still inches away, right beneath the hem of her underwear, caught between wanting to keep going and knowing this is all fucking wrong.
I can still back away. I haven’t crossed the line. I can still salvage this. There’s still time—
Her eyelids flutter.
And she looks at me.
Wide awake now.
There’s a moment. I don’t move. It’s obvious what I’m doing. My dick’s out, my hand’s gripping the base, and my other hand is two inches above her pussy.
Her gaze is still fuzzy with sleep, but she knows what’s going on.
The hand on her chest slips down and covers mine. My chest pounds with adrenaline. The excitement of getting caught threatens to overwhelm me. I can barely breathe. Fuck, this was so goddamn stupid—
She presses my fingers down until they brush against her pussy.
Oh my god.
She wants more.
I stroke her gently to make sure. She releases a soft mewling whimper, mouth hanging open. Her eyes find mine, desperate, and I must be a fucking lunatic, because I keep going.
I slip my fingers up and down her slit, rolling around before sliding them inside of her.
God, she’s soaking wet.
She groans, back arching. Her eyes squeeze shut as she spreads her legs wider.
I stroke my cock faster, rolling my hand around my tip to gather up the moisture there as my fingers do their work on her dripping pussy.
I slide them in deep, curling them in, palm grazing her clit as they pump into her.
Her hips grind into my hand. Her arms are above her head as she presses against the headboard.
She’s moaning, breathing hard and gasping, and I keep going.
Fuck she’s so sexy, it’s unbelievable how badly I want to fill her tight pussy with my cock, thrust so hard she screams, tear her in half until she begs.
I never should’ve come in here. I never should’ve touched her.
And now I can’t stop.
“Gabe,” she says, fully awake, whimpering my name, and I’m done. I’m so fucked, I can barely think.
I stroke her pussy faster, settling into a rhythm, and she arches against me, gasping, mouth hanging open.
“Fuck, Nika,” I moan, watching her twitch against my hand. “You’re going to come for me, aren’t you?”
“Keep going. Fuck, I’m so close.”
The sounds she makes are heaven. The heat of her body drives me wild. I want to crush my cock into her mouth but I can’t stop this, not when I have her dancing on the edge. I want to see her shatter. I need to feel it and taste it. I keep stroking, in and out, teasing and pushing.
“Break for me, Nika. Come for your husband. Come on, baby, you’re so fucking pretty when you’re a dirty girl for me.”
She gasps, eyes going wide, and arches into my palm.
Her mouth hangs open and I know I’ve got her.
I call her dirty, fuck her with my fingers, and she comes apart.
It’s the most glorious thing I’ve ever seen.
She unravels, eyes rolling back, muscles tensing, her pussy clenching down on my fingers as I keep going, and I can’t take it anymore.
I come hard, spraying onto my stomach and chest. I stroke my cock fast, breaking and bursting, as I finish her at the same time. She gasps, lying back, and there’s a moment when the room’s nothing but silence as I slip my hand back out of her panties.
Then I raise my wet fingers to my mouth and taste her.
“Better than I imagined,” I murmur, taken aback at how much I like it.
“Oh shit,” she says, curling up and pulling the blankets around her. “That was, uh—“
“You were dreaming.” I lie there covered in my own cum with her wetness drying on my hand. “You whispered my name.”
“Oh my god. I did?”
“You said it a few times.”
“So you just—“
“I thought I’d help. Really, I was helping myself.”
“Yeah, real helpful.” She peers at me from under the covers. “I really said your name?”
“You moaned it. More than once.”
She groans and covers herself up. I chuckle and get out of bed. I clean myself off in the bathroom and turn on the shower. When I’m presentable, I find her still wrapped in the blankets.
“That’s really not how I expected to start my day,” she says when I sit down beside her.
“No, neither did I.”
“Is it weird though? I mean, I can’t control what I dream about.”
“It’s not weird at all.”
She peeks out at me again. Now she seems to have calmed. Her eyes narrow. “It’s a little weird that you touched me while I was asleep.”
“That’s fair. I won’t do it again if you didn’t like it.”
She hesitates, worrying her lip in this adorably uncertain way. “I didn’t say that.”
“Come on, you should get up. We have a lot to talk about.”
“Like the drones and the guns?”
“They’re definitely on the list.” I touch her hip. Fuck me but I’m tempted to get back into that bed with her. Her taste is still on my tongue, and there’s a stupid part of me, a voice I’ve worked hard to bury, that wants to spend the rest of the day exploring this sudden burst of desire.
But we have work to do.